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

 

[ghostdog]

Interesting comments from Ross Lyon at the end. I share his position that on field creates off field stability as much as it's the other way around. This to me is the crux of the problem and why Dodoro leaving is central to our improvement.

Really felt like Lyon is very open to the senior coach role, too.

 

[CBombers17]

Batton change dressed up as real change. This guy is representing the same regime and nothing more IMO. I hope there's a challenge to this board.

Even going back to 2018 there's a bit of a victory lap article with him and Tanner saying how well they handled the saga fallout. Apparently Brasher had spent a day or two a week on Essendon related work for the previous 5 years before that.

You would think he would know what everyones job is by now....

Without any kind of independent review on areas like player recruitment, coaching recruitment and fitness etc - plus the same heads in place - it's difficult to see the same people do a substantially better job.

Hard to imagine this is the best we can do given he was there and signed off on governance before the saga. That alone should demand a fresh start surely.

If all it takes to get support is a bit of earthy talk about burgers and bad losses and smashing Collingwood then no wonder they have been able to slide this far. That's low bar setting for someone who has been very influential at the club, and heavily involved at the club, for nearly 10 years.

So this in September 2020 was true....

And so was the later criticism of his bullshit lap of the club at the start where he apparently came down hard on Campbell and told him to pull his head in - only to let him continue to ride roughshod over the club and extend him for 2 years begind everyones back.
.
Even now he sits on the panel ready to decide on the next coach of the club. Forget the good old days at Windy Hill - Entitled wealthy old businessmen using the football club as a plaything is the only enduring culture at Essendon.

 

[The Donners]

What is Barham’s

Same. For me I think it's a trust issue.
The fact is that Barham is a hard-nosed decision maker. I think that's been clear to all. That's not a bad thing in itself, however, it means that we can probably expect at times that people will be trampled. If he remains president, that will be an issue going forward. I don't trust that he would not make decisions first, then 'explain' or 'apologise' later.

Another fact is that we now have board members bailing out / being sacked. Again, that's not a bad thing in itself; I've long wanted the bloodletting to occur. However, that they are more willing to voluntarily leave before the external review is completed speaks more for their distrust of factional power than it does their belief in their principles. They are obviously confident that it doesn't matter what the external review finds, they will be gone.

A third fact regards the external review. We've already been positioned by Barham to expect a pivot on this in terms of what it is, does and its extent. Already, Barham has told us that he wants to look at other clubs, that is, 'externally'. It sets up the ER as window dressing, and when you consider that the removal of people yesterday equates to the replacement of a faction with a faction, and couple that with their mode of operation vis a vis Truck, and what you have is the same old same old; a faction that is willing to conduct its business on its own terms, rather than engaging in unbiased, rigorous processes and procedures.

So, that's what troubles me. I don't trust that institutional changes are actually what we are seeing, because these changes already have been built on a real lack of integrity. This is the fundamental reason why Barham's position itself really is untenable.

It's like founding a democracy that espouses freedom and equality on land that has been stolen. Something just ain't right.

I’m not so sure it was solely the decision of those that have resigned.

 

[BrunoV]

Caro:

• Mahoney to be part of the coach search sub-committee and he’s staying
• Dodoro will definitely stay for the trade draft period this year

Lloyd:

• Mahoney and Dodoro have patched things up

Caro:

• Not sure both will survive an external review

Whole panel talking about what they think happened on the board this year.

• Campbell apparently dominating doing basically what he wanted with Worsfold and Rutten etc. (much as he did under Tanner)
• Brasher apparently extended Campbell’s contract without the rest of the board knowing about it (so not just us mugs in the cheap seats?!)

Caro:

• Mahoney was very close to getting the CEO job at Melbourne, she’s not sure what the knocks are on him
• Board is prepared to back Mahoney
• Auld could be targeted for CEO job if he doesn’t get the big seat at AFLHQ (Andrew Dillon currently favoured to succeed Gill)

Andrew Dillon? Dear God, another idiot.

 

[DERO]

Andrew Dillon? Dear God, another idiot.

My memory is getting hazy but I think I remember something about some acrimony after we let Auld go at one point before he moved up to GC.

 

[Howard Moon]

My memory is getting hazy but I think I remember something about some acrimony after we let Auld go at one point before he moved up to GC.

auld lang syne, ect..

 

[BrunoV]

Caro:

• Mahoney to be part of the coach search sub-committee and he’s staying
• Dodoro will definitely stay for the trade draft period this year

Lloyd:

• Mahoney and Dodoro have patched things up

Caro:

• Not sure both will survive an external review

Whole panel talking about what they think happened on the board this year.

• Campbell apparently dominating doing basically what he wanted with Worsfold and Rutten etc. (much as he did under Tanner)
• Brasher apparently extended Campbell’s contract without the rest of the board knowing about it (so not just us mugs in the cheap seats?!)

