Geelong Cats coach Chris Scott takes non-executive director role at listed company

Geelong head coach Chris Scott has taken on a second corporate role. Picture: Getty Images

Geelong head coach Chris Scott is becoming a very busy man. The Cats are sitting on the fringe of the AFL’s top eight, he’s still holding down a gig at club sponsor Morris Finance, and now he’s found enough spare minutes to take up a role on the board of ASX-listed minnow 5G Networks.

A bit of a of a coup for 5G, valued by the market at only $42m. Chairman Hugh Robertson last week trumpeted to the market Scott’s academic credentials and “unique blend of leadership, strategic insight, and high-performance culture from his distinguished career in elite sport”.

Something of a surprise is that the news of the appointment escaped the attention of the legion of scribes who follow the AFL.

Particularly given Scott’s role at Morris as the finance group’s chief of leadership and performance – whatever that means – caused something of a kerfuffle last year after the AFL started asking questions about whether payment for the role should count towards the club’s salary cap arrangements.

Turns out it did, at least partly, given Morris is a major and longstanding sponsor of the Cats.

Not so the case with 5G, we’re told. While the telco tiddler was last year a member of the Cats’ business lunch club, Connect in Hoops, and was still listed as an “elite partner” of the forum on the club website on Tuesday, we’re told that arrangement has now ended, 5G has never been a formal sponsor of Geelong, and Scott’s role is “independent” of the club.

Out of an abundance of caution, no doubt, the arrangement was still cleared with the AFL before he took it, Margin Call is told.

Still, sitting on the board of an ASX-listed company is no small thing. On top of his full-time coaching role, and the time spent pondering Morris’s leadership and performance needs, Scott has now signed up for 11 board meetings a year at the data company, plus whatever committee appointments are made in the future.

Directors of 5G took home between $130,000 and $160,000 in the 2024 financial year, according to 5G’s last annual report. So it will be a nice little earner for the Cats coach.

And there are clearly no concerns at Geelong that Scott – contracted to coach the club until at least the end of 2026 – is extending himself a little far, given the matter was signed off ahead of time.

Will Cats fans share that view if the club slips any further down the league ladder? Only time will tell.

And as for 5G? It booked thin earnings of just under $1m for the first half of the year, so there’s plenty of room for Scott’s skills to improve performance.