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

Remove this Banner Ad

 
Last edited:
mad_monkey_j said:
My favourite part of the presser was when old mate said that "no positions are under review". Sounds like a real quality external review is coming up.
Click to expand...
He also said we would be looking at what other clubs do so maybe they are not. Strange it is.
 
ant555 said:
He also said we would be looking at what other clubs do so maybe they are not. Strange it is.
Click to expand...

They will obviously include positions but he’s hardly going to admit that to the media right now as it will just incite more instability in middle and lower ranks. He was explicit that the external review would include the board so I don’t see why it wouldn’t include other areas. My read was that nothing is off the table.
 
frodos gardener said:
They will obviously include positions but he’s hardly going to admit that to the media right now as it will just incite more instability in middle and lower ranks. He was explicit that the external review would include the board so I don’t see why it wouldn’t include other areas. My read was that nothing is off the table.
Click to expand...
My read is it is Essendon so who knows.
 

Log in to remove this ad.

frodos gardener said:
My basic rule of thumb in business is to give someone 3-6 months to evaluate. I formed this principle pretty early on in my career as I realised I’d jump to conclusions sometimes too quickly based on 1 or 2 things, then be proven wrong.

My sense with Barham is that he has some sprinklings of narcissism but that he has credibility as a former of teams, reliability because he is consistent in that, intimate to a degree because of his willingness to admit mistakes, and lastly he is geared towards the success of EFC in a football sense. That’s why personally I haven’t formed a judgement that he’s the wrong guy to lead the board.
Click to expand...
I respect your view but I think he has demonstrated more than a sprinkling of narcissism.

He ran roughshod over the club and the coach to get his man, with the misguided view that either he or the club were so prestigious that Clarkson, at that late stage, would look past the treatment of others he had meted out, and join us. That's not a mere sprinkling. That's a whole lot of narcissistic entitlement and self-importance.
 
ghostdog said:
That's how I see this.
Rutten has been thrown under the bus by a faction who want external scrutiny of our processes, but who also want the power to be kingmakers. Their unprincipled and desperate 11th hour hail Mary has reduced the club to a laughing stock.

What player will now want to come to Essendon? Those courtships, if they were happening, will be on hold until the senior coach position is sorted out.

The Switkowski report surely would have identified the lack of due process in hiring for coaching positions. And now here we are, with some even seriously suggesting we parachute James Hird in. Again.

Everyone's talking about how Truck's position cannot be tenable, and it probanly isn't if he doesn't have the support of the board. I think we should be asking ourselves if Barham's position is tenable. He has been the principle driver of this current situation, unrealistically chasing Clarkson, hanging Rutten out to dry, humiliating the club and potentially destroying any chance we may have had to continue the rebuild by recruiting leaders into the team. He has potentially set back the rebuild both in terms of list management and coaching, seeking a pipedream coach by the same old parachute method that has stung us in the arse before. And he wants to cling to an 'external review'. News flash; we can run one of those without Dave Barham.

I'm on the Stand by Truck side for now. He's been the only virtuous leader we've had in all of this.
Click to expand...
The last 20 years has made Essendon a laughing stock. In the scheme of things this week is just another in the scheme of things.
ghostdog said:
So, you'll support him because you accept his philosophy that it is easier to ask for forgiveness later? He seems to me to lack emotional intelligence and that has resulted in the fallout we now have. By burning Truck he has burned the club.
Click to expand...
It was unacceptable. Truck didn't see it coming. Which fits in with much of season 2022.
 
ghostdog said:
I respect your view but I think he has demonstrated more than a sprinkling of narcissism.

He ran roughshod over the club and the coach to get his man, with the misguided view that either he or the club were so prestigious that Clarkson, at that late stage, would look past the treatment of others he had meted out, and join us. That's not a mere sprinkling. That's a whole lot of narcissistic entitlement and self-importance.
Click to expand...

