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

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President member email updating a few things:
Dear Members,

I want to start by thanking you, as a valued member, for your support of the Essendon Football Club.

It has been a busy period for our club, and I want to write to you, so you can hear from me directly.

Our club is in the middle of significant change. Change that had to happen. Change that required an external review to ensure we had an industry-leading approach to analyse our football club as a total organisation.

The Board now has the final draft report from the EY External Review that we commissioned.

This review provides an important foundation for the work ahead. We need to reset and rebuild the club’s operations to create a culture of high performance that everyone who is part of the Essendon Football Club family – staff, players, coaches, administrators, members, fans and partners – can be proud of.
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Key themes:
Four clear themes have emerged that will be the focus of our work over the coming days, weeks, and months:
  1. Restoring our purpose as a club
  2. Resetting our focus on three key pillars - our members, our players, and our community; for whom we exist
  3. Building a unified internal culture
  4. Backing our people and our operations through strong governance
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Timeline for external review:
The report is now being prepared in its final state for a presentation to the Board. This is a major piece of work and the recommendations included in the report will set the course for our future. A summary of the report will be presented to our members in the coming weeks.

The External Review represents an exciting opportunity and one that everyone who loves the red and black can and should embrace.
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Kudos for Scott and Mahoney:
The appointment of Brad Scott as senior coach of the men’s team is the first major demonstration of that change. I can already report that Brad is making a significant difference and I want to commend him for the way he and General Manager of Football, Josh Mahoney are reinvigorating our football department.
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Expected changes from external review:
  • New role General Manager of Performance reporting to Josh Mahoney - to start recruiting immediately
  • New role Head of Development
  • Investment in our Women's Football program
  • VFL program will have additional coaching roles
One area that the Board is focusing on as a priority, consistent with the preliminary findings from the EY External Review, is our football department. Our players deserve every opportunity to excel both on and off the field and further urgent investment is required now for the club to achieve the success we all desire.

Prioritising this area now will ensure we can develop the program and have support in place for when the players return to pre-season training.

To this end, we will be making several key appointments to improve player development and ensure the football department is better supported and aligned in its pursuit of on field success.

These include a newly created position of General Manager of Performance. This role will report directly to Josh Mahoney and will be responsible for aligning and driving our performance functions across the football department. We will commence recruitment for this role immediately.

This week the club announced the appointments of Michael Hurley and Travis Cloke as key development coaches within our program. Further to this, another new position has been created, the Head of Development. This is a critical role that requires a laser-like focus. We have a young and exciting playing list and must ensure we have the league’s best development programs to ensure our players thrive and reach their full potential.

The club will also be furthering our investment in our Women’s Football Program. In our first season of AFLW, we are all incredibly proud of our on-field performance in recent weeks in what has been a very challenging set of circumstances for the team. We are looking forward to this week’s match against the Swans at Ikon Park and encourage all our members to get out and show your support for the team.

We will also be making changes to ensure a greater focus on lifting the capacity of our VFL program by adding additional coaching roles and focus to that area.
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CEO search involves a "highly regarded executive search recruitment company" whatever that means.
The search for our new CEO is progressing with the assistance of a highly regarded executive search recruitment company, to ensure we unearth the highest calibre talent for this key role.

It is important that we give the External Review the necessary time, consideration, and commitment to build a sustainable action plan and focus on the future.
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"More to come":
We will continue to provide feedback on the outcomes of the External Review and look forward to sharing more in the coming weeks, including the announcement of our CEO.

Rest assured that the Board and I are 100 per cent united and committed to making the necessary changes and seeing them through, so we can all look forward to Essendon returning to what we want it to be - a thriving football club.

Go Bombers!

Dave Barham
President, Essendon Football Club
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Lore said:
President member email updating a few things:

Key themes:

Timeline for external review:


Kudos for Scott and Mahoney:


Expected changes from external review:
  • New role General Manager of Performance reporting to Josh Mahoney - to start recruiting immediately
  • New role Head of Development
  • Investment in our Women's Football program
  • VFL program will have additional coaching roles

CEO search involves a "highly regarded executive search recruitment company" whatever that means.

"More to come":
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The bolded are all ticks for what appears from the outside to be areas we need to be better in.
 
owen87 said:
The bolded are all ticks for what appears from the outside to be areas we need to be better in.
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They really could've just asked BigFooty to do the review. Could've done it for free
 

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jmoo wan said:
please don’t say laser focus 🤞🤞
please don’t say laser focus 🤞🤞
please don’t say laser focus 🤞🤞
please don’t say laser focus 🤞🤞

goddamnit.
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Word on the street is ive got my edge back, I'm commin at ya like a beam, like a laser I'm Monsoon moon and I'm nobodies bitch.

Pls vote for me
 
‘Hello, Truck? Yeah Dave Barham here mate I just wanted to let you know that we’ve just received the external review back and we’re committing millions to more high performance staff, a new senior player development role and refunding the VFL program, reckon this gives us a massive leg up going forward into 2023, we want our coach armed with as many resources as possible, neat, don’t you think?’

Click

‘Hmm, maybe I’ll just shoot him a text?’
 
