Coaches - What to do next

If you are involved in team selection next season:

• Understand your club’s team selection criteria and processes and follow them consistently. Request that your club adopt or develop criteria and processes if they don’t have any.
• Communicate selection criteria and processes and ensure players/athletes receive this information at the beginning of the season.
• Make it clear to all members that the selection for an individual sport is often more straightforward than selection in a team sport.
• Do not let conflicts of interest or bias influence team selection decisions. If team selection is potentially contentious (e.g., A Grade) make sure you have experienced selectors with no vested interest in the outcome.
• Have processes for advising athletes and handling queries.
  • Use a ‘personal’ approach to tell athletes about their non-selection – either in person, by email, letter or text message.
  • Avoid public announcements – this can put the non-selected athletes in an awkward situation – they may feel humiliated or get upset.
  • Try to ensure the athlete gets the news directly and not from another source.
  • Give the non-selected athlete the opportunity for feedback on why they weren’t selected.
• Support the non selected player/athlete.
  • Discuss what they need to improve to qualify for selection (e.g., skills, attitude, behaviour).
  • Provide opportunities that enable them to have their performance reconsidered  (e.g., the ability to move between B and A grade).
  • Provide support if they need to move to another club in order to pursue an elite pathway (or just to continue playing the sport).