You could very well be right my man. I don’t know him personally so the data is limited so to speak but I’m trying to not be biased by what I’ve heard. All I can say otherwise is I am very much looking forward to hearing what the “findings” of the external review are.
 
ant555 said:
He also said we would be looking at what other clubs do so maybe they are not. Strange it is.
Click to expand...
So here I was, thinking external review means bringing someone external in to review our club... Could it be we've finished the internal review on Essendon (good review btw) and now we're off to review the other clubs?
 
yodellinhank said:
The last 20 years has made Essendon a laughing stock. In the scheme of things this week is just another in the scheme of things.

It was unacceptable. Truck didn't see it coming. Which fits in with much of season 2022.
Click to expand...
I suppose the difference for me is that although Truck was appointed, I was willing to believe we were on the right track rebuilding, finally, especially now we seemed to be nearing a point where the last remaining vestiges of the saga hangover were being cast off.

Like others, I was (and still am) willing to invest my hope in the patterns of success of other rebuild coaches like Dimma and Goodwin.

Most annoying to me then is that the club, ironically, hasn't learned anything about what it means to run a professional organisation. The mindset seems permanently stuck in the same old old boys club mentality like some 50s relic, with board members who think they own the place.

You can blithely accept that that's just part of the grand scheme of things or be an apologist or whatever. I'm super pissed that a good man who was invested in the club, the players and its future has been spurned the way he has. I thonk we all should be. What aspiring young coach would want to join us? I'd be willing to wait one more year than work for a mob of arseholes. And what experienced coach would want to join us? They know better.
 
Mercurial89 said:
The clarko stuff really is secondary to what is on full display as the reason this club is a steaming pile of s**t.

I don't know what can possibly happen until that entire board is removed and even then where do you start?
What faction steps into the power void?

What coach would want to go there?
What player would want to go there?

We have lost staff, we seem to have an issue bubbling along with women not wanting to work there (RoCo's interviews), possibly related to our CEO.
Our VFL program has been reduced to an afterthought.
We have pissed away any goodwill with our relationship to tiwi, even our relationship with the long walk is not great.
We have slim to no indigenous representation at our club from a staff or player point of view after being league leading.
We have a "great" facility but no connection to our supporter base which we view as ATM machines rather than people

Our players refuse to defend, playing selfish football and may not respect the coach but obviously don't respect the club either.
Just happy being AFL footballers, perfect club for it, plenty of money and no consequences for being mediocre.

We have our CEO, current coach and several highly pad assistants contracted so change is difficult and expensive.

I'd heard people blame the board, the executive before. You kind of just wave it off, if we get the right coach or even just a few good players and an ok coach we can succeed despite that.
This week has shown that we cannot improve under this regime, and it's unknown how deep into the organisation it is.
The sheer arrogance and short sightedness to do what we have done, to wave "we are essendon" in front of a coaches face as if that would be enough for him to just leap at the "opportunity".
Thank Christ he said no, we would have destroyed him.

News flash you arrogant useless pricks, your money means s**t, your past success from decades ago means s**t.
You are a "big club" in footprint only, no one respects you and you are as morally bankrupt as you are incompetent.
Click to expand...
yeah but 80k members PHWOAARH!!
 
To defend the entire Rutten appointment process and at the same time justify throwing themselves at Clarkson (also without a process) - all prior to an external review and balanced decision on what kind of coach we may need - is the exact same lack of accountability cowboy shit that got us here.

This guy is a clown too. Comes accross as a loose arrogant unit and was utterly clueless about what makes Clarkson tick - and how to manage any aspect of the situation.

It's years beyond time to clear them all out and start again.
 
Last edited:

(Log in to remove this ad.)

Remember that time the drug scandal set us back 10 years?
 
Not that I want to play devil's advocate for the club at the minute, but both things can be true -- you can conduct a full, forensic, external review of the club and benchmark against the industry, you can demand that processes be put in place... and you can also go off piste to pursue a unique talent like Clarkson who is not only the greatest of his generation but has served as a mentor in varying capacities to every premiership coach since his last flag with the exception of Goodwin. Both things can be true, as long as the understanding is that Clarkson is genuinely unique and that literally anyone and everyone else has to be put through an actual process.

