Club Mgmt. Board of Directors as led by President Dave Barham - Statement from Barham addressing Merrett etc - 12/9

[Lore]

Spoiler: Timeline of events

• 15/8: President, Paul Brasher resigns, replaced by Dave Barham who foreshadows external review
  • Votes for Brasher: Peter Allen, Simon Madden, Sean Wellman
    Sean Wellman

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  • Votes for Barham: Andrew Muir, Dorothy Hisgrove, Melissa Green, Kate O’Sullivan, Kevin Sheedy
• 21/8: Senior Coach, Ben Rutten
  Ben Rutten

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  sacked
• 24/8: CEO, Xavier Campbell resigns
• 24/8: Directors to resign
  • Paul Brasher, immediately
  • Simon Madden, immediately
  • Sean Wellman, after new football director is appointed
  • Peter Allen, after AGM & finance portfolio handover in December
• 26/8: Details of coaching selection committee appointment
  • Sub-committee of 6: Josh Mahoney
    Josh Mahoney

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    (Chair, GM-Footy), Robert Walls, Jordan Lewis
    Jordan Lewis

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    , Simone McKinnis OAM, Andrew Thorburn and Dorothy Hisgrove (board member).
• 26/8: Details of external review process
  • Ernst & Young to coordinate with support from Andrew Thorburn, working closely with Nick Ryan (Acting CEO) & Dorothy Hisgrove (board member)
  • Focusing on four areas: (1) Board effectiveness & composition, (2) a review of leadership, operations and culture including the footy department, (3) the senior coach appointment and (4) the new CEO appointment.
• 26/9: Andrew Welsh appointed to the board of directors, replacing Simon Madden
• 29/9: Brad Scott appointed as Senior Coach
• 30/9: Kevin Sheedy claims decision to appoint Brad Scott was 6-1 against him
• 3/10: Andrew Thorburn appointed as CEO - alternative link
• 3/10: “External review to be handed to the board next week”: Andrew Thorburn, Crichton Medal Address
• 4/10: Andrew Thorburn resigns as CEO
• 11/10: External review preliminary findings
• 24/10: External review preliminary findings II
• 2/11: Dan McPherson appointed as General Manager of Performance & Cam Roberts as Head of Development
• 11/11: Dean Rioli appointed to the board of directors, replacing Paul Brasher
• 14/11: Tim Roberts & David Wills appointed to the board of directors, replacing Sean Wellman and Paul Allen respectively
• 28/11: Dorothy Hisgrove announced as first female vice-president (at the Essendon Women's Best and Fairest night)
• 1/12: Craig Vozzo appointed as CEO
• 13/12: Board director election results: Andrew Welsh and Andrew Muir elected
• 15/5: The club's First Nations Advisory Council established, to be led by Dean Rioli (chair, Indigenous board member), and including: Leanne Brooke (EFC EGM – Community & The Long Walk. Essendon FC), Dorothy Hisgrove (EFC VP and National Manager Partner KPMG), Kane Ellis (CEO of Illawarra Aboriginal Medical Service), John Evans (Pro Vice-Chancellor Indigenous Engagement at Swinburne) and Che Cockatoo-Collins (EM, Indigenous Affairs NBN, EFC Past Player)
• 16/5: Board of Directors declare support for the First Nations Voice to Parliament, after consultation with the new First Nations Advisory Council
• 28/8: EGM - Football, Josh Mahoney has accepted a role as GM Football Operations at the AFL
• 10/10: GM - Performance Daniel McPherson, and Head of AFLW/AFL Operations Manager Aysha Ward have been elevated to the club executive as joint leaders of the club's football department, as GM-AFL and GM-AFLW respectively

 

[Don Won]

Can't see how this is going to be good for him. He might get a couple of hundred k in an out of court settlement but his reputation is going to get trashed even more. You just can't discriminate against people the way his church does and get away with it anymore.

Kind of hope the club defends itself and wins. We need court wins against these churches so they change.

I think the issue will be that HE has a proven track record of not discriminating against people but was terminated for being part of a church that did in 2013 and has backed away from those claims.

Having said that I thought he resigned. Must want to make a freedom of speech statement out of the case

 

[DERO]

I reckon he knows we'll pay him out.

