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

    Age

    51

    Ht

    193cm

    Wt

    90kg

    Pos.

    Def

    Career

    Season

    Last 5

    D

    14.1

    4star

    K

    9.7

    4star

    HB

    4.5

    3star

    M

    4.5

    4star

    T

    1.0

    3star

    No current season stats available

    D

    8.0

    2star

    K

    4.4

    2star

    HB

    3.6

    3star

    M

    2.6

    3star

    T

    0.8

    3star

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

  Age

  42

  Ht

  190cm

  Wt

  98kg

  Pos.

  Def

  Career

  Season

  Last 5

  D

  13.4

  3star

  K

  6.3

  2star

  HB

  7.0

  4star

  M

  5.3

  5star

  T

  1.3

  3star

  No current season stats available

  D

  10.6

  3star

  K

  6.2

  3star

  HB

  4.4

  4star

  M

  3.6

  4star

  T

  1.0

  3star

  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

    Age

    48

    Ht

    180cm

    Wt

    83kg

    Pos.

    Fwd

    Career

    Season

    Last 5

    D

    11.3

    3star

    K

    6.8

    3star

    HB

    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

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

    Age

    39

    Ht

    186cm

    Wt

    86kg

    Pos.

    D/M

    Career

    Season

    Last 5

    D

    23.5

    5star

    K

    12.1

    4star

    HB

    11.5

    5star

    M

    5.5

    5star

    T

    2.7

    4star

    MG

    310.5

    4star

    No current season stats available

    D

    15.0

    4star

    K

    6.8

    3star

    HB

    8.2

    5star

    M

    4.8

    5star

    T

    2.8

    5star

    , 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

 

[citizen-erased]

“We will commence the process to appoint a new Chief Executive in the coming days, and Xavier will assist in this transition phase. We are now in a strong position to continue our pursuit for the ultimate success for our teams.”

strong position.......fml.

 

[Lore]

“The process to select the next CEO of the Essendon Football Club will commence immediately. In the interim, Chief Commercial Officer Nick Ryan will assume the role as acting CEO.”

 

[carloss]

The External Review claims it's first scalp

 

[Snake Charmer]

Something something door something something

 

[Howard Moon]

strong position.......fml.

Strong bold AND courageous.

The holy trimuvate.

Or a good cheese

 

[andleanback]

Is everyone on the barham train now?!
Goodbye Xavier

 

[Lore]

“The process to select the next CEO of the Essendon Football Club will commence immediately. In the interim, Chief Commercial Officer Nick Ryan will assume the role as acting CEO.”

Hang on, Chief Commercial Officer - not COO (which is the usual title of the heir apparent). We left the COO role unfilled when Rodski left didn’t we?

 

[84859300]

The External Review claims it's first scalp

I would reaslly like to think this came about from the internal review - where they worked out he wasn't that good.

Fell on his own sword.

 

[HirdsTheWord]

Fun fact, Hird's daughter works for PwC Australia that'll be conducting our external review.

isn't it Ernst Young doing it?

 

[TheGrizz]

Hang on, Chief Commercial Officer - not COO (which is the usual title of the heir apparent). We left the COO role unfilled when Rodski left didn’t we?

 

[Lore]

Is everyone on the barham train now?!
Goodbye Xavier

That depends, hollowing it out is one thing, but if you replace it with something worse then we’re still stuffed.

If we had three factions and the two half-decent ones take each other out, you may end up with Sheedy doing a Steven Bradbury and plonking Hird in the big chair.

 

[windyhill]

Thought he did a good job. dodoro does it again. Seriously, how the actual **** ?

 

[DonsRule]

isn't it Ernst Young doing it?

Her Linkedin says PWC

https://au.linkedin.com/in/stephanie-hird-19a2a1142

 

[Lore]

Thought he did a good job. dodoro does it again. Seriously, how the actual * ?

Four finals appearances in his first four years as CEO and secured an AFLW license.

 

[The Prosecutor]

Hang on, Chief Commercial Officer - not COO (which is the usual title of the heir apparent). We left the COO role unfilled when Rodski left didn’t we?

Rodski always had the CCO title.

 

[HirdsTheWord]

Her Linkedin says PWC

https://au.linkedin.com/in/stephanie-hird-19a2a1142

no i know but i'm pretty sure EY are doing our external review. Not PWC.

at least that's what i thought i heard on radio.

knowing us we probably got both to do it, just so it would be confusing.

 

[andleanback]

That depends, hollowing it out is one thing, but if you replace it with something worse then we’re still stuffed.

