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News Don Pyke appointed CEO

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GoEaglesGoSGIO said:
Their has been no improvement. Stop looking for things that are not there. The kids are 19 and 20 but they are getting smashed into the ground week in week out. This isnt a good thing we can spin as some form of success. Being young isnt a way out for the club hierarchy.... we cant throw a bunch of 19 year olds under the bus and blame them for the 1 win season. We should blame the people who put them in this position foremost

Progress is always moving forward. Its not linear but its always moving forward. If I went into a job and said "Yeah in the next 12 months we are going to make massive losses and wont be paying any dividends to our shareholders because im going to make decisions which mean we will fail" i am not getting that job, never mind being celebrated for what im doing

Pykes performance doesnt pass the basics of the pub test. Making decisions doesnt automatically equate to success. The impact of those decisions is what matters. The impact is defined by the result. The results are bad. Anything else is just hoping for the best.... but life doesnt run on hope. It runs on reality. The reality shows 1 win... which isnt acceptable
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I get your frustrations and angst at a one win season and putting all the blame on Don Pyke, but food for thought. The following appointments have been made since Don Pyke stepped into the CEO shoes on the 15th Jan 2024
  • Jamie Maddocks Head of Development (Ex Western Bulldogs for 9 years) - Steve Trewhella moved to WAFL Lead
  • John Worsfold returns as Head of Football
  • Marco Bello appointed as Assistant Coach - Ex Crows Head of Development, ex Hawks Head of football academy
  • Harry Taylor appointed as a leadership consultant
  • Matt Burgin appointed as a Senior Psychologist - Ex Cricket Aus
  • Adam Shepard appointed Draft Strategy & Player Movement Manager - Ex Collingwood
  • Damon Poole appointed Data Recruiting Analyst - Ex Carlton and Champion Data, replacing Trevor Woodhouse, Stephen Nash and Neil Ross
In a team/business that had been ground to its lowest ebb, you can't sayPyke has sat on his hands and done nothing with what he inherited. No doubt more coaching decisions will be made this off season with McQualter getting to choose his team. We don;t know what other changes are being discussed to help drive the club back into signifcance. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but Pyke has made changes that will and are taking time to result in onfield success.
We are an impatient supporter base, but am going to "trust the process" that the club has made off-field moves to position ourselves for sustained success, after what has been our worst period of time in club history.
 
GoEaglesGoSGIO said:
Can people now admit he is doing a atrocious job? The culture is the same, if not worse simply because he is doing absolutely nothing about it. He hides in the corner knowing that most of his decisions are unjustifiable. He hasnt set any path forward, he has set no standards. All I see is us going from one boys club to another

His inability to talk to the media and speak to the fans in general is alarming. What are we actually planning to do in the next 2 years? Does he even know?

Either way you want to put it he has been a disaster. One more bad season and he has to fall on his sword
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Tell me, are you happy in your life?
 
Convocation said:
I get your frustrations and angst at a one win season and putting all the blame on Don Pyke, but food for thought. The following appointments have been made since Don Pyke stepped into the CEO shoes on the 15th Jan 2024
  • Jamie Maddocks Head of Development (Ex Western Bulldogs for 9 years) - Steve Trewhella moved to WAFL Lead
  • John Worsfold returns as Head of Football
  • Marco Bello appointed as Assistant Coach - Ex Crows Head of Development, ex Hawks Head of football academy
  • Harry Taylor appointed as a leadership consultant
  • Matt Burgin appointed as a Senior Psychologist - Ex Cricket Aus
  • Adam Shepard appointed Draft Strategy & Player Movement Manager - Ex Collingwood
  • Damon Poole appointed Data Recruiting Analyst - Ex Carlton and Champion Data, replacing Trevor Woodhouse, Stephen Nash and Neil Ross
In a team/business that had been ground to its lowest ebb, you can't sayPyke has sat on his hands and done nothing with what he inherited. No doubt more coaching decisions will be made this off season with McQualter getting to choose his team. We don;t know what other changes are being discussed to help drive the club back into signifcance. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but Pyke has made changes that will and are taking time to result in onfield success.
We are an impatient supporter base, but am going to "trust the process" that the club has made off-field moves to position ourselves for sustained success, after what has been our worst period of time in club history.
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Hindsight being a wonderful thing isnt some form of excuse for decisions not working here and way out. In saying that Im not sure what hindsight exists in waiting 1 season for McQualter to choose his team. Just choose his team on day 1 and pay the luxury tax.... its just putting money first which has failed dramatically given the big crowd drop offs we have had in recent weeks.

