Strategy CEO Thread - Jennifer Watt - Started Jan 2023

[Hotham FC]

“LDU will stay”….about 50:20 in

 

[Colby Cheer Squad]

She didn’t have to do anything for that …

WA teams: Heyyyya Norf, wanna sell home games?

Jen: WOW SIGN US UP

bf: Jen is such a mastermind

We've been trying to sell a game to WA for decades.

Exactly

You don't see it, do you? You're so close but you don't see what's right in front of you.

 

[The Nostradamus]

I like that she definitively stated LDU will stay

And pointed out this is something he has publicly stated too

 

[Chadwiko]

She didn’t have to do anything for that …

WA teams: Heyyyya Norf, wanna sell home games?

Jen: WOW SIGN US UP

bf: Jen is such a mastermind

Nah, this isn't fair.

I know I've been critical of Watt previously, but I don't think I've ever been manifestly unfair.

But securing a deal like the WA games, whilst also navigating the exit from Tasmania, is not easy. Based on what's been announced, Watt (and anyone else at the club involved with these negotiations) has done a good job and deserves their kudos.

 

[Luke72]

Nah, this isn't fair.

I know I've been critical of Watt previously, but I don't think I've ever been manifestly unfair.

But securing a deal like the WA games, whilst also navigating the exit from Tasmania, is not easy. Based on what's been announced, Watt (and anyone else at the club involved with these negotiations) has done a good job and deserves their kudos.

Yeah I agree, aside from Tassie members it’s a win all round. 2 games coming back to Melbourne, same money, one (extended) trip to WA and no return matches. They couldn’t have squeezed much more out of it.

 

[DuckYeah]

You don't see it, do you? You're so close but you don't see what's right in front of you.

Yeh it fell in her lap.. In footy terms, we call that a Joe The Goose

 

[DuckYeah]

I like that she definitively stated LDU will stay

And pointed out this is something he has publicly stated too

She’ll look silly if he decides to leave.. amateurish to say that..

Should have said “we are committed to have Luke stay at the club, we love Luke as a player and as a person and wish nothing more than his success at North.”

And then point toward Lukes public comments.

Her comments were almost a back foot defensive block. “Wait On”

 

[shintemaster]

Nah, this isn't fair.

I know I've been critical of Watt previously, but I don't think I've ever been manifestly unfair.

But securing a deal like the WA games, whilst also navigating the exit from Tasmania, is not easy. Based on what's been announced, Watt (and anyone else at the club involved with these negotiations) has done a good job and deserves their kudos.

Exactly. Nobody said it was an easy job taking us from being constantly having to compromise somewhere to being a bulletproof powerhouse that does what we like and wins premierships - that's the gig though, if people aren't up for the challenge they shouldn't put their hand up for the paycheck either.

Her team have made some poor calls, or more accurately, not dealt well with the negatives of some calls. It's not her fault that previous admin have made bad calls and torched members, but again, that's the gig. The history doesn't disappear because the change the faces at head office.

This, from 2025 onwards at least, is a decent result and they deserve credit. Work isn't done yet though.

 

[Samsquanch]

Yeah I agree, aside from Tassie members it’s a win all round. 2 games coming back to Melbourne, same money, one (extended) trip to WA and no return matches. They couldn’t have squeezed much more out of it.

Totally agreed.

With Tasmania due to come into the AFL (assuming the contract conditions are met), North were practically forced to terminate the current arrangement which meant that the negotiating position was somewhat weakened. To put together a deal which is even close to what you described was a decent effort. Realistically, Qld, SA or NSW weren't options. Maybe NZ was a possibility. I don't see China as a viable destination even though my wife's sister lived there for years and went to the matches along with a sizable enough ex-pat contingent. So a WA deal was landed and it delivered some reasonable side benefits apart from the money. And as we know, there's a few North supporters in WA.

Players need to be warned however, keep away from the chicken treats!

 

[King Corey]

Yeh it fell in her lap.. In footy terms, we call that a Joe The Goose

Nah mate it had to be nurtured. I'm guessing there'd have been other clubs very happy to cut our lunch on this if we'd started fumbling.

 

[The Warlord]

Nah mate it had to be nurtured. I'm guessing there'd have been other clubs very happy to cut our lunch on this if we'd started fumbling.

The smart PR play would have been to issue a holding line and give them a heads up.

 

[Colby Cheer Squad]

Yeh it fell in her lap.. In footy terms, we call that a Joe The Goose

You are blind to your own posts. You acknowledge that NMFC people have been trying to do this for decades. They all failed. Jen and her team succeeded. If Jen and her team were clever enough to leverage off the specific circumstances and needs of other interested parties to provide an overwhelming argument to overcome the AFL's historic resistance to the idea, then that's not luck, that's strategy.

 

[DuckYeah]

You are blind to your own posts. You acknowledge that NMFC people have been trying to do this for decades. They all

Under previous AFL administration it failed. The current administration have let it go through. Has nothing to do with the CEO. Glenn Archer could get that over the line with this current mob

 

[King Corey]

This.

We now have Viney, Stevens, Rawlings, Clarkson at various levels of senior football management / directorship at the club.

I was fairly open in my queries on releasing Amarfio (and Dilena and Arocca previously) because they all seemed fiscally astute, which was exactly what a small club like ours needed.

Not against Simon Lloyd but he looks like another football centric appointment after appointing 2 very experienced and accomplished senior football people in the last 3 months.

Would hate to see the strong financial base (against the odds) setup by the 3 previous CEOs eroded because the next person doesn't have the commercial acumen for the role.

Of course having on-field success is better than not having on-field success.

But as we've seen over the last decade, having people with the acumen to keep the club financially viable or even profitable in spite of being shit may be a different skillset to driving a strong football program.

