Club Mgmt. Board of Directors as led by President Dave Barham

[Lore]

Spoiler: Timeline of events

• 15/8: President, Paul Brasher resigns, replaced by Dave Barham who foreshadows external review
  • Votes for Brasher: Peter Allen, Simon Madden, Sean Wellman
    Sean Wellman

    Age

    50

    Ht

    193cm

    Wt

    90kg

    Pos.

    Def

    Career

    Season

    Last 5

    D

    14.1

    4star

    K

    9.7

    4star

    HB

    4.5

    3star

    M

    4.5

    4star

    T

    1.0

    3star

    No current season stats available

    D

    8.0

    2star

    K

    4.4

    2star

    HB

    3.6

    3star

    M

    2.6

    3star

    T

    0.8

    3star

  • Votes for Barham: Andrew Muir, Dorothy Hisgrove, Melissa Green, Kate O’Sullivan, Kevin Sheedy
• 21/8: Senior Coach, Ben Rutten
  Ben Rutten

  Age

  41

  Ht

  190cm

  Wt

  98kg

  Pos.

  Def

  Career

  Season

  Last 5

  D

  13.4

  3star

  K

  6.3

  2star

  HB

  7.0

  4star

  M

  5.3

  5star

  T

  1.3

  3star

  No current season stats available

  D

  10.6

  3star

  K

  6.2

  3star

  HB

  4.4

  4star

  M

  3.6

  4star

  T

  1.0

  3star

  sacked
• 24/8: CEO, Xavier Campbell resigns
• 24/8: Directors to resign
  • Paul Brasher, immediately
  • Simon Madden, immediately
  • Sean Wellman, after new football director is appointed
  • Peter Allen, after AGM & finance portfolio handover in December
• 26/8: Details of coaching selection committee appointment
  • Sub-committee of 6: Josh Mahoney
    Josh Mahoney

    Age

    47

    Ht

    180cm

    Wt

    83kg

    Pos.

    Fwd

    Career

    Season

    Last 5

    D

    11.3

    3star

    K

    6.8

    3star

    HB

    4.5

    3star

    M

    3.5

    4star

    T

    1.6

    4star

    G

    0.9

    4star

    No current season stats available

    D

    9.2

    3star

    K

    5.4

    2star

    HB

    3.8

    3star

    M

    2.2

    3star

    T

    1.6

    4star

    G

    0.4

    3star

    (Chair, GM-Footy), Robert Walls, Jordan Lewis
    Jordan Lewis

    Age

    38

    Ht

    186cm

    Wt

    86kg

    Pos.

    D/M

    Career

    Season

    Last 5

    D

    23.5

    5star

    K

    12.1

    4star

    HB

    11.5

    5star

    M

    5.5

    5star

    T

    2.7

    4star

    MG

    310.5

    4star

    No current season stats available

    D

    15.0

    4star

    K

    6.8

    3star

    HB

    8.2

    5star

    M

    4.8

    5star

    T

    2.8

    5star

    , Simone McKinnis OAM, Andrew Thorburn and Dorothy Hisgrove (board member).
• 26/8: Details of external review process
  • Ernst & Young to coordinate with support from Andrew Thorburn, working closely with Nick Ryan (Acting CEO) & Dorothy Hisgrove (board member)
  • Focusing on four areas: (1) Board effectiveness & composition, (2) a review of leadership, operations and culture including the footy department, (3) the senior coach appointment and (4) the new CEO appointment.
• 26/9: Andrew Welsh appointed to the board of directors, replacing Simon Madden
• 29/9: Brad Scott appointed as Senior Coach
• 30/9: Kevin Sheedy claims decision to appoint Brad Scott was 6-1 against him
• 3/10: Andrew Thorburn appointed as CEO - alternative link
• 3/10: “External review to be handed to the board next week”: Andrew Thorburn, Crichton Medal Address
• 4/10: Andrew Thorburn resigns as CEO
• 11/10: External review preliminary findings
• 24/10: External review preliminary findings II
• 2/11: Dan McPherson appointed as General Manager of Performance & Cam Roberts as Head of Development
• 11/11: Dean Rioli appointed to the board of directors, replacing Paul Brasher
• 14/11: Tim Roberts & David Wills appointed to the board of directors, replacing Sean Wellman and Paul Allen respectively
• 28/11: Dorothy Hisgrove announced as first female vice-president (at the Essendon Women's Best and Fairest night)
• 1/12: Craig Vozzo appointed as CEO
• 13/12: Board director election results: Andrew Welsh and Andrew Muir elected
• 15/5: The club's First Nations Advisory Council established, to be led by Dean Rioli (chair, Indigenous board member), and including: Leanne Brooke (EFC EGM – Community & The Long Walk. Essendon FC), Dorothy Hisgrove (EFC VP and National Manager Partner KPMG), Kane Ellis (CEO of Illawarra Aboriginal Medical Service), John Evans (Pro Vice-Chancellor Indigenous Engagement at Swinburne) and Che Cockatoo-Collins (EM, Indigenous Affairs NBN, EFC Past Player)
• 16/5: Board of Directors declare support for the First Nations Voice to Parliament, after consultation with the new First Nations Advisory Council
• 28/8: EGM - Football, Josh Mahoney has accepted a role as GM Football Operations at the AFL
• 10/10: GM - Performance Daniel McPherson, and Head of AFLW/AFL Operations Manager Aysha Ward have been elevated to the club executive as joint leaders of the club's football department, as GM-AFL and GM-AFLW respectively

