James Brayshaw

[Uncle_Leo]

James Brayshaw played an important role but was the figurehead for a group of people who played far bigger roles. As above any recognition of JB needs to incorporate several others.

As for JB the media man, hasn't given up his limp lettuce status based on ALFX. Imagine Eddie McGuire interviewing or talking about Paddy Dow if there'd been a pies link.

"And his grandfather played for the might pies, the whole family including Paddy were mad Collingwood supporters but now he's gone to the dark side, ha ha, we'll have to work on him, only joking Carlton are lucky to get such a fantastic young man yada yada".

By the end of the coverage Paddy would've requested a trade.

Always think back to North fantatic Peter Siddle on the Footy Show. JB actively avoided mentioning North when interviewing him then slipped it in as a footnote "oh and you support the kangas" to which Siddle looked confused why he didn't get to talk about it properly.

I'm glad JB the media man (as opposed to the North man) has found his way into riding sidesaddle with an equally gushy soft-hitter like BT.

I have always found the comparisons with Eddie to be silly.

He isn't Eddie, he was never going to be. They were both chairman/president, commentated on footy games and hosted the footy show. Thats where the similarities start and finish.

In some ways Eddie was far better, in others JB is, for example, JB knew when it was time to go.

 

[King Corey]

I have always found the comparisons with Eddie to be silly.

He isn't Eddie, he was never going to be. They were both chairman/president, commentated on footy games and hosted the footy show. Thats where the similarities start and finish.

In some ways Eddie was far better, in others JB is, for example, JB knew when it was time to go.

The comparison is as a supporter of the club. I couldn't care less how neutrals interpret things.

From a Collingwood supporter's view Eddie's conduct as media figure ~ president far exceeded James' in the same capacity. That's Eddie's natural salesman personality in play.

Judged purely on the presidential roles in isolation from media duties I'd view them far more on par.

 

[Jasemon]

Let me be the first to cast a vote for the Tim Rogers stand

 

[muttley45]

Let me be the first to cast a vote for the Tim Rogers stand

Seconded

 

[Wild Kangaroo]

Where do you end?

RJ?
JB?
Aylett?
Ron Casey?
Dugdale?
Mantello?

All legends

Yep all, However Aylett wanted us to chase the pot of Gold on the Gold Coast. Even a few years ago in a interview he said this.
Wonder if his thoughts have changed???

 

[Roozee]

Yep all, However Aylett wanted us to chase the pot of Debt on the Gold Coast. Even a few years ago in a interview he said this.
Wonder if his thoughts have changed???

Fixed.

 

[Gone north]

He deserves something- we wouldn't be there if it wasn't for him

 

[Zondor]

Watching some highlights of last night's games I got to hear Brayshaw commentating. I've always enjoyed his commentating even when he was over the top on MMM. I actually think he and Taylor might make a great combo as I've noticed Taylor being a little more reserved so far, so I'm hoping this will continue.

The reason I made this thread is because he does polarise our supporters, not mentioning names Zondor, and he has done some stupid things e.g. Mankini BUT his love for North transcends from every part of this bloke's body and I think we haven't adequately acknowledged his contribution to our great club. Yes he told us he had white knights, yes some things he said would happen didn't but what some people dont appreciate is that he had to build excitement, he had to campaign as we were ****** but he became our figurehead and look where we are now.

Therefore I am campaigning that when the redevelopment of Arden street is being planned that great consideration is given to recognise Brayshaw"s contribution to the club.

Cast your vote.

LOL. So Brayshaws "love for North transcends from every part of this bloke's body". Please give me a Spell. If he loved the club so much he wouldn't have tried to sign us up to some idiotic Deal whereby we would've been playing 7 of our Home Games away from Melbourne. :stern look



What makes me laugh is that every so often some imbecile says "Oh Without Jame Brayshaws our club would be on the Gold Coast". It is like thinking 6 + 9 = 69. :stern look

Yeah but anyways lets build a Statue of this Turkey and plant it outside of Hardon Street. It can look a little like this.



Then we can all throw eggs at it. :stern look

 

[Long Live the King]

The comparison is as a supporter of the club. I couldn't care less how neutrals interpret things.

From a Collingwood supporter's view Eddie's conduct as media figure ~ president far exceeded James' in the same capacity. That's Eddie's natural salesman personality in play.

Judged purely on the presidential roles in isolation from media duties I'd view them far more on par.

Tend to agree. If I'm honest when JB was appointed my first reaction was to compare us to the Pies and think we were a poor imitation......JB went on to prove himself time and time again. I think the people that matter have recognised his contribution.

 

[big_e]

The comparison is as a supporter of the club. I couldn't care less how neutrals interpret things.

