When things start to go wrong in football, they go wrong very fast. Just ask fellow Aussie, manager Ange Postecoglou. In May this year, he was glorified for breaking Tottenham’s 17-year trophy curse. 2 weeks later, he was sacked. Then in September, he got appointed at Nottingham Forest, and in the 8 games that he was in charge, his team didn’t win a single game. Following that 8^th loss, he was told only 17 minutes after the final whistle that he was sacked. One minute, he’s being praised, the next he’s being criticised, and headlines, social media posts, and fans don’t sugarcoat any of it – especially in England. Ange had to cop the fans singing, “You’re getting sacked in the morning”, after just the first loss at Nottingham.

But that’s the reality of working in the cutthroat world of football coaching. You’re celebrated on Saturday, criticised on Sunday, and sacked by Monday if things don’t go well.

Ange’s story isn’t even the worst of them. From Claudio Ranieri getting sacked months after winning the Premier League with Leicester City, to Jose Mourinho being sacked a week before the Carabao Cup Final with Tottenham, the list of brutal sackings goes on. This job doesn’t just demand tactical brilliance, but emotional strength. It requires the ability to keep learning, adapting, and seeing every setback as an opportunity to grow. It’s about believing in that, even when it seems that everything is going against you. And that’s where resilience is crucial.

The best coaches don’t crumble and give up when results don’t go their way. They reflect, learn, use it as fuel, and keep going. They don’t see setbacks as holes in their work; they see them as opportunities for growth. That’s why Ange has been such a successful coach. Do you think he’s thrived everywhere he has coached?

In 2007, he was coaching the Australian under 20s, and he adopted a new playing style. Later that year, the Australia u20s team failed to qualify for the u20 World Cup, Ange faced brutal criticism and was sacked. On a live SBS program, well-known Australian football pundit, Craig Foster, decided to criticise Ange to his face saying, “you had your time, and you failed Australian football… you have to take full responsibility.” Ange could’ve taken this public humiliation and lost the love for coaching, taken a break, or even quit it all together. Instead, he took it as a learning curve, he bounced right back up, and rebuilt his reputation at Brisbane Roar, introducing a revolutionary passing style that led to back-to-back A-League Championships, a record 36-game unbeaten streak, and his team inheriting the name ‘Roarcelona’ (after being likened to the European giants FC Barcelona).

Ange’s managerial career, and similar stories such as these, serve as a powerful reminder of the importance of resilience – how it’s not something you’re born with or without, it’s an artform that requires development and growth through experiences. Resilience doesn’t just apply to footballer managers; it’s a universally valuable human trait that transcends all aspects of life.

Think about your schooling. Everything that it took Ange to become a successful coach translates into being an Extraordinary Learner at William Clarke College. Picture this. You study super hard and consistently for an exam that you really want to do well in and when you walk out of the exam, you think you smashed it. Then two weeks later (not even the 39 days that Ange got at Nottingham Forest!), you get a result much worse than what you had hoped for, and it feels as though all the hard work you put in was for nothing. It hurts. But how do you respond? Do you give up? Or do you do what it takes to be better for the next exam?

Some students take this experience and conclude that they aren’t cut out for the academic side of school and stop trying. But this only leads down a path of stagnation and regret. To be an Extraordinary Learner, you have to take that bad result and learn from it. Maybe that study schedule wasn’t fit for how you like to work, maybe you didn’t start studying early enough, maybe you didn’t get enough sleep because you were studying too much, maybe you didn’t have the courage to ask your teacher or peers for help. Ange is constantly adapting his tactics to tough situations, and you have to do the same if you want success. You have to keep learning, keep growing, and keep striving for the best, even when it feels like everything is against you, because it’s that resilient mindset that makes you an Extraordinary Learner.

So, whether it’s Ange on the sidelines listening to the fans sing, “you’re getting sacked in the morning”, or you in the classroom when you get that disappointing result, the message stays the same: resilience is key.

Learn. Bounce back. Go again.

Because even if you lose this week’s game, there’s always another one next week.