A process in a genuine sense and not as a charade is also something that the club hasn't gone through since 1980. So naturally it is foreign to the club, but ultimately the concept of having a tilt at Clarkson when you believe, not without reason, that the club's results should be better than they are is not wrong. It's just that it has been done in probably the worst conceivable way.

The club's leadership has already established that it has no faith in Rutten. If the conclusions from the weekend are that they're going to try and patch that up and persist with him in 2023 then their disconnect from reality and practicality is total. You have someone who is potentially not capable, who you have through actions demonstrated you don't think is capable, but you're going to give them a go regardless? Absolute nonsense - terminate him now and be done with it.

The Hird thing doesn't even merit a serious conversation and if it materialises then I personally won't be able to weather the second hand embarassment, let alone the first hand embarassment of actually supporting the club.

There is a whole market of coaches in the industry (there even remains a collection of ex-Clarkson assistants yet to be promoted). The next premiership coach is out there somewhere, it isn't necessarily someone that is in our collective consciousness but FFS, it's more likely to be someone who has been established as the best candidate via a robust, thorough, dispassionate and exacting process than A) a magical wizard man who knows the weirding way, B) a club legend with baggage galore, an automatic stink of acrimony and a massive target painted on his back for the media whose last season in charge yielded a 5-14 W/L, C) a sex pest, D) someone who last coached when the game was broadcast in 4:3, or E) a beige, bland, affable chap who is wrongfooted by basic questions in post-match pressers and again was not appointed via an actual process

It seems incredible to say this but this weekend is one of the greatest knife-edge moments in the club's history and there are so many varying paths out of the mire but there is every indication that TPTB will continue to wallow and sink into it because, most appallingly, they think they know what they're doing. Making hard decisions and doing things with both prudence and decisiveness would be the best way to commemorate 150 years but instead the gormless tools that run the club, both at the board and executive level have appropriated the livery of this great institution and rendered it utterly unrecognisable. I genuinely hate them and what the club has become, but even that feels like more energy than they deserve.
 
naraku said:
Watson just said he doesn't think XC will stay at the club since he backed Truck and Brasher.

He mentioned the players shredded Barham this morning for how they've handled everything and treated Truck.
Also called this week shambolic and fan's should be appalled.
Click to expand...
Cool, maybe they’ll commit to doing their jobs now
 
fishardansin said:
I agree with this. Truck can salvage his career with a strong performance next year. Essendon will have a soft draw. If injuries are managed, Hurley's salary is replaced with a decent FA .. and some young KPPs come of age he should be able to jag enough wins to come close to finals or better.

If he goes now after just two years at the helm he'll have to do 5-10 years in the assistant route.

The key to him getting another contract is to win at least is to
  • never lose 3 in a row
  • never get spanked
  • win at least 5 games in either half of the year
  • have young players playing firing.
The other thing that will help is a strong VFL program.

I think plan B will have to include some bolstering to the football department immediately. This will include a senior assistant, a big spend on the strength and fitness department, and someone like a Balme who will calm a few jets.
Click to expand...
Decent FA ? Who in their right mind would want to come to this basket case haha. I’d be shocked if we got anyone of value now, more chance of losing blokes than getting them in.
 
ghostdog said:
I suppose the difference for me is that although Truck was appointed, I was willing to believe we were on the right track rebuilding, finally, especially now we seemed to be nearing a point where the last remaining vestiges of the saga hangover were being cast off.

Like others, I was (and still am) willing to invest my hope in the patterns of success of other rebuild coaches like Dimma and Goodwin.

Most annoying to me then is that the club, ironically, hasn't learned anything about what it means to run a professional organisation. The mindset seems permanently stuck in the same old old boys club mentality like some 50s relic, with board members who think they own the place.

You can blithely accept that that's just part of the grand scheme of things or be an apologist or whatever. I'm super pissed that a good man who was invested in the club, the players and its future has been spurned the way he has. I thonk we all should be. What aspiring young coach would want to join us? I'd be willing to wait one more year than work for a mob of arseholes. And what experienced coach would want to join us? They know better.
Click to expand...

