Toast Andrew Bassat

[Tyrian Lonestar]

With the appointment of Dalrymple confirmed I think it's time to acknowledge the direction of the club under Andrew Bassat's reign as President. He clearly wants to know who the best for each role is and how we get them to the club. Bravo!

Success rarely comes with the flick of a switch. More likely a long series of strategy meetings, role clarifications and many many small decisions that have a cumulative impact that over time can be seen & felt as a culture change.

Well, the club now is a far cry from the derelict old building we used to frequent in the 80's and I know Andrew wasn't there for much of that part.

Off field the club would be the envy of many clubs with quality coach, quality assistant coaches and quality support & recruiting staff.

I'm sure it's not just me that can feel the momentum & confidence building that we will once again be feared as an opponent in September.

Bring on 2024!

It's going to be some ride!

 

[George]

C'mon chief, lets get the blokes name right!

He's not afraid of change I'll give him that

 

[Tyrian Lonestar]

C'mon chief, lets get the blokes name right!

He's not afraid of change I'll give him that

Lolz fixed

 

[George]

Anyone got a list of the changes he has made since he took over?

 

[Dr Spaceman]

 

[The Jack]

Won’t say I’ll be shocked, but I’ll be genuinely, genuinely surprised, if we don’t win a flag in the next 3 years.

 

[littlecreatures]

Won’t say I’ll be shocked, but I’ll be genuinely, genuinely surprised, if we don’t win a flag in the next 3 years.

Big call mate


On iPhone using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[Diehard Saint]

Big call mate


On iPhone using BigFooty.com mobile app

Aim high!
We are certainly in the best position we’ve been in make sustainable attempts to challenge since, well, since RTB mark1.
Work to do still though, for sure.

 

[The Jack]

Big call mate


On iPhone using BigFooty.com mobile app

Was a joke. A Dermottism.

But I am bullish.

 

[sunny3193]

Was a joke. A Dermottism.

But I am bullish.

Somehow, I associate this word with blackheads.

 

[st_trav_ofWA]

i dont think he is doing a bad job but i dont think he is quiet the messiah some people think he is .. and i think a lot of people discount the work the previous President set in place for us to be in this position we are in now ..

 

[sammm]

i dont think he is doing a bad job but i dont think he is quiet the messiah some people think he is .. and i think a lot of people discount the work the previous President set in place for us to be in this position we are in now ..

He will only become the messiah if we win a flag in the next 3 years

 

[70s sainter]

He’s an old animal enclosure nut with a business head on top. Understands the club and wants it as much as the rest of us which can’t be a bad thing .

 

[Armitage2Riewoldt]

He will only become the messiah if we win a flag in the next 3 years

To be fair, I'll give him 5 years.

 

[st_trav_ofWA]

He’s an old animal enclosure nut with a business head on top. Understands the club and wants it as much as the rest of us which can’t be a bad thing .

i think every president we have had has wanted success for the club as much as the rest of us ...

 

[StCicatriz]

i think you need to look at his presidency through two different periods because it's like chalk and cheese. i don't think you can look at it in one big body of work. you also need to look at what he inherited. i do think people understate what summers was able to do for the club off-field. it was a big body of work in a short period of time.


TL;DR
2013-2017: Summers -> Fixes the foundations of the club namely the off-field.

Moorabbin
Sponsorship
Membership
Played finals
On track for a premiership

2018 - 2021: Bassat (hands off) -> We play finals, identifies he needs to be more hands on.

Played finals
On track for a premiership

2021 - Now: Bassat (hands on) -> Return to finals, big changes:

Played finals
On track for a premiership


2013-2018 the club is a shambles. CEO walks. President walks. summers was the financial guy on the board and would audit the clubs finances. worth noting because he royally pissed off the AFL at the end of 2013 when we ran out of cash and asked for immediate short term financial assistance to keep paying staff. Summers was made president. He's had to sort the conflict between Pelchen (head of footy) and the senior coach Watters. Watters is sacked. Summers literally has to rebuild the club from the ground up with serious cash flow issues. He needs a new CEO and coach. I can't even remember who the new CEO was but my memory was the club was effectively leaderless for a period of time. Just an absolute cluster *. Summers with i assume the board comes up with the imfamous Road to 2018, which got turned into the Road to 2020 and then scrapped. But the most important thing to come out of this was to find a new home and to abandon seaford. The other items were a bit laughable like the focus on NZ. But alas the overall re-structure of the offield for the club was a success and Summers background in construction no doubt ensured it was. He was able to secure massive re-development projects to get us back to Moorabbin. without this presidency I doubt we ever end up back at Moorabbin nor re-negotiate financial outcomes with the AFL for greater assistance.