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Adding another GM to the footy department means we'll either have three in there, or confirms one of the others is leaving.
 

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Just occurred to me…and haven’t seen this mentioned…..Mahoney and Scott would have known each other for the best part of 30 years and I imagine are long-standing mates.

I see this as plus re unity and alignment of the footy department. Hopefully enough to save the club from the madness of our board and coteries.
 
Mr Mojo Risin said:
Distinct lack of firing Dodoro.....so far.
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So far. Makes sense he'd see us through the trade period though. I think ordinarily you'd get Mahoney to step in and do it if you wanted to let Dodoro go early, but he only has so many hours in his week and he's been the senior coach and head of the coach recruitment sub-committee for the last several. Also a fair bit of IP walking out the door.

Although the fact they're not desperate enough to throw him out anyway at least indicates that whatever role he's playing in the politics it's not completely dire – or perhaps that keeping him around kept Sheedy out of the way for a while, so effectively a useful pawn.

The addition of a GM of Performance to report to Mahoney is the strongest indication so far I think.
 
I’ve come to the view that Barham has half a clue re what needs to happen but very little clue re smooth and clean execution. I think he should be allowed to clean the joint out - he knows what change is needed and has the stomach for the fight.

Three jobs left for him from my perspective:
  • Fire Dodo
  • Get Sheedy off the board
  • Reduce the size of the board to a number less Likely to produce factional rifts.

And then let someone better take over and deliver on the review.
 
Vander18 said:
Just occurred to me…and haven’t seen this mentioned…..Mahoney and Scott would have known each other for the best part of 30 years and I imagine are long-standing mates.

I see this as plus re unity and alignment of the footy department. Hopefully enough to save the club from the madness of our board and coteries.
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They would've played against each other a few times including a grand final but different draft years, different U18 clubs, played and worked for different clubs during their careers, and were even in different states for a long time. Both been in the industry and it's a small one though. Is there something else?
 
Zach Package said:
‘Hello, Truck? Yeah Dave Barham here mate I just wanted to let you know that we’ve just received the external review back and we’re committing millions to more high performance staff, a new senior player development role and refunding the VFL program, reckon this gives us a massive leg up going forward into 2023, we want our coach armed with as many resources as possible, neat, don’t you think?’

Click

‘Hmm, maybe I’ll just shoot him a text?’
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hasn't ant555 always said that, basically, this is similar to what we did during Knights to Hird? under-resourced during knights time then when everyone chucked a huge dummy spit, sacked knights and gave hird a blank cheque
 

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The Donners said:
My vote is with Barham for now.
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Even though he has made errors im far more confident in his intentions to want to actually improve essendon on field than anyone in the chair since evans. Little would be 10 steps backwards. I’d say the members will riot if little gets back in and it’ll be another thorburn situation.
 
Phone said:
hasn't ant555 always said that, basically, this is similar to what we did during Knights to Hird? under-resourced during knights time then when everyone chucked a huge dummy spit, sacked knights and gave hird a blank cheque
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for reference from ant's recent postings

ant555 said:
And then remember how the screwed him with a low budget , 1 average senior assistant along with a bunch or rookies and not following through with all the recommended changes that Knights outlined in his presentation. There was more to it than him being a "s**t " coach. If they had of given him an experienced senior assistant and spent some of their precious budget it may have been different. In the end he simply burnt himself out buy trying to do everything.
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ant555 said:
The thing that let Knights down the most was we had 1 senior assistant and he was not a great assistant and more a football admin guy. The rest where rookie coaches and in the end Knights tried to micro manage everything and it went to s**t.
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ant555 said:
Actually it was more Knights had a full of club plan including recruiting and VFL program compared to Hardwicke having just a team presentation.
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ant555 said:
It is the desperation move. We did the same after Knights. Under Knights we gave him * all budget and a bunch of rookie coaches. He fails so we are so desperate to get back to where we where we bring in the dream team with no budget limits and no checks and balances. We get so desperate for that hit of success we will do the most stupid things to try and get it.
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Who would our GM of Performance be? Why not just a manager of performance, why a GM? Someone who wouldn't take the job without the fancier title?

And who would we line up for a Head of Development role?

Room in the budget for Yze, Choco, or any of the others we were thinking about as senior coaches? 🤔
 
Lore said:
So far. Makes sense he'd see us through the trade period though. I think ordinarily you'd get Mahoney to step in and do it if you wanted to let Dodoro go early, but he only has so many hours in his week and he's been the senior coach and head of the coach recruitment sub-committee for the last several. Also a fair bit of IP walking out the door.

Although the fact they're not desperate enough to throw him out anyway at least indicates that whatever role he's playing in the politics it's not completely dire – or perhaps that keeping him around kept Sheedy out of the way for a while, so effectively a useful pawn.

The addition of a GM of Performance to report to Mahoney is the strongest indication so far I think.
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I’m sort of with you.

In my mind it’s a matter of doing a, b, c, d, etc in order, with Dodo being less senior than the other gigs from board down and hence still a couple of heads away from the block. So while I reckon it’s a done deal (to chop him (source: trust me bro)), there’s no urgency this month to do it.
 
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