We have been ground to our lowest ebb during Don Pykes tenure though... but then its not his fault because he tried? It doesnt make sense.

I think this thread shows we are very patient.. as does our selection polcies on the field... as does our decision making off the football field. Trusting the process is okay but we dont all have to trust the process just because. Im currently looking at the worst time in our history and thinking the process might be broken and so far I havnt seen any great defense of it outside of a "if we wait it might work" . I think we kind of need more to hang out hat on then what that is. Hope

Also for all this talk of patience, why are we so selective when we show it. You all want Matt Owies dropped, most think he should be dropped to the WAFL for good, some even think he should be paid out. Why does Pyke get patience but Owies doesnt? What is the logical reason to treat both completely different from a emotional standpoint?
 
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Grahame said:
Tell me, are you happy in your life?
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TBH as a person I just think you need to be proactive and reactive. Im happy but am also impatient, but I dont think impatience is a bad thing. Acting too quick rarely creates more problems then acting too slowly.

I guess my personal question back would be. How often do you change things if you see things not working in your life and how long do you wait? Do you make a new decision if the first one isnt working for you? I think waiting for success isnt the way to find it
 

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GoEaglesGoSGIO said:
Progress is always moving forward. Its not linear but its always moving forward. If I went into a job and said "Yeah in the next 12 months we are going to make massive losses and wont be paying any dividends to our shareholders because im going to make decisions which mean we will fail" i am not getting that job, never mind being celebrated for what im doing
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This isn't what happened. But many businesses invest in the future, which costs in the present, meaning lower immediate returns for longer term gain. That is pretty much any form of investment in any business or other forms of investment (infrastructure, real estate, shares etc).
 
Feeling Groovy said:
This isn't what happened. But many businesses invest in the future, which costs in the present, meaning lower immediate returns for longer term gain. That is pretty much any form of investment in any business or other forms of investment (infrastructure, real estate, shares etc).
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Fair point that. Have we fully invested in the future is the other thought process? I think we didnt fully invest. We have chopped our way through it at a very slow pace. Its 20 months in and people are actively talking about us making the 2nd biggest change you could really possibly do and that is cleaning house with assistant coaches.

I dont think you can come into a company that operates at a very fast pace, be 20 months in and still waiting to make changes is our point of difference. You need to move quicker and aim higher. This waiting to make changes hasnt gotten us anywhere im afraid
 
Convocation said:
I get your frustrations and angst at a one win season and putting all the blame on Don Pyke, but food for thought. The following appointments have been made since Don Pyke stepped into the CEO shoes on the 15th Jan 2024
  • Jamie Maddocks Head of Development (Ex Western Bulldogs for 9 years) - Steve Trewhella moved to WAFL Lead
  • John Worsfold returns as Head of Football
  • Marco Bello appointed as Assistant Coach - Ex Crows Head of Development, ex Hawks Head of football academy
  • Harry Taylor appointed as a leadership consultant
  • Matt Burgin appointed as a Senior Psychologist - Ex Cricket Aus
  • Adam Shepard appointed Draft Strategy & Player Movement Manager - Ex Collingwood
  • Damon Poole appointed Data Recruiting Analyst - Ex Carlton and Champion Data, replacing Trevor Woodhouse, Stephen Nash and Neil Ross
In a team/business that had been ground to its lowest ebb, you can't sayPyke has sat on his hands and done nothing with what he inherited. No doubt more coaching decisions will be made this off season with McQualter getting to choose his team. We don;t know what other changes are being discussed to help drive the club back into signifcance. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but Pyke has made changes that will and are taking time to result in onfield success.
We are an impatient supporter base, but am going to "trust the process" that the club has made off-field moves to position ourselves for sustained success, after what has been our worst period of time in club history.
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Is Langers mate Burgin still in the Psychologists role. Not sure but isn't he looking after player welfare now that Ian Miller has retired. Did Burgin and Langer part company with Cricket Australia at the same time ? CA seem to be performing better without them, maybe we would too.
 