From a Collingwood supporter's view Eddie's conduct as media figure ~ president far exceeded James' in the same capacity. That's Eddie's natural salesman personality in play.

Judged purely on the presidential roles in isolation from media duties I'd view them far more on par.

They played completely different roles. Eddie definitely presidential - he runs Collingwood, nobody else.

JB, on the other hand, knew he had neither the ability nor desire to run the club, and so chose to do neither. Instead, he recruited a team of people with to do the work, and then when things were (relatively) secure, he walked away, safe in the knowledge that the place is better off than it was before he got there.

 

[king rising]

Massive fan of JB's work. Lead the charge on our path to resurgence, and ability to remain as a stable club in Melbourne. Was certainly the public voice, who bore the brunt of much criticism within the footy industry, but imo did this in an admirable fashion and always put our great club first.

 

[Jack Bradley]

I love James Brayshaw

 

[the big lebowski]

I voted unsure for the simple fact it wasn't jb alone. I'd love to see some sort of acknowledgement for all the shinboners that did what needed to be done to ensure our survival

 

[Egga]

I will be forever grateful that JB stuck his hand up and was prepared to make the effort, however, he didn't do anything extraordinary, he just got good people on board and everyone doing their job well dug us out of the hole we were in. I do not think it would be fair to recognise JB's contribution and not everyone else. Even though Euge wasn't with us for a long time, his impact on the club was significant. Cam Vale was significant in turning what was a fairly lean operation that was wasteful in many areas into a profitable one.

JB also got some good people on the board and managed to weed out the old mob without too much drama, it would have been nice to actually vote in these people ourselves, but still, he did a great job of bringing in good people, including Funky Carl and Buckley who have taken the baton from JB and have gone on with it.

I guess the most extraordinary thing is if he didn't stick his hand up probably nobody else would have who had a media profile and was prepared to commit us to staying in Melbourne, mostly.

However, you have to take the good with the bad. Scott's appointment seemed to be one that wasn't free of personal bias. There were obviously issues with his relationship with Euge, we lost a good person who was doing a lot of positive things for us. Carl has been efficient but from the outside looking in isn't as evident that he has been as proactive in terms of doing things to improve the club as Euge did in his time. JB also lacked professionalism at times, threw hissy fits when a past board member wanted to run for a board position and when we wanted to see the constitution amended to put in place some safeguards. He courted Ponting for years while he was playing cricket and left him at the altar once he retired and said he was available and "waiting for a call". After bringing us back to Melbourne, we went back to selling games not long after, something he said was a possibility for the "short term" but had the Tasmanian government not been conned by Kennett, we would have been stuck in Tasmania forever with a co-location arrangement that would have weakened us in Melbourne. The deal was on the table, it was only chance that we dodged the bullet.

Those negatives wont diminish my appreciation for what he has done, however, I am not sure there should be an individual recognition for what was a team effort by a lot of people and there were too many suspect individual calls imo to immortalise him more than the person who stood up and made the call to say no to the AFL.

Sorry, but you obviously have no idea about leadership, especially at North Melbourne

“he didn't do anything extraordinary, he just got good people on board and everyone doing their job well”

Building a strong team is bloody difficult and an achievement in itself, especially in a political and low paying football club. If that’s “nothing extraordinary”, then the club wouldn’t have been on the brink in the first place. In fact every business in the country would be earning billions.

“Even though Euge wasn't with us for a long time, his impact on the club was significant....There were obviously issues with his relationship with Euge, we lost a good person who was doing a lot of positive things for us.”

Euge was a shameless self-promoter who once spent an entire business meeting telling his audience how awesome he was because of his great achievement - getting a tree removed from Arden Street. He told another benefactor to get f****ed for simply offering to support the club. Make no mistake, Euge had multiple personality conflicts and the President did what you’d hope he’d do - he took responsibility and dealt with it.

“Carl has been efficient but from the outside looking in isn't as evident that he has been as proactive in terms of doing things to improve the club as Euge did in his time. “

LOL. Carl is ten times the CEO that Euge was which is why there are no personality issues - everyone on the board knows it. He’s built revenue, sponsorship, membership, non football revenue, exported KangaTech internationally, consolidated Tassie and got us Good Friday. Euge removed a tree.

 

[Reverend Shinboner]

Sorry, but you obviously have no idea about leadership, especially at North Melbourne

“he didn't do anything extraordinary, he just got good people on board and everyone doing their job well”

Building a strong team is bloody difficult and an achievement in itself, especially in a political and low paying football club. If that’s “nothing extraordinary”, then the club wouldn’t have been on the brink in the first place. In fact every business in the country would be earning billions.

