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

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Last edited:
Saint said:
Christians (or any religion) which discriminates against homosexuals = bigots. It's practically the dictionary definition.

"a person who is obstinately or unreasonably attached to a belief, opinion, or faction...... on the basis of their membership of a particular group."

Your religion doesn't shield your bigotry, nor the consequences of being openly bigoted.

Plus most Christians aren't members of homophobic churches and any decent person, when asked, would disavow bigotry.

The Christians who want to protect bigots can get in the bin along with the bigots.

You have the right to believe whatever you want, but just because you do it in a group doesn't make it less bad, in fact it probably makes it worse.
Click to expand...

whilst i get your point and i agree with a lot of it, it isn't as cut and dry as that.

Specific to Thorburn.

- He openly said in his statement he accepts people of different sexual orientation.

“Let me be clear - I love all people, and have always promoted and lived an inclusive, diverse, respectful and supportive workplace - where people are welcomed regardless of their culture, religious beliefs, and sexual orientation. I believe my record over a long period of time testifies to this.

- He has a track record of promoting inclusion in the workplace as senior leader in a corporate company.

- He has openly said he does not agree with all of the views of the Church he is part of. The church's function is not 100% about degrading women and gay people. He may very well get his fill from the other 95% of what the church does but disagree with this specific part.

What the issue here is purely Optics. People are passing over what he has actually done as a corporate leader, but rather focusing the optics of him being a chair of a dodgy church. I can't say i dont see a conflict of interest, i get it. But just labelling everyone a bigot because of their association with a church, when they have a track record showing they dont act like a bigot, is not entirely fair.

Like Keiran Perkins said, everyone keeps trying to deal with this issue as Black and White. it just isn't that easy.
 
TheGrizz said:
As much as Barham has balled up 2/3 of his biggest jobs since taking over as president, let's not forget that Andrew Muir was VP of a board that:
1. Re-signed XC without notifying the members, and with allegations of inappropriate behaviour and a botched coaching transition plan designed to cover up his own botched re-signing of Worsfold
2. Was Brashers VP and in bed with the coterie up to their eye balls in their influence over the club.
3. Was anti-external review, and so is no guarantee to actually implement any structure changes recommended as he likely doesn't think anything needs to change. Basically looks at the membership and bank sheet numbers as a measure that the club is fine and ignores continual failure of the footy department
4. Is part of the Dodoro acolyte club with Sheedy and has protected and allowed Dodoro to blue and strain relationships with the last 3 GMs of football, making Josh Mahoney role (who has been central to the coaching search and list management this offseason) called into question.

Are we sure a new board led by this guy I going to be any better than a board with Barham as President?
Surely once this external review comes in, and they implement it in full, the CEO search gets handed to EY in full, and Barhams shooting from the hip gets less opportunity to rear its head.

TL;DR = I don't like Muir anymore I do Barham, at least Barham is trying (emphasis on this) to pull us out of mediocrity
Click to expand...

It’s not that I don’t believe you, in fact you’re probably right given you seem certain, but how do you know:

  • Muir was anti external review?
  • Was “in bed with” the coteries?
  • Has actively protected Dodo?

FWIW, I want Barham to succeed because I think he’s the change agent and broom this club needs, but in being true to the facts, am interested in where the info has come from.
 
Last edited:
Alright Essendon, what have you got for me today?

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Bunk Moreland said:
I'm at the stage where I'm downright disappointed if we have an incident-free day.
Click to expand...
We're pretty terrible to watch on-field, might as well be 'car-crash TV' entertaining off it!
 
Bunk Moreland said:
Series of shambolic errors that have plagued Essendon

Brad Scott will be Dyson Heppell’s seventh coach, and he has also seen five presidents and four CEO’s. And the trainwreck of costly decisions has continued this year.

Scott Gullan
October 5, 2022 - 5:27PM

Most who left Essendon’s best and fairest count on Monday night probably thought Peter Wright winning the Crichton Medal was going to be the strangest thing that happened.

No disrespect to two-metre Peter who kicked 50 odd goals and certainly had the best season of his career, but the fact a full-forward won the B&F in a team which finished 15th doesn’t say a lot about the rest of them.

It was an underwhelming affair – why the Bombers waited until the first week of October to have the medal count is a whole other discussion – with the clear highlight being new coach Brad Scott’s maiden speech to the faithful.

Fellow newcomer president David Barham had kicked things off earlier trying his best to rev up the fans before new CEO Andrew Thorburn took to the stage to introduce himself.

It had a real kumbaya feel about it with Barham spouting that it was a pivotal moment in the football club’s history.