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GoEaglesGoSGIO said:
Fair point that. Have we fully invested in the future is the other thought process? I think we didnt fully invest. We have chopped our way through it at a very slow pace. Its 20 months in and people are actively talking about us making the 2nd biggest change you could really possibly do and that is cleaning house with assistant coaches.

I dont think you can come into a company that operates at a very fast pace, be 20 months in and still waiting to make changes is our point of difference. You need to move quicker and aim higher. This waiting to make changes hasnt gotten us anywhere im afraid
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The problem is that several assistants were contracted. We could have paid them out, sure, with a hit to the soft cap. But who were we going to replace them with? Most assistants had already been tied up by other clubs at that time. Mini also needed to assess what we had.

Again, yes we could have moved Simmo on earlier, but with hits to the soft cap again, and with an aging list and no real benefit to outcomes. The issue was the decision to extend Simmo for so long in the first place, but that can't be blamed on Pyke.

It also takes time to rebuild, given how compromised the draft is now days, so there are no immediate/quick fixes, especially when no one wants to come to WA to play for a team at the bottom of the ladder. It will be a slow grind back up.
 
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Was hoping for an update on the MRP turf ffs.

Anyway he sacked Simmo in year one (not on day one a few weeks before the season started, what a shame).

Got Daisy to the club which has entirely revitalised the AFLW program.

WAFL side is more competitive than it’s been in years (still tragic but improved no less).

New AFL coach who is starting to embed the plan and get us moving in the right direction.

The win/loss has been terrible, but the direction is clear and we’re trending up a lot more now than we were at the end of 2023, prior to his joining.

He also would do well to be more visible and connect more with the fans, tell us more, share the vision more clearly especially when things are going poorly.

But it’s going fine. Hell of a thread bump for nothing.
 
GoEaglesGoSGIO said:
Their has been no improvement. Stop looking for things that are not there. The kids are 19 and 20 but they are getting smashed into the ground week in week out. This isn't a good thing we can spin as some form of success. Being young isnt a way out for the club hierarchy.... we cant throw a bunch of 19 year olds under the bus and blame them for the 1 win season. We should blame the people who put them in this position foremost

Progress is always moving forward. Its not linear but its always moving forward. If I went into a job and said "Yeah in the next 12 months we are going to make massive losses and wont be paying any dividends to our shareholders because im going to make decisions which mean we will fail" i am not getting that job, never mind being celebrated for what im doing

Pykes performance doesnt pass the basics of the pub test. Making decisions doesnt automatically equate to success. The impact of those decisions is what matters. The impact is defined by the result. The results are bad. Anything else is just hoping for the best.... but life doesnt run on hope. It runs on reality. The reality shows 1 win...
Click to expand...

