Delisted Former CEO Xavier Campbell - Resigned - 24/8

[Vander18]

I have a link in my favourites somewhere that has the wayback machine to the old staff listing it's more and more useless these days

Have you read the book 'Boys Club' by Mick Warner? Cripes/

I have - it’s a great read.

Of course Gil was playing VAFA footy with and against all these boys back in the early 90’s.

 

[Vander18]

It's increasingly hard not to be entirely cynical these days.

What I don’t understand is who benefits from X getting rich (other than X)? How does the Board benefit from his ongoing failure?

Never dismiss incompetence but Brasher isn’t that….so why has this happened?

 

[rumply]

What I don’t understand is who benefits from X getting rich (other than X)? How does the Board benefit from his ongoing failure?

Never dismiss incompetence but Brasher isn’t that….so why has this happened?

X's off field results achieving above & beyond what Brasher & Co have expected? Dunno, not much else makes sense.

 

[Lore]

X's off field results achieving above & beyond what Brasher & Co have expected? Dunno, not much else makes sense.

Could be the old misreported salary that's so common in the AFL, where they include all the potential bonuses as an "up to" figure.

 

[owen87]

Could be the old misreported salary that's so common in the AFL, where they include all the potential bonuses as an "up to" figure.

If it was a choice between paying XC $850k a year or him taking up an AFL job, we should have waved him goodbye

 

[Beerfish]

If it was a choice between paying XC $850k a year or him taking up an AFL job, we should have waved him goodbye

And kept paying him (reduced obviously)

 

[BrunoV]

What I don’t understand is who benefits from X getting rich (other than X)? How does the Board benefit from his ongoing failure?

Never dismiss incompetence but Brasher isn’t that….so why has this happened?

It's a form of inflation.

You approve the garbage to normalise it.

 

[DERO]

What I don’t understand is who benefits from X getting rich (other than X)? How does the Board benefit from his ongoing failure?

Never dismiss incompetence but Brasher isn’t that….so why has this happened?

Brasher.

 

[Jade]

What I don’t understand is who benefits from X getting rich (other than X)? How does the Board benefit from his ongoing failure?

Never dismiss incompetence but Brasher isn’t that….so why has this happened?

Because Paul Little is still the controlling force at EFC.

 

[Lore]

Because Paul Little is still the controlling force at EFC.

Father in law isn’t it?

 

[Beerfish]

Father in law isn’t it?

Little is Brashers father in law?

 

[Vander18]

Because Paul Little is still the controlling force at EFC.

This has occurred to me.

Interesting.

 

[yodellinhank]

Little is Brashers father in law?

Took him to see Dustin Fletcher's first game when Brasher got back from the honeymoon. Think we played University.

 

[rumply]

 

[Great8]

Get this fraud out of our club

 

[Nifft]

If we can afford to pay one guy 850K per year, why can't we afford a decent VFL program?

I'm surprised that the pay for upper management doesn't come under some sort of soft cap. We have to cut back on coaching staff but can pay any amount at all for a CEO? Makes a mockery of all the cut backs that have happened over the last couple years.

 

[Lore]

If we can afford to pay one guy 850K per year, why can't we afford a decent VFL program?

I'm surprised that the pay for upper management doesn't come under some sort of soft cap. We have to cut back on coaching staff but can pay any amount at all for a CEO? Makes a mockery of all the cut backs that have happened over the last couple years.

The clubs aren't franchises though, they're independent sporting clubs (mostly NFP I think) that came together to form a league, and eventually admitted a couple of additional clubs later on (in terms of Gold Coast and GWS I think they're both almost entirely funded by the AFL except where sponsorship fills the gap).

Pretty much everything is independent from the AFL except for the AFL owning the trademarks on the Essendon FC name and the Bombers logo, the AFL is a co-employer of all the players, and negotiates the players' collective bargaining agreements on behalf of the clubs, and the AFL then pays the entire salary cap. For some clubs the AFL also appoints or approves their board members and has veto power over decision making as part of the loans some clubs took out during the pandemic. For the rest of the proud old clubs that were born of our communities and joined together to created the VFL (rather than being created by the VFL), independence of decision making is sacrosanct and subject only to the club's own governance procedures in accordance with the club's constitution and the assent of the voting membership.

