Football Coach
Football coaches plan the training and decide how their team plays, working with a squad week to week through a season.
- Median salary*
- $59,800
3.8%vs last year, before tax
- People employed
- 1,200
0.0%vs last year
- Projected growth*
- +8%
to 2035
- AI exposure*
- Moderate
- 4 out of 10
- Average hours*
- 40/wk
matches all-jobs average
- Shortage status
- Not in shortage
national
- Football coaches work in community clubs, schools, talent academies and professional programs, and the code they coach shapes the drills, laws and skills they teach.
- What separates the job from fitness instruction or PE teaching is the competition: everything is aimed at how the team performs on match day.
- Most of the work happens when everyone else is off, on weekday evenings and weekends through the season.
How much do football coachs earn?
The median full-time salary for a football coach is $59,800 per annum, before tax, up $12,400 since 2018.
What a coach earns depends heavily on the level: community and junior coaching is often part time or volunteer work, while school, academy and professional roles carry a salary. Casual hours and season-by-season contracts are common, so annual earnings move with how many sessions and teams you take on. In school and local government roles pay follows a set classification, and the level you coach plus your qualifications are what lift it.
What does a football coach do day to day?
The list below is what fills most weeks; the exact mix shifts with seniority and whatever stage the current work is at.
- Planning and running training sessions that build technical skills and team tactics
- Reviewing match and training footage to work out what to keep and what to change
- Picking the team and setting match-day tactics, including substitutions
- Managing player workloads and injury risk alongside physios and strength staff
- Talking with players, parents, clubs and officials through the season
What skills do football coachs need?
Employers look for fitness coaching and instruction, teaching and instruction, strategy development, backed by Hudl fluency and strong people leadership.
Specialist skills
- Fitness coaching and instruction
- Teaching and instruction
- Strategy development
Software and tools
- Hudl
- Sportscode
- Catapult
- TeamSnap
- Microsoft Excel
General skills
- People leadership
- Written communication
- Problem solving
Is the job growing?
About 1,200 people work as football coachs in Australia, and employment is projected to grow 8% over the decade to 2035. That's modest growth: demand is steady rather than booming.
How do you become a football coach?
Here's the path most football coachs take, step by step.
- 1Start coaching at a local club
Most coaches begin as a volunteer or paid assistant with a junior or community team, often while still playing. It is the quickest way to find out whether you enjoy teaching the game as much as playing it.
- 2Get accredited for your code
Each code runs its own coaching pathway, such as Football Australia's C licence or the AFL's Level 1, and courses usually take a few days plus a fee. Many competitions require an accredited coach before you can take charge of a team.
- 3Get a Working with Children Check
Every state and territory requires one before you work with players under 18, and most clubs also expect a current first aid certificate. Both are cheap and quick compared with the accreditation itself.
- 4Study sport or teaching if you want the paid roles
A Diploma of Sport (Coaching) or a bachelor degree in sport and exercise science or physical education opens school, academy and high performance roles. 38% of people in the role hold a bachelor degree, which reflects how much of the paid work sits in schools and elite programs.
- 5Work up through assistant roles
Moving from a junior side to an assistant coach at a senior or semi professional club is the usual route to better paid work, and analysis or strength and conditioning roles are a common way in.
Ready to apply as a football coach?
Whether you're working toward becoming a football coach or already are one and want a hand with the next step (sharpening your resume for ATS screening, tightening your cover letter, or knowing what you'll actually be asked at interview), here are examples grounded in this specific role, not generic templates.
What jobs can a football coach move to?
Moving into Netball Coach typically comes with the biggest pay rise, worth $5,200 a year more on average.
- Netball CoachSuggested move$65,000+$5,200
- Cricket CoachSuggested move$65,000+$5,200
- Basketball CoachSuggested move$59,800same pay
Thick lines are moves people were recorded making in Jobs and Skills Australia's Data on Occupation Mobility (income tax records, 2011-12 to 2020-21). Thin lines are moves we suggest from skill overlap and entry requirements.
| Move to | Typical pay change | Overlap | Retraining |
|---|---|---|---|
Netball Coach Football coaching skills in session planning and team tactics transfer to netball coaching, with netball-specific rules and drills picked up quickly. | +$5,200 | 80% | minimal |
Cricket Coach A football coach's planning and player management carry into cricket coaching, though cricket techniques and laws need to be learned. | +$5,200 | 65% | minimal |
Basketball Coach A football coach brings training design, player development and match tactics to basketball coaching, with basketball rules and skills learned on the job. | +$0 | 92% | minimal |
Moves are chosen from Jobs and Skills Australia's Data on Occupation Mobility, which follows income tax records between 2011-12 and 2020-21, together with entry requirements and skill overlap. A known move is one people were seen making in that data. Pay change compares median full-time pay for the two roles.
Who works as a football coach?
The typical football coach is 24 years old; 86% are men, 29% work full-time, and full-timers average 40 hours a week.
- 24
- Median age
- 14%
- Female share
- 29%
- Full-time
- +0h
- vs all-jobs avg
What's it like being a football coach?
A coach's week has a rhythm: training nights, video and planning around them, then match day. The pressure is public, because results and selections are discussed by everyone involved. It suits someone who likes teaching in small doses and can stay level when a plan stops working.
What people like
- Watching a player improve. A defender who lost their position in round one reads the play by round ten, and you saw the drills that got them there.
- Building how the team plays. Deciding the shape, the press and how you want to attack, then getting a whole squad to do it without stopping to think.