If we had three factions and the two half-decent ones take each other out, you may end up with Sheedy doing a Steven Bradbury and plonking Hird in the big chair.

With Xavier walking so early, there’s going to be lots of change. If we get a good strong footy ceo, I’m happy to go through all this turmoil.

 

[Nuggs Bunny]

Something something door something something

Yeah this reeks of a step to the past

 

[windyhill]

Madden off.

 

[andleanback]

Madden resigned aswell

 

[BrunoV]

Campbell now gone.

I owe a few people responses to some posts. I haven't forgotten, particularly JayJ20.

My impression of a lot of the discussion here is that we got side tracked with what was really the least relevant thing that happened last week: the treatment of Rutten. That's a human story, I feel and felt for the man but, at the end of the day, it was just noise.

There are only 18 jobs available. Gun coaches will coach us because they are unfulfilled without flags and/or because they have the egos to believe they can turn this ship around. That ego is an essential part of being a coach.

However, and in terms of the discussion here, Barham was caricatured and posters then became polarised into 2 camps: a) the players are the problem; or b) Rutten was the problem.

It was never that simple and I don't analyse based on caricatures. The truth is that it was a combination together with the football department leadership and executive.

Barham was right when he resigned, as the internal review was announced, only to be talked into staying on. He was right 10 days ago, too.

Sure, things were messy but that's politics. He can't just assume control of the board. He needed votes and the balance of votes was tied in with sycophants who needed something more than Barham's opinion. The botched internal review provided that.

An external review will now take place. Campbell has jumped or been pushed to protect his reputation. While I would like him to suffer the indignity Rutten has suffered it doesn't matter. His departure is the main thing.

I would like it to be official that Rutten's appointment was really just a way to deflect from mistakes, more than being a reflection of the belief that he was the best person to coach Essendon, read Cal's article from earlier this week, it makes it easier to move on (if you haven't already). But that's not important and Rutten has been through enough.

We are getting close to a blank slate. This should make a review easier because it will not feel the need to be diplomatic at least in terms of the recommendations.

So far so good.

 

[Lore]

Dominoes are picking up speed now

 

[HirdsTheWord]

whens dodo

 

[andleanback]

Campbell now gone.

I owe a few people responses to some posts. I haven't forgotten, particularly JayJ20.

My impression of a lot of the discussion here is that we got side tracked with what was really the least relevant thing that happened last week: the treatment of Rutten. That's a human story, I feel and felt for the man but, at the end of the day, is was just noise.

There are 18 jobs available. Gun coaches will coach us because they are unfulfilled without flags and/or because they have the egos to believe they can turn this ship around. That ego is an essential part of being a coach.

However, and in terms of the discussion here, Barham was caricatured and posters then became polarised into 2 camps: a) the players are the problem; or b) Rutten was the problem.

It was never that simple and I don't analyse based on caricatures. The truth is that it was a combination together with the football department leadership and executive.

Barham was right when he resigned, as the internal review was announced, only to be talked into staying on. He was right 10 days ago, too.

Sure, things were messy but that's politics. He can't just assume control of the board. He needed votes and the balance of votes was tied in with sycophants who needed something more than Barham's opinion. The botched internal review provided that.

An external review will now take place. Campbell has jumped or been pushed to protect his reputation. While I would like him to suffer the indignity Rutten has suffered it doesn't matter. His departure is the main thing.

I would like it to be official that Rutten's appointment was really just a way to deflect from mistakes, more than being a reflection of the belief that he was the best person to coach Essendon, read Cal's article from earlier this week, it makes it easier to move on (if you haven't already). But that's not important and Rutten has been through enough.

We are getting close to a blank slate. This should make a review easier because it will not feel the need to be diplomatic at least in terms of the recommendations.

So far so good.

Great post

Feel too many got caught up in how rutten was treated last week (very poorly). People thought this was only about getting clarko, no it was about a guy who was sick of the club wallowing in mediocrity and wanted change.
It’s funny how the footy public are laughing at us because our ceo quit. When all essendon fans are jumping for joy

 

[HirdsTheWord]

They got Ernst and Young instead of PWC, I guess keeping it at arms length prevents Brasher and Hisgrove (board members from PWC Australia) from influencing in favour of their preferred outcomes.

Interesting that Stephanie landed there though. Real incestuous place at Windy Hill these days.

is it though?

half the blokes at Essendon have jobs cause of mates, id expect hird's kids would be walk up starts to a company that had Essendon people as board members/directors.