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Dean Benton is one of Australia’s most well-regarded and sought after high-performance coaches. He has been responsible for maximising the performance of such teams as the Melbourne Storm and Brisbane Broncos (NRL), ACT Brumbies (Super Rugby) as well as the national teams of England Rugby and the Wallabies. In turn this has led to Dean being the trusted person of such world renowned coaches as Wayne Bennett, Craig Bellamy and Eddie Jones, in getting their teams performing at the highest level. This is an informative and revealing conversation of the stories and lessons of someone who started his career as a plumber to then go on to work at the upper echelon of high performance sport. 

Highlights from the episode…

• Dean’s interest in sport started very young as son of Terry Benton former North Melbourne professional footy player. 
• Dean’s coaching career begun with initially starting as a plumber and he shares how the transition went from a trade to sport.
• After completing uni, Dean secured a role with the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) during its glory days on the back of the 2000 Olympic success and what it was like to be amongst it all. 
• Having limited experience in both team sport and Rugby he was then appointed a S&C coach for Rugby Australia and he shares the unique program that set the tone for one of the Wallabies most successful periods. 
• Dean shares his first encounter with Wayne Bennett and his time working with the Broncos that led to a 2006 premiership win. 
• After a successful period at the Broncos, Dean shares why he then made the move to Europe to join the Leicester Tigers.
• What Dean employed at the Brumbies which took a team who finished 10th to being the only Super Rugby team to beat the British & Irish Lions. 
• We talk deeply about the challenges of balancing professional and personal life.
• Having been a consultant, Dean talks about the pros & cons of being embedded in a club vs providing consultancy work for a club. 
• How Dean was approached by the Melb. Storm and what it was like working with Craig Bellamy, that started with “pissing him off” by informing him his team was unfit. 
• “The definition of fitness is the ability to carry out the game plan over 80mins”. How many get it wrong when it comes to improving athletic ability in team sports. 
• The 3 pillars of a world class S&C coach, Experience, Knowledge and Capability. 
• During his time at the Storm, Dean was offered a role with England Rugby and provides an insight of what it was like working with Eddie Jones and the constant drive for high standards on a daily basis. 
• We conclude with a robust discussion around the ever increasing rate of female ACL injuries and what needs to be done. 

People mentioned: 

• Kelvin Giles: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelvin-giles-225b9818/?originalSubdomain=au
• Bill Sweetham: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Sweetenham
• Peter Burge: https://www.hawthornfc.com.au/news/1175716/burge-to-join-hawks 

Dean Benton’s contact details:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bentondean/
• Website: https://www.atletico.com.au/about-atletico-dean-benton/

Host: Luis Resa

Contact me on:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/luis-resa-a975196b/
• Email: [email protected]

Thanks for listening and please leave a review. If you would like more information on anything mentioned in this episode simply send me an email.