I’m Andrew Raines. A former AFL Footballer, a Business Graduate and a current AFL Coach, where I lead the best young talent of today.

Many organisations, teams and business’ talk about “Professionalism”.  It is often a word that many of us use without knowing the true meaning behind it, let alone how to demonstrate it. I believe you need to be a “Pro” at everything you do. Creating opportunity, employability and longevity in your career or life pursuits. My presentations include how to be a “Pro”, my overall story and the challenges/rewards working with “The Next Generation”.

During my  football career I experienced many things that helped shape who I am. In particular maximising my potential through being the ultimate professional. Post football career, this led me to my current job where I’m the Head Coach of the Gold Coast Suns Talent Academy. Here I coach and mentor young football talent, both boys and girls. Not only do I have a passion for maximising talent, I focus on the importance of developing their overall professionalism (on and off the field) which has produced some amazing results.

From a very young age I had huge shoes to fill, being the son of a gun (or AFL champion). I had a rapid rise at the start of my professional career, which a saw me achieve what very few had achieved at the age of 21. This however, was quite short lived due to a series of career threatening injuries. It was here I learnt the most about myself and found a way to survive the pressures of a high performance industry. This not only rebuilt my football career but my overall life.

I would love to share more with you and I look forward to hearing from you soon.