Former Queensland Fire Captain and Beaudesert local Jude Coleman, has been announced as Australia A Women’s Cricket Head Coach for 2022.
Cricket has taken Jude Coleman all around Australia as a player and now she will be part of the Cricket Australian Women’s squad after securing the position of Head Coach of Australia A Women’s Cricket team.
Hailing from Beaudesert, Coleman had a stellar playing career starting at the Kerry Cricket Club at eight years of age.
She captained Australia in five Indoor Cricket World Cup titles and Queensland in 13 national Indoor championships.
Since 2019, Coleman has been the Assistant Coach of the Women’s South Australia Scorpions and Adelaide Strikers Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL) and, after retiring in 2021, didn’t have any real plans for a coaching career.
“I was teaching at the time, so I had always planned on continuing with that career path after retiring,” she said.
Jude Coleman. Credit: Queensland Cricket.
“I was involved in coaching at the Queensland Cricket pathway program as a volunteer as I always wanted to give back to the game that had given me so much.”
“There also weren’t many female role models coaching back then, so it never crossed my mind.”
After assistant coaching at state level and the WBBL, becoming head coach for the Women’s Australia A cricket team has made Coleman notice the differences between roles and the relationship with her team.
“At South Australia, I am not in charge of the program, but our goals are very long term and look at developing players season by season”, she said.
“With the Australia A role, I only have three weeks with the players, so it’s all about bringing a team together and facilitating as many learning experiences as possible”.
Coleman recently finished a tour with Australia A against England where the team performed extremely well, finishing undefeated.
“I had a great group of girls in the squad who were extremely grateful for the opportunity and it showed on the pitch,” she said.
Coleman is excited about where her coaching career might take her.
“I wake up every day and just love what I’m doing.”
“I am super excited to learn more as a coach and maybe one day soon become Head Coach of a State – hopefully Queensland!”
