By Amelia Barnes
David O'Hare is a man who lives and breathes netball. His wife Nicole O'Hare is on the Netball Victoria Board, his two daughters are accomplished players and coaches, and David is a coach with current roles at Ariels and in the Victorian state men’s program.
O'Hare’s personal journey to netball coaching was a slow burn. He watched his mother play the sport when he was growing up and played a couple of mixed seasons himself in the mid-1980s, but it wasn’t until O’Hare’s daughters started netball about 12 years ago that he got a taste for coaching.
“I stepped up to the plate and took on the job,” he said.
Initially involved in football, O’Hare switched gears and has moved up Victoria’s netball coaching pathway ever since. He started coaching juniors on a Saturday morning, before joining Ariels’ representative program, and was recently appointed the long-established Melbourne club’s head coach for 2025.
O’Hare says he really began finding his feet in coaching when becoming involved with the Victorian Men’s and Mixed Netball Association (VMMNA) in 2016. He felt instantly at home in the men’s environment, going on to coach at the Australian Men's & Mixed Netball Championships (AMMNA Nationals) almost every year since, and attend international tours.
“It’s been really awesome being involved with it… It’s a really inclusive environment,” he said.
“The atmosphere was just completely different [to what I’d previously experienced]. It was a real eye opener… I thought, ‘this is something that’s actually really cool to be involved with.’”
O’Hare started coaching VMMNA’s Mixed Reserve team, leading them to four-straight premierships at Nationals.
He’s coached the state’s Open Mixed team for the past two years, taking them to the grand final in 2024.
“We went from bottom the previous year to play off the grand final this year, which was a pretty amazing effort. We're just hoping to take that one step further next year,” he said.
O’Hare notes the unique skill set mixed netball requires and encourages more netballers to consider the pathway to help break into the elite level, following in the footsteps of athletes such as Elle McDonald, who has played for the Melbourne Vixens, Adelaide Thunderbirds, and internationally for England.
“She played in the Open Mixed team before I coached it, but I thought that was a really great example of a player who perhaps took a bit of an alternative pathway through to that Suncorp level, and used mixed as a stepping stone for that,” O’Hare said.
A recent career highlight for O’Hare was coaching the winning Chisholm 17&U Female team at Netball Victoria’s State Titles in March.
Chisholm was at risk of missing finals, but managed to win their last three regular games, and eventually the grand final by seven goals.
“I've coached titles before, but this year was just one of those ones where everything just felt perfectly into place. The team peaked at exactly the right time which is what I've sort of been looking for,” O’Hare said.
“We were lucky enough to get through without injuries and we played a bit of a long game. Definitely a career highlight, that one.”
With experience coaching girls, women’s, men’s and mixed teams, O’Hare is one of the most versatile coaches in netball, with the ability to adapt his game plan to suit each age group, ability, and league.
For example, “When I’m coaching mixed at state level, it’s often a case of trying to speed the girls up a little bit, and just slow the guys down, and trying to get it to mesh together,” he said.
“I find women – particularly those who have been through rep and VNL – are a lot more strategic than the guys, so I do have to adapt to the team I’m coaching.”
He says his general coaching style has evolved over the years to become more emotionally supportive and collaborative, leaning on the strengths and skills of his players.
“I think of myself as a collaborative coach with the players. They're the ones on court, and particularly at the higher levels, they’ve got thousands of hours of court experience, which I don’t have.”
Stepping up as the Ariels head coach in 2025, O’Hare will be responsible for supporting the club’s less experienced coaches, providing them with opportunities to develop and thrive.
“I think it comes back to my early days of coaching… I didn't really have a mentor – it was just, ‘here’s your set of bibs and bag of balls, and off you go for an hour on a Wednesday night’,” he said.
“I never really had any sort of mentoring or coaching as a coach until I got up into the higher levels of rep and VNL, so I had to figure out a lot of stuff for myself along the way…
“You can’t coach what you don’t know… so with Ariels, I want to make sure I’m giving back to the coaches underneath me, so they don’t necessarily have to go through the challenges I went through…
“Learning the really basic skills and teaching them properly is something I'm really passionate about.”
Already an Intermediate-accredited coach, O’Hare will also continue his professional development with plans to return to his VMMNA and State Titles roles in 2025.
“I'm completely confident in saying that I’m 100 per cent a better coach now than what I was when I started,” he said. “If you stop learning as a coach, you should stop coaching.”
O’Hare says there are increasingly more opportunities for men to coach netball and he encourages others who are passionate to give it a go.
Former men’s players are leading the way, including West Coast Fever head coach Dan Ryan, and former Victorian state representative and current Australian Kelpies captain Dylan Nexhip, who has been appointed assistant coach for the NSW Swifts.
Ariels has also appointed three male coaches for 2025 across its 10 junior and senior teams.
“I love the game… It's a rollercoaster,” O’Hare said. “I don’t get paid for Mixed VMMNA coaching – I understand it’s a voluntary position – but what I've gotten out of that has well and truly outweighed what they could have paid me.”
Find out more about opportunities for men and boys in netball