 

[Doss]

Hird was a different story. Wada appealing just before Anzac Day 2015 just made the bottom fall out of the place. Players were absolutely shattered and lost all motivation, hird knew they needed clear air to move on. Remember we started that season with a lot of the 22 not allowed to play any preseason games. They then came out and should’ve beaten Sydney in Sydney, ran out of legs. Then beat hawthorn who were premiers in a famous win, at the stage the players still loved James and were bought in. The wada appeal changed the whole situation.

All that is true, and none of it changes that he ultimately quit before the club would have been forced to remove him.

 

[andleanback]

All that is true, and none of it changes that he ultimately quit before the club would have been forced to remove him.

Correct but the reason for the downfall in 2015 was out of his control that year.

 

[Pweter]

if the saga never happened Hird would still be here!

if the war never happened Hitler would probably still be here!

thats a weird call

Goodness Hitler must have good genes to still be with us at 133 years old if the war never happened. Can't help but think that's how old I'll need to be to witness our next flag.

 

[doug85]

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

t.co

This interview makes me really want Clarko now.

 

[Dave]

Say what you want about Truck but the message he outlined from the start was spot on.
We need to get back to being a blue collar club. Some may have read this as some sort of short term thing and expected us to just start playing that way but it was always going to be a longer term program.
You can not turn the culture in two seasons.
I think the issue is his defensive message to the players had run it’s race due to the two previous years. Our culture had killed his chances before he got started.
The only way we get out of this is big change to playing personal.

 

[Aido1979]

If you can say everything you've seen since Rd 1 this year is never as bad as they seem, it sounds a lot like a "whistling past the graveyard" approach to me.

Either that or you are the most glass half full Essendon fan & if that's the case, don't ever change

Not at all. I knew we were cooked 5 minutes into the first quarter round 1 against the cats, I tipped them round 2 thinking surely they had to respond if we were serious. Rutten should have been sacked at the bye if we were ruthless. Our structure and gameplan was horrific outnumbered all over the field not even sure how it is possible but we did it.! Our list is ok and we need to keep going to the draft it can turn quickly with the right coach and leaders. I

 

[Dave]

oh, so he’s like a child

Not my children.....

 

[Lance Uppercut]

i wouldn't say nothing has added up, the financial stability of the club is pretty sound to which Xavier deserves some credit, though the club delivering losses over shadows this obviously rightly so as that is its core business.

The 800k Salary for Xavier is a real odd one for me though.

Essendon in 2021 had a revenue of $56 Million with a profit of only $8.1 Million of which $7 million was from donations and grants.

An 800k salary when you are only really delivering a 1.7% real profit margin is pretty absurd - not sure how this stacks up against other clubs. or if it was COVID affected somewhat from the norm.

I'm no X fan but you can't just wave your hands and discount the donations and grants. That shit doesn't just happen you know.

 

[Lance Uppercut]

Correct but the reason for the downfall in 2015 was out of his control that year.

errr....

 

[Bombermania]

Because we allow it (probably because again, we don't have a process for anything).
Imagine if some bright spark at EFc had have thought through how things may be construed and had something similar to the following prepared for Monday's unscheduled board meeting:

"today's meeting is in repose to the news that was announced at yesterday's board meeting regrading the departure of the outgoing President. He was schedule to relieve himself of his duties as of next week, however due to personnel circumstances that has been brought forward and so today's meeting is required to determine his replacement."