“This is the reset we had to have and I promise you this is just the beginning,” he said.

“We can become an unstoppable force in football again but we will need a mighty team effort.

“Everyone has to put the club first in everything you do, we have to keep our heads down, work hard and stay united.”

Twenty hours later Thorburn was gone and Barham’s position is under threat. Talk about some reset.

Essendon’s ability to lurch from one scandal to another over the past decade is unrivalled. What must the players be thinking?

It’s hard to paint a picture to say they’ve been given every chance to succeed. What would captain Dyson Heppell be thinking watching Geelong march to another premiership?

This century the Cats have had two coaches, two CEOs and three presidents. Scott will be Heppell’s seventh coach, he has also seen five presidents and four CEO’s if you count Thorburn’s one day in the job.

Barham was highly rated as a TV executive, particularly around cricket’s Big Bash, with everything he touched seemingly turning to gold. Unfortunately for him, it’s been the opposite in his two month stint in the top job.

The dismissal of Ben Rutten came straight out of the ‘How not to sack a coach’ manual. Keeping him hanging before the inevitable chop didn’t go down well with the football world.

Then making a last-minute lunge at Alastair Clarkson was amateurish particularly when one of your board members, club great Kevin Sheedy, was publicly running interference in the pursuit.

And then launching an external review into the whole club’s operations using former NAB boss Thorburn, a known Bombers fan, as a key player in it.

Thorburn, who had an inglorious exit from NAB, then proceeded to interview prospective candidates for the vacant CEO job – Xavier Campbell fell on his sword after backing Rutten in – before suddenly deciding he wanted to put his hand up for the job.

That “comprehensive” process saw Thornburn appointed on Monday. He was gone by Tuesday after his links to a church organisation, the City on The Hill, were exposed.

While the Herald Sun was able to scan the church’s website and find material outlining its offensive views to abortion, homosexuality and same-sex marriage, apparently Barham and anyone else at Essendon weren’t able to do so in their “thorough” due diligence in checking the CEO’s background.

Thorburn even tried to say he didn’t know about the material even though he was the chairman of the whole set-up. A trainwreck radio interview to try and change the narrative against him on Tuesday morning didn’t work and by mid-afternoon Essendon were looking for another CEO.

His dismissal has turned into a political debate about religious freedom but that’s the least of Essendon’s concerns.

Barham is now facing potential challenges while his board is all over the place, including Sheedy, who broke ranks after the club said Scott’s appointment was unanimous given he’d actually voted for James Hird.

Meanwhile, that external review is due to be handed down next week and word has it that long-time recruiting manager Adrian Dodoro is finally on the nose, even though he’s currently trying to negotiate deals for the future of the club in trade week.

But Essendon fans shouldn’t fret, remember this was just the reset the club needed. It’s just that it’s another reset on the original reset from Monday.

Confused? Just ask Dyson Heppell because by now he must be an expert in all things shambolic at Essendon.

Click to expand...

I'd give the article more weight if it could get basic facts correct.
 
TheGrizz said:
As much as Barham has balled up 2/3 of his biggest jobs since taking over as president, let's not forget that Andrew Muir was VP of a board that:
1. Re-signed XC without notifying the members, and with allegations of inappropriate behaviour and a botched coaching transition plan designed to cover up his own botched re-signing of Worsfold
2. Was Brashers VP and in bed with the coterie up to their eye balls in their influence over the club.
3. Was anti-external review, and so is no guarantee to actually implement any structure changes recommended as he likely doesn't think anything needs to change. Basically looks at the membership and bank sheet numbers as a measure that the club is fine and ignores continual failure of the footy department
4. Is part of the Dodoro acolyte club with Sheedy and has protected and allowed Dodoro to feud and strain relationships with the last 3 GMs of football, making Josh Mahoney's role (who has been central to the coaching search and list management this offseason) called into question.

Are we sure a new board led by this guy is going to be any better than a board with Barham as President?
Surely once this external review comes in, and they implement it in full, the CEO search gets handed to EY in full, and Barhams shooting from the hip gets less opportunity to rear its head.

TL;DR = I don't like Muir anymore I do Barham, at least Barham is trying (emphasis on this) to pull us out of mediocrity
Click to expand...
Muir wasn’t VP, that’s Peter Allen.
 
yeah, how about we look outside the club for a CEO
Colin Carter I don't believe is linked to anyone at the moment.

Maybe ask Brad - with the intel he'd have he's sure to know of a few good operators across the league.
If they're coterie aligned, on the board already or have had anything to do with Essendon since 2006, can we just avoid. please.
 

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Albertross said:
Couldn't have been someone from the club though, they don't know how to use Google it seems.

