Starting Coppel Sports

I’ve always been fascinated by sports. Didn’t matter what it was, I was following it. It started playing in the backyard, and having a deep obsession with the numbers, stats and scoring - both the club cricket results in the paper, and scoring the game of football in the Footy Record at the time. I loved it. Unfortunately for me, I loved sport a lot more than sport loved me. I didn’t have the talent to “make it”, so I quickly found other ways to satisfy my passion. First it was umpiring, then coaching, then managing teams while at uni.

Even as I progressed in my career, I stayed connected to sports beyond cheering and following the numbers. While I was working in insurance law, I got involved in sports media. I started writing about women’s sport, specifically AFLW and netball. Then there was Tokyo 2020, and from lockdown (and actually self-isolation), I covered almost every minute of the Olympics, and then the Paralympics, and I began to see just how truly significant the sporting landscape was and had the potential to be.

Inspired by the Games, I started my own sports media company and interviewed dozens of Olympic and Paralympic athletes. This provided me unique insight into the individuals beyond the white lines and beyond the uniform. Even as I shifted to commercial law, I remained steadfast in my commitment to sharing the diverse stories of the athletes that show resilience, dedication and a spirit much richer than what we see on Game Day or sometimes every four years.

But the more athletes I talked to, more of the same issues kept popping up. - lack of funding, lack of sponsorship, lack of know-how to make a difference. At the same time, I was approached to going a boutique sports management agency, looking for someone with knowledge of my areas of expertise. A great opportunity!

Quickly I was able to learn the basic principles of sports management, before the agency was taken over by a much bigger agency. I got some great experience. My unwavering commitment to netball and Olympic sports are edgy and a bit different but this gave me the perfect platform to go out on my own.

I have taken the knowledge of both a boutique sports agency, and a big sports agency, taking the best of each world, and combining them with my personal passion, perspective and knowledge. This is Coppel Sports.

My experiences combined with my lifelong love for sport have helped me understand the type of agent I want to be, and don’t want to be, the way I want to deal with people and build relationships, and the people I want to work with and try to help. I know a bit more about what I want my calling card to be, and what I want people to remember their interaction with me.

As I have gone out on my own, there are a few key principles that are guiding lights for me:

• Personal touch - I want to make sure that every athlete, whether they were a world champion or a pathway athlete feel like they have the same access to me, the same attention for me, and the same care from me about them and their career.

• Team spirit - An agent is an agent, not a coach, a doctor, a parent, or a partner. An agent’s role is to help shape commercial realities, provide advice, and work to help the athlete maximise their career. It is important to me to set the baseline and boundaries of my role as an agent, and not more or less.

• Authenticity - on multiple levels. Me with athletes, athletes with sponsors. Successful partnerships (of all kinds) must be authentic and mutually so.
  

And so here I am, running a sports management agency that has my name on the door. It does what it says on the box, it’s me, and sports. I’m still passionate about sports, but increasingly I’m more passionate about athletes. I want to make my business helping athletes stay in business and achieve as much as they can out of their career.

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