the key take away though is the strategy he had for club appointments. he openly stated we were going to follow the Geelong model. He needed a strong CEO and a strong Coach. The trinity and then to make sure they were all there for a period of time. He wanted stability. Finnis is appointed as CEO. Richardson as Coach. they're both going to be given time as per the Geelong model.

2018-2021 takes over from summers who was there since 2013. We still haven't played finals. the 2018 roadmap is looking pretty much ****ed football wise. Moorabbin is a massive success . The off-field has stabilised. Membership and Sponsorship is growing. The football department is an utter shambles. Lethlean comes across from the AFL at the end of 2017 to try fix it. I assume with guidance from the AFL. The previous football department appointments under the CEO Finnis were a disaster, we went from pelchen who we sacked to get a more "pointed" management to Jamie Cox (from cricket) who has no background in football who openly stated he would need to lean heavily on the senior coach he was supposed to oversee. Lethlean was brought in to fix this area. Richardson is re-newed prior to Lethlean and Bassat. they have their eye on Ratten from Hawthorn and bring him in as a senior Assistant. they move Richo on. they bring in Rath has head of footy. Move on the list management and completely re-structure it under Gags (banking background, no prior AFL list manager experience). they heavily turn over the list with a clear focus on existing AFL talent. they're going on a shopping spree. it gives us a finals appearance, which is a massive success, in a very weird covid year, shorter qtrs, hubs etc. however the wheels fall off and it's massively apparent the members and even Bassat is getting fed bullshit by those in charge. the assessments on where the club is at changes every 6 months, from "the changes work we are contending" to "we never thought we were contending, we are reviewing and will implement the fixes to contend again". the two big moments here was the presidents message to members at the completion of the 2020 finals campaign stating we want to go one better in 2021 to the 2021 mid season members communication claiming finals was never the expectation... a clear lie. the members mid season Q&A in 2022 was very similar, outright lies over fitness and the assessment on where we are at.

during 2021 Bassat also steps down as CEO of seek and joins the board.

i would sum his period up here as being less hands on and more trusting. he's followed whats already there with some tweaks, but i'd suggest he's lent heavily on what's already there.

2022-Now: 2022 is a disaster we miss finals again. at some point Bassat has had enough. Caro on footy classified clearly has very good inside info sitting next to Ross Lyon and Eddie McGuire, because she's outlined Bassat is going to be more hands on. a review is called. meanwhile Eddie is shopping the idea of Ross Lyon to Bassat. Lethlean who is part of the review suggests we should restructure the football department and make a joint head of the department using Gags and Rath. Bassat has had enough and Caro pretty much states this on Footy Classified. Bassat decides to sack Ratten who was contracted less then 100 days earlier. Ross Lyon is made coach. Finnis is exited. The entire footy department is re-structured with Ross coming in. New head of footy. New fitness. New list manager. New assistants. We go back to finals. It's clear he's more hands on and is prepared to make risky changes to get the club to a premiership. The geelong model under Summers is out the window. Nostalgia is in or be it experience and a focus on football, depends how you want to view it. The results of the next three seasons will tell us.

 

[ScrappyDo]

i think you need to look at his presidency through two different periods because it's like chalk and cheese. i don't think you can look at it in one big body of work. you also need to look at what he inherited. i do think people understate what summers was able to do for the club off-field. it was a big body of work in a short period of time.


TL;DR
2013-2017: Summers -> Fixes the foundations of the club namely the off-field.

Moorabbin
Sponsorship
Membership
Played finals
On track for a premiership

2018 - 2021: Bassat (hands off) -> We play finals, identifies he needs to be more hands on.

