Elliott, son of John, considers Blues board bid

[Effes]

Elliott, son of John, considers Blues board bid

By Caroline Wilson
December 19, 2006

Tom Elliott, the son of former Carlton president John Elliott, is considering a challenge to the Blues board and has told friends he would not rule out standing for the club presidency.

 

[Silvagnis]

More good news from off field! :garthp:

A key agenda item for tonight's board meeting was to set a date for Carlton's next annual meeting - expected to be in March - which would mean the club's internal bickering could endure until the eve of the 2007 season.

Why don't they take the hint and realise they're hopeless and walk?

They've achieved nothing.

All they've done is divide the club in two after their embarassing efforts to sack Denis before squibbing like Houlihan and taking backward steps out of the pack.

It'll be pathetic and we'll be an even bigger laughing stock if this drags on for another three months.

 

[AlecDuncan]

Elliott, son of John, considers Blues board bid

Tom (or T.S.) Elliott has been a TV and radio regular around Melbourne for years (he often did an ABC Business Insiders piece, and you can hear him on 3RRR early on a monday morning). He is a smart, media-friendly and affable guy, with none of his dad's hubris - but he got the nose. He also runs his own hedging business (the financial kind, not the arboreal). He's young, but no younger than Eddie McGuire.

There's a good chance he can galvanise support from business leaders and also provide the charisma, and media-savvy a Carlton president needs.

 

[AlecDuncan]

Why don't they take the hint and realise they're hopeless and walk?

No point walking until someone else stands up, and the someone else is taking their sweet time.

 

[mediumsizered]

Has anyone kept count of how many different names have been thrown up as potential saviours in the last 3 months? How many of those names have been linked to Richard Pratt? From what I can make out, if the rumours are to be believed, Richard Pratt has now been linked to 3-4 'saviours'. Surely when his minders pick up the papers each day the first thing they have to look for is who poor old ******** is supporting this week.

You have enough guesses, you will eventually get it right. That seems to be Caro's theory, anyway.

 

[ShlomoGlickstein]

T.S Elliot on the Cartlon board? Can't they think of something a bit more CREATIVE than the son of a guy who put Carlton into it's WORST period in its ENTIRE history. If father-son rules are any indicator, I fear what good the son of a grand-'winner' who led a team so far down in the dumps for nearly a decade to bring any good to this club.

 

[HBF]

Lets not hope he runs to club into the ground like his old man did should get get onto the board and one day become Prez.

Watch the space people, watch this space.

 

[Moss Rocket]

Tom is a ripping bloke. Has his dad's positive attributes and none of his negative one's. A bit like all of John's kids. Tom is well educated, business savvy, very keen sportsman, presents well and speaks very well on radio.
I would be very happy to see this happen. There is a need for a youth injection at carlton. Fresh ideas. Watch out for a man with the initials DH in future times!

 

[AlecDuncan]

Lets not hope he runs to club into the ground like his old man did should get get onto the board and one day become Prez.

He's seems pretty down to earth. He's not the type to believe his own bull******** like his dad is.

 

[les22]

God on you Shlomo for your usual negative opinions Please support any other team Young Elliot seems to have the credentials for the job and if he can bring an end to this unfortunate period bring it on

 

[BlueFeaver]

This is one person though i could see Pratt backing, although I not sure he has enough experience leading people. The president needs to have a profile and be a strong dynamic leader who surrounds himself with excellent people. Smorgons problem is he is not very popular in general with anyone.

He has the profile but I don't know his leadership style or abilities.
I suppose though he would be better than what we have now, especially if he can attract people onto the board like Ahmed Fahour who's business experience must capitilized on ASAP for the better of our club.

 

[AlecDuncan]

Has anyone kept count of how many different names have been thrown up as potential saviours in the last 3 months?

I think it should be noted that this is the first time that someone has said they're actually prepared to run for president when asked.

 

[CharlieG]

If most of the club's debt is serviced by NAB (which Wilson said it was the other day) then the only context in which I could see Ahmed Fahour taking control of the club is following a period in receivership. It's a conflict of interest for him otherwise, I suspect.

