Opinion Jeff Kennett News, Media etc.

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dave10

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Apr 26, 2004
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Excuse my intrusion. I feel a little sorry for Tim Shearer. I know of him and am certainly aware of the work he does in his day job fundraising for Scotch College where he’s the head of the fundraising arm there.

The Scotch College is widely regarded to be without pier as the wealthiest school in Australia with the widest circle of donors and contributors to the various school fundraising projects. Tim heads up this business which generates tens of millions annually and has assets in the hundreds of millions. The schools campus in Hawthirn is the largest and almost certainly the most impressive with every major building rebuilt over the last 15 years thanks to the monies raised by the school.

Why is this relevant? Tim was lured to the clubs board to provide a skill set required by the club, raise funds and build Dingley. Tim is very well placed to lead this for your club and that’s his role on the board.

Whilst Tim was a VFL umpire and is involved over many years with the Old Scotch FC, he isn’t an AFL List Manager or profess to being one. To be fair, he probably (certainly) showed his lack of media training with Kane on SEN where he allowed the conversation to go down a rabbit hole on the obvious question of the state of the clubs playing list. In hindsight he would probably handle it differently next time, be more open minded and ‘glass half full’, however it’s hard to criticise a guy for being open and honest!

He’s an expert in racing millions of dollars, not a football bloke. He didn’t handle it greatly but if the club needs to raise tens of millions of $$’s then I’d carefully reconsider your instant rejection of Tim based on one media moment..

Im not his friend. I’m not a Hawks member. But I bring knowledge that hopes to be found useful!!
 
I'll say this, Clarko may carry significant responsibility for a failed strategy, but until the others who both participated, approved, and enacted the failed strategy similarly put up their hands and say "I stuffed up too, I need to take responsibilty just as our head coach was required to, and if that means someone else should be in my position then that's as it should be", then it's fair to say Clarko is being scapegoated.
He wasn’t required to.
 

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Don’t fall for this. Listen to the audio and what was said.
Some of the posts are exactly what I was talking about 2 weeks ago, re; sheep

People are judging Shearer on a click bait head line without any real idea what was said & how.
Also with very little knowledge of what the bloke has done & should continue to do as a board member of HFC
 
Clarko wasn't "required to put up his hand & take responsibility", I think is the point.

The Footy Dept (or Board, I don't know how it works) held him responsible - he didn't put up his hand, so to speak.
 

flinchfree

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Jan 30, 2014
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Some of the posts are exactly what I was talking about 2 weeks ago, re; sheep

People are judging Shearer on a click bait head line without any real idea what was said & how.
Also with very little knowledge of what the bloke has done & should continue to do as a board member of HFC

Baaaahh.

Here's what I heard, smart arse.
He's disappointed Jeff isn't going to be around for the longhaul at Hawthorn aside him. That's REGARDLESS of all the shite results over the last 5 years, playing and off field, and the absolute crock that JK can't help spouting about government, other Clubs, how the country needs to deal with the pandemic, yada yada.
Do you think Shearer has a hold at ALL on the fact Jeff's divided the membership over such issues, pissed off the AFL governing body endlessly, created negative relationships with other Clubs, and made it more difficult for us to get funding for our required new facilities? And Tim is DISAPPOINTED we can't have more of the same???
FAIL no.1

Then says JK has a member first mentaility? Soooooo, that would explain his meglomaniacal challenge to cancel a person's membership because they were overwraught about what has been going on at the Club? Rather than show some understanding of membership angst???
Fail no.2

Then after getting an answer to how Cornes views our list, and the assertion it's a mess (over the last 4/5 years) - NOT gone to the draft/shipped out players for bargain prices, Tim doesn't push back on either??????????? 100% Agreed??????
Must have missed recent additions the last few years that ARE on the list from the draft, and the fact that NO players were shipped out at bargain prices.
Fail no.3

On pokies, danced like a frickin goose unable to show he has an understood position, until Cornes put words into his mouth that the Club does have a stated outcome and WOULD move out of them eventually with an awkward 'yes'......but sounded like he would rather go polly on it and just waffle rather than have a personal stance.
Fail no.4

Imagine someone actually listening to that interview and having the above opinion and not simply being a sheep, a term you obviously feel derogatory and useful to put down those you don't agree with.


Tim Shearer sounds like an absolute weak backboned jelly fish.
He's a hard no for mine, and I voted Silk/Holdstock.
 
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flinchfree

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Clarko wasn't "required to put up his hand & take responsibility", I think is the point.

The Footy Dept (or Board, I don't know how it works) held him responsible - he didn't put up his hand, so to speak.

So losing his job isn't responsibility?
He got canned, and the throw away tag has become Clarko and his chosen path to success were a failure for which he paid the price of.
But you don't think he had to go to the board and his fellow coaches to describe that path over the last 5 years?
And when he did, others didn't have to sign off on it?