I felt like we were at least finally trying to build something stable and sustainable.

In the space of 12 seasons we’d had Knights, Hird, Thompson, Hird, Worsfold and Rutten.

Put absolutely everything else aside, you can’t succeed with that. You can’t change everything every couple of years.

Alas, here we are again, one poor year and we’re going to start again.

If these ****ers keep burning the joint down every time we have a poor season then we’ll never get anywhere.
 
footyfanatic111 said:
Decent FA ? Who in their right mind would want to come to this basket case haha. I’d be shocked if we got anyone of value now, more chance of losing blokes than getting them in.
Click to expand...

I now wouldn’t be the slightest bit surprised if high profile players request a trade. Look at what this ****head has done in the space of one week, how could anybody have any faith there’s a long term vision. They’re isn’t even a week-long vision.

If I’m a valuable player who would be in demand, I’m absolutely thinking about my future. Yes they might be contracted, doesn’t stop them requesting a trade.

I fear for Merrett. He clearly thinks about this stuff. Clubs would be queueing up to take him and his contract on. What possible reason would he want to play for Essendon?
 
Bunk Moreland said:
I now wouldn’t be the slightest bit surprised if high profile players request a trade. Look at what this *head has done in the space of one week, how could anybody have any faith there’s a long term vision. They’re isn’t even a week-long vision.

If I’m a valuable player who would be in demand, I’m absolutely thinking about my future. Yes they might be contracted, doesn’t stop them requesting a trade.

I fear for Merrett. He clearly thinks about this stuff. Clubs would be queueing up to take him and his contract on. What possible reason would he want to play for Essendon?
Click to expand...
In my opinion this is why the right move would have been to sack Rutten, invite new candidates and engage in a thorough process, if they truly wanted Rutten gone.

At least players looking for greener pastures could have had some semblance of confidence in the club and its direction.

FWIW, I really want to see Rutten stay and find success.
 
Bunk Moreland said:
I felt like we were at least finally trying to build something stable and sustainable.

In the space of 12 seasons we’d had Knights, Hird, Thompson, Hird, Worsfold and Rutten.

Put absolutely everything else aside, you can’t succeed with that. You can’t change everything every couple of years.

Alas, here we are again, one poor year and we’re going to start again.

If these *ers keep burning the joint down every time we have a poor season then we’ll never get anywhere.
Click to expand...
Probably more for the Rutten thread, but

What was being built that was looking stable and sustainable?

Where have we improved over the past 23 weeks/2 years?

If a new coach ends up taking over, what might be areas of improvement we've seen glimpses of that you might credit the current regime?
 
ghostdog said:
FWIW, I really want to see Rutten stay and find success.
Click to expand...
Agree, mostly out of spite for the club’s leaders at this point.
 

Remove this Banner Ad

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

Similar threads

Lore
  • Sticky
  • Poll
Win Prizes The Scales 2024 Essendon Board Poster of the Year - Congratulations Bonce!
Replies
19
Views
1K
Beerfish
Beerfish
Lore
  • Locked
Win Prizes The Scales 2024 Essendon Board Poster Of The Year - Nomination Thread
Replies
18
Views
870
Lore
Lore
Nuggs Bunny
Competitions 2025 Essendon Board My Boy Draft
Replies
21
Views
231
Duckworth
Duckworth
BrunoV
Win Prizes The Essendon Board Talks 9/11
2 3 4 5
Replies
100
Views
2K
Kong
Kong
VelvetSledge
  • Locked
MVP 2024 BigFooty Essendon Board POTY Award - ZACH MERRETT wins again!
Replies
24
Views
3K
VelvetSledge
VelvetSledge
Lore
Mod. Notice Welcome Nuggs Bunny, new Essendon board mod!
Replies
13
Views
1K
Vindicater
Vindicater
Sporno 4 Pyros
Sport The Essendon Board’s Paris 2024 Olympics Thread
2 3
Replies
63
Views
2K
Sporno 4 Pyros
Sporno 4 Pyros

Remove this Banner Ad

Back
Top