 

[windyhill]

NAB flicked him for being ****ing dodgy. He somehow gets on our external review posse and gets every employee to open themselves up to him. He sits on the panel to select our next CEO (knowing all the secrets) and thinks hang on “ I’m the best one for the job, it’s me, it’s me”
**** off son.

 

[jmoo wan]

The first process was run by EY and certainly seemed to involve multiple highly credentialed candidates. It then went awry with Thorburn interviewing others before removing himself from the process and being interviewed as a candidate with the knowledge of what others had pitched.

It’s not the end of the world that he was involved early IF the people involved are doing their jobs properly and we end up with the right candidate.

However they then recommended someone who had a fiduciary duty to an organisation with conflicting values, and if they missed that, what else did they miss?

The second process isn’t being done by EY, but it is again outsourced, and the people who were candidates the first time aren’t necessarily willing to be involved again even if EY isn’t. So they seem to have started from scratch.

You can read more into it, but concluding that Thorburn was headhunted involves assumptions that aren’t currently in evidence.

bizarre defense

 

[Lore]

I reckon he knows we'll pay him out.

I’m surprised we haven’t already

 

[Lore]

bizarre defense

Only because you expected it to be a defence.

 

[jmoo wan]

Only because you expected it to be a defence.

yes! you surprised me with the well thought out and reasoned first paragraph! and then things turned.

 

[andleanback]

I’m surprised we haven’t already

Why would we. He made his choice church over job. We owe him nothing.

 

[Dan26]

Can't see how this is going to be good for him. He might get a couple of hundred k in an out of court settlement but his reputation is going to get trashed even more. You just can't discriminate against people the way his church does and get away with it anymore.

Actually, you CAN discriminate against whoever you want, as long as it's not enshrined in law. You can discriminate about who you are friends with, who you let into your house etc. Churches can discriminate (just like you can in your personal life), and are allowed to do so. And if you don't like it, then you don't have to be part of that church.

Kind of hope the club defends itself and wins. We need court wins against these churches so they change.

The club unfortunately deserves to be sued IMO. We discriminated against someone and broke the law by doing so. There is no evidence whatsoever that any of his private views impacted his ability to do his job, and in fact I believe NAB did some work for the LGBTQ community while he was there.

You can make an argument that he was the wrong person for the job anyway (which is irrelevant), but the facts are that upon choosing him, he was then given an ultimatum based on him being part of a church that clearly had no impact on his ability to do his job.

Tolerance and freedom of speech only matters if you are tolerant of views you don't agree with. Everyone is tolerant of views they agree with. And being tolerant of different views does not mean endorsement of those views, which is something too many people don't understand.

 

[andleanback]

Actually, you CAN discriminate against whoever you want, as long as it's not enshrined in law. You can discriminate about who you are friends with, who you let into your house etc. Churches can discriminate (just like you can in your personal life), and are allowed to do so. And if you don't like it, then you don't have to be part of that church.


The club unfortunately deserves to be sued IMO. We discriminated against someone and broke the law by doing so. There is no evidence whatsoever that any of his private views impacted his ability to do his job, and in fact I believe NAB did some work for the LGBTQ community while he was there.

You can make an argument that he was the wrong person for the job anyway (which is irrelevant), but the facts are that upon choosing him, he was then given an ultimatum based on him being part of a church that clearly had no impact on his ability to do his job.

Tolerance and freedom of speech only matters if you are tolerant of views you don't agree with. Everyone is tolerant of views they agree with. And being tolerant of different views does not mean endorsement of those views, which is something too many people don't understand.

Horrible take. Running a bank is totally different to running a football club, apples and oranges. His (the views of the church he is the head of) views are against the ethos of a football club. Again the problem wasn’t his religion, it was that he a significant role within the church.

 

[Dan26]

Horrible take. Running a bank is totally different to running a football club, apples and oranges. His (the views of the church he is the head of) views are against the ethos of a football club. Again the problem wasn’t his religion, it was that he a significant role within the church.

His views are against the ethos of a bank too. Banks have many more employees than football clubs and thousands more customers than football clubs from all religious backgrounds. And banks (like all big corporations and football clubs) are very very woke. The two are not dissimilar.

But all that is irrelevant. His personal views don’t matter, nor does his role within the church. All that matters is his ability to do the job. If you are going to discriminate against all individuals who have negative views of homosexuality who are members of a faith then you are essentially arguing that Essendon should never hire a Muslim. Or a Jew.

