News Lethers Gone

[Mowman]

North Melbourne made some poor decisions during Ben Buckley’s five-year reign as president but parting ways with Carl Dilena at the end of a messy 2019 season stands out as among the most inexplicable.

Appointed as chief executive by Buckley’s predecessor James Brayshaw seven years earlier after then-Geelong CEO Brian Cook was courted but ultimately declined the role, Dilena had been a Kangaroos board member for more than a decade who saw an opportunity and departed his senior partnership at KPMG to move full-time into football.

Caroline Wilson has called out St Kilda's 'disharmony' as Ross Lyon's side battle a form slump.
During his regime, North Melbourne eradicated its hefty long-term debt, which had almost brought the club to its knees, signed a lucrative deal with the Tasmanian government-owned TT-Line to play home games in Hobart, and won the right to field a foundation AFLW team – appointing the highly regarded Laura Kane to oversee the debutantes.
Significantly, too, Dilena invested extra funding into a football department that had been operating lean. During his seven years at the helm and with Brad Scott as coach, North made the finals three times for two top four finishes.
Since his exit the Kangaroos have finished 17th once and 18th twice and look headed for their fourth consecutive bottom two season.
Dilena seemingly paid the price for his handling of Scott’s difficult final 18 months. After Scott’s controversial departure early in the 2019 season, club director and Shinboner of the Century Glenn Archer had a major say in a series of key football decisions and the collective view was that Dilena had not been adequately robust. Suffice to say those who oversaw his exit also oversaw the start of a much bigger shambles.
His replacement Ben Amarfio resigned after three years. Since Scott, five different senior coaches have mentored the struggling team and the challenge of rebuilding the Kangaroos has been taken up by Sonja Hood, Jen Watt and a still fragile Alastair Clarkson.
Dilena returned to the AFL community late last year when new St Kilda boss Simon Lethlean brought him in as his second-in-command at the Saints. Interestingly, Dilena narrowly missed out on the top administrative job at Essendon, despite some strong industry recommendations and being heavily backed by new coach Scott. President David Barham selected Craig Vozzo instead.
Now Dilena has emerged as an intriguing player in the administrative puzzle spreading from head office to a handful of AFL clubs. Hawthorn are actively seeking a new chief executive to replace Justin Reeves and at least one other club should soon be in a similar position, given Andrew Dillon’s belief that his new executive requires a senior operator with club experience.
Even if Brendon Gale does not leave Richmond to join Dillon at the AFL, there are a number of other CEOs in that queue, while Cook made it clear his time at Carlton would probably be limited to the term of his three-year contract, which ends next year.
But the most intriguing remains the current scenario at Moorabbin, where Ross Lyon has brought in his own team and taken over the football operation while voicing increasing frustration with the football situation he inherited.

Despite denials from both men, it is clear that the relationship between the new senior coach and his CEO Simon Lethlean is not working as well as it should be.
Significantly Lethlean – before being promoted to the top job – ran the football department which was significantly pruned and reshuffled, first by the new incumbent Geoff Walsh and further by Lyon after Walsh quit.

The Lyon-Lethlean situation needs to be resolved and president Andrew Bassat – who flexed his muscle for the first time last year in standing up to the football department over the pursuit of Jordan De Goey and by bringing in Lyon to replace Brett Ratten – must play the pivotal role. The Saints have endured too much pain for too long to leave disharmony between its two key people unattended.
Although Lethlean has been adamant that he has moved on from the football role, Lyon’s preference is for a CEO who allows the football operation to run largely independently. Asked about murmurs of friction between the pair, Lyon told a press conference this week: “There’s been some change and with change, I wouldn’t say there’s unhappiness, but sometimes not everyone’s comfortable with change.
“But from my end and Simon’s end, we’re fine ... I haven’t had one raised word with Simon since I’ve been here. That’s the truth.”

Lyon’s frustrations as the Saints have struggled on the field after a bright start to 2023 seems matched by the deficiencies in the list he inherited, and which he has now charged list manager Stephen Silvagni and talent boss Graeme Allan with rebuilding.

