Bulleen

Long before Bulleen became the place I would later have to recover from, getting the job there felt like one of the most unlikely wins of my career.

In early 2023 I saw the Club Administrator/Manager position advertised and applied through SEEK. Basketball had always been the thread running through my working life, but by then I had spent nearly twelve years outside full-time basketball employment, building a career in business and running my own company. The opportunity at Bulleen felt like a chance to bring those two parts of my life back together.

On Sunday, 5 February 2023, the answer arrived.

I had not been selected for an interview.

The email was polite and straightforward. The Board had finalised its shortlist after receiving a competitive field of applications and I was not on it.

For a few hours, that was the end of the story.

Then, later that same afternoon, another email arrived from Lisa Gandolfo.

Something had moved in the process. The panel wanted to include me after all. I was told to expect a phone call during the week.

It was an unusual way to enter a recruitment process: rejected before I had even had the chance to speak, then pulled back into contention on the same day.

I did not need to be asked twice.

The first interview was scheduled for Monday, 13 February at 8pm at Bulleen Stadium. Roger Jeffrey, Sally Steel and Derek Pangbourne were on the panel.

I went into that room knowing I had already been outside the shortlist once. In a strange way, that helped. I had nothing to protect. I could simply tell them who I was, what I understood about basketball organisations and what I believed I could bring to Bulleen.

The interview went well.

Four days later, Roger Jeffrey emailed me directly.

'You impressed the panel so well done.'

There would be another interview, this time with other members of the Board. Julia Walsh, Lisa Gandolfo and Stuart Dorrington were identified for the final discussion, which was arranged for Tuesday, 21 February at 12.30pm.

That second interview mattered because by then this was no longer simply an interesting vacancy. I could see the possibility of returning to basketball full-time after years building a life outside it.

The process that had begun with a rejection was now down to a final Board conversation.

I won the job.

The employment contract was dated 24 February 2023. It appointed me as Club Manager, with a commencement date of 14 March 2023. The salary was $110,000 inclusive of superannuation, plus a monthly mobile phone allowance.

On 6 March, before I had even officially started, I posted publicly about what the appointment meant to me. I said I was humbled to have the opportunity to work full-time in the basketball landscape again after nearly twelve years in the corporate sector.

That part is important to remember now.

Bulleen did not begin as a bad chapter.

It began as validation.

I had applied, been rejected, been unexpectedly invited back, performed strongly enough to earn a second interview, and ultimately convinced the Board to give me the role.

I walked through the doors on 14 March 2023 believing I had earned an opportunity I had wanted for a long time.

The contract called the position Club Manager. In practice, and in the way the role developed, I became the General Manager responsible for the administration and daily operations of the Club, its financial wellbeing, staff and implementation of the Board's strategic direction.

I threw myself into it. Later, when I gave a formal statement about my employment, I estimated that although I was paid for 38 hours a week, I was probably averaging around 70. I attended games, managed staff, dealt with operations and, when needed, worked the canteen on competition days.

It mattered because basketball was not merely another industry to me. It was where I had started after school, where so much of my identity had been formed, and now I had found my way back into it full-time.

That is what makes what happened next harder to reduce to a workplace dispute.

The job I would later associate with injury, WorkCover and a long recovery process had first represented something almost opposite: a return, an opportunity and proof that a door I thought might have closed years earlier was still open.