Remove this Banner Ad

Universal Love Keith Thomas

🥰 Love BigFooty? Join now for free.

bomberclifford said:
I've been thinking about this KT thing quite a bit this week.

He's being ridiculed for an email that is essentially him taking responsibility for the malaise of the club and I don't think that's right. It's the first time he's shown real emotion in one of those emails and rather than lambast him, he should be praised. This job has obviously taken its toll on him.

I also believe that it's him letting the co-captains thing get through, against his better judgement, that he feels most responsible for.


If I was the CEO in his position, I'd be doing 3 things to re-align the course:

1. Drop the co-captains. Revert to one captain and two vice-captains. Spread the load amongst that triumvirate.
Even if that means: Jonas C, Wines and Hartlett VC. Own the mistake and rectify it.

2. Drop "make our community proud" from the motto. Relegate it to a list of brand pillars that support the one true purpose. Winning Premierships. (yes they are harder to win, but that's the frigging point of it) Community stuff is important, but it's not the core purpose of the PA brand. Community pride comes from the endeavour to win premierships.

3. Stop trying to please everyone. Collingwood are arseholes to everyone. I want my club to be like Collingwood. Piss people off. Tell it like it is. Take no bulls**t. Yes you have to suck eggs every so often, but stop ******* pretending that you're happy about it.



I'd also look at getting football people running social media. Perhaps offering 'takeovers' from responsible parties found here. Obviously there are standards that need to be met, but stop watering down our presence with shallow nothingness. (use Twitter as news release and game score updates, use Insta as social communication about life around the club for players and supporters alike, and use FB as a way of getting the message out about initiatives, partners and club activities. Stop repeating content across all channels and STOP POSTING ******* MEMES.
Click to expand...
I heard somewhere that he was not in favour of the co-captains decision and did warn Ken.
 
Us against the rest said:
I heard somewhere that he was not in favour of the co-captains decision and did warn Ken.
Click to expand...
He said it in on 5AA at the start of the season. Didn't outright say Ken, I don't want this, but you could tell in his voice he didn't like it or prefer to do it.

He asked Ken if that was what he really wanted, because he wasn't sure and said the club was getting heat about it. This is a classic example of where KT backed Ken to the hilt. It's why I say they are joined at the hip and why KT is taking responsibility. he knows he should have told Ken - no we aren't going with 2 captains.
 

Log in to remove this Banner Ad

I post this here with a measure of hesitation. In my listening, it’s an overwhelmingly defensive performance by an employee who has run out of ideas.

It’s time for a new CEO. Vision, Energy, Enthusiasm and Ability.

Ignore the snide comments close to the mic (it’s not my recording). It doesn’t matter how much they are paid if they get the job done.

Ilias M said:
Here you go KT spinning it again tonight at Alberton talking footy 🎙

Dropbox - Error - Simplify your life

www.dropbox.com www.dropbox.com
Click to expand...
 
I listened, but I didn't understand it any more than the letter.

In a very rambling and roundabout way (KT is not a good public speaker) he attempted to explain what he was trying to do, but I still didn't get it. It seemed like spin, but he can't do spin, so it came as, yes, very wishy washy.

It could be he meant as a club we are moving forward and have to leave old traditions behind, but the Club (he in particular) have failed in bringing the members along on the ride eg 2 captains. In no way did I interpret anything said that Ken will be leaving - perhaps he thinks he is preparing us for that.

Whatever, he seems to have missed the point. Little success with unattractive football WILL lead to member discontent. The coach is the common denominator in the last 5 years of this. So get rid of the coach, as we have done in our long successful history. The club is bigger than the individual. Etc.

Rather odd behaviours, and a really odd place to be meeting the members - hardly spreading his message to the membership as a whole.


PS I'm a long way from the club, and I'm not going to spend my limited resources on pub food that is apparently of very low quality. Haven't been for a couple of years.
 
The club having to dance around the ill fated contract extension would be hilarious if it wasn't so soul destroying. Sure, it is about more than just the coach, but the other issues with the club stem from the same weak, loser attitude that led to his contract extension.

KT doesn't fill me with a lot of confidence there, but he does talk about how he needs to find a way to communicate with the fanbase and include us in decisions that affect the culture and branding of the club. chiwigi 's supporter heritage committee would be a great way of acheiving that sort of thing.

Outside of that, I couldn't listen all the way through because Barry Curtin isn't my cup of tea.

KT talks about wanting people to buy into Port Adelaide when they arrive, but struggles to articulate what Port Adelaide 'is' and what exactly he thinks the members are upset about. You haven't brought the members along with you because you don't answer to us, Keith. We're too easy to forget unless members stop renewing at an alarming rate.

This is the thing that gets me about the membership conundrum. People say that we can't lose members because it could kill the club, but what made the people in charge finally stand up and take notice? It wasn't angry reacts on facebook. It wasn't 5 years of shit performances.