Lethlean has played down interest in the Hawthorn job, where he has significant connections, but he has been sounded out for the role.

At a time when the industry is bemoaning the lack of next-generation administrative talent it would be extraordinary if the Hawks had not approached Dilena – who carries a reputation of having a hands-off approach to his senior coach and empowering his staff.

The company line is that Dilena – Ross Lyon’s teammate for two years at Fitzroy – is relishing his return to football and happy in his current role as St Kilda’s chief operating officer. But should Lethlean move, Moorabbin has the ideal replacement waiting in the wings.

Thanks S4

Remember reading this when it was published

Caro was on to it early

 

[stavro#4]

 

[stavro#4]

These sensational headlines are hilarious.

“Lyon sees off Lethlean”

 

[beside the seaside]

Interesting that Dilena and Lyon played together at Fitzroy.

 

[tomjoad]

How do you get to be a part of the pm group?

Oh it's quite simple really. You start your own PM group, claim intellectual superiority whilst advertising the fact that you are alienating the masses due to feeling vilified for your insider knowledge, and then obtusely refuse to invite the other competing PM groups to join.

 

[Diehard Saint]

My only concern would be that Lethlean’s departure hurts our relationship with his AFL mates.

Dont know him but could do worse than having Dilena get the gig on a permanent basis.

Well this relationship never exactly helped us though..
unlike Sonya Hood and North.
(damn diversity hires, hey Joffaboy )

 

[Diehard Saint]

How can you not love a mixed metaphor?

“Smoke and mirrors behind the shadow” - T.Cloke - still takes some beating.

 

[George]

Is the full interview of Bassat by the liquor licencing expert out somewhere? Or are we just going to be fed snippets?

 

[Mowman]

Is the full interview of Bassat by the liquor licencing expert out somewhere? Or are we just going to be fed snippets?

Yes it was on 9 news

i watched it in full

 

[The Cobra]

I’m a big RTB fan and he needs to be backed 100%. Having said that he isnt the Club and still needs to be managed and sometimes told we will do it a different way or that’s a dumb idea - we’re not doing that. You get into dangerous territory if RTB thinks he can hold the Club to ransom

I just wonder who is going to do the management - doubt his mate Misson can do it and that shouldn’t be the role of the President on a day to day basis, Hopefully Dilena has the support of the President to do it if necessary as Lethlean clearly didn’t have that support.

Again I love RTB and everything he has brought to the Club in the last 12 months but I think he would be a very difficult man to manage!

 

[George]

 

[Mowman]

Nice work Boss

 

[George]

Nice work Boss

Get the full interview would ya big shot, talked a big game now let's see it in action

 

[stavro#4]

 

[jwikked]

Bassatt on channel 9 saying relationship between Lyon and Lethers was an issue

Morris kinda goes to town painting an issue that Ross is power hungry.

Bassatt says Ross doesn’t want control of the club and if he tried it wouldn’t end well

I can't help but think back to that email about 3 or 4 years ago, the one Bassatt sent out to members mid year. The one saying things weren't working and everyone including himself needed to ask themselves if they were getting the best out of themselves every day. He singled himself out. For a long time I felt like that was all talk, but I think he's finally walking the walk with his rhetoric. I don't know why it took so long, but it feels like from the moment Ratten was sacked, he's absolutely been focused on one thing - St Kilda winning games of footy.

Stuff like Lethlean being sacked and the large turnover should be a major red flag, but I feel like this is Bassatt saying if you're not focused - you're out.

This is the most faith I've had in the club in a very long time. I don't care if it's a boys club of Ross Lyon's mates.. The guy isn't hiring his mates because he wants them to hang out and do nothing. He wants to surround himself with others who will give 110%. Finally.