For mine, if you participate in a failed plan as a group, your sense of honor should hold you to want to take some account for it and not just quietly watch one man get the firing squad as a sacrificial lamb.
 

TylerDurden

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Baaaahh.

Here's what I heard, smart arse.
He's disappointed Jeff isn't going to be around for the longhaul at Hawthorn aside him. That's REGARDLESS of all the sh*te results over the last 5 years, playing and off field, and the absolute crock that JK can't help spouting about government, other Clubs, how the country needs to deal with the pandemic, yada yada.
Do you think Shearer has a hold at ALL on the fact Jeff's divided the membership over such issues, pissed off the AFL governing body endlessly, created negative relationships with other Clubs, and made it more difficult for us to get funding for our required new facilities? And Tim is DISAPPOINTED we can't have more of the same???
FAIL no.1

Then says JK has a member first mentaility? Soooooo, that would explain his meglomaniacal challenge to cancel a person's membership because they were overwraught about what has been going on at the Club? Rather than show some understanding of membership angst???
Fail no.2

Then after getting an answer to how Corne's views our list, and the assertion it's a mess (over the last 4/5 years) - NOT gone to the draft/shipped out players for bargain prices, Tim doesn't push back on either??????????? Must have missed recent additions the last few years that ARE on the list from the draft, and the fact that NO players were shipped out at bargain prices.
Fail no.3

On pokies, danced like a frickin goose unable to show he has an understood position, until Cornes put words into his mouth that the Club does have a stated outcome and WOULD move out of them eventually with an awkward 'yes'......but sounded like he would rather go polly on it and just waffle rather than have a personal stance.
Fail no.4

Imagine someone actually listening to that interview and having the above opinion and not simply being a sheep, a term you obviously feel derogatory and useful to put down those you don't agree with.


Tim Shearer sounds like an absolute weak backboned jelly fish.
He's a hard no for mine, and I voted Silk/Holdstock.
To be fair, another fk up from the club. Why on earth are we putting Shearer in front of Kornes, with no media training. It's like a red rag to a bull. Kornes was coming off the long run and Shearer clearly wasn't ready.

I'll say it again. Train wreck.
The rhetorical question re our list was as bad as it gets from a director.
 
So losing his job isn't responsibility?
He got canned, and the throw away tag has become Clarko and his chosen path to success were a failure for which he paid the price of.
But you don't think he had to go to the board and his fellow coaches to describe that path over the last 5 years?
And when he did, others didn't have to sign off on it?

For mine, if you participate in a failed plan as a group, your sense of honor should hold you to want to take some account for it and not just quietly watch one man get the firing squad as a sacrificial lamb.
No, losing his job isn't taking responsibility - it is being held responsible.

Resigning his job would've been a show of taking responsibility, but that's not what happened.

*just to confirm - it wasn't my original comment (or thought) - just elaborating on the distinction (I think) Strapping Young Lad was drawing
 
You said Clarkson was required to put his hand up and say “I stuffed up, I need to take responsibility”.
He wasn’t required to, and he’s never been asked to do that.

Instead the club made the decision that the time was right for change, partly on the back of the failed list build, partly on the back of the financial impact of COVID and having to pay a master coach a monster salary, and partly because they’d become quite aware that Sam Mitchell was a very likely senior coach in waiting who was looking at his options.
 

flinchfree

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No, losing his job isn't taking responsibility - it is being held responsible.

Resigning his job would've been a show of taking responsibility, but that's not what happened.

*just to confirm - it wasn't my original comment (or thought) - just elaborating on the distinction (I think) Strapping Young Lad was drawing
You got deeper in the hair splitting weeds of my post than I thought I'd need to parse.
I assumed everyone would get that I asked others to put their hand up to take resposibility, much as the coach had been asked to - as in, by being made to 'take responsibility' for his actions as coach and failed playing results and lose his job over it.

But, I will take responsiblity in this case of not being better with my use of the English language and accept the correction.
Yay me.
 

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flinchfree

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Jan 30, 2014
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You said Clarkson was required to put his hand up and say “I stuffed up, I need to take responsibility”.
He wasn’t required to, and he’s never been asked to do that.

Instead the club made the decision that the time was right for change, partly on the back of the failed list build, partly on the back of the financial impact of COVID and having to pay a master coach a monster salary, and partly because they’d become quite aware that Sam Mitchell was a very likely senior coach in waiting who was looking at his options.

Sure, you are exactingly accurate.
I was going for an overall picture painting.
Sorry for the messy strokes.
 
You got deeper in the hair splitting weeds of my post than I thought I'd need to parse.
I assumed everyone would get that I asked others to put their hand up to take resposibility, much as the coach had been asked to - as in, by being made to 'take responsibility' for his actions as coach and failed playing results and lose his job over it.

