Ms Gorinski, 30, is a household name in Otago rugby, as the former Otago Spirit captain, Matatū Super Rugby Aupiki player and Varsity veteran.
Having hung up her representative boots last year after playing her 65th cap for the Otago Spirit in the Farah Palmer Cup championship final, she moved straight into the Varsity coaching role this season.
A few weeks ago, she became Westpac’s Otago-Southland agribusiness manager, a role which included overseeing other managers and she reckoned that could be where some of her captaining skills were useful.
Brought up on the Taieri, Ms Gorinski had her heart set on becoming a vet, but she did not enjoy Palmerston North and returned south after one semester.
Attending a careers expo, she saw rural banking being promoted and, with a love of farming and an enjoyment of economics, business and accounting at school, she decided that could be the ideal job.
In 2016, she graduated from the University of Otago with a commerce degree, with a double major in accounting and finance, and a diploma in environmental management, something she could see would be important to assist with farming into the future. She also quipped it was an opportunity to stay at university longer to keep playing sport.
She could not initially get an agri-banking job, so she had a short stint working as an accountant but discovered it was not for her.
She had never previously had an office job — she was a keen outdoors girl who had worked on farms around the area and qualified as an AI technician — and this role was solely "number crunching".
Nearly eight years ago, she got a job with Westpac as an agri-analyst and became a manager two years after she started and then a senior manager with her own client portfolio.
With her latest promotion, she would probably keep a handful of clients, but the role was mostly about overseeing other managers and the wider customer base.
She worked closely with portfolio manager Debbie Hunter, who had been with the bank for 12 years and had a wealth of experience, and her support had made it easier for Ms Gorinski to step into the role.
Ms Gorinski felt a sense of loyalty to Westpac; they gave her "a crack" at the beginning of her career and she was only in her mid-20s when she got a manager's role.
She also liked the way the bank did business, and the autonomy given to staff to help customers. She intended staying with the bank and also staying in the South.
She loved being in a rural team and, while it had been a challenging few years, things were "certainly on the way up" in the rural sector.
Saying her degree in hard work came from her father, she had learned plenty growing up in shearing sheds and picking up lambs at tailing time.
Working with farmers was a highlight of her job and she found it a good mix of practical farming — even though she was not working on-farm — and crunching numbers. It was also nice to see farmers’ businesses expand and grow.
As far as her rugby involvement, Ms Gorinski played a couple of games this season which she enjoyed — "til I woke up on Sunday".
Coaching had been a good way to ease her way out of playing and her new job had also given her a new focal point, although she expected it would be a bit harder when the Otago season rolled around.