 

[AlecDuncan]

If most of the club's debt is serviced by NAB (which Wilson said it was the other day) then the only context in which I could see Ahmed Fahour taking control of the club is following a period in receivership. It's a conflict of interest for him otherwise, I suspect.

Directors have other interests all the time - just look at the AFL board. Ron Evans head of Spotless Catering and chairman of the commission. Or the Myer board with Solomon Lew and Lindsay Fox. Most of the time these interests are convergent, rather than conflicting.

Ahmed Fahour is almost certainly not going to call the receivers in unless we start defaulting on interest payments, and then it wouldn't be his call anyway - what with the conflict of interest and all. I don't think we'll be defaulting on interest payments (as in won't happen ever).

There's an excellent chance that he would be elected as a director, but not much of him being president - that's just too big a committment for someone in his position. But either way, you don't get to head a company by winding it up.

 

[avid blue supporter]

T.S Elliot on the Cartlon board? Can't they think of something a bit more CREATIVE than the son of a guy who put Carlton into it's WORST period in its ENTIRE history. If father-son rules are any indicator, I fear what good the son of a grand-'winner' who led a team so far down in the dumps for nearly a decade to bring any good to this club.

Get real, Elliot may have to bear some responsiblity for what went on. But that jerk Collins and incompetent crew he brought with him completely f*cked up and compounded the problem by lying down on their backs with their legs in the air and coping what Vlad and his crew handed out, rather than fighting it to get a better deal for Carlton.

Collins was happy to cop it so that he could tip a big bucket on Elliot and Lofts so he could then work on his major objective getting Carlton to Telstra - he couldn't care less about the Club as long as he got them to Telstra. He also managed to alienate most of major supporters and financial backers, as well as driving most of our previous players away.

In addition, Collins was the one that gave Pagan the 2 year contract extension that Pagan hadn't asked for and couldn't sign quick enough and left Carlton with this bunch of absolute incompotents masquerading as a Board when he was finally shown the door.

I have said before, Elliot and Lofts may have had their bad points and created some problems for the Club at the end. However, they would have handled the situation much better and, I am sure would have negotiated a much better outcome. They also would have handled the ensuing situation better than Collins did.

For a start there is no way that they would have let Pagan gather that second rate bunch of duds that he did at the end of 2003. What did this get us? We managed to win 10 games in 2004 (big deal) and by the beginning of 2005 everybody had worked out what we were doing and simply sat on the few class players we had left. End result we finished last again.

Admittedly we picked up Murphy and Kennedy , but by finishing where we did in 2004, we missed out on Deledio and another gun pick, merely for the sake of Pagan shoring up his position. Elliot and Lofts would not have allowed this to happen.They would have gone for the early draft picks as soon as they became available. Pagan has been able to run rings around Collins and Smorgan and look where this has got us.

Anyhow that is all in the past and what is more important is the future. Don't tar Tom Elliot with his father's mistakes. From all intents he seems to be a fairly switched on character who has built a pretty good business from not much and also has the ear of plenty of movers and shakers in Melbourne.

Getting him on the Board along with Stephen Moulton and Mark Harrison will finally get us some real expertise and bring back people who have been long time supporters and backers of the club. It will finally start to unite us again.

Bring on the March elections and lets get this show back on the road again. Onwards and upwards for the mighty Blues!

 

[bluesfan]

Tom is a ripping bloke. Has his dad's positive attributes and none of his negative one's. A bit like all of John's kids. Tom is well educated, business savvy, very keen sportsman, presents well and speaks very well on radio.
I would be very happy to see this happen. There is a need for a youth injection at carlton. Fresh ideas. Watch out for a man with the initials DH in future times!

I strongly agree with your comments which are in bold. I believe that the board needs a big change and re-shuffle. I think president Smorgan has to go, same with CEO Malouf and a majority of the board-members and directors - but keep Kernahan and Gleeson. We need a board that believes in what it is doing, where it is going, it's direction and strongly believes in and has a good relationship with the coaching staff - especially the senior coach!!

