The Football Coaching Life: Patrick Kisnorbo

The Football Coaching Life Podcast

Paddy Kisnorbo is busy preparing his Melbourne City Men’s team for the kick-off to the 2021-2022 season after finishing his first season as Head Coach as A-League Men’s Premiership and Championship winners. A first ever for Melbourne City!

He played his junior football at Essendon City and Bulleen, made his NSL debut with South Melbourne before heading to Hearts in Scotland as a nineteen-year-old. He then had a long professional career in England with Leicester City, Leeds United and Ipswich Town. Paddy represented the Socceroos 18 times and unfortunately missed the 2010 World Cup with a torn achilles.

Paddy’s preparation for coaching began while he was playing in the UK, where he started to gain his coaching licences before returning to Australia to play with Melbourne City.

He served a five-year apprenticeship at Melbourne with the Youth Team, the A-League Women’s Team and then the Men’s Team. He worked as an assistant with Joe Palatsidis, Joe Montemurro, John van’t Schip and Eric Mombaerts, learning from them all.

This is a fantastic conversation. Paddy is so open about his development as a coach, including his learnings and self-doubts from a run of losses. He talks about mentors and the importance of mental health for players and coaches.

Paddy’s ‘One Piece of Wisdom’ was ‘Be true to yourself’. ‘Do your apprenticeship and don’t be in a rush, you need to learn and understand’.

Enjoy listening to this walk through Patrick Kisnorbo’s Football Coaching Life.