GoEaglesGoSGIO said:
Their has been no improvement. Stop looking for things that are not there. The kids are 19 and 20 but they are getting smashed into the ground week in week out. This isnt a good thing we can spin as some form of success. Being young isnt a way out for the club hierarchy.... we cant throw a bunch of 19 year olds under the bus and blame them for the 1 win season. We should blame the people who put them in this position foremost

Progress is always moving forward. Its not linear but its always moving forward. If I went into a job and said "Yeah in the next 12 months we are going to make massive losses and wont be paying any dividends to our shareholders because im going to make decisions which mean we will fail" i am not getting that job, never mind being celebrated for what im doing

Pykes performance doesnt pass the basics of the pub test. Making decisions doesnt automatically equate to success. The impact of those decisions is what matters. The impact is defined by the result. The results are bad. Anything else is just hoping for the best.... but life doesnt run on hope. It runs on reality. The reality shows 1 win... which isnt acceptable
Click to expand...
Of course there has been improvements. With salary cap restraints, and the only way you can bring players to the club is through drafting and recruiting how can any person accelerate success on the field?

The recruiting job did a good job last year regardless of all the bitching about trading pick 3. Established players do not want to come to the club because we are in a rebuild. That will turn around eventually.

The only way we can bring in talented players is via a draft, which is compromised as hell and we only get a handful of selections every year.

We have a new game plan, new coaches and on average the youngest team in the competition. On top of that we've had unavailability of the entire spine of our team from last year due to injury and retirement, including both co captains.

With all due respect, how the hell can anyone expect ask to implement a game plan and win more than we have this year taking all this into consideration with average, underperforming older players and kids with less than 25 games of AFL under their belt.

I think some people just have no understanding on how hard it is to turn things around in the AFL. It's not like they can simply open their wallet and bring in whoever they need at will, it takes time and I think that the current coaching group and the likes of Don Pike are doing everything they can.

There is no question that this current group is paying for sins of the past and some bad luck in a relation to injuries poor recruiting and poor list management. But seriously, people need to isolate what happened in the past and focus what they have at the moment and just deal with the fact that's going to take some time, and be fortunate that we have a big membership with loyal supporters coming through the gates, and the fact that we have a lot of money and eventually when we get up off the canvas players will want to come to the Powerhouse of the West Coast Eagles again.
 
The guy couldn't even conduct interviews in person - he was doing them via Zoom despite being 3 offices down from where the interviews were physically taking place - dunno why you'd expect him to be more fan engaging.



On a serious note, the email from Nisbett when we were getting smashed in the previous few years were incredibly condescending and were boiling the collective piss of our members, he may strategically be avoiding the public for this reason.
 
It's whacky to me that someone is trying to saddle Pyke and McWalter with the baggage of 2020-2024 on field performance and not resolving it in 22 games.

Pyke is 18 months in and the list of changes instigated is long and I'm not going to repeat them.

McQualter has a literal clean sheet. He has had a year to get a feel for the tools he has at his disposal. That's literally it. He hasn't had any input into the list or his supporting coaches and has been crippled with the cream of the list being unavailable for the vast majority of the season.

If we are 1 win at the end of next season he probably still deserves more rope depending on what we are actually looking like in terms of gameplan and competitiveness.

It sucks being shit but throwing the toys out of the cot at this stage is pointless.

...and I say this as a card carrying member of #teamwetsheets
 

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Okay, I think I understand: Each new CEO should immediately turn over the entire staff of the club and should be sacked at year's end if the team hasn't improved it's win-loss record the previous season. Repeat until success.

(I'm as impatient as anyone, but Pyke has pulled a lot of levers already and presumably more changes will be made over the coming off-season. Given our 2025 playing list and injuries to key players I doubt any coach - and particularly any others of those who were applying for the gig - would have done much better than McQualter has.)
 
GoEaglesGoSGIO said:
Its incredible how Simmos 2024 season is seen as some form of necessity and success... like firing people mid season isnt the same as firing them mid pre-season.
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No club has ever fired a senior coach during the preseason because how dumb it would be.
 
bzparkes said:
No club has ever fired a senior coach during the preseason because how dumb it would be.
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Ok, but have you considered that I’m very mad online? Does that change the equation?
 
