Geelong mourn the death of local legend Frank Costa - The Age

Geelong and the football world are mourning the death of local legend and former Cats president Frank Costa.

Born in 1938, Costa died after a battle with cancer. He was 83.

Frank Costa is mobbed by fans in 2007 after Geelong’s premiership.Credit:Jason South

Costa made his wealth in the fruit and vegetable business, with the Costa Group cleaning up the industry that had been wracked with criminal influence and division.

But it was as the transformative Cats president that Costa came to national prominence, helping the club break a premiership drought of 44 years when they won the 2007 flag under coach Mark Thompson and captain Tom Harley.

In the past week, Costa was made aware of his induction into Geelong’s legends club. He became the Cats’ 26th legend and the club’s first non-player to receive legend status.

“Frank was a legend as a person, and a legend of the club,” Cats chief executive Brian Cook said.

“He forged so many strong and lasting relationships through his warmth and authenticity. He will be missed by all that have been fortunate enough to know and love him.”

Costa gives fans a thumbs up at Kardinia Park in 2010.Credit:Getty Images

Former Collingwood president Eddie McGuire paid tribute to Costa, describing his rebuild of GMHBA Stadium and the City of Geelong, “at a time when Geelong was going nowhere”, as one of the Costa’s most profound achievements.

“Frank is one of the most generous and successful community business people I ever had the pleasure of dealing with,” McGuire told The Age.

“His contribution to the City of Geelong is incomparable. His rebuilding of the Geelong Football Club, literally, figuratively and spiritually, is one of the greatest impacts AFL football has ever seen.

“It was a regular occurrence to get a phone call from Frank saying, ‘Ed, we’re helping guys who are in jail, can you come down and speak to them, can you bring a couple of Collingwood boys down?’

“He was always looking to benefit the community and in amongst all that he was able to be a pillar of strength and virtue in Geelong and also in the fruit and vegetable game.”

Former AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou said Costa’s legacy was about much more than premierships.

“He was a giant of a man, a giant of Geelong, a great contributor to the community and just a wonderful person,” he said.

Costa celebrates with fans after the Cats’ grand final win in 2009.Credit:Getty Images

“He did so much to bring Geelong back to the fore after Pyramid, not just the club but the whole City of Geelong.

“He didn’t just win premierships, he almost brought Geelong back together again, based on the back of a football team and a whole community getting behind the club and the redevelopment of the club three times.

“His impact was profound.”

Hawthorn president Jeff Kennett said it was Costa’s value system that he respected so much.

“He was the most wonderful human being,” Kennett said.

“What he stood for stands as a wonderful example in this so commercial, politicised world of what human beings can achieve if their value set is right.”

Cook said Costa’s contribution to the club was unrivalled.

“When Frank departed as president at the end of 2010 he left the club with state-of-the-art facilities, a record breaking team that had broken a premiership drought in 2007 and added another flag in 2009, and on a financial footing that set the club up for long term stability,” he said.

“Without Frank, there must be a genuine question as to whether or not the Geelong Football Club would exist today. It is highly doubtful it would exist in its current form without having had Frank at the helm.

“When the history of the club is written, it will be impossible to do so without having Frank at the forefront of the past 20-25 years. He took a divided club and willed it into the club we know today.”

Costa was revered at the Cats for his selfless approach, one which underpinned the cultural change at the club that has led to them being one of the most highly regarded organisations in the AFL for most of this century.

He was also down to earth, approachable and had a strong connection to fans, players, coaches administrators and the upper echelons of the AFL.

He began the rebuild of Geelong when he became president of the debt-ridden club in 1999 and appointed Brian Cook as CEO soon after with the pair becoming one of the most respected administrative pairings in the game.

Costa’s board led the club to success with the 2009 flag following the 2007 triumph before he was able to hand over the reins to Colin Carter at the end of 2010, as the club went on to win the 2011 premiership under current coach Chris Scott, who was in his first season as Cats coach aged just 35.

Costa was also one of Victoria’s richest men thanks to the family business he helped build from a single store.

Costa and his brother Adrian, the sons of Italian immigrants who had moved to Australia in the 1880s, bought the Geelong Convent Garden Garden fruit shop on Geelong’s Moorabool Street from their parents in 1959 before expanding it into a national wholesale fruit and vegetable empire.

From humble beginnings, Costa Group became Australia’s largest horticultural company and a major supplier of berries, mushrooms, tomatoes, bananas, avocados and citrus fruits. In the early 1990s, Mr Costa was said to have faced death threats from the Calabrian mafia after famously refusing a $1 million-a-year bribe to go along with an extortion racket that was inflating the price of fruit and vegetables by 50¢ a case for supermarket giant Coles.

Since listing on the Australian Securities Exchange in 2015, Costa Group has grown to a market valuation of $1.87 billion today. The company has operations in Australia, China, Hong Kong, Spain and Morocco, employing about 6000 staff.

Although retiring from the company’s board in 2019, Costa and his extended family have remained significant shareholders.

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Geelong mourn the death of local legend Frank Costa - The Age
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