Opinion Jeff Kennett News, Media etc.

[Hawk Hawkins]

I want to know if he’s going to go full Trump when it’s time to leave.

 

[Mercy Seat]

I want to know if he’s going to go full Trump when it’s time to leave.

Carl spacker is going to go insurge Waverley

 

[Hodginator]

Gist?

Didn’t catch a lot of it but it looks like it’s online now.

Jeff Kennett addresses off-season changes, reports of a board spill and THAT letter to members

Hawthorn president Jeff Kennett was at his combative best on 3AW on Tuesday night, denying suggestions the Hawks had endured a tumultuous off-season, that a potential board spill was coming or that he had foreshadowed a big naming leaving the club with a letter to members. Kennett said he was...

www.3aw.com.au

 

[Rhayader]

Didn’t catch a lot of it but it looks like it’s online now.

Jeff Kennett addresses off-season changes, reports of a board spill and THAT letter to members

Hawthorn president Jeff Kennett was at his combative best on 3AW on Tuesday night, denying suggestions the Hawks had endured a tumultuous off-season, that a potential board spill was coming or that he had foreshadowed a big naming leaving the club with a letter to members. Kennett said he was...

www.3aw.com.au

Five minutes in and all the questions so far have been stupid/wrong ...

 

[Yardie]

WOW! We didn't have to pay out Clarko!

 

[Rhayader]

WOW! We didn't have to pay out Clarko!

That was interesting. Wonder if it's true ...

 

[KermitJagger]

Jeff actually handled this interview reasonably well. I wish he spoke like this most of the time.

I actually found his explanation of the board makeup quite reasonable and enlightening.

The questioning from Jimmy Bartel was particularly poor because he was putting words into Jeff's email that were not there, and I feel that he really shouldn't have been part of the discussions considering his role at GWS.

He also handled the questions related to the Clarkson/Sam coaching handover well. Didn't let McClure put words into his mouth around his relationship with Clarko.

It is a good reminder that Kennett can be a truly great media performer on occasion, he just needs to perform less.

 

[Off The Couch]

Jeff actually handled this interview reasonably well. I wish he spoke like this most of the time.

I actually found his explanation of the board makeup quite reasonable and enlightening.

The questioning from Jimmy Bartel was particularly poor because he was putting words into Jeff's email that were not there, and I feel that he really shouldn't have been part of the discussions considering his role at GWS.

He also handled the questions related to the Clarkson/Sam coaching handover well. Didn't let McClure put words into his mouth around his relationship with Clarko.

It is a good reminder that Kennett can be a truly great media performer on occasion, he just needs to perform less.

going to have to trust you on that - just as it is with Scott, I can’t listen to either of them talk anymore.

 

[macdaddio]

going to have to trust you on that - just as it is with Scott, I can’t listen to either of them talk anymore.

Was always a Jeff fan before, but since the way he treated a all time legend and the greatest coach our club has ever had in Clarko I am over his complete nonsense.
To top it off the way he comes out in his letter and starts a media frenzy with his comments on fans being prepared for some surprises come trade period.
Add to that his continual Twitter rants about the Andrews government.
I’m no Dan fan but he needs to just shut up !!!!

 

[KermitJagger]

going to have to trust you on that - just as it is with Scott, I can’t listen to either of them talk anymore.

Normally I have difficulty too but it actually seemed a lot more coherent than most of his recent efforts.

 

[Yardie]

Normally I have difficulty too but it actually seemed a lot more coherent than most of his recent efforts.

It is such a shame that the interviewers were poor. Jeff did handle them well but I felt there was a bit of rewriting history (I don't believe that we didn't have to pay out Clarko).

His Board allocation sounds great but what it does is makes sure that you can control who comes on board by saying a person doesn't meet the criteria of the vacant position (he was trying to imply that by ignoring the questions around Ian Silk). Yes there are some key positions you want covered but then you need to allow more general voices to ensure good decision making. I don;t think that we have that after listening to Jeff. I also think he will fight against Ian Silk after that interview, which would be disappointing.

Would have been great if one of them had done some homework and asked Jeff a question specifically about Ian Silk. "With Ian Silk putting his hand up for the Board, and his great experience running Australian Super Fund for the last X years, do you think it would be beneficial to have him appointed rather than say Simon Taylor, who is young but doesn't bring the experience that Ian would provide to the club?"

 

[KermitJagger]

It is such a shame that the interviewers were poor. Jeff did handle them well but I felt there was a bit of rewriting history (I don't believe that we didn't have to pay out Clarko).

