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

 

[windyhill]

Yep. Some of the stories around 94-96 were interesting. He would call meetings & not show up...over-rule Judkins etc on draft day.. I think the club got to the point of calling meetings & telling him the wrong time so that he'd at least be in the ballpark of turning up on time. One official was left sitting until 8.30-9pm a couple of times because Sheedy asked to meet with him & never showed up.

Even earlier than that - there's a group of key players from the 80's that are adamant that a couple of premierships were left on the table because of his training (including 1990). It took him years to work out that sometimes less is more. Not to mention how he treated a couple of absolute legends of the club, who we nearly lost because of his pig-headedness.

Don't get me wrong - he did transform the club & was exactly what we needed after Bill Stephen & Barry Davis, but he only knew one way & wouldn't listen to anyone early on.

He needs to get out, now. I wouldn't be surprised if it comes out that he was tanked when he spoke to Robbo.

Yes, just on the drinking, he was teetotal his whole life until the early 90’s. This was done due to the Hafey influence. KB the same. He would be hard on his teamates when he knew they been on the cans. He was hard on his players where he knew they loved a sip. But that soon changed. You could probably call him hypocritical in his attitude to drinking. He turned the full 360.
Reports of him turning up to training pissed etc.

 

[MiguelM]

You didn't have to be Einstein to guess if Scott was interested, he was the front runner. Once Lyon pulled out (thank Christ IMO), it was a no brainer.

Yze=Zero experience (as a senior coach)
Hird=Some experience, lots of unwanted attention
Scott=Lots of experience, ties to AFL/umpiring fraternity, new voice.

There were others but less experience than Yze that were never in the race.

Love Hird & Sheeds but we needed a different voice. Even Hird seemed to concede hearing some of his comments.

 

[yodellinhank]

Reported. Not told.
It was not hard to say experienced coach plus Brad Scott = Essendon coach.
Even Tom Browne nailed it after his 4th shot.

Caro seemed to have the good mail. She's smart enough not to bite the hand that feeds her.

 

[yodellinhank]

That 2000 team was on auto pilot

You don't get to winning on auto pilot just by chance. And 2000 was seek and destroy, 2001 switched over to auto pilot. And if it wasn't Sheedy that led the 2000 mission it was probably Hird. Make a good coach, I reckon.

 

[Lore]

Caro seemed to have the good mail. She's smart enough not to bite the hand that feeds her.

She wasn't confidently saying "this will be the outcome" though. She was adamant that he hadn't said no (as opposed to Lyon and Cameron who had said no, and Pyke who had said sort of no), but kept saying he wasn't sure and wanted to wait until the finals were done to make a decision about whether to go for it.

From what Barham said in the press conference there was someone else involved in the grand final who would've been part of the process after that depending on how the day went as well... presumably that's Pyke, but maybe there are others as well.

 

[Lore]

You don't get to winning on auto pilot just by chance. And 2000 was seek and destroy, 2001 switched over to auto pilot. And if it wasn't Sheedy that led the 2000 mission it was probably Hird. Make a good coach, I reckon.

2000 was an over-qualified list that hadn't quite burst the salary cap yet.

Not that it's a guarantee, GWS haven't made the most of theirs, but still.

 

[ghostdog]

Once a CEO is appointed the whole board pretty much becomes as irrelevant as Sheedy, and hopefully they are irrelevant for a while because it means we are going well on field. The board put a process in place and they selected the coach the panel recommended. Who cares if Sheeds didn't get his love child installed again.

Its being blown way out of proportion. Its 5months from round 1 or whatever and we are complaining about sheedy taking the gloss off the new coach announcement because we want to say hiring a new coach is a good day for the club.

You know what a good day for a footy club is, the Sunday, the Monday, the Tuesday, the Wednesday, the Thursday and the Friday that Geelong just had. Hiring a new coach is not a good day, it means you had a s**t year and you hope that next year is better but you have NFI if it actually will be.

I'm over just hanging onto hope, I want the club to win games and Sheedy has no impact on that happening so I don't give a * what he says, nor should anyone else.

I want the club to start winning again too. I don't trust that Sheedy will not work to undermine the new coach. If he does, that will be a hindrance to the club winning again. That's how this works.

 

[fairbump_playon]

Deep down in Sheedy's psych, he probably still enjoys being our last successful coach...sabotages us without realising he is even doing it.

Very perceptive point. Well played.

Sheedy becomes irrelevant once someone new has success. Unless they owe him everything - a la Hird.

 

[yodellinhank]

She wasn't confidently saying "this will be the outcome" though. She was adamant that he hadn't said no (as opposed to Lyon and Cameron who had said no, and Pyke who had said sort of no), but kept saying he wasn't sure and wanted to wait until the finals were done to make a decision about whether to go for it.

From what Barham said in the press conference there was someone else involved in the grand final who would've been part of the process after that depending on how the day went as well... presumably that's Pyke, but maybe there are others as well.

But she would say that, if she didn't want the ship sunk, wouldn't she?

 

[Lore]

But she would say that, if she didn't want the ship sunk, wouldn't she?

I don't think Scott was telling her any more than that, and it matches with what has been said by McLachlan a couple of weeks ago and what Scott has said yesterday.

The entire thing had a pretty solid lid on it unless the candidate told someone they were involved, or Tom Browne stalked them to the interview, or apparently Sheedy talking up Hird to Robbo.

 

[yodellinhank]

2000 was an over-qualified list that hadn't quite burst the salary cap yet.

Not that it's a guarantee, GWS haven't made the most of theirs, but still.

GWS have just hired Kingsley, they've probably missed their chance with Hird.

 

[Lore]

GWS have just hired Kingsley, they've probably missed their chance with Hird.

