Sports & Exercise Physio
BPhysio(Hons) Bsc(Hons)
Member APA, MPA, and SPA
Ex Physio to Carlton AFL, GC Suns AFL Senior clubs
Main interests: AFL, Complex presentations, Contact sports, Rehab Exercise Prescription
Mark is a highly motivated and experienced physiotherapist who spent 11 years working as a Rehabilitation Manager (8 years) and Head Physiotherapist (3 years) in elite sport with two professional Australian Football League (AFL) teams (Carlton & Gold Coast Suns).
Mark is passionate about high performance sport and providing high quality sports physiotherapy. His strength is helping team sport athletes get back to competition sooner, and managing really tricky injuries. He is also invested in helping Sub-elite and Junior Athletes progress through your sporting pathway.
Before working in AFL, Mark worked in a private clinic in Melbourne which included providing gym-based and pilates-style exercise intervention, so he has a passion for using both manual therapy AND the correct exercises to return you to pain-free sport.
Mark is one of Gold Coast Physio & Sports Health’s most experienced Physio’s. He will listen to you and carefully guide you on the right path to achieving your goals.
Book an appointment with Mark Online
Mark’s Story
I was born in South Africa but did not get to live in Africa for long. At the age of two, my family of Mum, Dad, my sister and I, moved to Port Fairy on the southwest coast of Victoria. I lived in Port Fairy for all of my childhood until moving to Melbourne for university studies.
I played a lot of sport during my childhood. Lots of tennis and soccer, water sports, dabbled in cricket and football but spent most of my time playing basketball. From the age of 12 onwards I played as much basketball as I could. I was always reasonably tall which made me gravitate and love the game. At the age of 16, I was lucky to be selected to play with the Warrnambool Seahawks, the men’s representative side playing in the Country Victorian Invitational Basketball League (CVIBL) (which is now the Big V). This was a pretty competitive standard of basketball and My coach was Trevor Gleeson, who went on to coach many NBL championships with the Perth Wildcats and then on to the NBA with the Toronto Raptors. The ultimate basketball coaching tale of rags to riches.
My uni days started at Monash University in Clayton, where I studied a Bachelor of Science with an Honours year in Physiology, before moving to Physiotherapy at the University of Melbourne. I had always been around sport and health and fitness my whole childhood, I felt that physiotherapy would allow me to continue to work in an area I had an interest in. During my physio degree, I worked in a gym in Port Melbourne as a fitness instructor and also ran my own gym-based rehab/fitness business.
After graduating from physiotherapy, my first job was in private practice in inner Melbourne. The practice provided some coverage for the National Institute of the Circus Arts (NICA). This is when I discovered that I liked working with athletes, helping them to get the best out of themselves.
Around five years after graduating from physiotherapy, I fell into a role at the Carlton Football Club in the AFL as the rehabilitation physiotherapist. AFL clubs were beginning to understand that there was a need for a specialised role straddling the medical model and strength and conditioning to allow more complete return to play programs. The job involved full time support of the injured players but also allowed me to be involved on game days both in Melbourne and interstate. In my nine years at CFC, I went from rehab physio/water boy in my first year to Head physiotherapist.
The very same contacts that got me the CFC job in 2008 then contacted me about working with the Gold Coast Suns as the Director of Medical Services.
Following working at the Suns, my wife and I wanted to continue to live in a better climate than Melbourne as we discovered that it was much easier to stay fit and active in sub-tropical Australia. We really fell in love with the Northern Rivers and all the natural beauty that it offers and continue to enjoy life in this part of the world.
