Personal connections
The sport star agent who knows exactly what women want … and helps them to achieve it
Matt Johnston
Sport stars agent Alex Saundry knows what women athletes want.
The former Greater Western Sydney back pocket established Australia’s first female and gender diverse player management company in 2018, when the AFLW was finding its feet.
“The girls deserved more, they didn’t deserve to be a gender balance on a balance sheet, an add on, or part of a gender-balanced marketing campaign,” she said.
“They deserve to have fulltime management … someone to care enough about them, that is going to give them the same opportunities as the men.”
Starting her agent career under the guidance of player manager guru Paul Connors, Saundry said personal connections with players were what made her tick.
“You’ve got to get to know them as human beings, I think, before the athlete; that’s a big part of why I started the agency.”
Saundry sat down for the Big V Interview to discuss the future of women’s sport, dealing with parents of elite athletes, and why some professional footballers still leave the game with “nothing”.
CREATING A WINNING ATTITUDE
A creased black and white photo in an album at Saundry’s home shows a woman in Aussie rules gear, smiling, getting a rub-down on a makeshift bench.
The footballer is her late grandma, Maureen; the photo discovered in family albums following her death.
“Sport’s been ingrained from when my grandma was a teenager,” Saundry said.
It wasn’t just football genetics that Saundry credits her grandparents for passing down to her children and grandchildren.
“I think the work ethic has been ingrained too; my Gran and Pa held two jobs, they bought a family home and then she ended up buying the block next to it; they worked their arse off to pay both off to give their kids the best
(dead or alive)
First Concert: Beyonce. Dream concert: Taylor Swift.
Book
If
If you could live anywhere in the world besides here, where would it be? New York: the combined experiences of city, life, and sport are amazing.
First concert, dream concert
Most inspirational living person Family collectively.
What advice would you give your 18-year-old self? Make time for yourself and travel in your early years to learn from different experiences before you get too focused on work.
opportunity to have the best future.”
Saundry’s parents, Bernard and Samantha, grew up playing community sport, and raised their three children in Essendon.
Saundry was the middle child; her older sister Claire is a dietitian and younger brother James works in public relations and social media.
While at St Monica’s Primary School in Moonee Ponds, Saundry followed dad’s example by playing for St Bernard’s, until Aussie rules pathways for girls ended – in those days – at Under 12s.
She also played every other sport possible and was “really grateful for the childhood I had”.
“It was outdoors, it was do whatever you want, be whoever you want to be.”
Although a talented athlete, Saundry said she lost more matches than she won, which “helped me as an individual”.
“Losing more creates, I think, better values in people at a young age,” she said.
“If you’re constantly winning you don’t know what it’s like not to get something.
“For me, sport was a focus in how we probably built a lot of our traits around resilience, persistence, courage, all of those kinds of things.”
LEADERSHIP, NOT LOUDER-SHIP
Saundry went to high school at Loreto in Toorak.
An obsession with team sports continued, alongside maturing leadership qualities that saw her take on captaincy of several teams.
“I probably thought leadership was being the funniest and the loudest early on,” she said.
“When you look at
leadership it’s consistency, it’s empathy, it’s understanding how to connect and get to know people.”
She was named one of two school captains in Year 12, which meant overcoming a fear of public speaking that dissipated after her first school speech.
Saundry, who was a guest speaker at the recent International Conference on Thinking, now regularly shares her experiences on leadership and teamwork. She emerged from high school with a five-year plan to land a job as an AFL player manager with agent-to-thestars, Paul Connors.
A degree in Business at Deakin University, majoring in sports management, was coupled with volunteer work at the Calder Cannons, coordinating rowing coaches at Loreto, and working part-time at an accounting firm – the profession in which Connors cut his teeth.
“I didn’t know him from a bar of soap, but knew I would be able to get to him in the right way if I played my cards right,” she said.
As with most card games, her hand included a stroke of luck.
As a former school captain, Saundry sat on a Loreto committee, where she struck up a conversation with businesswoman Sandy Colombo.
“Sandy says, ‘Paul Connors is my neighbour, give me a resume and I’ll pass it over the fence’,” she said.
“I got an interview, I got the internship, and (Paul) said ‘if you’re good enough at the end of the internship, there’s a job here for you’.
“The reason I wanted to work for Paul was because he
First job and pay I was a waitress at the Moonee Valley Racecourse when I was 15, paid about $11 an hour.
you weren’t doing this job, what would you be doing? Working at the AFL or an AFL Club. Five people you’d invite to a dinner party (dead or alive) Family including Grandma, Nanna, and Mum & Dad, as
well as trailblazing US player agent Nicole Lynn and Nike co-founder Phil Knight.
everyone should read Open, by Andre Agassi.
First car, current car, dream car First car: Ford Laser. Current car: Audi Q3 Dream car: Land Rover Defender
Former AFLW player Alex Saundry. Picture: Mark Stewart
Alex Saundry with her dad, Bernard, and mum, Samantha.
key to success for Alex
won’t be on Saundry’s personal client list is her partner, Essendon midfielder Maddi Gay.
“She’s been super supportive and grounding … she also owns her own business in videography and digital marketing so also has an outside interest which is important for us.”
The couple recently bought a house together, which she joked was to give their dogs –Winnie and Murphy – a decent backyard.
PLAYING FOR THE FUTURE
When the Matildas captivated Australia and charged towards fourth place at last year’s World Cup, Saundry rode the wave of support.
“I couldn’t get tickets to some of the Australian games,” she said.
was the best. He was a smaller agency and I knew in a small business I was going to get a great opportunity and I did – I managed some of the best players now that are in the game.”