Played finals
On track for a premiership

2021 - Now: Bassat (hands on) -> Return to finals, big changes:

Played finals
On track for a premiership


2013-2018 the club is a shambles. CEO walks. President walks. summers was the financial guy on the board and would audit the clubs finances. worth noting because he royally pissed off the AFL at the end of 2013 when we ran out of cash and asked for immediate short term financial assistance to keep paying staff. Summers was made president. He's had to sort the conflict between Pelchen (head of footy) and the senior coach Watters. Watters is sacked. Summers literally has to rebuild the club from the ground up with serious cash flow issues. He needs a new CEO and coach. I can't even remember who the new CEO was but my memory was the club was effectively leaderless for a period of time. Just an absolute cluster *. Summers with i assume the board comes up with the imfamous Road to 2018, which got turned into the Road to 2020 and then scrapped. But the most important thing to come out of this was to find a new home and to abandon seaford. The other items were a bit laughable like the focus on NZ. But alas the overall re-structure of the offield for the club was a success and Summers background in construction no doubt ensured it was. He was able to secure massive re-development projects to get us back to Moorabbin. without this presidency I doubt we ever end up back at Moorabbin nor re-negotiate financial outcomes with the AFL for greater assistance.

the key take away though is the strategy he had for club appointments. he openly stated we were going to follow the Geelong model. He needed a strong CEO and a strong Coach. The trinity and then to make sure they were all there for a period of time. He wanted stability. Finnis is appointed as CEO. Richardson as Coach. they're both going to be given time as per the Geelong model.

2018-2021 takes over from summers who was there since 2013. We still haven't played finals. the 2018 roadmap is looking pretty much ****ed football wise. Moorabbin is a massive success . The off-field has stabilised. Membership and Sponsorship is growing. The football department is an utter shambles. Lethlean comes across from the AFL at the end of 2017 to try fix it. I assume with guidance from the AFL. The previous football department appointments under the CEO Finnis were a disaster, we went from pelchen who we sacked to get a more "pointed" management to Jamie Cox (from cricket) who has no background in football who openly stated he would need to lean heavily on the senior coach he was supposed to oversee. Lethlean was brought in to fix this area. Richardson is re-newed prior to Lethlean and Bassat. they have their eye on Ratten from Hawthorn and bring him in as a senior Assistant. they move Richo on. they bring in Rath has head of footy. Move on the list management and completely re-structure it under Gags (banking background, no prior AFL list manager experience). they heavily turn over the list with a clear focus on existing AFL talent. they're going on a shopping spree. it gives us a finals appearance, which is a massive success, in a very weird covid year, shorter qtrs, hubs etc. however the wheels fall off and it's massively apparent the members and even Bassat is getting fed bullshit by those in charge. the assessments on where the club is at changes every 6 months, from "the changes work we are contending" to "we never thought we were contending, we are reviewing and will implement the fixes to contend again". the two big moments here was the presidents message to members at the completion of the 2020 finals campaign stating we want to go one better in 2021 to the 2021 mid season members communication claiming finals was never the expectation... a clear lie. the members mid season Q&A in 2022 was very similar, outright lies over fitness and the assessment on where we are at.

during 2021 Bassat also steps down as CEO of seek and joins the board.

i would sum his period up here as being less hands on and more trusting. he's followed whats already there with some tweaks, but i'd suggest he's lent heavily on what's already there.

2022-Now: 2022 is a disaster we miss finals again. at some point Bassat has had enough. Caro on footy classified clearly has very good inside info sitting next to Ross Lyon and Eddie McGuire, because she's outlined Bassat is going to be more hands on. a review is called. meanwhile Eddie is shopping the idea of Ross Lyon to Bassat. Lethlean who is part of the review suggests we should restructure the football department and make a joint head of the department using Gags and Rath. Bassat has had enough and Caro pretty much states this on Footy Classified. Bassat decides to sack Ratten who was contracted less then 100 days earlier. Ross Lyon is made coach. Finnis is exited. The entire footy department is re-structured with Ross coming in. New head of footy. New fitness. New list manager. New assistants. We go back to finals. It's clear he's more hands on and is prepared to make risky changes to get the club to a premiership. The geelong model under Summers is out the window. Nostalgia is in or be it experience and a focus on football, depends how you want to view it. The results of the next three seasons will tell us.