Shuts down any story that the media might be looking for, and if pushed you can always continue with "this meeting has nothing to do with onfield results. The team will review the weekend's match like they always do and then report to the board in usual manner."

Would have taken 10 minutes to prepare. WOuld have allowed the club to remain above the muck. Would have given them something to fall back on when leaks started appearing elsewhere

There's a number of things the board could point to from board succession planning, list management, trade period, the AFLW season and Tasmania's license bid.

 

[andleanback]

errr....

I never said about the origin of the situation, I said he had no control over wada appealing the asada findings.

 

[thebigboy]

Not at all. I knew we were cooked 5 minutes into the first quarter round 1 against the cats, I tipped them round 2 thinking surely they had to respond if we were serious. Rutten should have been sacked at the bye if we were ruthless. Our structure and gameplan was horrific outnumbered all over the field not even sure how it is possible but we did it.! Our list is ok and we need to keep going to the draft it can turn quickly with the right coach and leaders. I

I wouldn't say it's a quick turnaround at all. To me, it's still a 3-5 year process.

Yes there is some good young talent on the list that will need to continue to develop, but there is a serious lack of any leaders. Hard to argue that any of our current leaders would step in to a similar position at a lot of other clubs and it's not an easy process to quickly develop them & that is arguably at least as important as having the right coach.

 

[Howard Moon]

Goodness Hitler must have good genes to still be with us at 133 years old if the war never happened. Can't help but think that's how old I'll need to be to witness our next flag.

Arian race were elite m8, down to the genes

 

[TheGrizz]

Arian race were elite m8, down to the genes

*Random ASIO officer presses 'follow' on Howies account *

 

[Lance Uppercut]

Arian race were elite m8, down to the genes

 

[Nifft]

Surely we don't need to turn this thread into another discussion about the saga.

 

[HirdsTheWord]

I'm no X fan but you can't just wave your hands and discount the donations and grants. That s**t doesn't just happen you know.

yeah but it isn't core business profit.

i just dont think an 800k salary stacks up against it, that's all.

In saying that though we would need to compare his deliverables/results against other clubs of the same ilk. Cant say i'm across what other CEO's are getting/doing.

 

[Howard Moon]

Anyhow all the semantics about why or why not sacked....you can't just eliminate his part of the saga as a result of him not coaching afterwards! They are non separable

 

[Aido1979]

I wouldn't say it's a quick turnaround at all. To me, it's still a 3-5 year process.

Yes there is some good young talent on the list that will need to continue to develop, but there is a serious lack of any leaders. Hard to argue that any of our current leaders would step in to a similar position at a lot of other clubs and it's not an easy process to quickly develop them & that is arguably at least as important as having the right coach.

100% its going to be a few years, depends who coaches and the demands he places on individuals. People can change or people can step up that's the beauty of sport. A dud structure and game plan is a big problem the players didn't trust it or believe in hence the performances of this year in my opinion.

 

[Howard Moon]

Surely we don't need to turn this thread into another discussion about the saga.

Isn't this the new saga?

Clarkogate

 

[fairbump_playon]

Anyhow all the semantics about why or why not sacked....you can't just eliminate his part of the saga as a result of him not coaching afterwards! They are non separable

100% agree.

The only way to really get a true sense of Hird's quality is to get him back and coaching here for the next ten years but without another saga.

You in? Let's do it!

 

[DapperDon]

We hit Godwin on page 57

Internet is slipping

 

[Howard Moon]

100% agree.

The only way to really get a true sense of Hird's quality is to get him back and coaching here for the next ten years but without another saga.

You in? Let's do it!

All for it to get a perfect data set

 

[thebigboy]

100% its going to be a few years, depends who coaches and the demands he places on individuals. People can change or people can step up that's the beauty of sport. A dud structure and game plan is a big problem the players didn't trust it or believe in hence the performances of this year in my opinion.

All our past coaches would have put similar demands in place around team structure, rules etc. but without the right on-field leaders holding the group to account & showing them what good leadership looks like, you can have the best coaches, best support staff, best administration, you'll continually fail. We don't have many natural leaders & that is poor list management.

 

[jag001]

All that is true, and none of it changes that he ultimately quit before the club would have been forced to remove him.

He quit because he loved the club and the players so much - so the club could try and find some clear air and appease the AFL. Now its time for him to come back and get a fair run at it with far wiser support and much more robust governance practices (yes given the board issues that sounds weird now, but there was a lot of work done to define roles etc and to bring clear pathways of administration and oversight).