“Even though Euge wasn't with us for a long time, his impact on the club was significant....There were obviously issues with his relationship with Euge, we lost a good person who was doing a lot of positive things for us.”

Euge was a shameless self-promoter who once spent an entire business meeting telling his audience how awesome he was because of his great achievement - getting a tree removed from Arden Street. He told another benefactor to get f****ed for simply offering to support the club. Make no mistake, Euge had multiple personality conflicts and the President did what you’d hope he’d do - he took responsibility and dealt with it.

“Carl has been efficient but from the outside looking in isn't as evident that he has been as proactive in terms of doing things to improve the club as Euge did in his time. “

LOL. Carl is ten times the CEO that Euge was which is why there are no personality issues - everyone on the board knows it. He’s built revenue, sponsorship, membership, non football revenue, exported KangaTech internationally, consolidated Tassie and got us Good Friday. Euge removed a tree.

Interesting Egga .

I never got any real insight into why Eug was "dealt with". From my interactions with him (very limited), the ego issue fits - but by in large I still believe he was a very solid CEO for a period of time. I know there is more than a tinge of sarcasm to some of your comments, but he did do more than removing a tree! If I understand correctly, The Huddle and the general philosophy behind it (placing North's heartland community at the centre of its business-model) is, at least in part, some of Arocca's legacy. I get that he was the outspoken figurehead of a strong team of contributors - including JB - but I'm very interested to hear more detail as to the issues and conflicts that arose under this stewardship...

 

[King Corey]

They played completely different roles. Eddie definitely presidential - he runs Collingwood, nobody else.

JB, on the other hand, knew he had neither the ability nor desire to run the club, and so chose to do neither. Instead, he recruited a team of people with to do the work, and then when things were (relatively) secure, he walked away, safe in the knowledge that the place is better off than it was before he got there.

That wasn't what I meant. I rated their presidencies on par when you took into account comparative supporter base sizes etc. JB was a great president.

I was commenting on their conduct in the public arena including media when unofficially representing the club. Eddie is always 'on'. JB is a little more insecure and reluctant to play the spruiker. That's his choice, I'd have preferred a style nearer to Eddie.

 

[King Corey]

Sorry, but you obviously have no idea about leadership, especially at North Melbourne

“he didn't do anything extraordinary, he just got good people on board and everyone doing their job well”

Building a strong team is bloody difficult and an achievement in itself, especially in a political and low paying football club. If that’s “nothing extraordinary”, then the club wouldn’t have been on the brink in the first place. In fact every business in the country would be earning billions.

“Even though Euge wasn't with us for a long time, his impact on the club was significant....There were obviously issues with his relationship with Euge, we lost a good person who was doing a lot of positive things for us.”

Euge was a shameless self-promoter who once spent an entire business meeting telling his audience how awesome he was because of his great achievement - getting a tree removed from Arden Street. He told another benefactor to get f****ed for simply offering to support the club. Make no mistake, Euge had multiple personality conflicts and the President did what you’d hope he’d do - he took responsibility and dealt with it.

“Carl has been efficient but from the outside looking in isn't as evident that he has been as proactive in terms of doing things to improve the club as Euge did in his time. “

LOL. Carl is ten times the CEO that Euge was which is why there are no personality issues - everyone on the board knows it. He’s built revenue, sponsorship, membership, non football revenue, exported KangaTech internationally, consolidated Tassie and got us Good Friday. Euge removed a tree.

This is completely at odds with any experiences people have had with Eugene including my own that I'm aware of. Was a fantastic guy and valuable part of our club during his tenure.

 

[Tas]

Sorry, but you obviously have no idea about leadership, especially at North Melbourne

You want to compare resumes? :stern look

“he didn't do anything extraordinary, he just got good people on board and everyone doing their job well”

Building a strong team is bloody difficult and an achievement in itself, especially in a political and low paying football club. If that’s “nothing extraordinary”, then the club wouldn’t have been on the brink in the first place. In fact every business in the country would be earning billions.

Meh, everyone who is at the club at board level are North tragics like us, they just more of a high end business background. Every attempt to get someone outside of the North circle was a failure, like prominent CEOs we chased... other than Euge and he was identified if I recall because he was being held back at Collingwood and since moving on has gone on to something bigger.

You don't need to be special to get a die hard supporter of the club with business creds to sit on the board. He does have a charismatic personality and I am sure that has helped, but I am sure the coterie group has had a lot of people interested and willing to sit on the board, most have been knocked back due to a limited number of positions.

“Even though Euge wasn't with us for a long time, his impact on the club was significant....There were obviously issues with his relationship with Euge, we lost a good person who was doing a lot of positive things for us.”