Was there a point anywhere?

 

[StCicatriz]

Was there a point anywhere?

you would need a year 4 level of reading comprehension... so for you: no

 

[ScrappyDo]

you would need a year 4 level of reading comprehension... so for you: no

Thank god l didn't read it then.. Phew...

 

[st_trav_ofWA]

i think you need to look at his presidency through two different periods because it's like chalk and cheese. i don't think you can look at it in one big body of work. you also need to look at what he inherited. i do think people understate what summers was able to do for the club off-field. it was a big body of work in a short period of time.


TL;DR
2013-2017: Summers -> Fixes the foundations of the club namely the off-field.

Moorabbin
Sponsorship
Membership
Played finals
On track for a premiership

2018 - 2021: Bassat (hands off) -> We play finals, identifies he needs to be more hands on.

Played finals
On track for a premiership

2021 - Now: Bassat (hands on) -> Return to finals, big changes:

Played finals
On track for a premiership


2013-2018 the club is a shambles. CEO walks. President walks. summers was the financial guy on the board and would audit the clubs finances. worth noting because he royally pissed off the AFL at the end of 2013 when we ran out of cash and asked for immediate short term financial assistance to keep paying staff. Summers was made president. He's had to sort the conflict between Pelchen (head of footy) and the senior coach Watters. Watters is sacked. Summers literally has to rebuild the club from the ground up with serious cash flow issues. He needs a new CEO and coach. I can't even remember who the new CEO was but my memory was the club was effectively leaderless for a period of time. Just an absolute cluster *. Summers with i assume the board comes up with the imfamous Road to 2018, which got turned into the Road to 2020 and then scrapped. But the most important thing to come out of this was to find a new home and to abandon seaford. The other items were a bit laughable like the focus on NZ. But alas the overall re-structure of the offield for the club was a success and Summers background in construction no doubt ensured it was. He was able to secure massive re-development projects to get us back to Moorabbin. without this presidency I doubt we ever end up back at Moorabbin nor re-negotiate financial outcomes with the AFL for greater assistance.

the key take away though is the strategy he had for club appointments. he openly stated we were going to follow the Geelong model. He needed a strong CEO and a strong Coach. The trinity and then to make sure they were all there for a period of time. He wanted stability. Finnis is appointed as CEO. Richardson as Coach. they're both going to be given time as per the Geelong model.

2018-2021 takes over from summers who was there since 2013. We still haven't played finals. the 2018 roadmap is looking pretty much ****ed football wise. Moorabbin is a massive success . The off-field has stabilised. Membership and Sponsorship is growing. The football department is an utter shambles. Lethlean comes across from the AFL at the end of 2017 to try fix it. I assume with guidance from the AFL. The previous football department appointments under the CEO Finnis were a disaster, we went from pelchen who we sacked to get a more "pointed" management to Jamie Cox (from cricket) who has no background in football who openly stated he would need to lean heavily on the senior coach he was supposed to oversee. Lethlean was brought in to fix this area. Richardson is re-newed prior to Lethlean and Bassat. they have their eye on Ratten from Hawthorn and bring him in as a senior Assistant. they move Richo on. they bring in Rath has head of footy. Move on the list management and completely re-structure it under Gags (banking background, no prior AFL list manager experience). they heavily turn over the list with a clear focus on existing AFL talent. they're going on a shopping spree. it gives us a finals appearance, which is a massive success, in a very weird covid year, shorter qtrs, hubs etc. however the wheels fall off and it's massively apparent the members and even Bassat is getting fed bullshit by those in charge. the assessments on where the club is at changes every 6 months, from "the changes work we are contending" to "we never thought we were contending, we are reviewing and will implement the fixes to contend again". the two big moments here was the presidents message to members at the completion of the 2020 finals campaign stating we want to go one better in 2021 to the 2021 mid season members communication claiming finals was never the expectation... a clear lie. the members mid season Q&A in 2022 was very similar, outright lies over fitness and the assessment on where we are at.

during 2021 Bassat also steps down as CEO of seek and joins the board.

i would sum his period up here as being less hands on and more trusting. he's followed whats already there with some tweaks, but i'd suggest he's lent heavily on what's already there.

