News Lethers Gone

[The Cobra]

Too much evidence exits that points to him being asleep at the wheel in his first 4 years.

Agree he was reactive at the 4 year mark.

What we can hope now is that he's giving the job more of his time and can be in it for the long haul and that history proves his and Lyon's partnership was hugely successful.

Any chance of positivity old son?

 

[Cairnsman]

Any chance of positivity old son?

I'm a long time Saints man, what is this positivity you speak of Pops?

 

[pebblesofsand]

Too much evidence exits that points to him being asleep at the wheel in his first 4 years.

Agree he was reactive at the 4 year mark.

What we can hope now is that he's giving the job more of his time and can be in it for the long haul and that history proves his and Lyon's partnership was hugely successful.

I think you misunderstand the respective roles of the Chair, the Board and the CEO.

 

[Sully111]

What else did you expect them to say after re-contracting someone?

To Bassat’s eternal credit, when the season went to s**t in the back half of 2022 he didn’t sit on his hands & say ‘oh well, we just gave the bloke a new deal, we need to stick with him now’.

The decision to make them all look like fools took some serious balls.

Winging it? Bullshit. He did the exact opposite.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Exactly

 

[The Cobra]

I'm a long time Saints man, what is this positivity you speak of Pops?

Saints clearly not good then for your well being - u need another interest - try Lego

 

[Mowman]

Saints clearly not good then for your well being - u need another interest - try Lego

He is a as Carlton supporter apparently lol

 

[StCicatriz]

What else did you expect them to say after re-contracting someone?

To Bassat’s eternal credit, when the season went to s**t in the back half of 2022 he didn’t sit on his hands & say ‘oh well, we just gave the bloke a new deal, we need to stick with him now’.

The decision to make them all look like fools took some serious balls.

Winging it? Bullshit. He did the exact opposite.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

i think back half of 2022 he was more hands on. but prior to that i think he was too hands off.

 

[StFly]

I think you misunderstand the respective roles of the Chair, the Board and the CEO.

I think he only understood CEO and wondered what dining ornaments have to do with the discussion otherwise.

 

[Cairnsman]

I think you misunderstand the respective roles of the Chair, the Board and the CEO.

Pretty certain I understand how the governance of a successful board should function. A key feature is a well developed and implemented monitoring and reporting system that reports in a timely manner.

Reporting to members a premiership window was opening one minute and then savagely restructuring the club in the next minute kind of suggests Bassat was clueless as to what was happening outside of the boardroom in his first 4 years.

That's ok, by his own admission he was a reluctant prez and as such it would appear he had to go through a steep learning curve of how to manage an elite sporting club. Part of that learning curve was learning how much more of his own time would be needed to be applied to the role. Most of these board positions are taken on for status and personal gain and so you can have a theatre going type board in the AFL.

Hopefully he's now upgraded the monitoring and control processes to avoid making the same mistake...and as I say, giving more time to the role.

 

[pebblesofsand]

Pretty certain I understand how the governance of a successful board should function. A key feature is a well developed and implemented monitoring and reporting system that reports in a timely manner.

Reporting to members a premiership window was opening one minute and then savagely restructuring the club in the next minute kind of suggests Bassat was clueless as to what was happening outside of the boardroom in his first 4 years.

That's ok, by his own admission he was a reluctant prez and as such it would appear he had to go through a steep learning curve of how to manage an elite sporting club. Part of that learning curve was learning how much more of his own time would be needed to be applied to the role. Most of these board positions are taken on for status and personal gain and so you can have a theatre going type board in the AFL.

Hopefully he's now upgraded the monitoring and control processes to avoid making the same mistake...and as I say, giving more time to the role.

Not sure you do though - Bassat and the board have been active ever since he became President.

The difference now is that Bassat is more involved in the running of the club than any other President we've had before.

Which is all good if it gives us a premiership, but if it doesn't then maybe people will be asking why the Board effectively gave Bassat absolute control.

As for "premiership windows", I'm pretty certain he said it would start in a particular year, not be delivered in a particular year.

I'm one of the few who said our list last year was good enough to not only make the 8, but to actually challenge for Top 4.

Didn't pan out that way but given our list and the further improvements over the last couple of years, the window is clearly ajar.

Now its all up to Lyon since Bassat has bet the house on him delivering a flag.

 

[gringo2011]

He is a as Carlton supporter apparently lol

I can only just be bothered giving Saints fans the shits, where does he get the energy for two. He's like that dude that had 2 families. You'd have to be a ****ing nutter.

