From the Beyond Growth archive. Originally aired 2 June 2026.
Mark Neeld spent close to thirty years in the AFL as a player, coach and administrator. He signed a two-year contract to lead Geelong United Basketball and is now past seven years in the role. When he sat down with me for Beyond Growth, what stood out was how much of his thinking applies to any Geelong business trying to grow.
A merger built on a shared why. Geelong United Basketball came out of two associations working the same market, close together. Mark put the business case plainly: same market, divided revenue, twice the expenses. What made it possible was that both groups existed for the same reason. The question they kept coming back to was what’s best for the sport into the future.
A three-month startup. When the club won a licence for a Women’s National Basketball League team, the Geelong Venom, the first preseason was three months away. There was no name, no coach, no players and no sponsors. Mark describes the Venom as a startup sitting inside a larger organisation, with a five-year plan to get as close to covering its costs as possible. He says a small group of Geelong families backed the early deficit.
Partnerships built around the other side’s why. One of my favourite stories was a local clothing partner with no spare cash for a sponsorship. Instead they dressed the players and the club created content around it. On a spreadsheet it looked like a nice-to-have. In practice the players loved it, it gave them another reason to come to Geelong, and the brand reached the market it wanted.
Start from current reality. Mark’s approach to big goals is to name where things stand today, design what you want it to look like, put an ambitious timeframe on it and work out the steps. Wanting it to be different is not a plan.
“Current reality is this. Can we design what we want everything to look like down the track? Put an ambitious timeframe on it.”
Mark Neeld
What it means for Geelong. Mark sees Geelong as a sporting town with a business community willing to back something new. He also sees a gap: there’s no indoor venue in the 6,000 to 10,000-seat range for sport and live events.
This is one leader’s experience, from a community organisation rather than a typical private business. It’s a useful lens all the same, and these themes will feed into the Growth Intelligence research on business performance and growth.
Growth Intelligence is Reyan Fernando’s research practice. Reyan is also a Certified EOS Implementer, working with Geelong leadership teams on vision and execution. That experience shapes the questions he asks, but the research and conclusions are his own.