“We have rescheduled this program from the end of the year to the beginning,”  executive officer James Cooper said at the weekend induction.

“This day is all about off-field development and their career off the field.”

The day involved a series of comprehensive life skill workshops developed to deliver skills beyond sport.

Goal setting, Opportunities beyond Sport, Wellness and Nutrition, Health and Wellbeing, and Sports Media were all covered by local professionals in the field, although none were more inspirational than the session on resilience given by guest speaker Michael Crossland.

Crossland was diagnosed with cancer before his first birthday, with his parents told the chances of survival were minimal. Since then he has been diagnosed another three times and has fought and dusted himself off every time to be one of the most inspirational and sought-after motivational speakers on the planet.

While NIAS athletes have always been proud to wear the colours of the squad, Cooper wants to keep improving the culture of the academy, and that was also a major focus of the day.

“The kids always say they are in the NIAS football squad or NIAS hockey squad,” Cooper said.

“I want to change that so they just say they are part of the NIAS Academy and have that club mentality and culture.” 

This will be further addressed later in the program, with some squads doing crossover training sessions.

The AFL boys are going to do a training session with the netball girls, and other cross- over sessions are also being organised.

“We certainly want to push for more squad interaction,” Cooper said.

The day was followed by a Coach The Coaches clinic that night, where former Dungowan Cowboys and Canberra Raiders legend Alan Tongue gave a talk on personal brands in sport, followed by five more presentations from five other coaching professionals.

“From here the squads all roll into their training programs for the year,” Cooper said.

“It is going to be a big year.”