Whether it’s the chequered flag of Formula 1 or a penalty shoot out on the football field, Network 10 sports anchor Tara Rushton is there. Editor in Chief Michelle Giglio speaks with the Mosman local about her evolution as a sports journalist and juggling work with two young sons.
Tara Rushton loves sport. The controversy, the emotion, the evolving narrative. For almost 15 years, the Network 10 presenter has covered domestic, Australian and international sporting events. Be it the incredible journey of the Matildas to the World Cup, the hairpin turns of the Australian Grand Prix or clashes in the men’s football A-League.
“Sport brings us together,” Tara enthuses. “It’s the best live entertainment. You never quite know what’s going to happen. There’s always a different narrative that comes up from what you’re watching in front of you. And there’s such a raw emotion around that.”
When we sit down to chat at Public Dining Room in Balmoral, the 39-year-old had earlier in the week been on air at 1.30am for the Paramount+ AFC Asian Cup coverage. The following week she was due to fly out for the A-League Melbourne derby. Then she was going into pre-production for the Matildas’ Olympic campaign to Paris. Not to mention preparing for the upcoming Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne later this month.
“My weeks never look the same,” Tara says. “I don’t have set times to prep (prepare) as in speak to players, speak to producers. It changes every week because it’s about everyone’s availability.”
This sees the mother-of-two often doing research when her boys, Lennox, five and Harley, three, are asleep. Given husband Cooper Cronk, former star halfback for the Sydney Roosters and Melbourne Storm, also has a busy NRL coaching and Fox Sports hosting schedule, the duo ‘just have to make it work’.
“Like any other family, we just juggle it. If I have prep to do that usually happens in the evenings when the kids are sleeping, post the dinner, bath, bedtime routine that takes an hour and a half and you don’t sit down!”
Despite her hectic schedule, Tara exudes an aura of calmness, which helps offset the constantly unpredictable nature of sport. “I love the adrenaline from the job. You absolutely have to think on your feet, be really malleable and lean on people in key areas if you need some information.”
Tara has covered all aspects of sports reporting for three different networks, from hosting in the studio to pitch-side updates. After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts majoring in media and communications – as well as a diploma in journalism – Tara could not find work in Sydney, so made the brave move to Singapore at age 25 where she only knew one person. “I’ve always been a bit of an adventurer,” she reflects. “I think you have to create opportunities. I’d lived overseas previously, so moving abroad didn’t seem so daunting.”
While there, she often worked for free and pitched story ideas to magazines and gradually ‘more doors started to open’.
“Then the dream job came up, which was hosting a live English Premier League highlights show every Sunday morning in Singapore (for Singtel Mio TV).”
After a few years, Tara was getting homesick and feeling the pull of Sydney, especially as friends in Australia were getting married. A ‘compelling’ opportunity to work at Fox Sports and cover its live football broadcasts came up, and Tara returned to cut her teeth in the world of ‘on the ground’ sports reporting.
The pace was completely different to the controlled studio environment which she had been working in with Singtel. “Whoever you are interviewing is changing (constantly),” she says. There’s a controversy. So you’ve got to chase that up. People come down to you pitch side and you’ve got to be ready for injury updates, half-time talks, anything that you might have.
“You really are the ears and eyes for the commentary team. It’s almost having ‘Spidey sense’ when you’re at the game, and also thinking about what the audience wants to know and learn and hear about.”
While at Fox Sports for eight years, Tara ended up not only hosting football shows, but branched out to cover events like UFC (mixed martial arts), NRL and also anchor Fox Sports news. When Network 10 acquired the rights to broadcast football two-and-a-half years ago, she jumped at the chance for a new adventure covering ‘my love’. “Football pulls on my heartstrings like nothing else. Football is my language,” she says.
“Football pulls on my heartstrings like nothing else.”
While Tara grew up in small coastal town Somers on the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria ‘with one shop and one petrol pump,’ the family moved to Sydney where she completed high school. It was when she and Cooper were looking for their first home together six years ago that they chose Mosman. At the time, Cooper was based in Melbourne and Tara was living in Kirribilli as she loved ‘this side of the Bridge’. “It was a bit of a blank canvas of where we felt we’d like to live. And we looked everywhere and found a beautiful place in Mosman,” Tara recalls. “That was the first time we lived together!” she laughs. “Thank goodness it worked out straight away.”
