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

 

[Howard Moon]

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).

 

[TheBrightSide]

We hit Godwin on page 57

Internet is slipping

He can be plan B if we don’t land Clarko.

 

[Call Me Cake]

The last coach we actually sacked was Knights.

Hird came back but left because his position was untenable and knew that his presence in that era was too much of a distraction to the playing group/realised they wouldn't be able to move on from it in the eyes of the country unless he decided to leave.

Thompson never wanted to coach ever again but put his hand in the ring to help us out. Caretaker.

Worsfold was never meant to be a long term thing in hindsight, just a coach past his prime after a while out of footy being a sandbag for the aftermath of the saga, steadying the environment, and was allowed to run out his contract at the club.

Rutten would effectively be the first one in 12 years to be sacked if we did it.

 

[Lance Uppercut]

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.

as a (putative) NFP it's absolutely core business profit.

I work at an NFP myself that has donations and grants as a lifeblood of the organisation and the Head of Fundraising reports directly to the CEO.

I have no comment on the salary itself, I don't really know if that's par for the course or not. Presumably, though, it's commercial outcomes that Campbell was reappointed on, so it's just a bit much to say the majority of it doesn't count, is all, because it's just not so

 

[Lore]

doug85 I'm not gonna scroll back and find your post but I listened to that Hodge interview with Whateley that you recommended and I agree it's good... very interesting to get a different perspective.

Actually I got kind of distracted towards the end and didn't notice when YouTube took me to the next video on their recommendations, which was this:



Which is also kinda interesting about the attitude change at Hawthorn, driven by Fagan as much as anyone.

 

[The Prosecutor]

So why wasn’t Campbell at the board meeting on Monday?

View attachment 1480198

I think he was , the board meeting was just held at an external location to avoid the media scrum (otherwise they would've had footage of Barham/Basher etc. leaving).

 

[WindyHillWarrior]

I wonder what the players would make of Clarkson as coach…

There’s gotta be one or two of them that hold the Hawthorn rivalry pretty close, particularly those who played under Hird.

But then there’s the whole being coached by the goat thing that’s a nice one to be able to tell your future kids about I suppose.

Gosh what a weird thing. We’ve gone from having the most Essendon of coaches to the Essington coaches and now on to Essendone?

While I don’t want Clarksone and think the club has backed itself into a corner, I do think landing him would be interesting.

If he comes on board and calls out the likes of Heppell, Merrett, Parish and Stringer for their selfish shit… but nothing changed, then it would show just how much our board and coteries handicap our coaches.

 

[Howard Moon]

I think he was , the board meeting was just held at an external location to avoid the media scrum (otherwise they would've had footage of Barham/Basher etc. leaving).

Offsite rooms, let's hope they kept minutes this time

 

[WindyHillWarrior]

I think the players would almost have zero care factor for the hawthorn rivalry.

Agree, as long as they get to have a laugh and get paid half a million dollars while doing whatever the duck they want, they’ll play under anyone.

 

[Lore]

I think he was , the board meeting was just held at an external location to avoid the media scrum (otherwise they would've had footage of Barham/Basher etc. leaving).

I thought when he was doorstopped he indicated the meeting was still happening at that moment and was at the club

There was another thing that said it was in South Melbourne but there were two meetings and I think that was the other one.

Plus a Spring st thing with the Victorian politicians on Tuesday.

 

[Aido1979]

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.

I don't think woosha or truck would demand the same as a clarkson, not physically and in terms of aggression at the man and ball. You can knock some of the softness out of some of them but not all and the lack of leadership you are spot on. But I did see mcgrath get a bit angry after finlayson sling tackled him on the weekend and I loved it, saw potential that I have not seen, he might have a bit of mongrel in him. Once you see one bloke going in hard and wanting it more than the next it's infectious, so is the laziness and softness we have seen this year and I blame Hepp for this I hope he moves on.

 

[HirdsTheWord]

as a (putative) NFP it's absolutely core business profit.

I work at an NFP myself that has donations and grants as a lifeblood of the organisation and the Head of Fundraising reports directly to the CEO.

I have no comment on the salary itself, I don't really know if that's par for the course or not. Presumably, though, it's commercial outcomes that Campbell was reappointed on, so it's just a bit much to say the majority of it doesn't count, is all, because it's just not so

i dont really think Essendon is classified as a NFP though. hence i guess my reasoning.

 

[P Money]

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.

We also don't have the best coaches, best support staff or best administration, so it's a bit of a moot point isn't it?

 

[doug85]

doug85 I'm not gonna scroll back and find your post but I listened to that Hodge interview with Whateley that you recommended and I agree it's good... very interesting to get a different perspective.

Actually I got kind of distracted towards the end and didn't notice when YouTube took me to the next video on their recommendations, which was this:



Which is also kinda interesting about the attitude change at Hawthorn, driven by Fagan as much as anyone.

I was particularly impressed by Clarksons attention to detail around defensive efforts.

Having said that, I have serious doubts Clarko chooses us given the off-field drama.

Also, I watched that video the other week too! The joys of working from home

 

[thebigboy]

We also don't have the best coaches, best support staff or best administration, so it's a bit of a moot point isn't it?

We definitely don't, but the argument is simply that if we get Clarkson & his team it'll turn around because of them. Personally, I don't think he can turn chicken s**t into chicken salad with our current list composition.

 

[The Dustbin]

 

[doug85]

Sadly, I think Andy Maher was being serious

 

[HirdsTheWord]

 

[frodos gardener]

i dont really think Essendon is classified as a NFP though. hence i guess my reasoning.

Yeah, NFPs exist to fill a need of a particular community/group, and obviously the financial side enables service delivery. A CEO, generally, is responsible for ensuring the inputs are coming in and going back out as outputs to those they exist for. That’s true even though they have teams working under them in each area and reporting back through to them.

So it’s true the financial side is important and deserves acknowledgement because it keeps the organisation alive. For Essendon, though, we exist to play this grand old game, for the benefit of members, and to seek glory and fame (premiership flag) as an output. That’s where XC has fallen down. Yeah he gets a tick on one side but a giant red cross on the other side, and that’s where the buck stops.

 

[Is Don Is Good!]

Barham is a complete narcissist prick. I worked with him doing the AFL at Channel 10 years ago. But then again, maybe this is what the Dons need to turn it around. We'll see.

 

[Bjchan13]

There is cross over in players and leaders . The leaders under Hird and Bomber where there when our current leaders started. It is club culture.

I agree its club culture but im not giving the current group the excuse of 'its been like this since 2012'. They've had a chance to turn it around under Truck. Happy for the new coach to ship anyone off that can't or won't adhere to a team defence. But i think the group is young enough to be taught the correct ways, Merrett and Parish included.

 

[Ati Tude]

Barham is a complete narcissist prick. I worked with him doing the AFL at Channel 10 years ago. But then again, maybe this is what the Dons need to turn it around. We'll see.

People said that about Little when he came onboard too (and in a good way).

 

[doug85]

Barham is a complete narcissist prick. I worked with him doing the AFL at Channel 10 years ago. But then again, maybe this is what the Dons need to turn it around. We'll see.

In my experience, many senior execs have a healthy dose of narcissism.

 

[Mercurial89]

I do like the Clarkson following in Kennedy's footsteps going From hawks to north.
It's been brought up a bit today by a few people, think it is a pretty strong drawcard for him.

 

[Bombermania]

i dont really think Essendon is classified as a NFP though. hence i guess my reasoning.

I believe the whole AFL is classed as a NFP for tax purposes and the club doesn't pay out distributions to its shareholders aka members.