But, I will take responsiblity in this case of not being better with my use of the English language and accept the correction.
Yay me.
Again, if I must...

It wasn't my thought/idea - I was explaining to you (ref your: "huh") because you didn't seem to pick up on what SYL was saying.
 
You were impressed by that interview?
No, not impressed. But equally I was not at all impressed by the way SEN framed the article and deployed a sensationalist out of context grab via tweet.

My issue is that people need to listen to the audio, and then judge.
 
To be fair, another fk up from the club. Why on earth are we putting Shearer in front of Kornes, with no media training. It's like a red rag to a bull. Kornes was coming off the long run and Shearer clearly wasn't ready.

I'll say it again. Train wreck.
The rhetorical question re our list was as bad as it gets from a director.

reckon that would of been his (JK) decision after Silk being given airtime earlier in the week and smashing it out of the park. Seems it may have backfired

he might have loads of financial nous but not the experience for media - lot of training involved in getting that right. It’s why we hear the same s**t out of players mouths regardless of the question

He should of just left it alone and relied on apathy from members and Jeff’s glowing report
 
Baaaahh.

Here's what I heard, smart arse.
He's disappointed Jeff isn't going to be around for the longhaul at Hawthorn aside him. That's REGARDLESS of all the sh*te results over the last 5 years, playing and off field, and the absolute crock that JK can't help spouting about government, other Clubs, how the country needs to deal with the pandemic, yada yada.
Do you think Shearer has a hold at ALL on the fact Jeff's divided the membership over such issues, pissed off the AFL governing body endlessly, created negative relationships with other Clubs, and made it more difficult for us to get funding for our required new facilities? And Tim is DISAPPOINTED we can't have more of the same???
FAIL no.1

Then says JK has a member first mentaility? Soooooo, that would explain his meglomaniacal challenge to cancel a person's membership because they were overwraught about what has been going on at the Club? Rather than show some understanding of membership angst???
Fail no.2

Then after getting an answer to how Cornes views our list, and the assertion it's a mess (over the last 4/5 years) - NOT gone to the draft/shipped out players for bargain prices, Tim doesn't push back on either??????????? 100% Agreed??????
Must have missed recent additions the last few years that ARE on the list from the draft, and the fact that NO players were shipped out at bargain prices.
Fail no.3

On pokies, danced like a frickin goose unable to show he has an understood position, until Cornes put words into his mouth that the Club does have a stated outcome and WOULD move out of them eventually with an awkward 'yes'......but sounded like he would rather go polly on it and just waffle rather than have a personal stance.
Fail no.4

Imagine someone actually listening to that interview and having the above opinion and not simply being a sheep, a term you obviously feel derogatory and useful to put down those you don't agree with.


Tim Shearer sounds like an absolute weak backboned jelly fish.
He's a hard no for mine, and I voted Silk/Holdstock.

smart arse ??

really ??
 
Sep 22, 2010
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Excuse my intrusion. I feel a little sorry for Tim Shearer. I know of him and am certainly aware of the work he does in his day job fundraising for Scotch College where he’s the head of the fundraising arm there.

The Scotch College is widely regarded to be without pier as the wealthiest school in Australia with the widest circle of donors and contributors to the various school fundraising projects. Tim heads up this business which generates tens of millions annually and has assets in the hundreds of millions. The schools campus in Hawthirn is the largest and almost certainly the most impressive with every major building rebuilt over the last 15 years thanks to the monies raised by the school.

Why is this relevant? Tim was lured to the clubs board to provide a skill set required by the club, raise funds and build Dingley. Tim is very well placed to lead this for your club and that’s his role on the board.

Whilst Tim was a VFL umpire and is involved over many years with the Old Scotch FC, he isn’t an AFL List Manager or profess to being one. To be fair, he probably (certainly) showed his lack of media training with Kane on SEN where he allowed the conversation to go down a rabbit hole on the obvious question of the state of the clubs playing list. In hindsight he would probably handle it differently next time, be more open minded and ‘glass half full’, however it’s hard to criticise a guy for being open and honest!

He’s an expert in racing millions of dollars, not a football bloke. He didn’t handle it greatly but if the club needs to raise tens of millions of $$’s then I’d carefully reconsider your instant rejection of Tim based on one media moment..

Im not his friend. I’m not a Hawks member. But I bring knowledge that hopes to be found useful!!
This. I hope people don't lose sight of what is a well considered and articulated post amongst the weird dick measuring contest going on.

Skills based board, we need someone who can raise capital, and continue to strengthen and diversify our revenue, literally who better is there? You don't ask your accountant to do your gardening.

Want to get out of pokies? Replacing that revenue with philanthropy sounds like a strong move. Keep in mind the club would be in a much weaker position without the generous contributions of people lile Geoff Harris, so I'd welcome more like him.
 