 

[jwikked]

I’m a big RTB fan and he needs to be backed 100%. Having said that he isnt the Club and still needs to be managed and sometimes told we will do it a different way or that’s a dumb idea - we’re not doing that. You get into dangerous territory if RTB thinks he can hold the Club to ransom

I just wonder who is going to do the management - doubt his mate Misson can do it and that shouldn’t be the role of the President on a day to day basis, Hopefully Dilena has the support of the President to do it if necessary as Lethlean clearly didn’t have that support.

Again I love RTB and everything he has brought to the Club in the last 12 months but I think he would be a very difficult man to manage!

I get the feeling now that Bassatt would literally sack Lyon tomorrow if it was the best move for the footy club. He's not there for clout, he's there to move the club forward.

 

[StCicatriz]

For those that can't read it:

Simon Lethlean and St Kilda “agreed to part ways” after the club made it clear it wanted the chief executive to steer clear from the football department.
The Saints announced the split with the former club football boss on Thursday, after Lethlean had been frozen out of the football department since Ross Lyon’s return as coach in October, 2022.

St Kilda appointed Lethlean to the CEO job before enacting drastic change to the club in a bid to put football first.

The Saints said on Thursday the chief executive’s role had “shifted” and Lethlean’s hopes of straddling both the business and football side of the club were taken away.

The Saints have not begun the search for a new CEO yet, with chief operating officer and former North Melbourne chief executive Carl Dilena to step in as interim.

Dilena played alongside Lyon at Fitzroy in the late 1980s and early 90s.

Simon Lethlean and Saints coach Ross Lyon. Picture: Michael Klein
It’s understood that Lethlean and Lyon never worked particularly closely together but also didn’t butt heads in any meaningful way.

The Saints believed the pair worked amicably but Lethlean was forced further away from the football department and the role he envisaged in 2022.

Lethlean became the latest figure to depart St Kilda after a lengthy review in 2022 that most notably saw coach Brett Ratten sacked.

SHIFTING SAINTS​

Notable staff ins and outs at St Kilda since Brett Ratten’s sacking

OUT
-Brett Ratten (senior coach) – left October, 2022
-James Gallagher (list manager) – December, 2022
-Geoff Walsh (head of football) – January, 2023
-David Rath (head of football) – March, 2023
-Nick Walsh (head of performance and conditioning) – May, 2023
-Chris Toce (national recruiting manager) – December, 2023
-Jarryd Roughead (recruiting) – January, 2024
-Simon Lethlean (CEO) – January, 2024

IN
-Carl Dilena (chief operating officer, now interim CEO) – arrived October, 2022
-Ross Lyon (senior coach) – October, 2022
-Robert Harvey (assistant coach) – October 2022
-Brendan Goddard (development, now assistant coach) – November, 2022
-David Misson (performance and conditioning, now general manager of football) – November, 2022
-Stephen Silvagni (list manager) – January, 2023
-Graeme Allan (head of talent) – January, 2023
-Alex Sakadjian (head of performance) – May, 2023

Two heads of football came and went and the recruiting team has been largely replaced since Lyon moved back in to Moorabbin.

Old colleagues of Lyon, such as list manager Stephen Silvagni and current footy boss David Misson, were all brought in before last season.

Lethlean acknowledged the club had shifted to a different direction in a club statement released on Thursday.

Lethlean has left the club after being pushed further away from the football department. Picture: David Crosling
“The club has a new coach and a new strategy and I have agreed with the president that it is time for the club to seek a new CEO,” he said.

St Kilda president Andrew Bassat also pointed to the 2022 review, which pushed the Saints to zero in on winning games as the club’s clear priority and led to a change in roles within the club.

“The club has undergone significant changes as a result of the 2022 football program review which highlighted the need to elevate our football department and place football at the heart of everything we do, which we hope will see St Kilda competing for premierships before too long,” Bassat said.

“Simon and the board share the view that a new CEO would be best placed to take the club forward.”

Ross Lyon addressed talk of a rift with Lethlean last year. Picture: Quinn Rooney/Getty Images
Bassat declined to comment further when contacted by this masthead.

The chief executive’s departure came just over a week after the Herald Sun revealed noses were out of joint about St Kilda planning to charge the Danny Frawley Centre fees.

