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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    51

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    14.1

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    9.7

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    2.6

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    0.8

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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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    48

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    180cm

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    1.6

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    0.4

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

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    39

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    186cm

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    86kg

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    23.5

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    310.5

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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

 

[ant555]

Bright side is i reckon brad has the experience and maturity to adapt his plan to a group whilst shaping it at the same time. I don't expect a square peg/round hole approach.

I also think he hamstring ourselves with our recruiting too.
We cant seem to build quality mature depth.
Whilst merrett, ridley, redman, mcgrath, parish, etc developed it was on heppell, shiel, Smith, hooker, daniher, saad
Most of them are gone, so whilst hobbs, tsatas, reid, perkins, cox develop, its on merrett, parish, mcgrath ridley, redman to stand up.

Some of it is from a 2013/14 pinch but i reckon a lot is from just before that where heppell and daniher were our only decent picks for 3-4 years. One is nearly cooked and the other left.
And our inability to get players beyond 30 without breaking down

I reckon merrett and parish will be veteran stage before we compete. So we really need them to be competitive 30+ year olds

Not being able to really nail 3 drafts in a 5 year period along they was has hurt us. The best clubs have draft fails as well but nearly all have had a window in their build where they have produced 8 or 9 top end players in a 3 to 4 year period. We have had some good drafts but they have been more 2 good players one year. One good player the next. It is a discussion for the Adrian thread but 2007 - 2011. I know this is very hindsight but
2007 swap Myers for Dangerfield or Rioli. (I was Rhys Palmer then Dangerfield so I did not get it right either.)
2008 got Hurley and Zaka . You could argue for different players but it was a solid get with those 2. Only Savage came after our 3rd round pick who I rated but he was no star.
2009 take one of Gawn / Stratton / Astbury / Reid as well as managing to keep Melksham and Carlisle or even take Talia or Fyfe or Duncan etc
2010 Heppell was my fisrt choice. Luke parker my second. To McDonald came later on.
2011 got nothing. Could have easily had Seb Ross.

Like I said very hindsight and a lot of clubs also missed various players at various stages but it is what you need to happen to get into the top 4 window along with the trading and FA periods.

 

[Lord Nicholson]

That's just so Essington quick fix. Get rid of Sheeds and everything will be okay. It didn't work last time.

The exchange from the end of Munich comes to mind:

"Did we accomplish anything at all? Every man we killed has been replaced by worse."
"Why cut my finger nails? They'll grow back."

 

[Howard Moon]

This hunch might not be based on fact entirely but I feel like as a club we have never really been an organisation that has been built or has had success via it's methods or organisation, its been more about a star individual who takes the club with him for a period.

So it's been 20 odd years since we've had any success, before that the Sheedy era had a successful clump of flags, prior to that another 20 odd years to the Coleman coached era, before that the Reynolds, another 20 odd year gap to the original early flags.

I mean it just feels like we are waiting for our next hero to take us upon his shoulders like dick or John or Kevin, rather than a successful club built upon method and administration or whatever else a good club is built on.

It's not really tenable having a white knight every 20 years, is it? Even if you find one it's only fleeting...I'm not old enough to know how much political residue was left after Reynolds or Coleman but if it was the same as post Sheedy you can see why there's always a 2 decade draught between hits

 

[Phone]

So how many years into our rebuild are we?

We started rebuilding again after 2020. The rebuild should have started following the drug saga but we choose emotion over logic and "fought" the exodus for little gain and much loss and ****ed up the timeline, but given how popular this decision was at the time the Essendon fans can't really complain about this. We started rebuilding going into 2021 following an actual exodus but fluked a finals appearance which set things back.

 

[yodellinhank]

2007 swap Myers for Dangerfield or Rioli. (I was Rhys Palmer then Dangerfield so I did not get it right either.)

Now we're at the heart of the problem.

 

[thebigboy]

So how many years into our rebuild are we?

Have we ever actually rebuilt?

2008 onwards under Knights was a bit of a mismatch of an aging list being turned over and a bunch of younger/mid guys that got us into the finals with 10 wins.

Under Hird (Pre Saga) we were a decent to good side that we’re looking at building towards something.

2016 we were forced to blood youngsters and get them into the lineup by necessity.

2017 onwards has been a constant state of top up (Smith Shiel Stringer etc). Arguably the first “rebuild” came in 2020/21 after the exodus. And even then, it hasn’t been the classic rebuild, it still feels like a pseudo rebuild without fully bottoming out until this season.

What’s caused this? An insatiable desire to recapture the glory years without the stability and honesty to fully embrace being trash and sticking to a plan and taking some kicks along the way.

 

[faible]

Have we ever actually rebuilt?

2008 onwards under Knights was a bit of a mismatch of an aging list being turned over and a bunch of younger/mid guys that got us into the finals with 10 wins.

Under Hird (Pre Saga) we were a decent to good side that we’re looking at building towards something.

2016 we were forced to blood youngsters and get them into the lineup by necessity.

