Local Comm Games head announced

THE person who’ll lead the City of Greater Bendigo’s Commonwealth Games push has been named.

Municipal director of corporate performance, Andrew Cooney, has been announced as the City’s new director of the Commonwealth Games.

The position was created a few months ago by City of Greater Bendigo council and Mr Cooney’s new role will involve steering the municipality’s approach to the event, along with working with State Government and Commonwealth Games officials.

Following a “competitive, external recruitment process”, City CEO Craig Niemann said Mr Cooney was a good fit for the position.

“Andrew is passionate about our community and has long, established relationships locally and at the State level through leading the City’s involvement in the development of Galkangu (Bendigo GovHub),” Mr Niemann said.

“He has… a great sense of how we can leverage Games opportunities to deliver on key actions from a range of adopted strategies and achieve the objectives outlined in our Let the Games Begin legacy document.

“Andrew will be able to draw on his skills in financial management, governance, advocacy and community engagement to ensure Greater Bendigo and the wider region share in the benefit of the Games.”

After four years with the municipality, Mr Cooney said there were many aspects to his new job that he was looking forward to.

“Rarely do you get the opportunity to live and work in your community and help deliver an amazing, international event such as this,” he said.

“Bendigo and our region will be on the world’s stage, and this really is a once in a lifetime chance to help shape an enduring and positive legacy for our community from this experience.

“Our focus will be on ensuring we not only keep a city running but that Greater Bendigo and the region is in the best shape possible to welcome up to 200,000 people and support a smooth running of an event of this scale.

“I am honoured to be able to lead this important work for the City and community, and look forward to continuing to work with local leaders, sporting clubs and businesses to ensure these Games are the best Games ever.”

The 2026 Commonwealth Games are set for 17 to 29 March of that year and along with Bendigo host locations include Ballarat, Shepparton, Geelong, and Gippsland, while the opening ceremony will take place in Melbourne.

A statement from the municipality said the search to replace the director of corporate performance role would begin soon.