MY EXPERIENCE AS AN ATHLETE

My own athletic career was unremarkable — a passable cricketer, a better umpire than a footballer. But I’ve stayed close to the athlete experience. A 70.3 Ironman, a marathon, years of cycling. I know what it feels like to train and compete, to manage a body and a schedule, and to want someone in your corner who actually understands what you’re going through.

MY MEDIA BACKGROUND

Before I ever negotiated a sponsorship deal, I spent years covering sport as a journalist and broadcaster. Three SSN seasons. Two Olympics and Paralympics (Tokyo 2020, Beijing 2022). Two AFL seasons. A home FIFA Women’s World Cup.

That media lens is what separates me from most managers. I understand how athlete stories land in public, how content works, and how a brand partnership looks to an audience over time. I’ve been on both sides of the relationship.

MY LEGAL BACKGROUND

I’ve spent my commercial career across insurance, litigation, contracts and M&A. What that means in practice: I read contracts carefully, I understand what the fine print means, and I know what a fair deal looks like — and what an unfair one looks like too. Every agreement I negotiate for an athlete has had a lawyer look at it. Because I am one.

WHY I FOCUS ON DIVERSE SPORTS

The big agencies default to AFL, NRL, and mainstream cricket. That’s fine for them — those sports have the eyeballs and the contracts to sustain big teams.

But I’ve always been drawn to the athletes operating outside those ecosystems. Athletes who have to work harder for every sponsorship dollar. Who have more interesting stories to tell, more authentic connections with their audiences, and more genuine commercial space available to the right brand.

That’s who Coppel Sports exists for.

THINK WE WOULD BE A GOOD FIT?

Read about what we offer, or get in touch directly.