PULLING ON THE BOOTS AGAIN
Saundry had “quit” footy at 18; a decision driven by a poor team environment at university and a broken collarbone.
But when rumours of an AFL Women’s competition swirled, she got back on the ground and hit the gym, mapping out a drafted path to draft night.
“I knew I was never going to get drafted here (in Victoria); I wasn’t good enough, I wasn’t fit enough, I wasn’t fast enough,” she said.
In Sydney, she said, footy smarts were being targeted as much as athletic prowess.
“They were better athletes
One thing people didn’t know about you/hidden talent Learning to play better golf, when time permits.
Best and worst birthday present you’ve ever received Best birthday present was when my dad came home from New Zealand as a surprise after working there during Covid.
than me, absolutely, but my skills and knowledge and leadership of the game was a lot higher so I felt like I could impact and bring them something,” she said.
Saundry was scooped up by Greater Western Sydney and packed her bags for the harbourside city, but managed to stay with Connors working part-time while living in the “rough” suburb of Condell Park with four other girls.
“We had the best year, how could you not?” she said.
The excitement of the female players in the inaugural season jarred with the uber-professional environment in the men’s league, however, and Saundry joked that male athletes were training six times a week while “we’re coming in and acting like a circus”.
“There’s a difference now, it’s a lot more professional,” she said.
The second year brought major changes and better collaboration, but Saundry was diagnosed with bone stress in her leg and couldn’t train for most of the season.
Saundry decided she “wasn’t good enough to keep going”, but was offered a job to stay in the game in the clubs football department.
She turned it down, twice, due to a new challenge.
“I’d made the decision to retire and set up my own agency.”
MAKING CONNECTIONS
As a female athlete and agent, Saundry saw a gap in sports management.
Her business was based solely around women sports stars, starting with a focus on AFLW.
She ignored “multiple” warnings to play things safe and launched More Than Management in 2018.
“I didn’t do the maths on it, but I believed in it,” she said.
“I was managing these girls less than part-time
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Song you get pumped up to Domino, by Jessi J.
Death row last meal Grandma’s crumbed lamb cutlets, with mashed potato and baby peas.
Worst was when people bought me dolls
Biggest career regret Not having a decent break in
and I saw the growth in the commercialisation of (sport).”
Early financial challenges meant Saundry worked parttime with the late Danny Frawley to make ends meet.
“I always knew my work ethic was really good,” she said.
“During Covid I got a job at Boarder Express just in case the business went belly up … doing packages on the production line.”
Far from going “belly up”, the business has expanded into multiple sporting codes and media.
“I knew in time I wanted to add different layers and be the best female and gender diverse sports agency there is,” she said.
The agency, which includes Charlie Hocking, Mel Weatherly and Emily Smith, now has accreditation across AFL, NRL, cricket, netball leagues and FIFA as well as for career and personal development.
“The majority of our girls work outside regardless of
the early years of my career and saying yes too much.
Best piece of advice you’ve received Greet and give time and attention exactly the same to everyone you meet whether it’s the person at the carpark, cleaner or CEO.
This year I’m most looking forward to … Settling into my new home with my partner.
how much money they’re making … we think it helps them be better balanced humans,” she said.
“Too many men, still, leave the game with nothing. They might have a good pay packet – or they may have wasted it at all – but they don’t have a job, they don’t have a degree.”
Saundry said the key to sporting success was to connect as people, not players.
“I get to be part of conversations with clients who might be in same-sex relationships about IVF, when they should do it, really intimate conversations that I feel grateful to be a part of.
“You’ve got to try to manage the best, but the biggest delineation in what the best is, you’ve got to be a good person, you’ve got to want to collaborate with us.”
When GWS was in its infancy, Saundry stayed at the Holbrook family farm of Alyce Parker – who would become the club’s four-time best and fairest winner – to appreciate how difficult it would be for country players to adapt to a suburban Sydney lifestyle.
“I spent a couple of nights up on the farm, we rode motorbikes, helped her herd sheep, I was probably a bloody nuisance … but it was really important for me to understand a bit more and be more empathetic,” she said.
Dealing with families of athletes is another challenge, as well as understanding how players “deal with conflict or decision-making”.
One star footballer who
The one thing I’d love to change about Victoria/ Victorians
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The one thing I love the most about Victoria/ Victorians Sport, coffee, wine and the Surf Coast.
“But then I go, ‘well, where are you guys now when the ALeague is on, and you’re not supporting your own homegrown talent?’ That frustrates me.”
Saundry says she understands the scale of investment necessary to maintain marketing for sports such as AFLW is immense, but incentives for AFL club members to come to women’s matches and get “bums on seats”, as well as broader media reporting that doesn’t focus on individuals with a profile, would help.
“You saw from the FIFA World Cup how well they marketed it,” she said.
“At the same time, the more public women’s sport gets, the more criticism will come, and I’m not sure whether either side is ready for that right now.”
Soccer, Saundry said, has a big future for Australia female athletes and her business recently obtained FIFA accreditation via “the hardest exam I’ve ever done”.
One star of the future, Melbourne City’s Daniela Galic, recently inked a major European club deal with the help of Saundry, who had joined forces with global business partners John Grimaud and Jan Van Baal.
“Daniela’s extremely humble; will hardly ask for a pair of boots,” she said.
“For me it’s one of the proudest deals, to be part of a girl’s career where the family trusts and believes in what you’re doing.”
Lasso.
Alex Saundry at work and, right, with her parents Bernard and Samantha.
Alex with, above left, Katie Brennan and, above, dad Bernard and sister Claire.
Right: Alex Saundry and her partner, Maddi.