They should've kept Sheedy he could've auto-piloted them to a grand final.

 

[Bunk Moreland]

I was a child of the 80’s and grew up with Sheeds and my views are very similar. I reckon I’ll find it easier to forgive him then to stay angry but 100% agree that we need to push him out.

Yeah it's interesting. I'm mid-90s and my view of Sheedy was always as one of those older blokes who thinks he's a hell of a lot smarter than he actually is. Everyone seemed to regard him as this crazy professor type but it all just seemed like a silly, transparent facade tbh.

I remember being furious with him in 97/98 and wanting him gone because I thought we had a really talented squad and were totally wasting it. But we came good afterwards.

 

[Mr Bultitude]

Honestly, the mad savant/genius archetype like Sheedy is almost more trouble than it's worth.

You can get success, but it can also destabilise. Look at Clarko, or even Bevo, it doesn't look all that rosy at the Dogs atm.

 

[DERO]

Yeah it's interesting. I'm mid-90s and my view of Sheedy was always as one of those older blokes who thinks he's a hell of a lot smarter than he actually is. Everyone seemed to regard him as this crazy professor type but it all just seemed like a silly, transparent facade tbh.

I remember being furious with him in 97/98 and wanting him gone because I thought we had a really talented squad and were totally wasting it. But we came good afterwards.

We underachieved under Sheeds I think. I can't remember the 80's that well but we should have beaten Collingwood in 90 and we should have won in 99 as we were clearly the best side all year those years. I went into the 2001 GF thinking Brisbane might beat us.

 

[Lore]

Honestly, the mad savant/genius archetype like Sheedy is almost more trouble than it's worth.

You can get success, but it can also destabilise. Look at Clarko, or even Bevo, it doesn't look all that rosy at the Dogs atm.

Yeah if you're going to build your entire club around a cult of personality you'd want it to be more stable genius and less harebrained insanity.

 

[dank420_]

We underachieved under Sheeds I think. I can't remember the 80's that well but we should have beaten Collingwood in 90 and we should have won in 99 as we were clearly the best side all year those years. I went into the 2001 GF thinking Brisbane might beat us.

Leigh ****ing Matthews.

Finally we have someone who knows his tricks.

 

[yodellinhank]

Yeah it's interesting. I'm mid-90s and my view of Sheedy was always as one of those older blokes who thinks he's a hell of a lot smarter than he actually is. Everyone seemed to regard him as this crazy professor type but it all just seemed like a silly, transparent facade tbh.

I remember being furious with him in 97/98 and wanting him gone because I thought we had a really talented squad and were totally wasting it. But we came good afterwards.

David Parkin sums him up best. Said he was always confident he could get back in the game when Sheedy was winning, but nervous (he used to throw up) when Parkin's side had the lead.

Sheedy wouldn't leave things alone. Best guy to turn things around, not the best to coast along steadily at the top.

 

[TheGreatBarryB]

We underachieved under Sheeds I think. I can't remember the 80's that well but we should have beaten Collingwood in 90 and we should have won in 99 as we were clearly the best side all year those years. I went into the 2001 GF thinking Brisbane might beat us.

We had Hird, Lucas and JJ out in ‘99, they play we would’ve won. Hird severely hampered in ‘01 GF and I think Mercuri as well although Lions may have had our measure

 

[yodellinhank]

We underachieved under Sheeds I think. I can't remember the 80's that well but we should have beaten Collingwood in 90 and we should have won in 99 as we were clearly the best side all year those years. I went into the 2001 GF thinking Brisbane might beat us.

Sheeds rotating players on and off the bench, giving away 15m penalties, recruiting Weston, Baker, Duckworth (flipping him forward), he was cutting edge. We don't turn around a four goal 3qtr time deficit against peak Hawthorne without K Sheedy.

 

[Doss]

We probably got the fill we deserved in the 1980s. Hawthorn were incredible, Carlton also very, very good and injuries destroyed us in 1986-88. 1989 Hawthorn and Geelong were just a bit too strong.

1990 and 1999 are the two that really got away.

 

[Call Me Cake]

Sheedy is loved for his work in the past. Which was extraordinary. What would our club be today if it wasn't for what he brought? The last 20 years have been mediocre but that would pale in comparison to 60 years of irrelevancy. We would be St Kilda Mark II today otherwise.

Sheedy is also loved as a human being. As a person separate from football, he's been remarkable.

And his loyalty is admirable - I bet we all wish we had that sort of loyalty forever in everyone around us.

But as a football person... I think it's time to hang up the boots, figuratively speaking. There comes a time when you have to step aside and let the new generation pick up the spack, just as the one previous to Sheedy let him. You can be Superman once but that doesn't mean you gotta be Superman twice.

I do hope though, in honour of his past, that we can somehow let this blow over and steer more towards a fitting end where his football endeavours are brought to a finish in a more calm way, so as to preserve that legacy and put a positive perspective on both him and the club.

 

[The Donners]

& You'd be wrong doing that.

No I wouldn’t.

 

[yodellinhank]

Yeah if you're going to build your entire club around a cult of personality you'd want it to be more stable genius and less harebrained insanity.

You're not thinking fourth dimensionally...

 

[Bunk Moreland]

We underachieved under Sheeds I think. I can't remember the 80's that well but we should have beaten Collingwood in 90 and we should have won in 99 as we were clearly the best side all year those years. I went into the 2001 GF thinking Brisbane might beat us.

Yeah I dunno. They are very ****ing hard to win. It feels a bit like the era of Brisbane / Geelong / Hawthorn / Richmond has made people think multiple flags is “par” if you have a good side. Ultimately we won 2 between 93 and 2000 which is very good… 3 would’ve been outstanding.

Though I get what you’re saying. I dunno, I’m on the fence.