John Coates has made a habit of getting his own way. For Sydney’s star moment at the closing ceremony for the Atlanta Olympics in 1996, Rod McGeoch, director of Sydney’s organising committee, wanted a big dance number with lots of schoolkids. “Rod, we’re not here for that,” Coates told him, and the idea was squashed. “He stopped me every time,” recalls McGeoch. “John Coates commanded the vision.”

Which might explain the years of handwringing by the Queensland government over which stadium will be the main venue for the Brisbane Games in 2032. Two successive premiers backed wildly inappropriate options; Annastacia Palaszczuk proposed the Gabba, which was to be refurbished at a cost of $1 billion, a figure that had been plucked from thin air.