He was gone eight days later but Saints insiders pushed back on the timing of his departure being anything more than a coincidence and that discussions had been ongoing with the board about Lethlean’s future.

Lyon addressed talk of a rift between him and Lethlean in July.

“Clearly when I’ve been transitioning into the club, there has been a new regime in football,” he said then.

“There has been some change and with change, I wouldn’t say there is unhappiness but sometimes not everyone is comfortable with change.

“From my end and Simon’s end we are fine. We have common friends and people professionally we have worked with.”

In October, Lethlean said there had been “some robustness” in the relationship.

“I’m a one-year CEO, and I’m learning more from Ross and how he wants to run football than I’m sure he’s learning about how to run a footy club,” Lethlean said then.

Carl Dilena. Picture: Mark Stewart

WHO COULD REPLACE LETHLEAN?​

St Kilda has not begun its process yet to replace Simon Lethlean, with chief operating officer Carl Dilena now in the interim CEO role.

The Saints likely haven’t even created a criteria for the role but these are some names within the industry who could eventually land on the club’s long list.

Carl Dilena – The interim CEO held the same role at North Melbourne for six years and led a financial turnaround at Arden Street. The Saints has reduced its debt levels in recent years but has some way to go. Dilena knows the club as chief operating officer and played with Ross Lyon at Fitzroy. “Without a doubt, Carl has helped set us up for an exciting future with a level of stability and strength that we’ve never had before,” then Roos chairman Ben Buckley said upon Dilena’s departure.

Kylie Rogers – No doubt Rogers would be on the St Kilda long list but she turned down Hawthorn’s interest for the same position last year. Rogers said in March she has ambitions to be the boss of the AFL one day and stuck fat at league HQ even when Andrew Dillon was appointed over her to be Gillon McLachlan’s successor.

Giles Thompson – Former CEO of Racing Victoria, Thompson was touted as going deep in Hawthorn’s CEO search.

Steve Rosich – Another name thrown up from the Hawthorn search, Rosich is the boss of the Victoria Racing Club and was the chief executive of Fremantle. Rosich was at the Dockers when Ross Lyon was coach and departed the club at the same time as the coach, in 2020.

Other names to watch: Sue Clark (Western Bulldogs), Simon Lloyd (Geelong)

Rosich is a ****in clown

 

[StCicatriz]

Bassatt on channel 9 saying relationship between Lyon and Lethers was an issue

Morris kinda goes to town painting an issue that Ross is power hungry.

Bassatt says Ross doesn’t want control of the club and if he tried it wouldn’t end well

I've got a different take on this.

Ross can only extend his reach and occupy areas where there is very little opposition for him to move into them.

So let's just go with idea that Ross is this power hungry, controll all aspects of the club type of person. In order for Ross to extend his reach beyond senior coach he needs to have very little opposition when he does that.

In other words Ross can't be doing that if the areas he's trying to move into are well run and the people in them are respected. Because those people will make him either look stupid or they have enough respect from everyone that people will rightfully tell Lyon to back off.

So if Ross is over stepping it means the people he's stepping on have under performed and they're vulnerable to someone like Lyon walking all over them.

So going back to lethlean I find it highly ****ing amusing that the guy who oversaw a failed football dept is sounding like hes pissed off that he can't have involvement with the footy dept.

****in hurrah!!!! Common sense finally kicked in here. The further lethers is removed from the footy dept the better off we are.

Gags as list boss was a duckin master stroke.

Trying to promote him even further to be joint head of footy was even better.

 

[StCicatriz]

I can't help but think back to that email about 3 or 4 years ago, the one Bassatt sent out to members mid year. The one saying things weren't working and everyone including himself needed to ask themselves if they were getting the best out of themselves every day. He singled himself out. For a long time I felt like that was all talk, but I think he's finally walking the walk with his rhetoric. I don't know why it took so long, but it feels like from the moment Ratten was sacked, he's absolutely been focused on one thing - St Kilda winning games of footy.

