Strategy Congratulations, you're on the board. Now what do you do?

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1. Accept that current performance hasnt been acceptable and communicate that to members. Immediate full review of football department with reflection on previous review. In particular, determine why didnt the previous review meet outcomes/what has gone wrong with Voss's appointment - expect accountability - so depending on outcome of review, remove various people from football department as required (all options on the table including coach) - review to be completed sooner rather than later
2. Reset VFL team - Review the decisions that lead to Crocker being made captain and again hold people accountable. Commit to VFL being a development team with alignment with AFL team. If Dow is so far behind the others as an inside mid, play him/develop him as a half forward flank at the expense of overall team performance rather than keeping him in the centre if he has next to no chance of playing there in the ones.
3. Accept that we arent likely to be in contention before 2025 and with a view to wanting an extended run, commit to mini list refresh - trade out Cripps for top 10 pick, TDK if we can get a top 15 pick (otherwise retain)
4. Captaincy moving forward - appointed based on defined leadership capability rather than popularity - Future captain appointed by independent panel ie players wont have input
5. Acknowledge development has been rubbish for the best part of 20 years and invest in getting the best available and invest in the required systems/processes to support this. Take the hit in other areas as required in order to prioritise player development (on and off field)
6. Review KPIs/Deliverables for all roles at the club and lift standards - hold people to account. Determine where connections/money or nepotism has provided people roles and review capabilities to ensure the people are delivering. If not, replace.
 
Q1 - So when the elections take place, the challengers need to be like for like? For example, a grass roots member needs to be specifically challenging for the grass roots spot on the board. An ex player who played more than 10 years ago, can only replace the same on the board.

Q2 - Do we need to have someone lined up to replace Lloyd and Russell, or are we sacking them and having an open process?

Q3 - Why Charlie Curnow as captain? Are we doing away with the players voting for the leadership group? I'm good with the latter incidentally.

Q4 - Is this essentially announcing a new 5 year plan?

Q5 - How to we produce the draft/trade capital to pay for so many senior ready players and how do we pay for their salaries? Is this similar to when we recruited Mullett, Shaw, Sumner, Lamb etc, essentially free senior players to hold sway while others developed?
I know i'm digging up a post from the first page, but there is nothing wrong with designing a new 5 year plan every year - it should be the way
 
4. Captaincy moving forward - appointed based on defined leadership capability rather than popularity - Future captain appointed by independent panel ie players wont have input

I'm not sure i like the sounds of this given the importance of the leader to resonate with the group and lead them. putting future captains on the back foot from day 1 if no player voice at all.
But sure, we should be monitoring our leadership pipeline and over investing in their growth and exposure so the next captains are in some ways already known to the group (by display and impact the individual is already having..)
 

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1. Immediate internal review of men's football department led by Cook, Williams, and a former player of their choice (Selwood would be ideal).

2. External review of board processes and appointments.

Next points are dependent on the findings of both reviews but I'll assume what they will be for the purposes of this exercise.

3. Appointment of David Noble as Head of Football to replace Brad Lloyd. Clearly this will raise eyebrows but he did a terrific job in this role for the Lions. Get him in. I'd also be green lighting a massive blow out of the soft cap for the next 3 seasons to allow us to make the necessary additions to improve player development and on field performance.

4. Appointment of Damien Hardwick as Director of Coaching. A very obvious need. Greaves moves on and we appoint Mark Williams as a support who works between Hardwick/Voss and helps out with the players the same way he did at Richmond/Melbourne. Voss remains as Senior Coach for 2024 but only if he agrees to never play Silvagni/Cripps in the ruck again.

5. In consultation with Hardwick, redefine the scope of positions within the coaching ranks. We should move away from the old 'line coaches' model toward something more modern that ensures greater connection between players across the park. For example, "Head of Ball Movement and Midfield Spread", "Head of Team Defence", "Head of Strategy" etc. At the moment we play like we have three teams within one team and they have zero understanding of each other on field. I believe that moving toward this model will ensure that all players within the team feel connection with each other and understand that they have a responsibility in the way the team performs in every phase of the game rather than players thinking that it's only the defenders role to defend and only the forwards job is to kick goals.