 

[SMOO]

. A bit like all of John's kids. I would be very happy to see this happen. times!

Wouldnt say all of his kids, Ed is a bit of a tosser, him and his sister ran their business into the ground, with dads help of course. Left lots of outstanding employee benefits, ie super , leaving them out of pocket. If it was Ed i would say No. But i like Tom. Sounds very grounded and is great in his media runs. Impressive finacial stats there too.
A Big tick for me

 

[The Old Dark Navy's]

Get real, Elliot may have to bear some responsiblity for what went on. But that jerk Collins and incompetent crew he brought with completely f*cked up and compounded the problem by lying down with their legs in the and coping what Vlad and his crew handed out, rather than fighting it to get a better deal for Carlton.

With due respect, you can't sugar coat Elliott's contribution saying he must bear some responsibility while completely lambasting the CarltonOne ticket for how they did or didn't clean up the mess left for them. It's like making excuses for the murderer and being critical of the person mopping up the mess for not using the right kind of bleach.

Collins was happy to cop it so that he could tip a big bucket on Elliot and Lofts so that he could get Carlton to Telstra - he wanted nothing else. He also managed to alienate most of major supporters and financial backers, as well as driving most of our previous players away.

The first part is speculation. Maybe TD was a motivating factor but I think it is safe to say he wanted to right the sinking ship first and foremost. He is a Carlton man even more so than JDE IMO. How many games did Jack play for us? Most of our major supporters jumped when Elliott went down. The belts were being tightened, the players were stripped of their influence at the club and rebellion occurred. This will happen when you have to get under the cap suddenly and the gravy train has been derailed.

In addition, Collins was the one that gave Pagan the 2 year contract extension that Pagan hadn't asked for and couldn't sign quick enough and finally, left Carlton with this bunch of absolute incompotents masquerading as a Board when he was finally shown the door.

It was a new 3 year contract signed at the beginning of the final year of his first contract. It was a reduced contract, and was signed on the back of 10 wins in 2004 and a preseason flag in 2005. Normally, this is a sound business practice.

I have said before, Elliot and Lofts may have had their bad points and created some problems for the Club at the end. However, they would have in the end ben able to negotiate a better outcome and certainly would have handled the ensuing situation better than Collins did.

Maybe they would have handled the situation better. After all they knew where all the bodies were buried. Collins came in and went 'holy ********' when he saw the mess as it was worse than anticipated. 'May have had their bad points', 'created some problems'? We would never have been in this situation were it not for the last few years of the Elliott regime. The financial situation stemmed from there, the grandstand debt, the poor recruiting (we do not rebuild), loss of draft picks, the media attacks .... all from there.

For a start thereis no way that they would have let Pagan gather that second rate bunch of duds that he did at the end of 2003. What did this get us? We managed to win 10 games in 2004 (big deal) and by the beginning of 2005 everybody had worked out what we were doing and simply sat on the few class players we had left. End result we finished last again.

It's not as though Pagan traded away early draft picks to get recycled players. He inherited an aging, injured and mediocre bunch fresh off our first spoon and with his early draft picks stripped away. Few physically developed players to hold up to the rigours of AFL football. Some decisions were ordinary but none cost us any decent picks or players. NONE. Some believe we should be using picks in the 60s and 70s for young kids at the time. I wonder how many of those would have given us any service at all? It was a year for topping up and surviving, plain and simple.

In contrast, Carlton in the latter years of the Elliott era were busying themselves trading away early picks for players like O'Reilly and Devonport, picking up has-beens like McGuane, duds like Cranage. Pagan recruited to find a balance in age, strength and inexperience from a starting point of a bare cupboard and no draft picks. Parko and Britts working under Jack's no rebuilding decree, had a strong starting point and draft picks, and still ran the list into the ground. Pagan may have made mistakes in hindsight but he had his reasons and the circumstances weren't of his making.