I know next to nothing beyond the surface info of Simon Lloyd at the moment. But I was there in the 90s when we were historically awesome on-field and absolute train-wrecks off it. One unfortunately does not assure the other.

Trusting Sonja and the board have a really solid handle on getting the right person but am wary of overcorrecting just because the football went shit before/during Amarfio's watch.

From a distance, in a similar way to making the club a viable destination for a senior coach it looks like we got a quality diverse group of people interested in the CEO role.

Without being privvy to specific my assumption is Sonja presents a more coherent and definite view to potential candidates than Buckley and the years of aimlessness that followed his reign was able to muster.

Without having any prior knowledge of Jennifer Watt, this sounds like a really solid appointment.

Had some firm (but respectful) discussion on here about not overcorrecting too far from the failed football program under Amarfio (and latter day Dilena).

Simon Lloyd and Peter Bell both concerned me on that front because they were primarily football people with some peripheral abilities that may have assisted performing the CEO role. But did they have the 'whole organisation' management background for this scope of role?

What's more, we now have a football department that includes Brady Rawlings, Todd Viney, Scott Clayton, Alastair Clarkson and Brett Ratten. Plus Anthony Stevens at a board level. That's a pretty experienced group who surely didn't need a CEO to provide football program hand-holding?

Watt's experience appears broad. Some key points:

• Collaborative leadership style and focus on developing authentic relationships with her people
• "The right CEO – a club CEO, not a football CEO or a commercial CEO"
• General Manager, Commercial Operations and Partnerships, MCC
• General manager of marketing and communications Jennifer Watt, MFC

So football industry experience and AFL experience both from a broader perspective (MCC) and club perspective (MFC).

She might succeed, she might fail but I feel far more comfortable about this CV's merits than one who just happened to be a former club champion.

If I may (smug look of self satisfaction ).

This is why I argued for Watt over Lloyd in 2022.

We needed someone to do things like solidify Arden Street or negotiate large streams of income.

Not micromanage the improvement of a rancid football programl

 

[Colby Cheer Squad]

Under previous AFL administration it failed. The current administration have let it go through. Has nothing to do with the CEO. Glenn Archer could get that over the line with this current mob

You know, the funny thing with your Joe the Goose reference is that in modern football, nobody gets left alone in the goal square. Joe the Goose goals are most often kicked by players who are prepared to run the length of the field to be on the end of a chain of overlap possessions. So if Jen's only attribute is that she's prepared to work harder than anyone else in order to get lucky, then may she continue to be so lucky.

 

[giantroo]

 

[King Corey]

You know, the funny thing with your Joe the Goose reference is that in modern football, nobody gets left alone in the goal square. Joe the Goose goals are most often kicked by players who are prepared to run the length of the field to be on the end of a chain of overlap possessions. So if Jen's only attribute is that she's prepared to work harder than anyone else in order to get lucky, then may she continue to be so lucky.

To extend the metaphor, players need to be smart enough to recognise an opportunity for an "easy" goal.

In a parallel world the board decide WA hasn't come to fruition after all these years and instead pimp games to somewhere like Cairns to the detriment of everything associated with the club besides the short term bottom line.

 

[DuckYeah]

You know, the funny thing with your Joe the Goose reference is that in modern football, nobody gets left alone in the goal square. Joe the Goose goals are most often kicked by players who are prepared to run the length of the field to be on the end of a chain of overlap possessions. So if Jen's only attribute is that she's prepared to work harder than anyone else in order to get lucky, then may she continue to be so lucky.

Rubbish.

 

[King Corey]

Rubbish.

Got no problem ripping apart anyone at the club in discussions but curious if you're genuinely unimpressed or just throwing burley in the forum?

 

[Colby Cheer Squad]

Rubbish.

To paraphrase a Thomas Jefferson saying, the harder Jen Watt works, the luckier she seems to get.

 

[shintemaster]

The smart PR play would have been to issue a holding line and give them a heads up.

Pffft. Come on. The minute head office / WA started drip feeding to media the other clubs knew as much as anyone. If it's fairly reliably leaked on bigfooty then the cat is out of the bag.

 

[DuckYeah]

Got no problem ripping apart anyone at the club in discussions but curious if you're genuinely unimpressed or just throwing burley in the forum?

Few reasons. But this one does it for me.

We are piss poor financially. Our facilities blow, we dont pay anywhere near the soft cap and we have no coffee cart.

 

[Gorman2Geister]

No wonder we've not heard much from Jen, she's been too busy performance managing James Gallagher

James Gallagher

Age

44

Ht

176cm

Wt

70kg

Pos.

D/M

Career

Season

Last 5

D

12.3

3star

K

8.2

3star

HB

4.1

3star

M

2.5

3star

T

1.5

3star

No current season stats available

D

16.2

4star

K

12.2

5star

HB

4.0

3star

M

3.2

4star

T

1.0

3star

(GM Strategy and Legal) who on the surface of it rivals Scott Clayton, Glenn Luff, Cam Joyce and Gavin Brown as the most useless club employees in recent history.

Based on what we heard from her, the club was sitting on its hands in terms of options post Tasmania until the 19th team was announced and the idea for playing in SW WA came from an AFL employee who manages the fixturing.

It beggars belief that they were not internally planning for an exit for years before this given the ongoing rumblings of Tasmania getting their own team.

Also to have the fixture guy point out the opportunity (especially given it's been something the club has looked at in the past), dear me.

 

[speedy]

SEN interview with Jen re players reaction to 2 home games in WA -

They can’t wait for the surfing and golf.

No need to wonder what’s wrong with this playing group.

North Melbourne - “The recreational Club”

 

[The Big O]

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