6. Assistant coaching changes: keep Hansen but move him to a different role. Move on Tim Clarke and appoint Luke Power as the Head of Stoppages and Midfield Contest. I'd be looking for a new defensive minded coach to be Head of Team Defence - maybe Matthew Scarlett. I'd try to poach Caracella to be the Head of Ball Movement and Midfield Spread. I'd also do the same with Don Pyke to be the Head of Offence and Gameday Strategy. I would also bring someone on board to be a specialist skills/goal kicking coach - Eddie Betts.

7. I'd be appointing the best sports psychologist that we can afford for obvious reasons.

8. Happy to keep Russell in his role if he is willing to fit within our soft cap. I think his department have made improvements this year and should remain in place. However, I would look at poaching someone to join who has significant experience working under Darren Burgess, so we acquire some of his IP.

9. Finally, once all of these appointments are finalised, I would organise a full scale 'healing session' between the club and disgruntled former players/staff. All current staff and players are mandated to attend along with other relevant parties. Clearly we have not been able to move on from the salary cap breaches yet. As a whole club, we need to bury the hatchet on this issue and all the other issues that have stemmed from it. Once this has taken place we will have a chance to finally unite as a club from top to bottom.

10. I would give Nick Austin carte blanche to conduct a mini-rebuild this off season. Not fussed if this means we take a step back in 2024. There would be a large focus placed on acquiring first and second round picks in this year's draft and dumping salaries that are blowing out our salary cap. I would prioritise trading out Zac Williams if it can be done without sending out a high draft pick. I would put next year's picks on the table for the right price as well. Untouchable players are Cerra, McKay, Hollands, Docherty, Walsh, Weitering, Cowan, and C. Curnow. While this may read as drastic, I would delist/trade as many of the following as possible: Silvagni, Dow, O'Brien, Williams, one of Kennedy/Hewett, Fogarty, Cripps (for a king's ransom), McGovern, De Koning, Plowman, Martin, Marchbank, Fisher, Cuningham, Philp, E. Curnow (retire), Honey, and Saad (for a king's ransom). I would give Austin a mandate to prioritise the acquisition of players that have genuine grit/mongrel, speed, foot skills, and the ability to play more than one position. Above all else we need players who have a bit of razzle dazzle.

11. Make Walsh captain. Charlie and Weitering vice captains.
 
Simple, make football the number 1 focus no matter what. Anyone on the board who interferes with football being the number 1 or diminishes from football excellence for any non related football matters is to be removed.

1 question is to be followed, will this improve our football? If the answer is no I don't want to hear about it.

The other thing is we wear the navy blue jumper, we never wear any other jumper under any circumstances
The problem I have with this perspective is that when it gets to the specific questions about what is interfering with footy, often times - and I'm not trying to put words in your mouth here; you would have your own opinions about these things - what you receive as an answer is Carlton Respects, supporting the Voice plebicite, supporting gay marriage and Pride round or indigenous rights.

The Carlton football club has to operate in this society, and these are issues that are important in a societal context. Deciding not to participate in them on the basis that we're a football organisation portrays us negatively to the wider world, which leads to consequences both financial and social: businesses choose not to sponsor us because of bad press, members or supporters choose not to renew their memberships or to support other sports or teams because they no longer see themselves reflected in the club. Players opt out of playing for us, because we do not support inclusiveness or other things they care about.

To what extent are you going to ignore these areas, if this is your position?
 
The problem I have with this perspective is that when it gets to the specific questions about what is interfering with footy, often times - and I'm not trying to put words in your mouth here; you would have your own opinions about these things - what you receive as an answer is Carlton Respects, supporting the Voice plebicite, supporting gay marriage and Pride round or indigenous rights.

The Carlton football club has to operate in this society, and these are issues that are important in a societal context. Deciding not to participate in them on the basis that we're a football organisation portrays us negatively to the wider world, which leads to consequences both financial and social: businesses choose not to sponsor us because of bad press, members or supporters choose not to renew their memberships or to support other sports or teams because they no longer see themselves reflected in the club. Players opt out of playing for us, because we do not support inclusiveness or other things they care about.

To what extent are you going to ignore these areas, if this is your position?
Shame you forgot the most important bit.
 
I would tell the rest of the board to stop bloody meddling and start protecting our football department from all the blood lusting vultures in the Melbourne bubble.
 