Euge was a shameless self-promoter who once spent an entire business meeting telling his audience how awesome he was because of his great achievement - getting a tree removed from Arden Street. He told another benefactor to get f****ed for simply offering to support the club. Make no mistake, Euge had multiple personality conflicts and the President did what you’d hope he’d do - he took responsibility and dealt with it.

Show us on the doll where Euge touched you.

Most of the really successful CEOs I know are complete campaigners. campaigners to people in the business, campaigners to people outside the business, campaigners to their own family. There is a fine line between a barely socially functional top tier CEO and a psychopath.

I couldn't care less how much of a campaigner he was. What was important was he was aggressively proactive, even in the minuscule amount of time he was with us we dodged the ATO trying to strip us of our tax exempt status, which if applied retroactively would have killed the club in back taxes. We got out of our significant debt with Etihad Stadium, he cleaned up all the dodgy off the books shenanigans we got up to and we posted probably the first legal set of accounts for a long time (we didn't accurately show our debt on our accounts and probably engaged in loan facilities with accounts we knew were fraudulent prior to Euge as board and ex-board members knew we had undisclosed debts).

He helped to arrange the club return to member control.

We formed a relationship with North Ballarat during his time, something those after him neglected to the point they abandoned us for the Dogs.

The Tasmanian deal was negotiated during his time.

We redeveloped Arden Street, Euge play a significant role in getting it done and expanding it from the smaller planned development.

The ties to NB and Werribee were achieved during his time. The Werribee and Tasmania partnerships in particular has been a significant reason why we have been able to grow to and sustain 40k members even when we are a hot favourite for the spoon.

I am not sure how anyone can downplay his contribution in such a short period of time.

“Carl has been efficient but from the outside looking in isn't as evident that he has been as proactive in terms of doing things to improve the club as Euge did in his time. “

LOL. Carl is ten times the CEO that Euge was which is why there are no personality issues - everyone on the board knows it. He’s built revenue, sponsorship, membership, non football revenue, exported KangaTech internationally, consolidated Tassie and got us Good Friday. Euge removed a tree.

KangaTech is a fantastic development, but that is pretty much it. We haven't done anything significant since, I think the new AFLW thing will be the first achievement, both the team and the new development of Arden Street. Carl has been with us for a fair while though.

Now that we do have more resources, I think it is essential we replicate the Werribee initiative in other high growth regions, Carl just seems too passive though. We need to get our membership up from 40k to 50, 60, 70k so we can fill Docklands in our own right. Then returning to Melbourne can become more than a "pipe-dream". It is imperative we liberate our club from the dependency on the AFL and Tasmania and we seem slow to take advantage of our current opportunity to do so.

 

[Limerick]

You want to compare resumes? :stern look

Now that we do have more resources, I think it is essential we replicate the Werribee initiative in other high growth regions, Carl just seems too passive though. We need to get our membership up from 40k to 50, 60, 70k so we can fill Docklands in our own right. Then returning to Melbourne can become more than a "pipe-dream". It is imperative we liberate our club from the dependency on the AFL and Tasmania and we seem slow to take advantage of our current opportunity to do so.

I had some dealings with Euge and found him one eyed North, could be tough when required and didn't suffer fools. If we are looking to have an "Honours List" of NMFC of off field greats then he should be on it along with JB, RJ, Ron Casey & Reg Ansett and many more.

Our future challenge is, as Tas has stared, to build our membership and revenue so that we can stand against any move to have us in Tassie as being co-loacted then fully.

 

[Egga]

You want to compare resumes? :stern look



Meh, everyone who is at the club at board level are North tragics like us, they just more of a high end business background. Every attempt to get someone outside of the North circle was a failure, like prominent CEOs we chased... other than Euge and he was identified if I recall because he was being held back at Collingwood and since moving on has gone on to something bigger.

You don't need to be special to get a die hard supporter of the club with business creds to sit on the board. He does have a charismatic personality and I am sure that has helped, but I am sure the coterie group has had a lot of people interested and willing to sit on the board, most have been knocked back due to a limited number of positions.



Show us on the doll where Euge touched you.

Most of the really successful CEOs I know are complete campaigners. campaigners to people in the business, campaigners to people outside the business, campaigners to their own family. There is a fine line between a barely socially functional top tier CEO and a psychopath.