This is why some sort of member heritage and branding consultation committee is vitally important for us. The supporters currently don't have any real agency at all. We're customers in a real sense. Put important ideas in front of a supporter committee who will tell you very quickly how certain decisions are going to go down with the wider supporter base.
 
He sprouts so much stuff but winning games and playing finals consistently is not on his agenda.
Failing to play finals, even when 11-4 is Ken's fault, defending him is not what we want to here.

Seriously, all this fluffy stuff he talks about is just dandy but most people just want Port to play good footy, win enough games to play finals so we can focus on a tilt a Grand Final.

I believe it's time for KT to move on, a winning Port Adelaide on field is what we need 1st, the rest will follow.
 
Last edited:
KT is doing what any CEO would do in the circumstance. He has to back the decisions of the Board as to do any thing else would result in a public shit fight from which our Club might never recover. We live in a corporate world and defending corporate decisions and calming potentially explosive situations is what CEOs do when the decisions of the Board are questioned. We should not be shit canning someone for doing his job in the corporate organisation that we have been forced to watch our Football Club become.

Keith Thomas did nothing more than admit directly to the Members that he had made mistakes and I just wish the air head who runs the show would show the same character and admit the same to the Members, not to the general public or the assembled media, but to the Members. Then again methinks I wish for too much. David Koch and his Board have sat back and allowed Keith Thomas to carry the can for past mistakes and I find that distasteful. For once it would be nice to get an e-mail from David Koch indentifying past mistakes and proposing a strategy for rectifying them.

Rather than sack the CEO, the Club needs what it cannot have, a spill of all Board positions and an election of ' true believers ' to the Board. I am of course talking about putting control of the PAFC back in the hands of members and sadly that will not happen.
 
El_Scorcho said:
... KT talks about wanting people to buy into Port Adelaide when they arrive, but struggles to articulate what Port Adelaide 'is' and what exactly he thinks the members are upset about. ....
Click to expand...
I've posted previously that KT green lighting Hinkley's demand for co-captains showed he clearly doesn't get Port Adelaide. I'm not sure he can ever come back from that in my mind.
 
Us against the rest said:
... all this fluffy stuff he talks about is just dandy but most people just want Port to play good footy and win enough games to play finals so we can focus on a tilt a Grand Final. ....
Click to expand...
The vast majority of members of the PAFC joined for the football. There are plenty of organisations out there people can join for community work. If that is your focus I recommend you join Rotary or a similar organisation.

I have no problem with us using our public profile to support community projects but we should focus on our core business, football.
 

Remove this Banner Ad

Steve Dore said:
The vast majority of members of the PAFC joined for the football. There are plenty of organisations out there people can join for community work. If that is your focus I recommend you join Rotary or a similar organisation.

I have no problem with us using our public profile to support community projects but we should focus on our core business, football.
Click to expand...
Agreed. I don't have a problem with all of that and all the things he talked about. It's what wasn't discussed is the issue and we all know what that is. The average fan wants to see Port win games of footy, after all we are a football club.
 
It Just Is said:
Didn’t he resign via email a month ago?

Symbolic of where this club is at that KT still has a job. Dead. Man. Walking.
Click to expand...

This isn't a great comment. We've been begging for years for somebody to come out and admit that they've made some mistakes, and then as soon as someone does we're gonna respond with 'didn't you resign?'
 
blaargh said:
I post this here with a measure of hesitation. In my listening, it’s an overwhelmingly defensive performance by an employee who has run out of ideas.

It’s time for a new CEO. Vision, Energy, Enthusiasm and Ability.

Ignore the snide comments close to the mic (it’s not my recording). It doesn’t matter how much they are paid if they get the job done.
Click to expand...

From 7.27 after the discussion about co-captaincy and KT said we are reviewing it at the end of the year, KT then says;

What the last few months has made me really think about
is, what do we take forward? Whatta we, what, that ensures
that we remain true to who we are, but also be competitive
and relevant now. And that, that is, (pause).

Here is the big learning Baz, right, and this is gonna be the
big change. We've done that, largely separated, And it feels
I reckon very often, that we're not listening, or you guys aren't
understanding what's important to us.

We need to find a way to make those decisions together, and
that's not an easy thing, it's not always possible, but we can do
a much better job at it and I umh gotta find a mechanism to
enable us to have those conversions in the right way, where we
decide together what goes forward. somethings we can't control,
we can't manage, we know that, but a lot of things we can.

So that's really what's behind all this thinking. So when we are
celebrating our 150th, its a celebration of everything that we are.
The old and the new. Past and future. And we're all comfortable
with how we're moving forward. That's really where my mind's at.


I'm not sure this says that KT fully understands what is pissing us off. He is trying, but he has backed in someone who isn't getting results, so he is trying to understand how we can explain what and why he is trying to do, and if we don't improve like he thinks we should and we should expect.

Somewhere later on in the talk he says he isn't resigning and is going to be around for awhile.
 