Essendon were in the wrong. We discriminated against someone based on their belief and role within a church which is against the law.

 

[Kong]

Oh cool, I was hoping to see this debate reignited.

 

[Doss]

Oh cool, I was hoping to see this debate reignited.

Like a fly to a giant piece of shit.

 

[andleanback]

His views are against the ethos of a bank too. Banks have many more employees than football clubs and thousands more customers than football clubs from all religious backgrounds. And banks (like all big corporations and football clubs) are very very woke. The two are not dissimilar.

But all that is irrelevant. His personal views don’t matter, nor does his role within the church. All that matters is his ability to do the job. If you are going to discriminate against all individuals who have negative views of homosexuality who are members of a faith then you are essentially arguing that Essendon should never hire a Muslim. Or a Jew.

Essendon were in the wrong. We discriminated against someone based on their belief and role within a church which is against the law.

I really can’t be bothered with this. You clearly can’t see how being the ceo is different from any other role.

 

[Lore]

Have moved a few posts to the Thorburn thread in the history board.

As before:

OK, from this post on:

1. If you want to talk Thorburn, take it to the Thorburn thread in the history sub board.

2. If you want to discuss religion and its tenets, take it to the SRP board.

3. The mods don't want to make this thread a No Oppo one, but we will if oppo poster continue to have to make us clean it up. Behave.

This is the board/external review thread, treat it as such.

If it's directly about due process and whether the board can/has followed it, it might be okay here, particularly as we're still waiting to see who might be appointed to the CEO role. If a bigoted shit fight ends up being too tempting then that may change.

 

[yaco55]

I thought this was moved too quickly to the history thread! - Anyway, I suspect this will be a high profile test case which could be a benchmark for the future. Finally, I find that too many in society are intolerant of different views and we are heading down a rabbit hole.

 

[yodellinhank]

Barham needs to resign.

 

[The Donners]

I think the issue will be that HE has a proven track record of not discriminating against people but was terminated for being part of a church that did in 2013 and has backed away from those claims.

Having said that I thought he resigned. Must want to make a freedom of speech statement out of the case

So they’re (Thornurn’s team) saying if he was, hypothetically, Chairman of the KKK and they/he distanced themselves from bigotry (and lynching), he’d still be a suitable candidate? Turn it up.

 

[DERO]

Barham needs to resign.

Like Thorburn did?

 

[Don Won]

So they’re (Thornurn’s team) saying if he was, hypothetically, Chairman of the KKK and they/he distanced themselves from bigotry (and lynching), he’d still be a suitable candidate? Turn it up.

I’d say that Essendon would have a better chance. But I’m not sure his church is deemed a terrorist organisation in this country, nor have they been involved in beatings, or as you point out, lynchings.

 

[Howard Moon]

"I wish the Club success, and thank Dave Barham in particular for the opportunity he gave me. I hope the external review leads to great change. I am truly sorry that I will not be able to work with the whole Essendon team, and Brad Scott and Josh Mahoney

Josh Mahoney

Age

48

Ht

180cm

Wt

83kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

11.3

3star

K

6.8

3star

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4.5

3star

M

3.5

4star

T

1.6

4star

G

0.9

4star

No current season stats available

D

9.2

3star

K

5.4

2star

HB

3.8

3star

M

2.2

3star

T

1.6

4star

G

0.4

3star

in particular".....in saying that, id now like to drag my beloved club through the mud and grab another few hundred thousand dollars for 24 hours tenure, so please #donatetothorburn"

 

[ghostdog]

This wouldn't be an issue had the club done its due diligence before appointing Thorburn at all. The banking stuff should have been a clear red flag to start with.

I'm still walking next to Barham's bandwagon, but if Thorburn's legal team succeeds a strong case against Barham then has some merit.

 

[raskolnikov]

grab another few hundred thousand dollars for 24 hours tenure, so please #donatetothorburn"

It's the religious way.

I'm seriously done with this club if they give this arseh*le a single cent.

 

[DERO]

Maybe he resigned the same way the previous CEO resigned?

 

[jmoo wan]

I reckon he knows we'll pay him out.

i’ve been paying him out for ages, the ****ing useless bellend.