And then because they are all independent, they all have different structures and different expenses – we had an eSports team, we have a wheelchair team and The Long Walk partnership, plus our community programs for the JHA and in the Tiwis. We have a VFL program and AFLW and VFLW programs, as do most other clubs, although Richmond got rid of their VFLW team during the pandemic and some are aligned to a VFL or VFLW club rather than running their own program, which is cheaper. Collingwood and GWS have Super Netball teams. Some of the other clubs have wheelchair footy (like us), and blind footy (which we don't have). Clubs also have different facilities that have different requirements, a hall of fame or a cafe or whatever else. We share ours with Western United and Paralympics Australia. Some have pubs and pokies, others don't.

As much as I don't necessarily like the decisions that the club makes, I sure as s**t don't want any further interference from the AFL than is necessary in the interests of being able to field a team in the competition. They don't own us. And I don't think the AFL would be that interested in micromanaging all of the different interests of various clubs and deciding how much a CEO can earn dependent on how many different projects their clubs are involved in. It would just be a bit silly in the end, their ambition outstrips their competence. They have enough to deal with anyway with the clubs already signed up to the AFL's micromanagement.

 

[boncer34]

Tbh Lore I think that's a very rose coloured view of a clubs independence from the AFL.

Over the last decade, for example, I doubt we've scratched our ass as a club without checking with them first.

 

[citizen-erased]

for a club that tweets when someone at the club sneezes I find this hard to believe.

I imagine they knew it wouldn't be a popular move given the context but the timing of Xavier's contract expiring likely required it to be done when it was.

But own it ffs. It's ok they believe he is the best CEO for the club.
It's the nature of it. Has anyone even confirmed it? News came out as a leak.

 

[CBombers17]

'Slipped through the cracks' isn't something we want to hear from Essendon. Let alone from the ex-governance guy from a certain saga period.

Good news is that Its just more bullshit talk which is ok at the club these days apparently.

 

[Vander18]

for a club that tweets when someone at the club sneezes I find this hard to believe.

I imagine they knew it wouldn't be a popular move given the context but the timing of Xavier's contract expiring likely required it to be done when it was.

But own it ffs. It's ok they believe he is the best CEO for the club.
It's the nature of it. Has anyone even confirmed it? News came out as a leak.

Well if you take the tweet at face value then Paul Brasher has confirmed it in the email within.

 

[Lore]

Tbh Lore I think that's a very rose coloured view of a clubs independence from the AFL.

Over the last decade, for example, I doubt we've scratched our ass as a club without checking with them first.

I think we're talking about different things. The original conversation is about whether the AFL can mandate how much we should pay our CEO. Which they can't, because we aren't Gold Coast where the AFL owns our arse, or Norf, where we signed on to let them own our arse while we pay back our pandemic debts.

The other issue you're talking about is soft power, the AFL's CEO swinging their dick around and persuading club presidents to do things that are not necessarily in the best interests of their respective clubs in order mostly to manufacture an outcome that makes the AFL look good. That is a different discussion and one that I think I've been pretty outspoken about when it's been the central topic of the discussion.

I think you can see both things playing out at Essendon at different times, sometimes our Presidents have made decisions that the AFL liked, and other times we've told them to go f*ck themselves (which hasn't necessarily worked out well, but they couldn't stop us).

 

[rumply]

'Slipped through the cracks' isn't something we want to hear from Essendon. Let alone from the ex-governance guy from a certain saga period.

Good news is that Its just more bullshit talk which is ok at the club these days apparently.

Yes, this just doesnt cut it in any possible way give the joints recent history.

 

[Lore]

Yes, this just doesnt cut it in any possible way give the joints recent history.

In terms of an announcement being put out about it that's up to the digitals department to write it up anyway. I'm more concerned with the contract extension itself slipping through to the keeper and not being thought through in the context of KPIs or where the season is at currently, rather than whether the digitals team managed to tell us about it in a timely manner.

 

[Vander18]

In terms of an announcement being put out about it that's up to the digitals department to write it up anyway. I'm more concerned with the contract extension itself slipping through to the keeper and not being thought through in the context of KPIs or where the season is at currently, rather than whether the digitals team managed to tell us about it in a timely manner.

I imagine the club intentionally chose not to announce…..as opposed to the digital team neglecting to do so.