Stuff like Lethlean being sacked and the large turnover should be a major red flag, but I feel like this is Bassatt saying if you're not focused - you're out.

This is the most faith I've had in the club in a very long time. I don't care if it's a boys club of Ross Lyon's mates.. The guy isn't hiring his mates because he wants them to hang out and do nothing. He wants to surround himself with others who will give 110%. Finally.

I think bassat backed in the guys that were already there and they sold him up the river and made him look stupid.

Go back and look at the communication and it's horrendous. One moment we've fixed everything and we are going to be challenging. The next we never thought we were challenging and we need a full review to get back on track.

It's seriously bad.

Since bassat has been more hands on there's been more change and more expectation. We don't seem to be ruling out excuses or chest beating that we are about to be successful. Seems to be about action now.

 

[StCicatriz]

I get the feeling now that Bassatt would literally sack Lyon tomorrow if it was the best move for the footy club. He's not there for clout, he's there to move the club forward.

Agree with this entirely

 

[StCicatriz]

Some of the media rheteoic is hilarious...

The reason why so many people have been moved on is because we stalled as a footy club.

We are boutique footy club out of Melbourne with 1 flag in 150 years. Shit ain't going to happen by playing it safe and going with this stability bullshit finnis wanted.

We need to be brave and make changes that cary risk. Change is the only way we are getting a flag.

 

[jwikked]

I think bassat backed in the guys that were already there and they sold him up the river and made him look stupid.

Go back and look at the communication and it's horrendous. One moment we've fixed everything and we are going to be challenging. The next we never thought we were challenging and we need a full review to get back on track.

It's seriously bad.

Since bassat has been more hands on there's been more change and more expectation. We don't seem to be ruling out excuses or chest beating that we are about to be successful. Seems to be about action now.

Great point. He backed them in to do more, and they didn't do it. Makes perfect sense.

 

[Sully111]

Ross Lyon wants to deliver St Kilda a premiership. I have zero doubt that is 100% his focus.

It's the same with Bassat.

I feel we have two extremely capable, driven, focused individuals driving our club.

I love it.

 

[George]

Just reading that article about this in The Age - gotta say it's odd to hear a CEO complain that his role wasn't more focused on football - that's not the role of a CEO (Which is also funny to then see the hate Finnis gets for not being focused on football, lmao).

No idea why Lethers wanted to be involved in the footy dept as CEO, perhaps he's actually the power hungry one. Upset that his vision of the structure of the footy dept didn't match what actually footy dept people had in mind.

Had a good laugh at the first line of the article too. "Powerful coach Ross Lyon", lmao. Media trying their best to paint Ross as the shot-caller of all things St.Kilda. Surely Ross had a say in this, but Bassat wouldn't get pushed around by someone underneath him. I think Bassat trusts RTB tremendously and they probably have regular chats about the club. Not to mention Jason Blake

Jason Blake

Age

43

Ht

189cm

Wt

91kg

Pos.

Def

Career

Season

Last 5

D

13.2

3star

K

6.3

2star

HB

6.8

4star

M

4.9

5star

T

2.0

4star

No current season stats available

D

8.6

3star

K

5.4

2star

HB

3.2

3star

M

2.8

3star

T

2.2

4star

is on the board now - played under RTB so you'd expect they talk regularly too.

Wouldn't be at all surprised if Lethers was going outside of his role to monitor the footy dept to the dislike of Lyon and co. Immediate resignation usually points to some conflict.

Ross Lyon had no say in CEO exit, St Kilda president explains

St Kilda president Andrew Bassat has explained the decision to part ways with chief executive Simon Lethlean, saying senior coach Ross Lyon had “no agency” in that decision.

www.theage.com.au

 

[Winmar2Lockett]

Ross Lyon wants to deliver St Kilda a premiership. I have zero doubt that is 100% his focus.

It's the same with Bassat.

I feel we have two extremely capable, driven, focused individuals driving our club.

I love it.

It’s refreshing isn’t it.

The rest of the competition won’t know what hit em.


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