Delisted Former CEO Xavier Campbell - Resigned - 24/8

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An interesting point that's been raised is that the AFL actually can't afford a top CEO. I think Gil was on around $1.8m, that's closer to $1m with the COVID hit. It's one of the highest profile CEO gigs in Australia given the media scrutiny, but it's not paid that way because the business just isn't that big. Top CEOs in Australia are earning double - triple what Gil does, and they're not leaving that to come run the AFL and get smashed to pieces by the media every day.

P/L in the AFL is a joke compared to most other companies. He doesn't have to fight to get people to spend money, obviously COVID aside.

Whilst Gils role is generally expansive the P/L generally takes care of itself hence he probably doesn't deserve for cash.
 
X has done an amazing job financially for Essendon.

He has managed to grow the member base to 80k + when we haven't won a final in ******* 16+ years. Not to mention we are debt free. That is impressive.

He should be judged far more on the financial position of the club more so than wins and losses.
 

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Oct 22, 2008
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19,556
Geelong
AFL Club
Essendon
X has done an amazing job financially for Essendon.

He has managed to grow the member base to 80k + when we haven't won a final in ******* 16+ years. Not to mention we are debt free. That is impressive.

He should be judged far more on the financial position of the club more so than wins and losses.
This s**t again
 
I mean we're not debt free anymore either but 🤫

obviously...........we are building another building..............

i meant he got us out of debt from the drug saga.
 
obviously...........we are building another building..............

i meant he got us out of debt from the drug saga.
The building is actually the reason the bottom line is black. At the end of 2020 it had brought in more money in donations than had been spent on it, offsetting the losses resulting from the pandemic. The bottom line would otherwise have been very, very red – and we don't have the building yet.

 
The building is actually the reason the bottom line is black. At the end of 2020 it had brought in more money in donations than had been spent on it, offsetting the losses resulting from the pandemic. The bottom line would otherwise have been very, very red – and we don't have the building yet.


yes i know.


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i'm confused at what your getting at Lore?. Do you think X hasn't done a good job in a financial sense?
 
X has done an amazing job financially for Essendon.

He has?

He has managed to grow the member base to 80k + when we haven't won a final in ******* 16+ years.

If he is responsible for growth to 80k, he's also responsible for the 20k drop that followed it.

Not to mention we are debt free. That is impressive.

No we aren't.

He should be judged far more on the financial position of the club more so than wins and losses.

Wrong. If he wants to be judged on financial position become a CFO.
 

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yes i know.


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i'm confused at what your getting at Lore?. Do you think X hasn't done a good job in a financial sense?
No I'm saying that your statement that we're debt free (and have 80k members) is 12 months out of date. :)

You can make your argument but it should be based in fact.
 
He has?



If he is responsible for growth to 80k, he's also responsible for the 20k drop that followed it.



No we aren't.



Wrong. If he wants to be judged on financial position become a CFO.

Man there are hard people to please in here......do you want X to be part of game day planning or something?

the loss of members (well over half AFL clubs total lost membership %) + the debt we currently have can easily and probably mainly attributed to COVID.

Since X took over as CEO we have steadily increased membership and been in a strong financial position year on year since the drugs saga.
 
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No I'm saying that your statement that we're debt free (and have 80k members) is 12 months out of date. :)

You can make your argument but it should be based in fact.

I was clearly and deliberately not taking 2020 into account which was largely impacted by COVID......thought that was obvious......for obvious reasons..........

COVID clearly affected our Bottom line, Like every single professional and non professional sport on planet earth.....It also clearly impacted our Membership numbers........Both of which X has little control over........If we as a supporter base are having a go at X because of a drop off in 2020 than we need our heads read.

Lets get down to it, if people want to blame X because we play like garbage go for it, who am I to stop them. He has no control over game day tactics nor the list. There are other people that should be on the block for that, some thankfully have already left. You can have a go at X for the coach selections but he doesn't make Zach Merrett give s**t defensive efforts, he also doesn't make James Stewart drop marks and miss piss easy set shot goals, i'm also pretty Sure Xavier Campbell doesn't keep selecting Zacha after repeated s**t games.
 
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Man there are hard people to please in here......do you want X to be part of game day planning or something?

No, I most certainly DO NOT want him involved in game day planning. In fact, I want him to NOT be involved in the football department AT ALL except in an oversight capacity; because it was HIS meddling that led us in to the ridiculous coaching structure we saw when Neeld was there, HIS ego that saw the exit of an extremely talented man in Rob Kerr.

the loss of members (well over half AFL clubs total lost membership %) + the debt we currently have can easily and probably mainly attributed to COVID.

No, it can't. If Covid was the cause, the drop would be uniform across teams - it is not.

And NO our debt is NOT first and foremost covid related. Seriously dude, how much do you actually know about the club?

Since X took over as CEO we have steadily increased membership and been in a strong financial position year on year since the drugs saga.

MOST clubs have steadily increased membership at scale.

How strong a financial position do you think we're in? Define it.
 
He has no control over game day tactics nor the list.

Wrong.

WRONG WRONG WRONG.

Christ...

Xavier is involved in list management - the committee reports to him for god sake.

He was also responsible for the abortion of a coaching structure that saw a one to one reporting tree - something any CEO worth s**t is aware is a bad idea.

Stop speaking man.
 
No, I most certainly DO NOT want him involved in game day planning. In fact, I want him to NOT be involved in the football department AT ALL except in an oversight capacity; because it was HIS meddling that led us in to the ridiculous coaching structure we saw when Neeld was there, HIS ego that saw the exit of an extremely talented man in Rob Kerr.