- Staying in the game. Many coaches come from playing and want to keep the tactical side of football in their working life.
- Every season brings a new problem. Different squad, different injuries, different opposition, so a week rarely repeats the one before it.
What people find hard
- Evenings, weekends and travel. Training is usually after work or school and matches take up a full day, with travel a bigger part of it outside the cities.
- Results you cannot control. A bad bounce or a season-ending injury can undo a good week's work, and the ladder records only the result.
- Selection conversations. Telling a player they have missed the side, or explaining a substitution to an unhappy parent, is part of the job and rarely gets easier.
- Contracts that reset each season. Many coaching roles are part time or seasonal, so coaches often combine coaching with another job or a second team.
Based on our synthesis of professional-body surveys and public accounts of the role, not first-person verified reviews.
Which industries employ football coachs?
Sports and recreation activities employs the largest share of football coachs, followed by Education and training.
Top employing industries
- 1Sports and recreation activities
- 2Education and training
- 3Local government administration
Ranked by employment share; the source doesn't publish an exact percentage per industry.
| Bachelor degree | 38% | |
|---|---|---|
| Diploma / Advanced Diploma | 24% | |
| Certificate III/IV | 20% | |
| Postgraduate | 10% | |
| Other | 8% |
Will AI replace football coachs?
Moderate exposure. Not replaced, but changed. AI is taking on some tasks and the rest of the job shifts around them.
Football coaching carries a moderate amount of AI exposure. Video tagging, opposition analysis and workload tracking are increasingly automated, and tools like Hudl, Sportscode and GPS systems now do work an assistant coach once did by hand. What stays with the coach is the session itself: reading a group of players, deciding what to change, and the conversations that hold a squad together.
How a typical week splits
- Reviewing match and training footage25% of the week
Hudl and Sportscode tag possessions and clip passages automatically, cutting hours of manual coding down to a review of the key moments.
- Match-day tactics and substitutions15% of the week
Data dashboards flag opposition patterns and player load, but the call on shape, timing and who comes off is made in the box under time pressure.
- Planning and delivering training sessions35% of the week
Apps and drill libraries can draft a session plan, but the coach adjusts it on the night to how the group is moving and who is carrying a niggle.
- Player feedback, selection and club relationships25% of the week
Explaining why a player missed selection, or sitting down with a parent and a club official, depends on trust that no tool supplies.
How we work this out
We break each job into its main tasks, estimate the share of a typical week each one takes, and judge how far current AI and automation tools reach into it. The score out of 10 starts from the job's overall rating (low is 1 to 3, moderate 4 to 6, high 7 to 10) and the task split places it within that range. Source: Career Tips analysis of each role's main tasks.
Moves least exposed to AI
These career moves from football coach work are rated low for AI exposure:
- Basketball Coach
High skill overlap (92%), little retraining to get there, and a low automation-risk profile.
- Netball Coach
High skill overlap (80%), little retraining to get there, and a low automation-risk profile.
Common questions about becoming a football coach
Straight answers to the questions people ask most.
How much does a football coach earn?
Football coaches earn $59,800 per year before tax at the median for full-time work. Pay rises with the level you coach and the hours involved, and community and junior coaching is often part time or unpaid. School and local government roles follow set salary scales, while professional and semi professional positions are usually contract based.
How do you become a football coach?
You can start by helping with a junior or community team and completing your code's entry accreditation, such as a Football Australia C licence or an AFL Level 1. After that, experience and results matter more than formal study, though a sport or teaching qualification opens school and academy roles.
Are football coaches in demand?
Football coaches are currently not in shortage, and employment is projected to grow 8% over the decade to 2035. The occupation is small, at about 1,200 people, so openings tend to come through community clubs and schools rather than full-time professional appointments. Accreditation, a Working with Children Check and a record of coaching a team are what make an applicant stand out.
Will AI replace football coaches?
It handles much of the analysis rather than the coaching. Platforms such as Hudl and Sportscode clip and tag matches automatically, and Catapult GPS systems track player workloads, which removes hours of manual coding. Deciding what to do with that information, and getting a group of players to do it, stays with the coach.
What else can a football coach do?
Coaching skills carry across codes: netball coaching pays $5,200 more and basketball coaching pays about the same, because session planning and player management transfer while the rules and drills are learned on the job. Cricket coaching pays $5,200 more on the same basis. Some coaches instead build a private academy or coaching business, which is often where earnings grow.
Do you need a degree to be a football coach?
No. Community and junior clubs ask for accreditation and a Working with Children Check rather than a degree, while 38% of people currently in the role hold a bachelor degree. That level of study is the usual way into school programs and high performance roles.
Related roles
- Basketball Coach
- Netball Coach
- Cricket Coach
- Professional Footballer
- Gymnastics Coach
- Strength and Conditioning Coach
Not sure this is you? Take the career quiz and get a ranked shortlist of roles that fit how you like to work.
Career advice
- How to change careers, and which moves are realisticData on 1,573 career moves across 350 Australian occupations shows 63.3% need no more than a short course, though skill overlap alone won't tell you which ones. Six worked examples, and how to check your own move.
- Skills to put on your resume (with skills finder)A resume skills section built for the job you're applying for. Search your occupation to see the specialist skills, tools and general skills it calls for, with worked examples and what to write if you have no work history yet.
- How to prepare for a job interviewWhat to work through before a job interview: a prep sheet built from the job ad, the stories that cover most questions, and the questions an interviewer can't lawfully ask in Australia.