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Magpie Swann tell AFL to forth and multiply

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morgoth

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Oct 3, 2002
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Up yours Demitriou, good to see that at the Pies we have some ethics unlike the AFL and their biased policies.

Get the message Demitriou we have had enough of you and Rotten Ron Evans bending us over.


Pies chief rejects AFL over cap
By Caroline Wilson
October 24, 2003


Collingwood chief executive Greg Swann has turned down a renewed AFL approach to take over as the league's football boss, saying he could not work for a governing body of a competition that he believed had serious shortcomings.

The Magpie boss aired his reservations over the AFL rules - specifically the salary cap concessions to Sydney and Brisbane - in a conversation late last week with the league's new chief executive, Andrew Demetriou.

With the search for a new football operations general manager now officially down to three candidates, Demetriou has been reportedly determined to snare Swann, one of the most respected club chiefs in the AFL.

And Swann's continued refusal to join the AFL has seen the emergence of another serious but unofficial contender for the position in the Kangaroos' chief executive, Geoff Walsh.

While Walsh has not applied for the job - officially vacated by Demetriou at the end of September - he is understood to be highly regarded by the AFL Commission for his efforts in rebuilding the Kangaroos on and off the ground, but particularly for the club's off-field performance.

Swann yesterday confirmed he had been approached by the AFL and also confirmed his reservations about the unfairness of the competition, but was reluctant to comment further. "I don't want this to look like sour grapes," he said, indirectly referring to Collingwood's grand final thrashing by Brisbane.

Demetriou is understood to have not accepted Swann's explanation, although it has not been lost on several Victorian clubs in the past week that Brisbane managed to keep most of its list intact despite having won three successive premierships.

And Collingwood is understood to have argued vigorously with the commission and former AFL chief Wayne Jackson at the club's scheduled meeting with the league in August over the restructured salary cap concessions to clubs in non-traditional football states.

Swann would not rule out the Magpies continuing to lobby the AFL Commission regarding the concessions. He is understood to have told Demetriou he could not in all conscience work for an organisation whose rules he had fought so hard to change.

Collingwood and Essendon campaigned vigorously against the advantages to Sydney and Brisbane in the lead-up to the changes announced in June, but appear to have let the matter lie.

The AFL is under some pressure to employ a football operations boss with club experience. Swann, 41, is a former player and president of Williamstown. When he joined Collingwood four years ago, it had just recorded a $1 million loss. This season, the club is expected to make a $2 million profit.

With Demetriou's first choice, West Coast chief executive Trevor Nisbett, staying at the Eagles, and Swann almost certainly a non-candidate, support for Walsh has been mounting.

Port Adelaide chief executive Brian Cunningham, one of the final six candidates, who included former players' association chairman and lawyer Brendon Gale and the AFL's Rod Austin, was interviewed by Demetriou last week and has made it on to the shortlist of three. Demetriou is expected to choose his replacement next month.

Brisbane's cap allowance, now an extra 10 per cent or about $600,000, will be reduced to 7.5 per cent by 2005, permitting it to pay its players about $360,000 more than other clubs. Sydney will also receive the newly named out-of-state allowance for up to 12 players, plus an extra 7 per cent of the cap for cost of living.
 
Originally posted by morgoth
He is understood to have told Demetriou he could not in all conscience work for an organisation whose rules he had fought so hard to change.
Wouldn't it be easier to fight for rule changes from the inside?

Or is that an admission that the recent lobbying was serving only to cynically benefit his current employer and not for the good of the competition?
 
It means he does not want to work with people who he thinks are unethcial in their approach to running the AFL.

Pretty simple.
 
Re: Re: Magpie Swann tell AFL to forth and multiply

Originally posted by DaveW
Wouldn't it be easier to fight for rule changes from the inside?
In some ways it might but I hardly think that one issue is enough for a Swann crusade of a magnitude to drive himk to a new job.
Originally posted by DaveW
Or is that an admission that the recent lobbying was serving only to cynically benefit his current employer and not for the good of the competition?
I would have that that acusation would have been more appropriate if he had changed jobs and simply forgot about his objection rather than it being a reason he didn't.


All in all I find it hard to believe Greg could be viewed with any degree of cynicism based on that article. I thin k you are trying too hard.
 

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I must say that more I learn about Swann the happier I am that Ed recruited him. I hope he stays for a long time. The AFL can keep getting their administrators from carlton and Essendon and leave our guys well alone.
 
Agree MT, this guy is the unsung hero of the Pies. He is the one responsible for the off-field success.

Whilst I am unhappy about a few things the performance of the club overall is fantastic.

From an AFL perspective you would have to be worried when your two top canditates both knock you back.
 
Originally posted by morgoth
From an AFL perspective you would have to be worried when your two top canditates both knock you back.
In all seriousness if an organisation recruits on the basis of shared ideology, they can never get the best available talent. The AFL is a closed shop and unless you have the same ideals or agree to check you different beliefs at the door you don't get in anyway. That is why the CEO can anoint the successor after a trial period.

On the lighter side though, can you imagine the sky falling if Swann had taken the job and started saying the cap had to be leveled? Now wouldn’t that be a *****er? Could you imagine the Eddie conspiracy theories then?
 
Exactly, Swann has his beliefs in how the competition should be run and will not compromise himself for the sake of the AFL.

I also suspect that he does not want to work for A.D. Lets face it Swann would make this guy look good, I suspect AD is out of his depth and unless he finds someone to cover his ass, he will be shown up quite soon as a pretender without the skills to cope with the top job.
 
Interesting theory Morgoth. Perhaps Greg is waiting for a despirate AFL to come begging for a replacement for AD and then Greg steps in and revolutionises the whole shootin' match. No wonder Ed has laid off the SC issue for a while. I thought he was going soft but he's just getting his ducks lined up.


The Greg and Eddie show. I can see it now. I reckon Kezza would give 'em a lead in show to Friday night Footy after axing that Bourke clown. I can see all the TV week ads now.

Now it all makes sense.
 
Nah, no conspiracy theory but just a simple obervations based on having worked in the same firm as Swann. In that world people do not work for fools, they leave and take the business elsewhere.
 
Am I the only one concerned that not only does a no-talent like Demetriou have the top job, but HE gets to annoint his successor!!! It is obvious that people of talent will not work with him.:mad:
 

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From a pure business stand-point, I'd take his reticence as a lack of faith in his own ability to be effective within the position.

All the other stuff about not wanting to work in a certain environment is just spin-doctoring, if he has the ability, he take the job and drag the unit up to a higher order, if he doesn't have the ability, he says EXACTLY what he has produced.

I have seen the same so many times, it fools the uninitiated, but the upper echelons know not to bother in his direction in the future
 

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Magpie Swann tell AFL to forth and multiply


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