2017 onwards has been a constant state of top up (Smith Shiel Stringer etc). Arguably the first “rebuild” came in 2020/21 after the exodus. And even then, it hasn’t been the classic rebuild, it still feels like a pseudo rebuild without fully bottoming out until this season.

What’s caused this? An insatiable desire to recapture the glory years without the stability and honesty to fully embrace being trash and sticking to a plan and taking some kicks along the way.

The whole slash and burn rebuild doesn't appear to be necessary unless you completely trash your list. Clubs like Geelong & Sydney have never really rebuilt in that sense for 20 odd years now, they've just had seasons where they've focused on stepping back a bit to blood young players / send players off for surgery to get injuries right / pocket a high draft pick or two and pop right back up. Obviously having a strong core group of players allows this.

If you put off the rebuild too long, like a North, Hawthorn or Carlton, you have to drastically cut the list back to be shit for a long while to get a critical mass of decent players.

We've never truly had a shit enough list to cut every senior player all at once, but we've made huge mistakes every time we should be building up (or taking a step back) that's kept the list in nowhere land.

Instead of rebuilding around 2016 / 2017 we topped up which meant another few years of being ok-but-not-great before Daniher breaks, checks out, and ultimately forces a rebuild upon the club.

They then get 2 years in to a rebuild, after falling in to finals in 2021, and decide that Rutten not making finals in untenable (despite it being a rebuild) and have dumped him for Scott. Scott at least has made it very clear from the outset that he's not the man to hire if they want to top-up and play finals right now with this current list.

West Coast have also been a very well run club for a long time post the Cousins-era. So hopefully Vozzo as CEO brings a clear vision as to how a well run club looks, and between he and Scott we can develop an organisation like a Geelong or Sydney who operates in a sustainable fashion.

 

[citizen-erased]

Not being able to really nail 3 drafts in a 5 year period along they was has hurt us. The best clubs have draft fails as well but nearly all have had a window in their build where they have produced 8 or 9 top end players in a 3 to 4 year period. We have had some good drafts but they have been more 2 good players one year. One good player the next. It is a discussion for the Adrian thread but 2007 - 2011. I know this is very hindsight but
2007 swap Myers for Dangerfield or Rioli. (I was Rhys Palmer then Dangerfield so I did not get it right either.)
2008 got Hurley and Zaka . You could argue for different players but it was a solid get with those 2. Only Savage came after our 3rd round pick who I rated but he was no star.
2009 take one of Gawn / Stratton / Astbury / Reid as well as managing to keep Melksham and Carlisle or even take Talia or Fyfe or Duncan etc
2010 Heppell was my fisrt choice. Luke parker my second. To McDonald came later on.
2011 got nothing. Could have easily had Seb Ross.

Like I said very hindsight and a lot of clubs also missed various players at various stages but it is what you need to happen to get into the top 4 window along with the trading and FA periods.

Which i think you need to assess your constant within the team when you review.
Is it fluke that some clubs nail these drafts, or bring in culture builders (i.e. leaders), or game changers....all of this we seem to fall short of.

It is very hindsight. But that's the nature of this part of the business.
You aren't necessarily assessed in the moment. It should be your tenure.

that period you highlight above, the top-up post 2016, the left field picks, the lack of some AFL basics (bigger mids, KP depth).

I'm surprised it hasn't had more light focused on it.
So far, all i can tell is Dodoro has had his boss changed because they were clashing. And Merv is back. but i reckon that was more getting him back to work and doing the right thing than us being proactive in beefing up the recruitment team.
And it looks like Mahoney still has oversight but Dodoro doesn't report to him.

 

[faible]

Which i think you need to assess your constant within the team when you review.
Is it fluke that some clubs nail these drafts, or bring in culture builders (i.e. leaders), or game changers....all of this we seem to fall short of.

It is very hindsight. But that's the nature of this part of the business.
You aren't necessarily assessed in the moment. It should be your tenure.

that period you highlight above, the top-up post 2016, the left field picks, the lack of some AFL basics (bigger mids, KP depth).

I'm surprised it hasn't had more light focused on it.
So far, all i can tell is Dodoro has had his boss changed because they were clashing. And Merv is back. but i reckon that was more getting him back to work and doing the right thing than us being proactive in beefing up the recruitment team.
And it looks like Mahoney still has oversight but Dodoro doesn't report to him.

It seems when Melbourne decided to start drafting with competitiveness as a high priority that they got competitors, not every one of those picks made it, but draft enough of them and some will make it, and then they'll be competitive types.

We've drafted a lot of 'nice' leaders, good schools, no off-field issues, but probably not much in the way of hard-nosed competitive types.

 

[yodellinhank]

We've never truly had a s**t enough list to cut every senior player all at once

 

[Doss]

That's just so Essington quick fix. Get rid of Sheeds and everything will be okay. It didn't work last time.

It didn’t work not because we got rid of Sheeds but because we got the wrong replacement and didn’t do a proper slow build post 2004.