Caro:

• Mahoney was very close to getting the CEO job at Melbourne, she’s not sure what the knocks are on him
• Board is prepared to back Mahoney
• Auld could be targeted for CEO job if he doesn’t get the big seat at AFLHQ (Andrew Dillon currently favoured to succeed Gill)

Lyon was interesting.

Essentially said he'd be up for a chat but that he's not going to expose himself the way he did last year.

He'd be ideal. His evolution as a coach is not a well told story but in 2019 he had a rebuilding Freo playing much more attacking footy.

They were heavy scoring when the forwards (read McCarthy and Hogan) were fit. The wheels gradually fell off because of injury and then he got punted because Peter Bell wanted to be the biggest dick in the room.

Lyon's teams have been the antitheses of Essendon throughout his career.

I dont like him because I think he will win a premiership. We have a much more immediate need to set standards and to change the culture of the team to one of genuine contested work, defence and team work. Culture change is the job Fagan and Voss were charged with. No one appointed those guys because they were going to develop the latest tactical evolution of the game.

We know Lyon can get that buy in. He's done it twice. Unlike the others he's got a very sophisticated approach to the tactics of the game so that helps but, as I've said before, a premiership is a distraction at this point in time. The club and the players have no idea how to be a premiership team.

 

[Howard Moon]

Lyon was interesting.

Essentially said he'd be up for a chat but that he's not going to expose himself the way he did last year.

He'd be ideal. His evolution as a coach is not a well told story but in 2019 he had a rebuilding Freo playing much more attacking footy.

They were heavy scoring when the forwards (read McCarthy and Hogan) were fit. The wheels gradually fell off because of injury and then he got punted because Peter Bell wanted to be the biggest dick in the room.

Lyon's teams have been the antitheses of Essendon throughout his career.

I dont like him because I think he will win a premiership. We have a much more immediate need to set standards and to change the culture of the team to one of genuine contested work, defence and team work. Culture change is the job Fagan and Voss were charged with. No one appointed those guys because they were going to develop the latest tactical evolution of the game.

We know Lyon can get that buy in. He's done it twice. Unlike the others he's got a very sophisticated approach to the tactics of the game so that helps but, as I've said before, a premiership is a distraction at this point in time. The club and the players have no idea how to be a premiership team.

I also want Lyon - but am loath to lump changing culture on a mere coach - onfield culture sure, but we need his pigeon pair to work on the back of house - who is that person?

 

[Lore]

Even now he sits on the panel ready to decide on the next coach of the club.

Who does?

 

[yodellinhank]

I also want Lyon - but am loath to lump changing culture on a mere coach - onfield culture sure, but we need his pigeon pair to work on the back of house - who is that person?

I think everyone has come around to the idea that McGarth is a defender.

 

[BrunoV]

I also want Lyon - but am loath to lump changing culture on a mere coach - onfield culture sure, but we need his pigeon pair to work on the back of house - who is that person?

The head coach has the biggest single influence on the players. The players can't be trusted with it themselves, they are kids being led by leaders who learned all of the wrong habits.

Imagine if he gets appointed. Our pampered players would immediately be on edge, as they should be.

 

[Lore]

Pic from Twitter. CFO left last week without any fanfare. The rest of this is mostly what Caro said last night.



Not sure about the highlighted bit.

We should have a coach selection sub-committee by the end of the week and Mahoney is expected to be on it.

 

[The Donners]

This one recorded tonight (I posted it earlier but only able to listen to it now).

Theme running across both is about you can be a good club, a well-run club, even when you’re not a successful club.

Talking about the disillusionment and disaffection of support base with the club and how important that is to be a good club. If you’re not having on-field success the supporters can bring you through that.

Engagement can’t just be tacked on. Katie Lio and Paul Cousins getting on the board were sort of regarded by the club as “fan representatives”, getting them on the board was a good thing but the club just saw it as appeasing the fans, so it’s sort of tokenistic instead of intrinsic and central to the existence/rebuild of the club.

Talking about engaging with fan podcasts and not just doing the SEN interviews (how about fan forums? There used to be an official Essendon account somewhere on here…)

Not as many fan events, no free events for families and kids on the field having a kick with players, more $250 dinners in the function rooms. Apparently the cafe is unfriendly to fans, who are treated like outsiders. Haven’t really rewarded the fans for sticking by the club through all of the bullshit either, despite us all pledging and continuing to support.

XC was too autocratic as a CEO. Making a lot of decisions single-handedly. Lack of success in football really not good and the last straw was when he tied himself to Rutten and Brasher, captain of the proverbial sinking ship.

Culture impacts on-field. Fundamental philosophies passed down from generation to generation in a good culture, but our older leaders never got those values passed on (because reasons). Like setting standards and expectations and attitudes. Should be set at the top of the organisation, not putting it all on the players.