His Board allocation sounds great but what it does is makes sure that you can control who comes on board by saying a person doesn't meet the criteria of the vacant position (he was trying to imply that by ignoring the questions around Ian Silk). Yes there are some key positions you want covered but then you need to allow more general voices to ensure good decision making. I don;t think that we have that after listening to Jeff. I also think he will fight against Ian Silk after that interview, which would be disappointing.

Would have been great if one of them had done some homework and asked Jeff a question specifically about Ian Silk. "With Ian Silk putting his hand up for the Board, and his great experience running Australian Super Fund for the last X years, do you think it would be beneficial to have him appointed rather than say Simon Taylor, who is young but doesn't bring the experience that Ian would provide to the club?"

It wasn't rewriting history, we definitely didn't have to pay out Clarko because he was the one who effectively ended his contract early. That said - it would have looked far worse for us if we didn't as it was already seen by most in the media fraternity (and this board) that he was pushed out, or sacked.

On the rest, Kennett definitely did downplay the challenge but without word from Silk or Gowers themselves there was very little for either Sam or Jimmy to go on. It would be conjecture that Kennett would be able to deal with as effectively as he did every other question in that interview.

 

[Yardie]

It wasn't rewriting history, we definitely didn't have to pay out Clarko because he was the one who effectively ended his contract early. That said - it would have looked far worse for us if we didn't as it was already seen by most in the media fraternity (and this board) that he was pushed out, or sacked.

On the rest, Kennett definitely did downplay the challenge but without word from Silk or Gowers themselves there was very little for either Sam or Jimmy to go on. It would be conjecture that Kennett would be able to deal with as effectively as he did every other question in that interview.

If we didn't have to pay him then we shouldn't have paid him. Putting the clubs future performance potentially at risk with the soft cap is poor business. IMO the fact that we paid him implies that we had to pay him.

Sam and Jimmy tried to go hard (you could tell at the start) but they don't have the nous to do it. Jeff certainly was able to run rings around them. I know it would never happen but just imagine if we had real journos of the calibre of Leigh Sales or Kerry O'Brien interviewing the Presidents and coaches.

 

[KermitJagger]

If we didn't have to pay him then we shouldn't have paid him. Putting the clubs future performance potentially at risk with the soft cap is poor business. IMO the fact that we paid him implies that we had to pay him.

Sam and Jimmy tried to go hard (you could tell at the start) but they don't have the nous to do it. Jeff certainly was able to run rings around them. I know it would never happen but just imagine if we had real journos of the calibre of Leigh Sales or Kerry O'Brien interviewing the Presidents and coaches.

Us paying him implies nothing of the sort, he definitely omitted some information in his answer but at its core that we didn't need to pay him is the truth. That's how contracts work.

 

[Yardie]

Us paying him implies nothing of the sort, he definitely omitted some information in his answer but at its core that we didn't need to pay him is the truth. That's how contracts work.

What information was omitted?

 

[KermitJagger]

What information was omitted?

That we didn't need to do it, but it was in our best interests considering the club's contribution to Clarko's decision to leave, to maintain a good rapport with Clarko himself and to not put offside anyone that was involved with Clarko that we wanted to keep at the club.

It might not have been necessary but it was the right decision.

 

[Yardie]

That we didn't need to do it, but it was in our best interests considering the club's contribution to Clarko's decision to leave, to maintain a good rapport with Clarko himself and to not put offside anyone that was involved with Clarko that we wanted to keep at the club.

It might not have been necessary but it was the right decision.

I cannot see that being the case at all. I suspect there was a negotiation in the background to allow the club to put out that spin.

 

[KermitJagger]

I cannot see that being the case at all. I suspect there was a negotiation in the background to allow the club to put out that spin.

 

[Yardie]

Really, a roll the eyes cause your drinking from the koolaid?

There is no way that Clarkson was going to walk away from getting paid the last year of his contract. That is the starting point of the negotiation behind closed doors. What is said externally is an outcome of those closed door negotiations.

 

[KermitJagger]

Really, a roll the eyes cause your drinking from the koolaid?

There is no way that Clarkson was going to walk away from getting paid the last year of his contract. That is the starting point of the negotiation behind closed doors. What is said externally is an outcome of those closed door negotiations.

I'm not drinking the koolaid mate, I'm just saying that it was clearly Clarko's decision to end his contract early - stated by essentially everyone involved, including Clarko - and in that case there's no legal requirement for us to pay him out. This is how contracts work.

