The Football Coaching Life: Jeff Hopkins

Jeff Hopkins is currently the W-League Championship winning Head Coach of Melbourne Victory.

Jeff was born in Wales and played over four hundred games for both club and country. He started in Fulham’s Academy before playing over two hundred games in the first team before heading to Crystal Palace and Reading. Jeff also played for Wales at U21 and Senior level.

His coaching career began working with young players in the UK, where he started his coaching licences before heading to Gippsland Falcons as a player and then a year as Head Coach.

As a former professional player, Jeff, like so many of us, thought he had a good grasp of football until he began his coaching journey and learned he didn’t know what he didn’t know!

With over 20 years of experience as a coach at youth, assistant and head coach level, Jeff is very aware of the changes he has made to his coaching over the journey. He has a number of premierships and championships to his name with Queensland and Brisbane Roar Women and both a Premiership and Championship with Melbourne Victory, which he is very proud of, but he also finds a great deal of satisfaction in seeing his players and teams grow and develop.

Jeff was honest and open discussing his journey and believes that finding a mentor in the beginning would have helped him make fewer mistakes on his journey. In fact, in answering the ‘one piece of wisdom’ question he had two pieces of gold for developing coaches! You'll have to listen to find out what they are!

Please join Gary Cole in exploring Jeff Hopkin’s Football Coaching Life.