Conversations in Sport is the twenty-fourth series of the Half Court Press Podcast. Here, Tao MacLeod talks to a variety of different sporting personalities, who have a range of roles and experiences within their respective games. We chat about a range of topics including domestic participation, international tournaments, as well as corporate responsibility within sport.

In episode four we chat to John Hardie and Matthew Taylor, who both work within the sports programmes at Edinburgh Academy. John Hardie is a retired rugby player, who has moved into coaching. Born in New Zealand, he qualified to play for Scotland due to a familial link to the Scottish county of Fife. In New Zealand, he played for Southland and the Highlanders, before moving over to the UK. Here he played for Edinburgh and Newcastle Falcons. In 2015 John was picked to play for Scotland in the 2015 World Cup, reaching the quarter final stage. Since August 2024, John Hardie has been the Assistant Director of Rugby at the Edinburgh Academy.

Matty Taylor is a newly capped goalkeeper for the Scottish national hockey team. He was a part of the squad that won the inaugural second tier of the FIH Nations Cup, in Muscat, Oman, that was held in February 2025. Also, a teacher at Edinburgh Academy, he is one of the coaches within the private school’s hockey programme. Having come through the youth teams at Inverleith Hockey Club he turned out for their first team, before moving across to play for local rivals Grange and then the University of Edinburgh team, with whom he won the Scottish Cup. In this episode we chat about school and club sport, multi-sports education for youth players, as well as the potential benefits of professionalism for minority sports.

Half Court Press

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Conversations in Sport is the twenty-fourth series of the Half Court Press Podcast. Here, Tao MacLeod talks to a variety of different sporting personalities, who have a range of roles and experiences within their respective games. We chat about a range of topics including domestic participation, international tournaments, as well as corporate responsibility within sport.

In episode three we hear from the Welsh Hockey super fan, Lynne Morgan BEM. A person of many roles within hockey Lynne is, amongst other things, a member of the Hockey Writers’ Club committee, the Welsh Masters hockey teams and Ashford (Middlesex) Hockey Club. In 2023 she was awarded the British Empire Medal for services to hockey, as part of the King’s first Birthday Honours List. In this conversation we chat about what’s been happening in Wales and Great Britain, the Hockey Writers’ Club, as well as the tournaments that fans can enjoy.

Half Court Press

www.halfcourtpressmagazine.com

Facebook & Twitter; @HalfCourtPress1

Threads & Instagram; @half_court_press1

The Half Court Press Podcast is available on…

iTunes

Spotify

Google Podcasts

Apple Podcasts

Amazon Music

Breaker

Overcast

Pocket Casts

RadioPublic

Conversations in Sport is the twenty-fourth series of the Half Court Press Podcast. Here, Tao MacLeod talks to a variety of different sporting personalities, who have a range of roles and experiences within their respective games. We chat about a range of topics including domestic participation, international tournaments, as well as corporate responsibility within sport.

In episode two we chat to Paul Schuttenbelt, a football coach and businessman from the town of Maastricht in the south of the Netherlands, who’s worked around the world. Since moving overseas he has been involved in football and sport in a variety of roles and a variety of locations including Vietnam, India, Thailand and the USA. Currently he is teaching students about entrepreneurship in sports and business models in football at the Rome City Institute, in Italy. In this role he has an educational focus on ethics and using sport as a tool for development in emerging economies. In this interview we talk about sports development and corporate social responsibility.

Half Court Press

www.halfcourtpressmagazine.com

Facebook & Twitter; @HalfCourtPress1

Threads & Instagram; @half_court_press1

The Half Court Press Podcast is available on…

iTunes

Spotify

Google Podcasts

Apple Podcasts

Amazon Music

Breaker

Overcast

Pocket Casts

RadioPublic