No, it can't. If Covid was the cause, the drop would be uniform across teams - it is not.

And NO our debt is NOT first and foremost covid related. Seriously dude, how much do you actually know about the club?



MOST clubs have steadily increased membership at scale.

How strong a financial position do you think we're in? Define it.

Financial Report seems OK to me. Considering 2020.
 
Wrong.

WRONG WRONG WRONG.

Christ...

Xavier is involved in list management - the committee reports to him for god sake.

He was also responsible for the abortion of a coaching structure that saw a one to one reporting tree - something any CEO worth sh*t is aware is a bad idea.

Stop speaking man.

i didn't mean list management specifically i meant the game day list.

If Xavier Campbell is the one selecting Zacka to firsts when he's playing garbage than ok. There something wrong there.

I'll ask again, define it. What makes our financial position strong?

I'm no accountant. But we made a profit (including 1.2m loss in members) whilst securing grant funding to build. Considering 2020 was a shitful year where we sacked something like 35% pf the staff, I wouldn't say we are in a BAD financial situation.

Maybe my definition of strong is different to yours and certainly not something id be happy to get rid of the bloke for, but you clearly have a different opinion which is fine. This is Australia not the CCCP after all.
 
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Maybe my definition of strong is different to yours and certainly not something id be happy to get rid of the bloke for, but you clearly have a different opinion which is fine.

Alrighty, here's the thing.

When you say, 'I like Xavier as CEO', ok, that's an opinion. I might not agree with it, but fine.

When you get asked WHY you think that way, here's where you hit a brick wall of lunacy.

"We aren't in debt" - Factually wrong.

"Xavier isn't responsible for footy" - Factually wrong. In fact, he's been TOO involved in the footy department.

"He got membership to 80k" - Ok, not factually wrong, but it implies that he's responsible for membership. Is he? Would think Rodski was the main man there, but even IF you assume that Xavier can be credited for its increase, he then logically needs to be blamed for its calamitous collapse as well.

"Oh but Covid caused it" - No it didn't. Oh sure, it contributed to the industry wide loss of revenue and downturn in memberships, but Essendon's drop was SIGNIFICANTLY above most other clubs. Why is that? I'll offer a clue, because the team is rubbish, people got sick of hearing 'learnings' etc etc.

You get it? I don't have a problem with you having an opinion. I have a problem with the fact that what you say to support your opinion is just flat out incorrect.
 
Alrighty, here's the thing.

When you say, 'I like Xavier as CEO', ok, that's an opinion. I might not agree with it, but fine.

When you get asked WHY you think that way, here's where you hit a brick wall of lunacy.

"We aren't in debt" - Factually wrong.

"Xavier isn't responsible for footy" - Factually wrong. In fact, he's been TOO involved in the footy department.

"He got membership to 80k" - Ok, not factually wrong, but it implies that he's responsible for membership. Is he? Would think Rodski was the main man there, but even IF you assume that Xavier can be credited for its increase, he then logically needs to be blamed for its calamitous collapse as well.

"Oh but Covid caused it" - No it didn't. Oh sure, it contributed to the industry wide loss of revenue and downturn in memberships, but Essendon's drop was SIGNIFICANTLY above most other clubs. Why is that? I'll offer a clue, because the team is rubbish, people got sick of hearing 'learnings' etc etc.

You get it? I don't have a problem with you having an opinion. I have a problem with the fact that what you say to support your opinion is just flat out incorrect.

I clearly said to LORE previously that when I was backing Xavier I didn't largely focus on 2020 because of the year it was. I was focusing on what he had done from the Drugs Saga to 2019.

But, you are paraphrasing a bit much here.......

I never blamed COVID for everything, like you are clearly trying to make out, I said it had affected membership + financials. I did not say its the SOLE reason.

In regards to membership specifically, this is my problem with your take. He's responsible for the failings but not the positives? Disagree with that approach. in 2020 there were SEVERAL clubs that reported approx -10% loss in membership numbers. 3 clubs total reported -20% which were Sydney Melbourne & Essendon. There are of course other reasons why members would walk away, of which 'm saying the main reason would likely be COVID related.

We are allowed to disagree though man........going to let it go though because this is a bit of a roundabout discussion.

No matter who you replace at the top, its not going to stop the players themselves playing like rubbish.
 
I was clearly and deliberately not taking 2020 into account which was largely impacted by COVID......thought that was obvious......for obvious reasons..........

COVID clearly affected our Bottom line, Like every single professional and non professional sport on planet earth.....It also clearly impacted our Membership numbers........Both of which X has little control over........If we as a supporter base are having a go at X because of a drop off in 2020 than we need our heads read.

Lets get down to it, if people want to blame X because we play like garbage go for it, who am I to stop them. He has no control over game day tactics nor the list. There are other people that should be on the block for that, some thankfully have already left. You can have a go at X for the coach selections but he doesn't make Zach Merrett give sh*t defensive efforts, he also doesn't make James Stewart drop marks and miss piss easy set shot goals, i'm also pretty Sure Xavier Campbell doesn't keep selecting Zacha after repeated sh*t games.
Your argument on each of those points is not with me. Pointing out a flaw in your argument doesn't mean I am the personification of every criticism anyone ever levelled at Xavier Campbell, and I'm not going to defend those arguments on that basis either.

I think it's important when making a judgement about his performance that we are appraised of the facts, both what he is responsible for, and exactly what happened in the areas he is responsible.

A CEO doesn't get credit for everything good that his underlings do and then when it turns to s**t it was someone else's responsibility. Either he's fully responsible, good and bad, or he's not. And if he's not then that's not good enough.
 

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