I have to wonder why the club green lit Shearer going on the show. He’s obviously not stupid given his position, however he clearly isn’t polished when it comes to being interviewed. It wasn’t like he was going to be interviewed by Whately who is fairly calm - Cornes is fairly aggressive, and despite what you might think of his views, is pretty good at verbally sparring. Yes, it wasn’t as bad as the Tweets made out, but for Shearer to just play into Cornes’ narrative with the list discussion wasn’t exactly Machiavellian.

I’m sure Shearer is excellent at the fundraising stuff - but let’s keep him off the radio in future.
 
I have to wonder why the club green lit Shearer going on the show. He’s obviously not stupid given his position, however he clearly isn’t polished when it comes to being interviewed. It wasn’t like he was going to be interviewed by Whately who is fairly calm - Cornes is fairly aggressive, and despite what you might think of his views, is pretty good at verbally sparring. Yes, it wasn’t as bad as the Tweets made out, but for Shearer to just play into Cornes’ narrative with the list discussion wasn’t exactly Machiavellian.

I’m sure Shearer is excellent at the fundraising stuff - but let’s keep him off the radio in future.

The club, or Kennet? My assumption (with no knowledge) is that Kennet told him to go on. He wanted to up his profile to retain him on the board He assumed that he’s a smart guy who wouldn’t get better by Cornes.

Seems he was wrong.
 
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Pessimistic

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There may be procedural reasons but launching the vote in draft week is far from ideal.

this seems to be shaping as the biggest admin crisis since 1996 (when there was minimal social media - dial up yahoo as I remember)

but that was surprisingly civil, the board handed over to the dicker board reasonably civilly, and the old board had been manovred into a corner by the then afl.

Let’s hope it’s the same this time round, and the footy dept is unaffected. You have to remind yourselves that these people give their time for free (as they did in 1996) but thus all know what the football club beast is like.

I just don’t understand why Kennet doesn’t do the honourable thing like Garvey did, especially as he was such a passionate advocate for limited tenure
 

SammyC

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Excuse my intrusion. I feel a little sorry for Tim Shearer. I know of him and am certainly aware of the work he does in his day job fundraising for Scotch College where he’s the head of the fundraising arm there.

The Scotch College is widely regarded to be without pier as the wealthiest school in Australia with the widest circle of donors and contributors to the various school fundraising projects. Tim heads up this business which generates tens of millions annually and has assets in the hundreds of millions. The schools campus in Hawthirn is the largest and almost certainly the most impressive with every major building rebuilt over the last 15 years thanks to the monies raised by the school.

Why is this relevant? Tim was lured to the clubs board to provide a skill set required by the club, raise funds and build Dingley. Tim is very well placed to lead this for your club and that’s his role on the board.

Whilst Tim was a VFL umpire and is involved over many years with the Old Scotch FC, he isn’t an AFL List Manager or profess to being one. To be fair, he probably (certainly) showed his lack of media training with Kane on SEN where he allowed the conversation to go down a rabbit hole on the obvious question of the state of the clubs playing list. In hindsight he would probably handle it differently next time, be more open minded and ‘glass half full’, however it’s hard to criticise a guy for being open and honest!

He’s an expert in racing millions of dollars, not a football bloke. He didn’t handle it greatly but if the club needs to raise tens of millions of $$’s then I’d carefully reconsider your instant rejection of Tim based on one media moment..

Im not his friend. I’m not a Hawks member. But I bring knowledge that hopes to be found useful!!

100%

I know Tim as an acquaintance. He is a ripping guy & highly credentialed for the role he has been given around fundraising. You would struggle to find a better quality person or one as passionate. Hawthorn to the core too.

But beyond fundraising he has no credentials to run an AFL club or make decisions on coaches, list management, etc. He shouldn’t be put up for media to Cornes when this stuff will 100% come up & he needs to be self aware not to do it.

His re-election case should start and end with his performance in his nominated role and to a lesser extent the need for a director focused on fundraising.

I would question whether his passion takes him outside his narrow area of expertise? But the governance structures should be strong enough to mitigate any risk in this area. On his performance, I’d question why Jeff’s criticism of the Vic govt (potential majority funder) was allowed to go ahead seemingly unchallenged & if we have managed a funding contribution from Dan and co, how much greater could it have been if we’d worked more collaboratively etc.
 

Poison

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I’m not taking a position on the candidacy of Holdstock or Shearer, but people keep invoking Shearer’s fundraising credentials as the reason he should retain his sport on the board. Isn’t he the Chair of the Hawthorn Foundation? Isn’t that the vehicle through which these fundraising activities are carried out? Why does he need to be a board member to raise money for Dingley? I feel like that question has never been addressed to him.
 

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