Covering an A League match for 10 at Allianz Stadium.
The couple loves the outdoor lifestyle which they enjoy with their two active boys. “We’re so lucky to live in an area where it’s beach, it’s bush walks, it’s nature. We often will start walking to get a coffee and then an hour later we’ll be in Georges Heights or Clifton Gardens. We’ve got a ball in a backpack. The boys need to burn their energy and I’m happy to oblige because from a family perspective, that’s great for us as well.”
Eldest son Lennox started kindergarten this year and Tara is happy she can be there most of the time for the school run.
“Our work schedule is dictated by the sporting schedule, which means weekends can be tricky,” Tara says. “However, we lean on our ‘village’ when we need to.”
Over the years, Tara’s work has required her to be across a broad range of sports, a challenge she relishes. “I love to hit the books!” she exclaims. “I love to learn and study and listen to podcasts. It’s part of the job I really enjoy.
“Keeping the notebooks, writing it down, making the phone calls, finding out all those tidbits and just collecting as much information as possible.”
One important aspect of the job is building relationships with athletes, coaches and managers. “Building trust is absolutely key, because often if there’s a big injury people aren’t going to talk about it,” Tara explains.
“So you lean on those around you to help you break that news. It’s a big element of the job.” How do you gain that trust, especially when some may be sceptical about a woman covering men’s sport?
Tara interviews McClaren Racing CEO Zak Brown at the Australian Grand Prix.
“You keep showing up,” Tara says emphatically. “You have to care. You have to do the work. You have to listen, be present, do the groundwork, do your research and come prepared.
“It’s like any relationship. It does take time. But you have to be really committed that that’s what you want to do, because you want to build credibility and you want to be an expert in your field.”
“Sport is community. Sport is the connector between socio-economic backgrounds. And it brings us together.”
Husband Cooper is helpful in providing an athlete’s perspective, after a successful 16-year playing career. “I like to tap into his mind to ask him whether my take on something is balanced or am I putting too much emotion into the way that I’m reading a situation.”
When Tara first started her broadcasting career almost 15 years ago, there were certainly not as many women covering sport as there are now – and most of the stories she reported on were about men.
Now with the emergence of professional leagues for women including football, cricket and NRL, these days there is much more broadcasting of women’s sport. “Looking back on the journey, that’s when I can appreciate how sports coverage has changed. It has taken a long time and there is still some way to go, but the changes have been positive.”
For Tara, sports reporting should be about the athlete – not the gender. “I think there can be, unfortunately, a lens where people say ‘men’s sport, women’s sport, men’s league, women’s league.’ It’s sport. We are talking about athletes at the top of their game.”
Tara and husband Cooper Cronk love Balmoral Beach which they often explore with their two sons.
From a professional perspective, Tara laments ‘a huge under-representation of female voices’ in football commentary teams. “And it’s really important to have a female voice because women give a different lens. We see the world differently. It’s proven. And so there needs to be balance.”
After covering the Matildas for over a decade, she highlights their success at the Women’s World Cup last year as one of her favourite stories.
“It changed sport forever,” she proclaims. “And it shows you the power of sport. Sport is community. Sport is having really difficult conversations. Sport is the connector between socio-economic backgrounds. Sport is the connector between geography. And it brings us together.
“I felt so truly happy (as) the women in that team deserved every accolade and every moment. Because it was about time.”
Going forward in her career, Tara wants to continue telling the meaningful stories that are often not heard. “If I can play a small part in continuing to tell stories, especially the stories about female athletes to give them the platform they deserve, that’s absolutely something I want to be part of.”
For now, she has the ‘juggernaut’ of the Australian Grand Prix coming up, with 10’s broadcast set to be bigger than ever before, she promises.
“It’s the best live event I’ve ever covered,” she enthuses. “Incredible athletes, commanding the heaviest machinery you can imagine, at 300 kilometres an hour against G-forces that surpass a space shuttle launch is superhuman.”