RussellEbertHandball said:
From 7.27 after the discussion about co-captaincy and KT said we are reviewing it at the end of the year, KT then says;

What the last few months has made me really think about
is, what do we take forward? Whatta we, what, that ensures
that we remain true to who we are, but also be competitive
and relevant now. And that, that is, (pause).

Here is the big learning Baz, right, and this is gonna be the
big change. We've done that, largely separated, And it feels
I reckon very often, that we're not listening, or you guys aren't
understanding what's important to us.

We need to find a way to make those decisions together, and
that's not an easy thing, it's not always possible, but we can do
a much better job at it and I umh gotta find a mechanism to
enable us to have those conversions in the right way, where we
decide together what goes forward. somethings we can't control,
we can't manage, we know that, but a lot of things we can.

So that's really what's behind all this thinking. So when we are
celebrating our 150th, its a celebration of everything that we are.
The old and the new. Past and future. And we're all comfortable
with how we're moving forward. That's really where my mind's at.


I'm not sure this says that KT fully understands what is pi**ing us off. He is trying, but he has backed in someone who isn't getting results, so he is trying to understand how we can explain what and why he is trying to do, and if we don't improve like he thinks we should and we should expect.

Somewhere later on in the talk he says he isn't resigning and is going to be around for awhile.
Click to expand...

Reading that I'm beginning to understand more and more why KT was between jobs when he was pushed our way by the snafl.
 

🥰 Love BigFooty? Join now for free.

raptalia said:
KT is doing what any CEO would do in the circumstance. He has to back the decisions of the Board as to do any thing else would result in a public s**t fight from which our Club might never recover. We live in a corporate world and defending corporate decisions and calming potentially explosive situations is what CEOs do when the decisions of the Board are questioned. We should not be s**t canning someone for doing his job in the corporate organisation that we have been forced to watch our Football Club become.

Keith Thomas did nothing more than admit directly to the Members that he had made mistakes and I just wish the air head who runs the show would show the same character and admit the same to the Members, not to the general public or the assembled media, but to the Members. Then again methinks I wish for too much. David Koch and his Board have sat back and allowed Keith Thomas to carry the can for past mistakes and I find that distasteful. For once it would be nice to get an e-mail from David Koch indentifying past mistakes and proposing a strategy for rectifying them.

Rather than sack the CEO, the Club needs what it cannot have, a spill of all Board positions and an election of ' true believers ' to the Board. I am of course talking about putting control of the PAFC back in the hands of members and sadly that will not happen.
Click to expand...
Agreed but if he wants to start correcting those mistakes, he needs to start by sacking a coach, that imo has played a big part of our on field failures.
 
Don't you just love it when key-board worriers come on here and have a go at someone, but are afraid to say it to their faces. Last night Keith Thomas was on Talking Footy (yes, i posted the event on here) to answer questions from members and supporters who attended. I bet most of those who are having a sook/gripe/whinge/whine about KT didn't attend on the night. That's a shame, because this was your chance to say what you really thought of him and what he should or shouldn't do at the club. I say, STFU or say what you feel through the right channels. Thanks and go the Power and Magpies.
 
Power Plus said:
Don't you just love it when key-board worriers come on here and have a go at someone, but are afraid to say it to their faces. Last night Keith Thomas was on Talking Footy (yes, i posted the event on here) to answer questions from members and supporters who attended. I bet most of those who are having a sook/gripe/whinge/whine about KT didn't attend on the night. That's a shame, because this was your chance to say what you really thought of him and what he should or shouldn't do at the club. I say, STFU or say what you feel through the right channels. Thanks and go the Power and Magpies.
Click to expand...
Speaking for myself but I am sure there were also others that were not able to attend due to other commitments, not good to generalise.

Besides, seeing you attended, I didn't here any body ask KT why Ken can't structure his forward line consistently, why Lycett was was dropped while in very good form and what did Sutcliffe do at the Magpies to warrant selection.

What do you think KT would say if you said Ken is the problem and why did you give him a contract extension ?
 
The irony of the early contract extension for Ken is that if they had waited a year when we were 11-4, how would the result have been different?

He would probably have a longer contract with no conditions.
 
Schulzenfest said:
This isn't a great comment. We've been begging for years for somebody to come out and admit that they've made some mistakes, and then as soon as someone does we're gonna respond with 'didn't you resign?'
Click to expand...
We want them to leave not apologise.
Power Plus said:
Don't you just love it when key-board worriers come on here and have a go at someone, but are afraid to say it to their faces. Last night Keith Thomas was on Talking Footy (yes, i posted the event on here) to answer questions from members and supporters who attended. I bet most of those who are having a sook/gripe/whinge/whine about KT didn't attend on the night. That's a shame, because this was your chance to say what you really thought of him and what he should or shouldn't do at the club. I say, STFU or say what you feel through the right channels. Thanks and go the Power and Magpies.
Click to expand...
Wouldn’t be caught dead there but thanks for the invite.
 

Remove this Banner Ad

Universal Love Keith Thomas

🥰 Love BigFooty? Join now for free.

Back
Top