Really well detailed post, impressive

1. Immediate football department meeting, with senior players included. Development of a 3 year plan to change the culture of the football team, including:
If we are wanting cultural change, should we involve every player, or maybe everyone at the club?

I find that giving everyone a voice, empowers them to embrace an agreed vision, even though you may not implement their suggestion

  • immediate 360 degree review; leading teams style
Reviews should be ongoing, not just when not delivering on expectations

  • establishment of cultural standards and indicators;
All organisations have them, any suggestions?

  • commitment to people: no more players on the list who have been written off, no more thinking of people as placeholders or seeing htem in contract terms, but genuine investment in player development. Each player (right up to 32 year old Ed Curnow) to have individual development plans and a core mentor to coach them to that place. Every coach, physio, bootstudder to also have an individual development plan
Commitment to people is about honesty and transparency. If players are or aren't being selected, it should be on consistent messaging.

I believe players now have tailored fitness/recovery plans.

  • commitment to focusing on helping people succeed, rather than papering over weaknesses.
Hopefully we are also investing in developing them to be better people, so they become better teammates.

Succeeding is a result, investment in people will drive them to be better on and off field

  • Development of a new game plan and strategy based on our current strengths.
What do you believe our list strengths are, what do you believe our gameplan should look like

  • Offseason: on-going work with leading teams or another group to develop the leaderhsip skills of our team
Agreed

Probably more here: it is hard to judge this element from the outside and without the 360 degree feedback
Very true

but changes to our leadership approach, development of people, and strategy/gameplan are clearly needed.
There we are, development of people

2. Immediately go tot he AFL and renegotiate our stadium deal, with a single home ground. 9 home games at MCG minimum, 2 at Docklands (or reversed, I don't really care), but ensuring we have a clear home base rather than our current 'play everyone at their preferred venue' arrangement
Sound idea, I would prefer the MCG. Tells our supporters, we want you all at tge game, as members, not just supporters

3. Longer term: review of the board, with a focus on getting away from business people and bloody finance guys, and getting representation from people who can actually lead the type of culture described above.
Great culture can be developed, lead, by all types. Teachers, finance, operations, HR, etc. Let's not limit it to just football people

4. Review every non football role for purpose and redefine roles for the future. Institution of strict merit-based, transparent applciation processes for ALL roles (no more jobs for the boys anywhere in the club).
All roles, everyone

5. Alongside 4: reduction in the number of physical/assistant coaches, and a heavy investment in data and analytics, including the use of AI specialists. Aim to have the highest investemnt in football data/analytics of any club in the league. Support the head coach with more individual development coaches, perhaps a general head of strategy (rather than forwards/midfield/defenders), etc.
Rather than targeting the best people or practices, let's target the "right people and methods" it's an important difference

6. Invest heavily in getting past successful/champion players invovled in mentoring the current playing group. Aim for a 1-1 volunteer mentoring program that involves both on-field, off-field, and post-career mentoring for all players and staff.
As above, just target the right person that drive consistent methods

I could probably think of more, but that's my starting point. The big concern is cultural change and development of people, and that probably takes 6 months at least.

Like your ideas, hope you post more. Really well measured
 
Really well detailed post, impressive


If we are wanting cultural change, should we involve every player, or maybe everyone at the club?

I find that giving everyone a voice, empowers them to embrace an agreed vision, even though you may not implement their suggestion


Reviews should be ongoing, not just when not delivering on expectations


All organisations have them, any suggestions?


Commitment to people is about honesty and transparency. If players are or aren't being selected, it should be on consistent messaging.

I believe players now have tailored fitness/recovery plans.


Hopefully we are also investing in developing them to be better people, so they become better teammates.

