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The Team

Head Coach

Ian Pope

MSC is excited to announce our Head Coach is Olympic Coach Ian Pope. Ian is one of Australia’s most successful coaches having coached over 70 medallists at major international events including Olympics, World Championships, and Commonwealth Games.

Some of Ian’s Olympic medallists include Matt Welsh, Michael Klim, Giaan Rooney, Matt Targett, and Grant Hackett. Ian is former Head Coach of Surrey Park and Melbourne Vicentre, and previously helped steer these clubs to be prominent in swimming. Ian’s primary focus will be on developing swimmers mentally and physically as a person whilst maximising their talent and potential with a focus on building a strong team culture, mental edge and training with the right technique.

Ian is excited to be back and lead MSC to be a dominant force in swimming.
Ian Pope
Mark McGrann
Senior Coach – MSC at Ruyton

Mark McGrann

Mark is the senior coach for the MSC at Ruyton program based at Ruyton Girls School in Kew. Born and raised in Ireland, Mark has coached several state and national medallist in Ireland and also Canada where he was the Head Coach of the Halifax Trojans Aquatic Club, one of the most successful junior programs in Canada prior to joining MSC Geelong in December 2022. With a strong focus on technical skills, swimmers from all levels will be able to achieve their goals under Mark’s leadership.

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Mark
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Julie-Anne Roberts
fitzroy senior Coach

Julie-Anne Roberts

Julie-Anne Roberts has become is a highly regarded national level coach after a decorated career as a swimmer. Roberts joined MSC from Surrey Park, where she had coached several medallists at National, National Age and State Championships. During her earlier tenure at Tigersharks, Roberts was selected as the Australian Youth Trans-Tasman Team.

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Julie-Anne
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Liam Pope
Melbourne Senior Coach

Liam Pope

Liam has over 5 years coaching experience having coached at Surrey Park and Trinity Grammar School.He is passionate about supporting others both in the water and out, and has a great rapport with his swimmers. He has a great eye for the technical aspects of swimming and makes this his primary goal with the swimmers in fine tuning their technique.

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Liam
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Matt Kearns
Bendigo Senior Coach

Matt Kearns

Our Bendigo based training squad is lead by Senior Coach Matt Kearns who has coached several medallists at State and National championships. With a long history in the sport of swimming and a strong work ethic, Matt allows swimmers to achieve their personal best and grow as people.

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Matt
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Lucky Weerakkody
Geelong Senior Coach

Lucky Weerakkody

Lucky is an accredited Silver Licenced Coach (currently termed as Advanced) and has over 30 years experience coaching swimmers from introductory to elite levels including serving as an Australian National Paralympic Team coach at the World Championships held at Durbin, South Africa in 2006 and Manchester UK in 2005. Lucky joins MSC Geelong after being the Head coach with Kwinana Swimming club in Western Australia since July 2021 where he was awarded the Swimming WA Development coach of the year 2022 in his first year. Prior to arriving in WA, he worked as Performance Manager and Assistant Head Coach at Geelong Swimming Club and is well know for his ability to develop stroke technique as well as giving back to the swimming community.

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Lucky
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Shaun Ward
Geelong Development Coach

Shaun Ward

Shaun is the Development Coach for the Geelong based MSC. Shaun has 8 years coaching experience, and 15 years of extensive knowledge in Learn to Swim industry, both teaching and management. Shaun's related qualifications Advanced Diploma in Outdoor Recreation/ Adventure Management for the past 20 year's. Shaun will continue to support young athletes, through positive leadership, technical education, and a safe nurturing environment to develop a mental edge.

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Shaun
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Sam Pope
Melbourne Development Coach

Sam Pope

Sam brings an enthusiastic approach to MSC, predominately coaching at a Development and State level with a focus on technique. Prior to MSC, Sam began coaching roles at both Surrey Park and Loreto Swim Club. Sam is currently studying Law at University, and is a prevalent water-polo player.

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Sam
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Bridgitte Burns
Geelong Development Coach

Bridgitte Burns

Bridgitte provides both experience and enthusiasm to the MSC Geelong team. With swimming experience as a youth athlete at national and international events in the pool and multi-sport competitions, combined with professional experience in Learn to Swim program development and competitive squad coaching, Bridgitte plays an integral role for new and developing swimmers at all levels within the MSC Geelong squad structure.

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Bridgitte
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