That said, though there was absolutely no legal requirement, it would have been shocking for the club and would have had even more fallout if we'd not done it to help keep Clarko onside. This takes into consideration that part of his decision to leave the contract was because he knew it wasn't going to be extended and that we were hoping to transition to Sam sooner than he had expected.

Kennett was technically correct, even if not paying Clarko out would have caused significant problems. Whether you believe it's spin or not is beside the point.

 

[Yardie]

I'm not drinking the koolaid mate, I'm just saying that it was clearly Clarko's decision to end his contract early - stated by essentially everyone involved, including Clarko - and in that case there's no legal requirement for us to pay him out. This is how contracts work.

That said, though there was absolutely no legal requirement, it would have been shocking for the club and would have had even more fallout if we'd not done it to help keep Clarko onside. This takes into consideration that part of his decision to leave the contract was because he knew it wasn't going to be extended and that we were hoping to transition to Sam sooner than he had expected.

Kennett was technically correct, even if not paying Clarko out would have caused significant problems. Whether you believe it's spin or not is beside the point.

We will have to agree to disagree on this one.

 

[Hawkk]

Some more info about the challenge

According to Don Scott the nominators and seconders for Silk and Gowers are Peter Schwab, Bruce Stevenson, Gary Ayres and Chris Langford.

If true, that’s a strong vote against the Kennett administration by the past players association

 

[Steven Tyler]

Some more info about the challenge

According to Don Scott the nominators and seconders for Silk and Gowers are Peter Schwab, Bruce Stevenson, Gary Ayres and Chris Langford.

If true, that’s a strong vote against the Kennett administration by the past players association

 

[deanc]

Jeff actually handled this interview reasonably well. I wish he spoke like this most of the time.

I actually found his explanation of the board makeup quite reasonable and enlightening.

The questioning from Jimmy Bartel was particularly poor because he was putting words into Jeff's email that were not there, and I feel that he really shouldn't have been part of the discussions considering his role at GWS.

He also handled the questions related to the Clarkson/Sam coaching handover well. Didn't let McClure put words into his mouth around his relationship with Clarko.

It is a good reminder that Kennett can be a truly great media performer on occasion, he just needs to perform less.

My take from this is simply; the 'media' are pi**ed that 'they chose' to misinterpret Kennett's ambiguous announcement to members regarding 'possible' player trades (which occurs at every club during every trade period) and because 'the media also chose' to then speculate and name some senior Hawks players, which did not eventuate into trades, they are almost accusing Kennett here of misinformation...ha ha ha

Bartel's questioning was nonsense, which is no real surprise from a former boof-head player, while McClure opened with a few typical ambush statements and tried hard with loaded questions, which is second nature for any decent journalist, but Kennett as you'd expect deflects such strategies in his sleep...

Nothing else really revealing in this exchange, could of been a lot more if either of them had bothered to prepare better...

 

[josephine666]

Jeff actually handled this interview reasonably well. I wish he spoke like this most of the time.

I actually found his explanation of the board makeup quite reasonable and enlightening.

The questioning from Jimmy Bartel was particularly poor because he was putting words into Jeff's email that were not there, and I feel that he really shouldn't have been part of the discussions considering his role at GWS.

He also handled the questions related to the Clarkson/Sam coaching handover well. Didn't let McClure put words into his mouth around his relationship with Clarko.

It is a good reminder that Kennett can be a truly great media performer on occasion, he just needs to perform less.

I agree that Jeff handled the interview quite well, but the reasoning on the board members was just spin. You don't appoint a real estate agent to your board because the organisation intends to purchase property, or a doctor because your staff have medical requirements. You appoint board members for their qualities, who are passionate about your organisation succeeding, are leaders in their field of expertise, will make independant decisions, have the utmost integrity and will mercilessly question decisions of the CEO when they see red flags. They don't accept slogans ('It's time') as a reason, they would dig a hell of a lot deeper.

Of course I have no knowledge of what occurred other than Jeff's account that Alistair went to the board and asked if he was to be re-appointed, the board then met and unanimously agreed he shouldn't be. If there wasn't any due dilligence by the board members to bring Alistair back in and grill him on his views of why we haven't been successful in recent years and what he intended to do about it should he continue beyond 2022 then they ALL need to go.

Alistair is gone, I've accepted it. Sam now has my support (and it seems the senior players too), but my view from afar is our board was hand-picked by Jeff for unity over good governance. 'It's Time' for some independant and critical thinkers on the Hawthorn board.