Succeeding is a result, investment in people will drive them to be better on and off field


What do you believe our list strengths are, what do you believe our gameplan should look like


Agreed


Very true


There we are, development of people


Sound idea, I would prefer the MCG. Tells our supporters, we want you all at tge game, as members, not just supporters


Great culture can be developed, lead, by all types. Teachers, finance, operations, HR, etc. Let's not limit it to just football people


All roles, everyone


Rather than targeting the best people or practices, let's target the "right people and methods" it's an important difference


As above, just target the right person that drive consistent methods



Like your ideas, hope you post more. Really well measured


I'm not nearly as adept at splitting quotes, but to respond to some of the above:

- ultimately cultural change would involve the whole club and all the players. I meant just getting leaders in for the initial plan, if only because planning anything with 45+ people is tricky. Would love to see the players given the chance to opt in to be part of leading that process though

- I believe West Coast have an independent review every second year, regardless of ladder position. That would be good practive and would like to see something similar put in place for us. Could maybe alternate football department then off-field reviews every second year or something

- I think the cultural expectations and indicators need to be developed by the group. We may have already done so: if so, they are either a) the wrong standards, or b) not being met. That's probably something we can all agree on...

List strenghts and gameplan: complicated, but to keep it simple, list strengths are key position players across all lines, midfield depth (not necessarily CP winning... we have dropped there, but we have aLOT of general midfielders), and defenders with the capacity to be aggressive.

Strategy: to keep it simple, play to our strengths. We have lots of mids, somulate some of Collingwood and rotate mids more, playing less total time but running more aggressively in bursts (Saad could also make a fun Daicos off half back if given the same licence to just go wherever he wants). Change the attacking structure (the advantage of great key forwards is getting them one-out 1/6 times inside 50, not booting it to them in a 1 on 3 every time you go inside - kick to Owies on a lead 60m out and to midfielders wide and to a thousand options first, then hit up Charlie when the defence is scrambling). Double down on size up forward with Cripps changing roles and playing a lot more forward, perhaps similar to Martin at Richmond with licence to start at FF, read his opponent and then either stay there or play as an extra midfielder. Less worry about the defensive side of things (I think a lot of our current problems stem from over-emphasising this).

Not much else to add, except to emphasise the importance of development. Even recently we've been head-hunting and targetting from teh outside (Cook, Russell, etc) rather than developing our own people. Cook was successful in one specific environment at Geelong: is he the guy to transform Carlton? Even he needs to learn, grow and develop to have any success given how different we are to Geelong, and there are plenty of examples of people being very succesful at one club and awful at another (see: Mick Malthouse). The same goes for every single player on the list. Maybe we should have a 2 year moratorium on ANY head-hunting, ANY jobs for the boys, and just have merit based processes where we ask people to think about what they can bring, then figure out how to make our people the best, rather than always hoping for the saviour from outside...

This also makes me rethink my position on Voss to some extent (which I've been pretty vocal about...). I still think the current team is the worst-coached Carlton team of my lifetime. And yet... I can't really on the one hand want him sacked, and on the other be saying we should be focusing on developing. Part of the cultural shift might be giving coaches and everyone else time to fail, even if it is failing spectacularly badly.

Our current gameplan, for example: it might be the worst I've ever seen. But perhaps I should be more forgiving of Voss and crew: if this was developed pre-season, it is incredibly hard to change on the fly, and maybe we can learn from this and allow time for the pendulum to swing back the other way. A lot of the frustration now is that our team is SO talented and really not playing terribly... but so broken in terms of structure that we can dominate the game, dominate the inside 50s and lose by 5 goals... that shouldn't be impossible to flip and suddenly it all works again... perhaps hopefully...

(Alongside this: I don't think Voss needs a senior mentor... I think he needs a junior one, somone with radical and stupid and crazy ideas like playing Dow as the ruckman or whatever, who can help us be the next innovative team...).
 
I'm not nearly as adept at splitting quotes, but to respond to some of the above:

- ultimately cultural change would involve the whole club and all the players. I meant just getting leaders in for the initial plan, if only because planning anything with 45+ people is tricky. Would love to see the players given the chance to opt in to be part of leading that process though
I think it's important to give everyone a voice, amazing ideas come from an underrated source

- I believe West Coast have an independent review every second year, regardless of ladder position. That would be good practive and would like to see something similar put in place for us. Could maybe alternate football department then off-field reviews every second year or something
They do indeed, an internal review then an external review the following year

- I think the cultural expectations and indicators need to be developed by the group. We may have already done so: if so, they are either a) the wrong standards, or b) not being met. That's probably something we can all agree on...
Footy non-negotiables so to speak, but it needs to be broader to drive our brand on and off field

List strenghts and gameplan: complicated, but to keep it simple, list strengths are key position players across all lines, midfield depth (not necessarily CP winning... we have dropped there, but we have aLOT of general midfielders), and defenders with the capacity to be aggressive.