 

[SaintsSeptember]

Saints clearly not good then for your well being - u need another interest - try Lego

It doesn't work, would you believe there used to be a lego stop motion version of the Saints vs Cats 2009 GF. Complete with bloody Chapman.

 

[Cairnsman]

Not sure you do though - Bassat and the board have been active ever since he became President.

The difference now is that Bassat is more involved in the running of the club than any other President we've had before.

Which is all good if it gives us a premiership, but if it doesn't then maybe people will be asking why the Board effectively gave Bassat absolute control.

As for "premiership windows", I'm pretty certain he said it would start in a particular year, not be delivered in a particular year.

I'm one of the few who said our list last year was good enough to not only make the 8, but to actually challenge for Top 4.

Didn't pan out that way but given our list and the further improvements over the last couple of years, the window is clearly ajar.

Now its all up to Lyon since Bassat has bet the house on him delivering a flag.

You seem to contradict your self and be a little wishy washy in your belief.

Have another read of what you wrote and see if you agree.

 

[Teflon]

Love this Bassett comment from the article …made me laugh


“everything I’ve seen from Ross Lyon suggests he likes people who are really good at their job and work hard. He doesn’t like people who don’t. He doesn’t care whether you’re his friend,” Bassat said.

 

[beside the seaside]

I think in hindsight (and to be fair some people definitely called this out) a lot of Lethers' ideas were fools gold.

He went about getting people in that had won flags because apparently they knew what it takes. So Ratten, Roughhead, Lade, Hanners, they were going to come and change the standards and show what it takes to win a flag.

The reality is it just doesn't work like that. There are plenty of amazing professionals that havent won flags and there are guys that coasted that won them. And even if you're a pro it doesn't mean you can motivate a group of young players to do the same. It's more complex.

We needed him to be able to call out substandard practices but he couldn't which the review proved. He was in charge of a football department that still had substandard practices going on. He obviously shouldn't have been made CEO but he was, but that's basically what was happening at the club, people just got promoted and it was only when Lyon came that we started questioning whether some of the appointments were justified. Thus why we've seen such a high turnover of positions.

 

[Cairnsman]

There are plenty of amazing professionals that havent won flags and there are guys that coasted that won them. And even if you're a pro it doesn't mean you can motivate a group of young players to do the same. It's more complex.

And it's much, much more complex than just "setting standards" which seems to be this mass psychosis type belief amongst the Lyon disciples and that "setting standards" was always the only missing ingredient

Way too simplistic, almost moronic in its simplicity and much more complex than just "setting standrds".

 

[beside the seaside]

And it's much, much more complex than just "setting standards" which seems to be this mass psychosis type belief amongst the Lyon disciples and that "setting standards" was always the only missing ingredient

Way too simplistic, almost moronic in its simplicity and much more complex than just "setting standrds".

Obviously it's more complex than that but if you have poor professional standards you don't have the basis of success. Without them you're pushing shit uphill.

 

[ScrappyDo]

And it's much, much more complex than just "setting standards" which seems to be this mass psychosis type belief amongst the Lyon disciples and that "setting standards" was always the only missing ingredient

Way too simplistic, almost moronic in its simplicity and much more complex than just "setting standrds".

I'm pretty sure people get that. It's not so "complex" really.

 

[Cairnsman]

Obviously it's more complex than that but if you have poor professional standards you don't have the basis of success. Without them you're pushing s**t uphill.

Players, players and more players. A coach is pushing it even harder without em.
Lyon had standards at Freo but he had a win rate of 33% in his final 4 years and that was at the end of 7 years.

Players make coaches, it's not the other way around, Lyon would admit that after 7 years at Freo.

It's very early days in this rebuild.

 

[pebblesofsand]

Players, players and more players. A coach is pushing it even harder without em.
Lyon had standards at Freo but he had a win rate of 33% in his final 4 years and that was at the end of 7 years.

Players make coaches, it's not the other way around, Lyon would admit that after 7 years at Freo.

It's very early days in this rebuild.

I don't agree with the idea of a "rebuild" - finished 6th last year with only half a team for the first part of the season.

Picked up quality players in the draft and through trades, another year with Lyon, so finals at a minimum, but should be aiming at Top 4 this year.

 

[Cairnsman]

I don't agree with the idea of a "rebuild" - finished 6th last year with only half a team for the first part of the season.