GoEaglesGoSGIO said:
Hindsight being a wonderful thing isnt some form of excuse for decisions not working here and way out. In saying that Im not sure what hindsight exists in waiting 1 season for McQualter to choose his team. Just choose his team on day 1 and pay the luxury tax.... its just putting money first which has failed dramatically given the big crowd drop offs we have had in recent weeks.

We have been ground to our lowest ebb during Don Pykes tenure though... but then its not his fault because he tried? It doesnt make sense.

I think this thread shows we are very patient.. as does our selection polcies on the field... as does our decision making off the football field. Trusting the process is okay but we dont all have to trust the process just because. Im currently looking at the worst time in our history and thinking the process might be broken and so far I havnt seen any great defense of it outside of a "if we wait it might work" . I think we kind of need more to hang out hat on then what that is. Hope

Also for all this talk of patience, why are we so selective when we show it. You all want Matt Owies dropped, most think he should be dropped to the WAFL for good, some even think he should be paid out. Why does Pyke get patience but Owies doesnt? What is the logical reason to treat both completely different from a emotional standpoint?
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You haven't really provided a solution to your objections, merely complaints.

Just choose his team on day 1 and pay the luxury tax.... Who, who are you choosing from the assistants at other clubs who would have all been appointed and contracted prior to McQualters appointment. Doesn't matter what you pay in the luxury tax he couldn't get any assisatnts as they were already appointed. your just making things up to suit a narritive.

We have been ground to our lowest ebb during Don Pykes tenure though... but then its not his fault because he tried? It doesnt make sense. I think this is so open for debate. The Nisbett and Simmo administration regardless of if they stayed or someone else of your choosing came into those roles would not have been able to change the onfield slide IMO. I believe (You don't and thats fine) Pyke inherited a bad legacy that had to get worse before it got better, and he has actively made changes to change that past legacy.

Trusting the process is okay but we dont all have to trust the process just because. Im currently looking at the worst time in our history and thinking the process might be broken and so far I havnt seen any great defense of it outside of a "if we wait it might work"

Not everyone wants to “trust the process", but let’s be real about what a process actually looks like.
How many footy clubs (or businesses, for that matter) have turned things around in just two years?
Don’t throw the Crows at me—that’s been a five-year rebuild.
Hawks? Same deal.
Every club that’s made a genuine comeback has nailed their off-field first. Culture, leadership, structure. That’s what sets the foundation for on-field success.
The last few years under Nisbett and Simpson were stale and stagnet. Even Nisbett started making changes before stepping aside. The board should’ve acted earlier. No argument there. But they didn’t.
Now Pyke’s come in and made changes across both the football department and the broader organisation. Just because we haven’t seen wins yet doesn’t mean nothing’s happening.
So when people say “we’re just hoping it might work,” I think that misses the point. There’s actual work being done behind the scenes.

You all want Matt Owies dropped, most think he should be dropped to the WAFL for good, some even think he should be paid out. Why does Pyke get patience but Owies doesnt? What is the logical reason to treat both completely different from a emotional standpoint?
  • Don Pyke is the CEO. His decisions shape the entire organisation—culture, strategy, hiring, long-term viability. CEOs are judged over years, not weeks. That’s true in footy, business, or anywhere else.
  • Matt Owies is a player. His impact is immediate and visible—pressure acts, goal conversion, forward structure. Like any frontline employee, he’s judged on short-term output.
So yes, supporters offer Pyke patience because they understand his job is systemic. Owies, by contrast, is judged on game day.
Comparing Owies to the CEO isn’t the slam dunk you think it is.
 
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I think this year he gets a pass same with mini but if we don't start trending upward (on the football field) people will start getting their pitchforks out.
 

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Grahame said:
I am. And I’m going into hospital in 12 hours for cancer re-surgery.

Glass half full or empty? It is YOUR choice.

It’s not what happens to you but how you react that counts.

😀
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Good luck 🙂
 

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