And I'm not referring to our employed/formerly employed CEO, and the religious views of some organisation that he sits on a board with. Let's have a look at the Banking Royal Commission firstly.

Should not have been employed on that basis alone IMO.

Shambles of a club that feeds the oppo supporters on a daily basis. The Hawkes have the biggest off field story since the Saga, yet we still continue to hit the headlines due to uour incompetence.
Click to expand...
It surprised me that more people here were not opposed to Thorburn's involvement from the outset. His inclusion as part of the external review team was a stinker to start with, given his exit after the findings of a Royal Commission... a Royal Commission. Why we would turn a blind eye to that and bring him into the club at all is baffling.

I'm not particularly interested in his or anyone else's religious views, but I can see why it would present a problem for club culture.
 
HirdsTheWord said:
whilst i get your point and i agree with a lot of it, it isn't as cut and dry as that.

Specific to Thorburn.

- He openly said in his statement he accepts people of different sexual orientation.

“Let me be clear - I love all people, and have always promoted and lived an inclusive, diverse, respectful and supportive workplace - where people are welcomed regardless of their culture, religious beliefs, and sexual orientation. I believe my record over a long period of time testifies to this.

- He has a track record of promoting inclusion in the workplace as senior leader in a corporate company.

- He has openly said he does not agree with all of the views of the Church he is part of. The church's function is not 100% about degrading women and gay people. He may very well get his fill from the other 95% of what the church does but disagree with this specific part.

What the issue here is purely Optics. People are passing over what he has actually done as a corporate leader, but rather focusing the optics of him being a chair of a dodgy church. I can't say i dont see a conflict of interest, i get it. But just labelling everyone a bigot because of their association with a church, when they have a track record showing they dont act like a bigot, is not entirely fair.

Like Keiran Perkins said, everyone keeps trying to deal with this issue as Black and White. it just isn't that easy.
Click to expand...
For 90% of the organisation, that would be perhaps acceptable. But as the CEO, who is driving culture, you can't have such a big conflict and question mark. And he's not just a member of the church, he's in charge and actively spreading that culture/belief system. As head of that church, he's promoting bigotry, just as the CEO of EFC should be promoting inclusion. If either of those were not an Executive position, it would be more tenable.

To many, those statements read "I've done a good job hiding my true feelings and will continue to try to do that, but you all know what I really think about some of you".

It's not like we don't have a long history of closeted bigotry which rears its ugly head every now and then. Remember how excited the bigots were when Adam Goodes was being booed and everyone was pretending it wasn't bigotry?
 
TheGrizz said:
As much as Barham has balled up 2/3 of his biggest jobs since taking over as president, let's not forget that Andrew Muir was VP of a board that:
1. Re-signed XC without notifying the members, and with allegations of inappropriate behaviour and a botched coaching transition plan designed to cover up his own botched re-signing of Worsfold
2. Was Brashers VP and in bed with the coterie up to their eye balls in their influence over the club.
3. Was anti-external review, and so is no guarantee to actually implement any structure changes recommended as he likely doesn't think anything needs to change. Basically looks at the membership and bank sheet numbers as a measure that the club is fine and ignores continual failure of the footy department
4. Is part of the Dodoro acolyte club with Sheedy and has protected and allowed Dodoro to feud and strain relationships with the last 3 GMs of football, making Josh Mahoney's role (who has been central to the coaching search and list management this offseason) called into question.

Are we sure a new board led by this guy is going to be any better than a board with Barham as President?
Surely once this external review comes in, and they implement it in full, the CEO search gets handed to EY in full, and Barhams shooting from the hip gets less opportunity to rear its head.

TL;DR = I don't like Muir anymore I do Barham, at least Barham is trying (emphasis on this) to pull us out of mediocrity
Click to expand...
Ugh. I reluctantly agree. At least Barham wouldn't mean a return to the rubbish that was.
 
Bunk Moreland said:
Series of shambolic errors that have plagued Essendon

Brad Scott will be Dyson Heppell’s seventh coach, and he has also seen five presidents and four CEO’s. And the trainwreck of costly decisions has continued this year.

Scott Gullan
October 5, 2022 - 5:27PM

Most who left Essendon’s best and fairest count on Monday night probably thought Peter Wright winning the Crichton Medal was going to be the strangest thing that happened.

No disrespect to two-metre Peter who kicked 50 odd goals and certainly had the best season of his career, but the fact a full-forward won the B&F in a team which finished 15th doesn’t say a lot about the rest of them.

