Welcome: Tyson Beattie

The Perth Football Club would like to welcome Tyson Beattie who has been appointed Football Manager for 2015.

Beattie comes to the club after working as a sports reporter for Channel Nine and WIN TV for the last five years.  Previous to this he was awarded a college scholarship to Indiana University to play American Football as a punter.  Tyson played five seasons at Indiana where in his senior year in 2006 he was recognised as one of the top punters in the country and selected as an all star of his conference.

After graduating Beattie spent some time in the NFL system with the Buffalo Bills before coming back to Indiana University to take on a role working in the Student Development Department.  Here it was his job to make sure that athletes kept on top of their academic studies and met the standards of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).  This was also were he got his first experience in sports administration.

“For athletes to stay eligible by the standards of the NCAA they need to meet certain grade requirements, they need to be going to university, getting their grades and showing up to class on time.”

“It was my job to enforce those things and make sure that we were providing enough welfare and support to the players and their academic requirements.”

Beattie who started last week has not wasted any time getting stuck into his new role.  “I want to connect to every player that we have got on our list at the moment and everyone that is going to be at training.”

“I really want to make myself accessible to the players.  I think that is one of the first things that I want to do.”

Beattie admits that it’s a big change from being a sports reporter but he is really looking forward to the challenge of helping Perth rise up the ladder.

““This is a dream come true for me, this is a chance to lead a football clubs department.”

“What I am looking forward to is just getting in and getting my hands dirty and getting ready to try and make those changes to turn the club around.”

Perth CEO Marty Atkins believes that the characteristics that Beattie is going to bring in his new role will certainly improve the football club.

“Tyson is a great people person, very good communicator and I think in the role as Football Manager, which is very much a player welfare/management role, he has all the attributes to make that position his own.”