Parkin's accomplishments as a football player and coach are outstanding: he captained Hawthorn Football Club to their second premiership in 1971, and then coached them to a flag in 1978. He later coached Carlton Football Club to successive Premierships in 1981 - 82, and is regarded as one of the super-coaches of the 70's, and 80's.
Through the 1990’s Parkin continued coaching one of Australia's top AFL teams, Carlton. Applying innovative coaching techniques under Parkin, Carlton set a new record for an unbroken series of AFL winning games, culminating in Carlton as 1995 Premiers.
In 2000, despite lucrative offers to continuing coaching and join the corporate world full-time, David returned to his first passion the Hawthorn Football Club as Director of Football, where he remained until 2002. David was inducted to the AFL Football Hall of Fame in May of that year.
Parkin is one of just six coaches to have coached over 500 AFL/VFL games (the others are Tom Hafey, Jock McHale, Allan Jeans, Kevin Sheedy and Ron Barassi).
Parkin's academic achievements include developing and lecturing in the Sports Coaching Degree course at Deakin University, as well as writing and publishing more than a dozen books and numerous articles.
David Parkin’s newest book is “What Makes Teams Work”, and was released by Pan Macmillan in 2004. David and co-author Paul Bourke have interviewed dozens of CEO’s and taken a detail look at successful Australian companies like Flight Centres, Ford Australia (Ford’s only profitable worldwide subsidiary) and Dun & Brad Street, as well as top Australian coaches such as Leigh Matthews, Brian Goorjian and Ric Charlesworth. The book has been described as “The In-Search of Excellence” for Australia - it explores the reasons for and lesson from the highly successful businesses and sporting teams.
Parkin's incredible number of accomplishments has seen his talents transferred from the sporting and academic arenas to the world of business. His motivational talks have been held in the highest esteem by organisations such as: MLC Life, Spalding Australia, Brake & Clutch, RACV, Campbells Soups, Telstra Australia, Australia Post, Victorian Health Promotion Foundation, Combined Rural Traders, Civil Contractors Association, KPMG, CIC Insurance, MBAV, AMP, TAFE, QANTAS, Australian Earthmovers & Road Contractors, Toyota, Eka Nobel, Sheraton Hotels and many more…
TOPICS INCLUDE:
->Managing a Winning Team
->Leadership
->Learning to Win
->The Coach/Leader/Manager
->The Individual - Value and work
->Feedback, Culture & Success
->Teamwork
->Planning, Preparation and Performance
->Motivation, Achievement, Success and Enjoyment
->Ownership and Empowerment
->Organisational and Individual Change
->Health/Lifestyle Management
