Heavyweight presidents take starring roles

[Hawkk]

Obviously this piece is a couple of days old - for one thing the game has unfortunately been decided so I'll try to keep things civil , but its an interesting read nether the less;

Heavyweight presidents take starring roles

http://www.realfooty.theage.com.au/realfooty/articles/2007/03/02/1172338884082.html

Tim Lane

ROUND two of the NAB Cup didn't produce Aka v the Lions as was hoped, but the weekend won't be without at least one clash of the titans. Down in Launceston this evening there's a fixture that will pit head-to-head two men who carry the weight of their respective teams on their shoulders.

Neither looks like a classical modern footballer, yet each is expected to turn the fortunes of his club. Both were drafted to their teams after being long-time supporters who appeared unlikely ever to become serious players. Each is seen as his team's future yet, in football terms, both are a little long in the tooth. One will turn 73 before the season starts while the other is 58.

They are Richard Pratt and Jeffrey Kennett, the presidents of Carlton and Hawthorn. It's doubtful any two club officials have ever had so much faith and hope invested in them. Rightly or wrongly, they're probably regarded as more important to their clubs' fortunes than coaches Denis Pagan and Alastair Clarkson.

As with so much that happens in football, some of this is real and some imagined. Yes, Pratt and Kennett are hugely significant leaders of their clubs and figures in the game. One is the third-richest man in Australia and the other about the most can-do personality ever to hit the Australian political landscape. But no, they can't and won't instantly turn their teams into flag winners simply because they have been highly successful at business and politics. Footy isn't quite that simple, and just as well.

Since John Elliott, Lindsay Fox, Bob Ansett, Billy Snedden, Ranald Macdonald, and even Alan Bond, briefly, emerged as the early corporate or political heavyweight football club presidents in the 1980s, the positions — in this state at least — have been popular with big businessmen who support a club and aren't averse to a bit of self-promotion. Of that 1980s brigade, only Elliott presided over a premiership.

Their modern-day counterparts are Eddie McGuire, David Smorgon, Rod Butterss, Frank Costa and Paul Gardner. That quintet hasn't collected a shred of calico in a collective 35 years of presidency. Assuming that they have been reasonably good at what they have done in footy, their inability to trouble the scorer would suggest that presidents don't win flags. What they do is attempt to provide the circumstances in which on-field success is achievable.

Obviously, Kennett and Pratt will make an impact. Love him or otherwise, Kennett is a man of big vision who is already the most interesting among the presidential fraternity in the public discussion on the game. He is often outrageously honest, last year accusing the Hawthorn players of not trying. More recently he declared his loathing of the NAB Cup, which must have thrilled the competition sponsors and the AFL.

Already Kennett has stitched up a lucrative deal with the Tasmanian Government which only he, surely, would have had the wherewithal, not to mention hide, to achieve. He managed to convince the Tasmanian Premier, Paul Lennon, that his state should be the major sponsor of a Melbourne-based football club. Hawthorn officials now speak of "owning Tasmania". It's a tremendous deal for Hawthorn; whether it's in the interests of the state of Tasmania, or its neglected football public, is debatable.

Apart from his after-dinner singing, Pratt's contribution will be less ostentatiously made but no less commanding. Pagan has likened his arrival as Carlton president to the lights being turned on. At the very least he will bring stability to the board room and respect for its leadership. He will also provide great acumen and genuine passion in his role.

Pratt has also committed to significant financial input. While that's music to the ears of supporters of a club that has lately had to resort to the poor box, Carlton must not allow itself to be unhealthily reliant on its president. It's done that twice in recent history and is still dealing with the consequences. Clubs must be managed by boards not individuals.

Tonight's is a clash of two great clubs on the way back. It may well feature a thrilling match-up of two players who could come to symbolise their team's on-field revivals: Lance Franklin and Jarrad Waite. It also casts as opponents two heavyweight figures who over the next couple of years will be watched almost as keenly as the players themselves.

Here is to Carlton and Hawthorn developing into great rivals over the next few years

 

[thylacine60]

Reads like a quota article - not exactly a groundbreaking expose. I like his commentating but.

 

[HBF]

Really enjoyed reading that.
Very very well written, a great TV commentator, and a good Carlton man to boot.