Strategy: to keep it simple, play to our strengths. We have lots of mids, somulate some of Collingwood and rotate mids more, playing less total time but running more aggressively in bursts (Saad could also make a fun Daicos off half back if given the same licence to just go wherever he wants). Change the attacking structure (the advantage of great key forwards is getting them one-out 1/6 times inside 50, not booting it to them in a 1 on 3 every time you go inside - kick to Owies on a lead 60m out and to midfielders wide and to a thousand options first, then hit up Charlie when the defence is scrambling). Double down on size up forward with Cripps changing roles and playing a lot more forward, perhaps similar to Martin at Richmond with licence to start at FF, read his opponent and then either stay there or play as an extra midfielder. Less worry about the defensive side of things (I think a lot of our current problems stem from over-emphasising this).
All really good options, and it can be hard to find the right mix quickly or on the fly. A positional, a role change within your own area, even a mindset change by tge coach/players can improve output dramatically

But, there needs to be non-negotiable acts, things we nurture, others we won't tolerate as a group

Not much else to add, except to emphasise the importance of development. Even recently we've been head-hunting and targetting from teh outside (Cook, Russell, etc) rather than developing our own people. Cook was successful in one specific environment at Geelong: is he the guy to transform Carlton? Even he needs to learn, grow and develop to have any success given how different we are to Geelong, and there are plenty of examples of people being very succesful at one club and awful at another (see: Mick Malthouse).
Cook also had a successful tenure at WC. Great people should be able to walk into any environment and make them great too.

The same goes for every single player on the list. Maybe we should have a 2 year moratorium on ANY head-hunting, ANY jobs for the boys, and just have merit based processes where we ask people to think about what they can bring, then figure out how to make our people the best, rather than always hoping for the saviour from outside...
I prefer to back people if they have the right mindset, again, based around buy in

This also makes me rethink my position on Voss to some extent (which I've been pretty vocal about...). I still think the current team is the worst-coached Carlton team of my lifetime. And yet... I can't really on the one hand want him sacked, and on the other be saying we should be focusing on developing. Part of the cultural shift might be giving coaches and everyone else time to fail, even if it is failing spectacularly badly.
Unfortunately, it's the coach that has to wear the adulation and criticism depending results. This is where he as well as others need to be open to robust discussions

It's not about blame, it's about improving points of difference

Our current gameplan, for example: it might be the worst I've ever seen. But perhaps I should be more forgiving of Voss and crew: if this was developed pre-season, it is incredibly hard to change on the fly, and maybe we can learn from this and allow time for the pendulum to swing back the other way. A lot of the frustration now is that our team is SO talented and really not playing terribly... but so broken in terms of structure that we can dominate the game, dominate the inside 50s and lose by 5 goals... that shouldn't be impossible to flip and suddenly it all works again... perhaps hopefully...

(Alongside this: I don't think Voss needs a senior mentor... I think he needs a junior one, somone with radical and stupid and crazy ideas like playing Dow as the ruckman or whatever, who can help us be the next innovative team...).
It really is a fine lime. Before the start of 2022, I was confident the brand Voss wanted to install, contested, clearance game as our basic

Voss knew he needed to transition to a turnover game, but the implementation hasn't been successful.

He now needs to find the right levers within in the group, but while he does, there has to be 2 basic areas that don't require talent.

Pressure without the ball (tackle, pressure, smother, etc, cause the turnover), workrate with the pill (teammates being an option for the player with the ball)
 

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Culture is eroded pretty quickly when some players are held to a higher standard than others.

And that is totally in the domain of the coaches and match committee.


Sent from my iPhone using BigFooty.com
 
Send someone to the tuck shop with a couple hundred bucks and they can come back with greasy bags full of food with extra chicken salt (that is the key part to all of this). Send someone else to empty the cisterns, freezers, under floorboard and any other usual safekeeping place. Fill the greasy bags with what was in the safekeeping place and hand them out to the top players and coaches, all while eating what was bought at the tuck shop....simples.
 