Picked up quality players in the draft and through trades, another year with Lyon, so finals at a minimum, but should be aiming at Top 4 this year.

Fair enough but I think we were favoured by an incredibly easy draw and had results by teams around us on the ladder help us just fall into the 8 and then we were exposed by GWS as being a fair way off the pace at the pointy end.

I'd suggest a top 4 finish is a stretch for where we are at in our rebuild.

 

[sammm]

I think in hindsight (and to be fair some people definitely called this out) a lot of Lethers' ideas were fools gold.

He went about getting people in that had won flags because apparently they knew what it takes. So Ratten, Roughhead, Lade, Hanners, they were going to come and change the standards and show what it takes to win a flag.

The reality is it just doesn't work like that. There are plenty of amazing professionals that havent won flags and there are guys that coasted that won them. And even if you're a pro it doesn't mean you can motivate a group of young players to do the same. It's more complex.

We needed him to be able to call out substandard practices but he couldn't which the review proved. He was in charge of a football department that still had substandard practices going on. He obviously shouldn't have been made CEO but he was, but that's basically what was happening at the club, people just got promoted and it was only when Lyon came that we started questioning whether some of the appointments were justified. Thus why we've seen such a high turnover of positions.

Personally, I think he didn't do a good job as football manager, however as ceo I think he did. Sponsorship is full 2 or 3 years in a row. Debt is coming down. That I think is his job.

 

[Imtellingya]

Personally, I think he didn't do a good job as football manager, however as ceo I think he did. Sponsorship is full 2 or 3 years in a row. Debt is coming down. That I think is his job.

But don’t forget he had a good COO under him who has also been a CEO at North Melbourne. He would easily have had Lethlean covered in all these areas.

 

[ScrappyDo]

I think in hindsight (and to be fair some people definitely called this out) a lot of Lethers' ideas were fools gold.

He went about getting people in that had won flags because apparently they knew what it takes. So Ratten, Roughhead, Lade, Hanners, they were going to come and change the standards and show what it takes to win a flag.

The reality is it just doesn't work like that. There are plenty of amazing professionals that havent won flags and there are guys that coasted that won them. And even if you're a pro it doesn't mean you can motivate a group of young players to do the same. It's more complex.

We needed him to be able to call out substandard practices but he couldn't which the review proved. He was in charge of a football department that still had substandard practices going on. He obviously shouldn't have been made CEO but he was, but that's basically what was happening at the club, people just got promoted and it was only when Lyon came that we started questioning whether some of the appointments were justified. Thus why we've seen such a high turnover of positions.

Obviously I'm in the pro Lethers camp, but even l called at the time that he would use us to climb back up the corporate ladder again, which is exactly what he did. It's just the nature of the beast and I'm not bothered by it.

What he got right was our list was garbage and our pick no1 Full Forward was on a short ticket to retirement.
His call to select Max over Rozee reset our clock and from that moment and people should have known we are starting again.
He got good people into development and turned over the footy dpt and the list.

Fast forward 5 years, he's made it into the top job. He didn't want Ratts resigned and we'd made overtures to Cripps for replacing Gags which puts paid to much of the arguments against him. (Supporters are fickle. Nearly all on this board cheered Ratts extension on the back of a hot streak. I could name the half a dozen that didn't just follow like sheep)

You're right about the fools gold aspect, but it's mostly wilful self delusion of the desperate supporters. Lethers was smart enough not to make promises after they'd had to walk away from The Road to 2018, which was the great con job that people seem to have forgotten about.

He got to CEO which was his personal goal, but we're flush with talanted kids and all our seniors are proper footballers.
That's what a properly executed 5 year plan looks like.

RTB and Basset have the reigns now which we all hope is gonna pay dividends. But take a look at the list, sponsorship, membership and development. I'm just not sure what measures are being applied if this is considered failure.

IDGAF that Lethers is gone. Like the rest of them he'd served a purpose and his time was up. RTB is the right man for this time, but that will also pass. If you over invest again, then you'll be disappointed again.

 

[Saints43]

When it comes to rating Gallager as a List Manager it seems pretty easy to work out.

Go and have a look at the list when he joined in 2019:
St Kilda Playing List for 2019 - Draftguru

And compare it to the list when he left at the end of 2022:
St Kilda Playing List for 2023 - Draftguru

To me, the list is much better, in a very short period of time, after his involvement as the List Manager.