Matt Favier, CEO Hockey Australia

Nicholas Watkins & Chris Mihalatos, Australian Sports Professional Association
Matt Favier, Hockey Australia
 

Bonus content

Each CEO has bonus content available to ASPA members that is not found in the book. The philosophies below are sourced directly from the interview, however each interview contained so much great content we had to put together an excerpt. Note that the content of the interview differs than the philosophies.

Interview

How did you get into sport?

Originally I was qualified as a physical education teacher and taught five years in Canberra when I was a scholarship holder with the AIS.
 

Was sport a passion as a kid?

Yeah. I've been involved in sport for a long time.

I had aspirations to run faster and faster, and then obviously compete at the Olympic Games. I competed in the Olympic trials in 1988, which was the closest I came. 

I was a National Junior - an 800 meter champion in the mid 80s. I was a very, very good high school 800 meter runner and junior athlete. 

However, my athletic potential tapped out at finishing third in the Olympic trials. I represented Australia and a couple of junior and World University teams and ran okay - but nothing outstanding.
 

Nothing outstanding! I'd say third at an Olympic trials is pretty stand out!

It's closest I came to the Olympic dream - and I guess that transformed into a love for sport management and administration. 

How did you find the shift in balance from being competitive to administrative?

I think it'd be fair to say, as with many other athletes, and I think it's true in my case definitely, that when I found myself transitioning from being an athlete to taking on a career, it was probably quite an uncertain period.

I had a lot of doubt moving into administration at the time. You had a very clear purpose structure around what you did as an athlete, the more you turned up every day. So it was very clear in that life.

But when that changed to administration, it was quite a tricky period and not everybody navigates these transitions well. I went from, at one point, thinking physical education teaching was going to be my career but then finding myself wanting more.

And in fact, I actually love teaching. I really enjoy teaching. It is the reason why I really enjoyed coaching in sport as well. But what I found was that I wanted to challenge myself as well in a different way. At the time, sports administration was really ramping up in terms of an industry – so it seemed like a great way to stay involved.

That sounds like the perfect opportunity.

Oh, absolutely. I had an opportunity to work in the sport I loved, which was athletics and that gave me my first step into sports administration. I completed an MBA in the early 2000s as well, when I realised that I needed some other underpinning education to support what I was learning and doing.

Were you able to take some lessons across from being an athlete?

The lessons learned as an athlete or a sports person are directly transferable into professional roles, whether the sports administration or anything. All of the fundamentals are the same.

Having a clear purpose, understanding the need to work as a team, planning, giving and receiving feedback, being able to identify moments where you really need to perform (and they differ obviously being an athlete) are the same.

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