Sheeds was cooked.

And me wanting him gone this time has everything to do with him continuing to natter in the background. I’m not operating under the assumption all is fixed if he’s gone though either, and I’m pretty sure you know very well I’m not.

 

[citizen-erased]

It seems when Melbourne decided to start drafting with competitiveness as a high priority that they got competitors, not every one of those picks made it, but draft enough of them and some will make it, and then they'll be competitive types.

We've drafted a lot of 'nice' leaders, good schools, no off-field issues, but probably not much in the way of hard-nosed competitive types.

yeah. from what i've heard from their somewhat inner sanctum - Mahoney, Taylor & Roos really focused on it. I think Roos drove the idea and Mahoney really took it on as an ethos. I've seen it start to seep in with us, but it's not 100% there.

Whilst Hobbs is a classic example, i also think Hobbs was impossible to ignore at his draft pick. Had slid so much already.

 

[yodellinhank]

It didn’t work not because we got rid of Sheeds but because we got the wrong replacement and didn’t do a proper slow build post 2004.

Sheeds was cooked.

And me wanting him gone this time has everything to do with him continuing to natter in the background. I’m not operating under the assumption all is fixed if he’s gone though either, and I’m pretty sure you know very well I’m not.

I don't think background is Sheedy's style.

 

[andleanback]

Of course the first 10 minutes of classified caro blabbering on about back room essendon.

 

[DallasCrane316]

Of course the first 10 minutes of classified caro blabbering on about back room essendon.

I didn’t realise Brad Scott all but confirmed the issues between Dodoro and Mahoney on radio.

 

[TheGrizz]

Of course the first 10 minutes of classified caro blabbering on about back room essendon.

In fairness, it's not like the club doesn't give them the fodder to do so

 

[andleanback]

In fairness, it's not like the club doesn't give them the fodder to do so

But to lead off the top after round 1, in a round where essendon performed well. It’s not the biggest story in footy right now.
And apparently Scott was the one that said he didn’t want Doddoro in match committee? And he was there regularly in the past being asked his opinion on players according to Lloyd, I don’t like the sound of that. Thank god Scott got rid of that. Also mark Harvey coming into match committees previously wtf has been going on down there. Coteries group leader has no place in match committee.

 

[DallasCrane316]

For those that wanted to watch the clip

 

[Don Won]

For those that wanted to watch the clip

Must have been really annoying for her that we didn’t implode on Sunday to fit the script

 

[Lore]

For those that wanted to watch the clip

You listen to that and you find yourself agreeing with everyone except Matthew Lloyd. Feels dirty

Club has been drinking it’s own bath water for so long they don’t even know it’s bath water

 

[TheGrizz]

For those that wanted to watch the clip

I disagree with absolutely zero of what Caroline Wilson said there. None

That might be the only time I have ever uttered that sentence, and hopefully the last. But it is 100% spot on.

This 1000% should have been dealt with last year.
It is absolutely correct that Vozzo has shirked his responsibility. If he was there long enough to notice a restructure was needed, he has been there long enough to move one or other of them on.
It is a slap in the face to Scott that Sheedy wasn't made to walk after his comments last year.

It is all correct, and if you are sitting there agreeing with Lloyd over Caro, then you are either toxically parochial and part of the problem, or Mark Robinson.

 

[yodellinhank]

Sack Vozzo and Barham.

 

[andleanback]

I disagree with absolutely zero of what Caroline Wilson said there. None

That might be the only time I have ever uttered that sentence, and hopefully the last. But it is 100% spot on.

This 1000% should have been dealt with last year.
It is absolutely correct that Vozzo has shirked his responsibility. If he was there long enough to notice a restructure was needed, he has been there long enough to move one or other of them on.
It is a slap in the face to Scott that Sheedy wasn't made to walk after his comments last year.

It is all correct, and if you are sitting there agreeing with Lloyd over Caro, then you are either toxically parochial and part of the problem, or Mark Robinson.

Except vozzo started at essendon in late jan, so she’s wrong there. I agree with what she’s trying to say, but it’s clear she doesn’t have the whole picture and just has bits of information from her sources, which is standard for her. And in a situation like this, the information you get can be skewed depending on what side they’re on.

Be interesting to know what Brad scott wants, because with his direct line to vozzo and being barhams man, whatever he wants I reckon he’ll get. Maybe he doesn’t want upheaval with the season in full swing, which would lead distractions for the playing group with either the footy boss or list manager leaving start of the season/mid season. With likely 1 or both of them being moved on after the season has finished.

 

[citizen-erased]

Dodoro has some spell over the players, even lloydy protects.

I like that Scott is a bit of an assassin. He's thrown a bit of shade there.

also, gotta love the excuse on Sheeds.
He was drunk. FMD.

 

[citizen-erased]

For those that wanted to watch the clip

Lloydy likes a contradiction
Development the issue not recruiting. Mcgrath is better than he's been

But then wright is doing better with us than at GCS.