I couldn't care less how much of a campaigner he was. What was important was he was aggressively proactive, even in the minuscule amount of time he was with us we dodged the ATO trying to strip us of our tax exempt status, which if applied retroactively would have killed the club in back taxes. We got out of our significant debt with Etihad Stadium, he cleaned up all the dodgy off the books shenanigans we got up to and we posted probably the first legal set of accounts for a long time (we didn't accurately show our debt on our accounts and probably engaged in loan facilities with accounts we knew were fraudulent prior to Euge as board and ex-board members knew we had undisclosed debts).

He helped to arrange the club return to member control.

We formed a relationship with North Ballarat during his time, something those after him neglected to the point they abandoned us for the Dogs.

The Tasmanian deal was negotiated during his time.

We redeveloped Arden Street, Euge play a significant role in getting it done and expanding it from the smaller planned development.

The ties to NB and Werribee were achieved during his time. The Werribee and Tasmania partnerships in particular has been a significant reason why we have been able to grow to and sustain 40k members even when we are a hot favourite for the spoon.

I am not sure how anyone can downplay his contribution in such a short period of time.



KangaTech is a fantastic development, but that is pretty much it. We haven't done anything significant since, I think the new AFLW thing will be the first achievement, both the team and the new development of Arden Street. Carl has been with us for a fair while though.

Now that we do have more resources, I think it is essential we replicate the Werribee initiative in other high growth regions, Carl just seems too passive though. We need to get our membership up from 40k to 50, 60, 70k so we can fill Docklands in our own right. Then returning to Melbourne can become more than a "pipe-dream". It is imperative we liberate our club from the dependency on the AFL and Tasmania and we seem slow to take advantage of our current opportunity to do so.

You argue against me with insinuations of a pissing contest, allusions to sexual assault, behavioural stereotypes and a post so verbose that no one gainfully employed could have time to read it in full?

I can’t compete with that. I concede!

 

[Tas]

You argue against me with insinuations of a pissing contest, allusions to sexual assault, behavioural stereotypes and a post so verbose that no one gainfully employed could have time to read it in full?

I can’t compete with that. I concede!

Wut?

 

[Engimal v3]

JB was a good, public figurehead, which is exactly what we needed at the time. He also built an amazing team around himself, and has left the club in a state that is beyond what most of us thought was achievable a decade ago.

 

[Tas]

JB was a good, public figurehead, which is exactly what we needed at the time. He also built an amazing team around himself, and has left the club in a state that is beyond what most of us thought was achievable a decade ago.

Yep I think overall, given the s**t hand we had at the time he came on board, JB did a good job and I am very appreciative that he stuck his hand up, especially given we had a prestigious line up of turncoats who wanted to see us die on the Gold Coast.

I just don't think we need to build a statue to honour someone doing a good job.

 

[Engimal v3]

Yep I think overall, given the s**t hand we had at the time he came on board, JB did a good job and I am very appreciative that he stuck his hand up, especially given we had a prestigious line up of turncoats who wanted to see us die on the Gold Coast.

I just don't think we need to build a statue to honour someone doing a good job.

Agreed, especially when it was such a team effort.

 

[Euge]

Wow - I must have pissed Egga off big time along the journey. A mate alerted me to this thread and asked about the tree. For the record, after our first 12 months I was often asked to present to a variety of audiences and business gatherings to talk about those early years and what WE did to improve North's position. Amongst many things, the tree was an interesting one that indirectly saved us about $1M in building costs and more directly meant the development could proceed. The "tree incident" was mentioned in the context of an administration that had been under siege over the Gold Coast issue to the point where it had missed something that at first instance seemed so relatively minor but was ultimately quite significant. After I started at North, I visited the Architect, a good North man (Gray Barton) who was at his wits end, to talk about the development progress. From memory he was frustrated by the continual downsizing of the plans - we only had $7.5M committed and the building kept getting smaller and smaller. When reviewing the plans, I asked him why the building was essentially designed to run around the boundary. I knew from previous experience that curved buildings generally cost more than a square block. So I asked, why, given we had limited funds, we were looking to build on a curve - his answer was that there was a bloody big tree in the south west corner of the site that prevented us from doing so. When I got back to the building I walked down to the corner and what I saw was a near dead tree on its last legs. I called the architect and told him the situation - we arranged an expert who concluded that the tree was dying and could not be saved. We removed the tree, the building became a straight block and we saved an estimated $1 - 1.5M in costs, which was one of a number of factors that allowed us to eventually proceed with the build. Peter Scanlon, the Huddle and the tree all contributed significantly in getting that building up!
With respect to the well heeled supporter that I might have told to "move on", he or she could have been any number of people who came to me with crazy ideas that did not quite meet our expectations (such as for example increasing our already significant debt to buy a venue to put pokies in!). Unfortunately, some people just can't take NO for an answer, so occasionally I made sure they got the message.
Go North!!
Euge