Talks a bit about his experiences with Barham, he’s not cliches but he has good negotiating skills, firm when he has to be but in a human sort of way, “a hardarse without being a hardarse”. A smart guy and RoCo quite confident in Barham’s abilities. Will change the flavour of the club even if some key players stay, they won’t all necessarily go.

Want to barrack for a footy club, not a corporation. Feels like you’re barracking for BHP or something.

What are “Essendon people”? Do board members have to be Essendon people or could it be like former players from other clubs etc? Need a broad cross-section of the community. Not a give that you have to have a former player. Need to have the right skill set beyond the ability to kick a ball. Don’t like the former champion thing. Having three on there at once maybe too much.

RoCo has never been on a board, skill set is different to other people. Regards himself as an Essendon person even if he hasn’t played for the club, knows a lot of people there, has worked there, well connected to the fans, supported the club since he was 5, always kept tabs on what is going on at the club, etc.

Mark Bolton is a suggestion of RoCo for a potential board member.

Asked if he would go on the board? What would that look like? Would he be interested? People have asked him and he sees it as a joke but he loves the club and he’d love to help and he feels like he has something to contribute in terms of the club’s media profile and its public image, but he has no corporate expertise either. So if that’s regarded as a requirement then no, but maybe not everyone on a board needs that.

Taking the absolute piss about the commercial side of stuff engrained in the club, 18% off for Hurley and cheap furniture etc. RoCo mentioned Hooker has a Hurley milestone wine thing and even Chook had a silly comment “better than 18% off at the bombershop”…

God they’re going on a bit about trying to get RoCo on the board

Ross Lyon and Justin Leppitsch both being pumped up a bit as potential coach options. Gia got the coach of the year last year. Cara talking down his ambitions as a senior coach too. Yze another one, but might struggle with the politics and coteries. Mark Williams would be a good one to tell the coteries to pull their heads in. He could also support someone like Solly, who is very highly rated within the industry compared to outside. Wouldn’t do it for his Essendon background but it wouldn’t hurt either. And a No on Hird. Great person, very intelligent, but if you’re talking massive cultural change then you can’t bring him in and anchor us back to that period. Jury out on how good his coaching actually is. Would be a gamble, outweighed by the baggage. Giving a bird to the rest of the comp isn’t a good enough reason. Pyke? He made Adelaide good but in practice the camp stuff and Pyke is similar to Hird, bit of baggage, but with the club as it is now you need someone who doesn’t have marks on their integrity. Need to remake the club properly.

Lyon and Pike if we want experience and in that order. There are conditions, Lyon needs to be hungry and Pike needs to keep pre season camps more traditional…

 

[The Donners]

Anymore resignations this morning? I’m baying for blood!

 

[The Donners]

Andrew Dillon? Dear God, another idiot.

Do we want Auld? He hasn’t been in club land a long time. He may have become institutionalised.

 

[Lore]

Anymore resignations this morning? I’m baying for blood!

Probably not but we should have some details about the external review and search for a coach in the next day or two, who is running it and how

 

[CBombers17]

Who does?

Brasher as a board member- doesn't he?

 

[Lore]

Brasher as a board member- doesn't he?

He resigned as a board member yesterday

 

[CBombers17]

He resigned as a board member yesterday

Oh shit! I can't keep up hahahaha

Well take this as a kick in the arse on the way out then

 

[HirdsTheWord]

So this in September 2020 was true....

And so was the later criticism of his bullshit lap of the club at the start where he apparently came down hard on Campbell and told him to pull his head in - only to let him continue to ride roughshod over the club and extend him for 2 years begind everyones back.
.
Even now he sits on the panel ready to decide on the next coach of the club. Forget the good old days at Windy Hill - Entitled wealthy old businessmen using the football club as a plaything is the only enduring culture at Essendon.

i was going to quote myself when i posted a while ago that we aint winning shit with brasher as president.

I didnt.

Now i feel like i should.

 

[CBombers17]

i was going to quote myself when i posted a while ago that we aint winning s**t with brasher as president.

I didnt.

Now i feel like i should.

Do it! It's uncool but freeing.

As much as anything it's just to show that what can be perceived as negativity at the time is really just communicating some knowledge of chronic organisational dilusfunction.

 

[Doss]

Anymore resignations this morning? I’m baying for blood!

Vampires ahoy.

 

[Kong]

Robbo has been firing a few blanks recently.

Decades of alcohol abuse will do that.

 

[Beerfish]

Talking about engaging with fan podcasts and not just doing the SEN interviews (how about fan forums? There used to be an official Essendon account somewhere on here…)

Just to underline this, earlier this season we tried to get one of our sponsored players on the pod.. or any player and were told no by the club because they don't want the players appearing on competing podcasts.

I mean really.. great job guys.

 

[DERO]

Just to underline this, earlier this season we tried to get one of our sponsored players on the pod.. or any player and were told no by the club because they don't want the players appearing on competing podcasts.

I mean really.. great job guys.

You should take that as a compliment!