2022-Now: 2022 is a disaster we miss finals again. at some point Bassat has had enough. Caro on footy classified clearly has very good inside info sitting next to Ross Lyon and Eddie McGuire, because she's outlined Bassat is going to be more hands on. a review is called. meanwhile Eddie is shopping the idea of Ross Lyon to Bassat. Lethlean who is part of the review suggests we should restructure the football department and make a joint head of the department using Gags and Rath. Bassat has had enough and Caro pretty much states this on Footy Classified. Bassat decides to sack Ratten who was contracted less then 100 days earlier. Ross Lyon is made coach. Finnis is exited. The entire footy department is re-structured with Ross coming in. New head of footy. New fitness. New list manager. New assistants. We go back to finals. It's clear he's more hands on and is prepared to make risky changes to get the club to a premiership. The geelong model under Summers is out the window. Nostalgia is in or be it experience and a focus on football, depends how you want to view it. The results of the next three seasons will tell us.

you are perhaps over stating some aspects and understating others in this assesment ...
ill tell you this much with 10000% certainty the reason we got Ross Lyon back had nothing to do with Caroline Wilson or Eddie McGuire.
The club used some well timed "leaks" to gauge the felings around Ross coming back and once it was seen as shocking but acceptable we got him .. we didnt mess around (the mistake Nettlefold made initially that caused us to lose Lyon) we made our offer and landed our man.

Also Peter Summers didnt have a problem with Watters ... Watters was removed not because of a personality clash between coach and Pres he was removed because i was going in his own direction without following process, the players didnt respect him and he was not capable of taking direction or seeing anything other than his way or the highway...

 

[StCicatriz]

you are perhaps over stating some aspects and understating others in this assesment ...
ill tell you this much with 10000% certainty the reason we got Ross Lyon back had nothing to do with Caroline Wilson or Eddie McGuire.
The club used some well timed "leaks" to gauge the felings around Ross coming back and once it was seen as shocking but acceptable we got him .. we didnt mess around (the mistake Nettlefold made initially that caused us to lose Lyon) we made our offer and landed our man.

Also Peter Summers didnt have a problem with Watters ... Watters was removed not because of a personality clash between coach and Pres he was removed because i was going in his own direction without following process, the players didnt respect him and he was not capable of taking direction or seeing anything other than his way or the highway...

are you sure about that?

eddie mcguire pitched the original idea to bassatt on a yacht according to reports. eddie and ross are good friends.

i dont think i ever suggested there was a clash between watters and the president. i said there was a clash between pelchen and watters.

 

[jwikked]

are you sure about that?

eddie mcguire pitched the original idea to bassatt on a yacht according to reports. eddie and ross are good friends.

i dont think i ever suggested there was a clash between watters and the president. i said there was a clash between pelchen and watters.

That was at Lindsey Fox’s birthday so I would think there would be a few Saints powerbrokers involved

 

[st_trav_ofWA]

are you sure about that?

eddie mcguire pitched the original idea to bassatt on a yacht according to reports. eddie and ross are good friends.

i dont think i ever suggested there was a clash between watters and the president. i said there was a clash between pelchen and watters.

it was on a yacht that the idea was pitched and Eddie was on that yacht.... So was a number of other high profile out of the fold St Kilda people... the Ross idea didnt come from eddie but he did enjoy the juicy piece of gossip and was keen to run the story the second he got off the yacht...

trust me Eddie has Zero influence on our club he may be a friend of Ross Lyon but the idea came from a St Kilda person

 

[st_trav_ofWA]

That was at Lindsey Fox’s birthday so I would think there would be a few Saints powerbrokers involved

couple former StK presidents, couple former #1 ticket holders.... plus the old dog himself ...

 

[hayes]

I think we’re lucky that Bassatt took over and saved us from Lethlean setting us back another 10 years (Gallagher and Rath joint heads of football, the man should be in jail) but I’m not crowning anyone anymore until we at least start finishing top 4. We always think the next guy is the one that will save us so I’m trying not to fall for that anymore.