Applications

By early 2026, job seeking had become a discipline.

Vacancy appears.

Research the organisation.

Read the annual report.

Study the financials if they are made available.

Understand the competition structure.

Look at the Board.

Prepare the application.

Wait.

Sometimes the answer was quick.

Sometimes there was no answer.

Sometimes I interviewed well and still did not progress.

Coburg was one of those disappointments.

I remember emailing Kate Southall at Work Able after hearing that I had not been successful. It surprised me and flattened me for a few hours.

But that same day I had another interview to prepare for.

Perry Lakes.

Kate's approach was practical.

Focus on the next closest positive result.

It was good advice.

At roughly the same time, there were opportunities at Gold Coast Basketball, Perth Basketball Association, Rockhampton Basketball and later Townsville, Wanneroo, Eltham, Logan and others.

The volume of applications can look impressive in hindsight.

Living through it felt different.

Every application required enough optimism to imagine a future with an organisation that might never call.

Every interview required me to talk confidently about leadership while privately wondering whether the market saw me the same way.

The deeper I progressed, the more I prepared.

For Perth Basketball Association, I asked for greater breakdown of participant income and employment costs so I could understand what was driving the numbers.

For Rockhampton, I reviewed financial information and prepared a vision.

For Perry Lakes, I prepared an organisational structure response before the second interview so the panel could see how I thought rather than simply hear rehearsed interview answers.

That preparation mattered because I was not looking for any job.

I was looking for the right opportunity to properly return.

By April and May 2026, several possibilities were alive at once.

For the first time since the injury, the question was not whether anybody would employ me.

It was which future I would choose.