It was an underwhelming affair – why the Bombers waited until the first week of October to have the medal count is a whole other discussion – with the clear highlight being new coach Brad Scott’s maiden speech to the faithful.

Fellow newcomer president David Barham had kicked things off earlier trying his best to rev up the fans before new CEO Andrew Thorburn took to the stage to introduce himself.

It had a real kumbaya feel about it with Barham spouting that it was a pivotal moment in the football club’s history.

“This is the reset we had to have and I promise you this is just the beginning,” he said.

“We can become an unstoppable force in football again but we will need a mighty team effort.

“Everyone has to put the club first in everything you do, we have to keep our heads down, work hard and stay united.”

Twenty hours later Thorburn was gone and Barham’s position is under threat. Talk about some reset.

Essendon’s ability to lurch from one scandal to another over the past decade is unrivalled. What must the players be thinking?

It’s hard to paint a picture to say they’ve been given every chance to succeed. What would captain Dyson Heppell be thinking watching Geelong march to another premiership?

This century the Cats have had two coaches, two CEOs and three presidents. Scott will be Heppell’s seventh coach, he has also seen five presidents and four CEO’s if you count Thorburn’s one day in the job.

Barham was highly rated as a TV executive, particularly around cricket’s Big Bash, with everything he touched seemingly turning to gold. Unfortunately for him, it’s been the opposite in his two month stint in the top job.

The dismissal of Ben Rutten came straight out of the ‘How not to sack a coach’ manual. Keeping him hanging before the inevitable chop didn’t go down well with the football world.

Then making a last-minute lunge at Alastair Clarkson was amateurish particularly when one of your board members, club great Kevin Sheedy, was publicly running interference in the pursuit.

And then launching an external review into the whole club’s operations using former NAB boss Thorburn, a known Bombers fan, as a key player in it.

Thorburn, who had an inglorious exit from NAB, then proceeded to interview prospective candidates for the vacant CEO job – Xavier Campbell fell on his sword after backing Rutten in – before suddenly deciding he wanted to put his hand up for the job.

That “comprehensive” process saw Thornburn appointed on Monday. He was gone by Tuesday after his links to a church organisation, the City on The Hill, were exposed.

While the Herald Sun was able to scan the church’s website and find material outlining its offensive views to abortion, homosexuality and same-sex marriage, apparently Barham and anyone else at Essendon weren’t able to do so in their “thorough” due diligence in checking the CEO’s background.

Thorburn even tried to say he didn’t know about the material even though he was the chairman of the whole set-up. A trainwreck radio interview to try and change the narrative against him on Tuesday morning didn’t work and by mid-afternoon Essendon were looking for another CEO.

His dismissal has turned into a political debate about religious freedom but that’s the least of Essendon’s concerns.

Barham is now facing potential challenges while his board is all over the place, including Sheedy, who broke ranks after the club said Scott’s appointment was unanimous given he’d actually voted for James Hird.

Meanwhile, that external review is due to be handed down next week and word has it that long-time recruiting manager Adrian Dodoro is finally on the nose, even though he’s currently trying to negotiate deals for the future of the club in trade week.

But Essendon fans shouldn’t fret, remember this was just the reset the club needed. It’s just that it’s another reset on the original reset from Monday.

Confused? Just ask Dyson Heppell because by now he must be an expert in all things shambolic at Essendon.

Click to expand...
Most of that is true (if a bit twisted to suit the overall arrative), but jeez scott gullan is a campaigner of a thing.
Rabid dogs supporter I believe?
 
Last edited:
Corleone said:
Alright Essendon, what have you got for me today?

Come On GIF by WWE
Click to expand...


Some good news ;););)


ESSENDON BOLSTERS MEDIA DEPARTMENT

ONE appointment at Essendon which has lasted more than a day is an addition to the media department.

Will Carter, who recently spent time at the AFL, has joined the Bombers as a replacement for Alexandra Stewart as general manager of communications.

Stewart has decided to pursue opportunities outside of the football industry.

Carter worked as the VFL/W Media Manager for a couple of years after joining the league from racing stable Godolphin where he’d been head of media and content.
 
I Remember Bluey said:
Some good news ;););)


ESSENDON BOLSTERS MEDIA DEPARTMENT

ONE appointment at Essendon which has lasted more than a day is an addition to the media department.

Will Carter, who recently spent time at the AFL, has joined the Bombers as a replacement for Alexandra Stewart as general manager of communications.

Stewart has decided to pursue opportunities outside of the football industry.

Carter worked as the VFL/W Media Manager for a couple of years after joining the league from racing stable Godolphin where he’d been head of media and content.
Click to expand...
Hey Siri, "Google 'Will Carter'"
 

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

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