The problem I have with this perspective is that when it gets to the specific questions about what is interfering with footy, often times - and I'm not trying to put words in your mouth here; you would have your own opinions about these things - what you receive as an answer is Carlton Respects, supporting the Voice plebicite, supporting gay marriage and Pride round or indigenous rights.

The Carlton football club has to operate in this society, and these are issues that are important in a societal context. Deciding not to participate in them on the basis that we're a football organisation portrays us negatively to the wider world, which leads to consequences both financial and social: businesses choose not to sponsor us because of bad press, members or supporters choose not to renew their memberships or to support other sports or teams because they no longer see themselves reflected in the club. Players opt out of playing for us, because we do not support inclusiveness or other things they care about.

To what extent are you going to ignore these areas, if this is your position?
You are looking for smoke that isn't there. I mean EVERYTHING. Drinks, social gatherings, functions, we go back to a pure football team.

Our membership would grow even faster if we won a flag........

PS I run a successful business and have "some" idea how growth works.
 
You are looking for smoke that isn't there. I mean EVERYTHING. Drinks, social gatherings, functions, we go back to a pure football team.

Our membership would grow even faster if we won a flag........

PS I run a successful business and have "some" idea how growth works.
There was a question embedded in my post: what specifically do you view as not football operations?

What specifically do you think we're doing that we shouldn't be doing, which you think a return to football as the primary focus will fix?

Until you answer that question, I'm looking for that fire. If there's a hint of an agenda - regardless of your business acumen - I'm out.
 
There was a question embedded in my post: what specifically do you view as not football operations?

What specifically do you think we're doing that we shouldn't be doing, which you think a return to football as the primary focus will fix?

Until you answer that question, I'm looking for that fire. If there's a hint of an agenda - regardless of your business acumen - I'm out.
Anything that is not football. I am talking about the football department / players. Football first, second, and third...........

Appearances, sponsors, anything. Skills, gameplan, scenarios, that is all they would be doing.

The rest of the club can handle causes, marketing, etc etc.

I want the players to know exactly what they should be doing in any given situation. I honestly don't think that is the case right now.

One other thing, I would never ever wear a radically different jumper again. No white, no light blue, no colours.

We are the navy blues. It's an attitude and mindset thing. You pull on the navy blue it means something. At the moment we are diluting it
 
Hmm, are you sure you have the correct market research?
I think appealing to you on the basis of your morals is the wrong approach. Would you disagree?
Anything that is not football. I am talking about the football department / players. Football first, second, and third...........

Appearances, sponsors, anything. Skills, gameplan, scenarios, that is all they would be doing.

The rest of the club can handle causes, marketing, etc etc.
Without seeking to belabour the point further, you've not identified anything in here to illustrate what you mean, beyond the sort of press/marketing all players from all clubs undertake.

I appreciate that you want to put footy first, but that necessitates that we're currently putting other things first.
I want the players to know exactly what they should be doing in any given situation. I honestly don't think that is the case right now.
Fair enough.
One other thing, I would never ever wear a radically different jumper again. No white, no light blue, no colours.

We are the navy blues. It's an attitude and mindset thing. You pull on the navy blue it means something. At the moment we are diluting it
Completely agree.
 
I operate under a strong moral compass. I will give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you weren't insiuating that I have few or no morals.
Not at all. Just, when your argument is that you put footy first - ahead of all else - it suggests that morals are perhaps one of those things that should be abandoned or at least considered less important.

Ergo, appealing to your morals is perhaps not the argument you'd be most receptive to.
 
Not at all. Just, when your argument is that you put footy first - ahead of all else - it suggests that morals are perhaps one of those things that should be abandoned or at least considered less important.

Ergo, appealing to your morals is perhaps not the argument you'd be most receptive to.
Two things can be true. Morals and football can coexist. Just because I say football first in the current context of how we are travelling doesn't mean abandon all morals...

You are clever enought to know that. Don't try and railroad me to suit what you want to be true
 
Two things can be true. Morals and football can coexist. Just because I say football first in the current context of how we are travelling doesn't mean abandon all morals...

You are clever enought to know that. Don't try and railroad me to suit what you want to be true
I am sorry if I have offended you. It was not my intent when I penned either post.
 

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