Admittedly we picked up Murphy, but by finishing where we did in 2004, we missed out on Deledio and another gun pick, merely for the sake of Pagan shoring up his position. Elliot and Lofts would not have allowed this to happen.

Do you think Elliott and Lofts would have tanked in 2004 as well? Pagan gave a group of players an opportunity to realise their potential. They did ....... for one season only. It's not as though the crystal ball told us that Teague was going to play out a sensational season and then be woeful after that. Hindsight again .....

Anyhow that is all in the past and what is more important is the future. Don't tar Tom Elliot with his father's mistakes. From all intents he seems to be a fairly switched on character who has built a pretty good buisness from not much and also has the ear of plenty of movers and shakers in Melbourne.

I won't tar him but I am acutely aware of the stigma attached. It's a one shot deal. Get him on board and fail, everyone says we got what we deserved and the AFL will not be as interested in our survival.

 

[av76]

As I've state previously, given where we are in the pre-season, I am happy for Smorgon to stay until next september. the resignation of two directors opposed to him is good if it means the board is more unified...unlikely I know.

But if this challenge continues, what is the earliest if can be done? Can the challengers propose some extraordinary general meeting and have it done quickly...I vaguely recall the Tigers doing something like this. Seems crazy if it can't happen until March. Prefer nothing to happen but if they are going to do something, do it quick.

 

[SurreyBlue]

ODN, Collo signed Pagan up because he was ready to execute the 5 year plan. The problem was Collo was also willing to turn a blind eye when the going got tough and Pagan was left with the plan and no support.

Pagan has been hung out to dry to an extent but IMO anyone who agrees to such a "plan" deserves what's coming.

Collo only looked after himself and left CFC and Pagan out to dry. Never will forgive him for that.

 

[The Old Dark Navy's]

ODN, Collo signed Pagan up because he was ready to execute the 5 year plan. The problem was Collo was also willing to turn a blind eye when the going got tough and Pagan was left with the plan and no support.

Pagan has been hung out to dry to an extent but IMO anyone who agrees to such a "plan" deserves what's coming.

Collo only looked after himself and left CFC and Pagan out to dry. Never will forgive him for that.

Maybe you are right Surrey. I don't know so can't possibly comment. Whatever Collo has done pales into insignificance compared to Elliott however and that is my real contribution to this thread.

 

[bibi01]

wasn't pagan given a 3 year extension to his contract?

 

[The Old Dark Navy's]

wasn't pagan given a 3 year extension to his contract?

He signed on for another 3 years at the start of 2005, which in effect contracted him until the end of 2008.

 

[BlueWorld]

For a start there is no way that they would have let Pagan gather that second rate bunch of duds that he did at the end of 2003. What did this get us? We managed to win 10 games in 2004 (big deal) and by the beginning of 2005 everybody had worked out what we were doing and simply sat on the few class players we had left. End result we finished last again.

Admittedly we picked up Murphy and Kennedy , but by finishing where we did in 2004, we missed out on Deledio and another gun pick, merely for the sake of Pagan shoring up his position. Elliot and Lofts would not have allowed this to happen.They would have gone for the early draft picks as soon as they became available. Pagan has been able to run rings around Collins and Smorgan and look where this has got us.

John "we do not rebuild at Carlton" Elliott would have gone for draft picks? When did he ever do that? Recycled hacks at the expense of high draft picks is what got us into the mess we're in- Mcguane, O'reilly, Mansfield, McKernan etc. At least the recycled players we picked up in 2004 weren't at the expense of high draft picks- because Elliott's cheating had cost us those.

 

[Silvagnis]

Tom is a ripping bloke. Has his dad's positive attributes and none of his negative one's. A bit like all of John's kids. Tom is well educated, business savvy, very keen sportsman, presents well and speaks very well on radio.
I would be very happy to see this happen. There is a need for a youth injection at carlton. Fresh ideas. Watch out for a man with the initials DH in future times!

We have enough comedians on the Carlton board at the moment before we add Dave Hughes.