AFL appoints US company to find footy’s next boss

[taztiger4]

Unpopular opinion time, probably sacrilegious on here, but I've been considering why Gale is not seemingly a strong candidate for the position, and I'm wondering if it is actually because he isn't that outstanding a CEO.

If you share my view that a CEO's influence on football performance is minimal and thus the three flags aren't particularly significant in terms of his performance, then what about the other aspects?

The pokies issue is clearly an absolute stain on his performance, and when you factor that into our financial performance vs clubs off them I think we have been solid but certainly not outstanding or industry leaders. People with more financial acumen than I might also see us as worse than that given the membership numbers and success he has overseen.

In my eyes our membership operations are poor and certainly our social media/fan engagement stuff is very much at the end of worst in the competition.

Our sponsorship arrangements are a bit underwhelming, we were unable to get an AFLW team when we should have and there is certainly some disquiet around some of the governance of the club.

Premierships are the greatest artificial CV inflation tool there is, maybe our guy hasn't performed all that well when you really analysis it?

FFS, please put me on ignore

 

[tigersnake]

Gale should be on the (very) shortlist.

He would be, but for show only IMO. He's not in the boys club.

They go one of two ways, status quo, yet another internal appointment, or they realise they have gotten stale (putting it charitably) and appoint an outside candidate to clean the place up. My money would be on the first, and even if they do go for the second, Benny might be seen to be in-between the 2 options.

A mate of mine was on the shortlist for a top job in a well known powerful institution. The place was known in the industry, all over Australia, as being stale, barely competent and nepotistic. My mate, a mad tiger, had impeccable qualifications, but wasn't in the club. They got down to 3 and called him in for an interview, he was on his first family holiday in 3 years in a very remote location. He said 'can't it wait a few days?', the process had gone for 3 months. No must come immediately. Didn't get the gig and spoilt his time off with his young family, 2 days travel each way, the interview was just for show before putting the Auld equivalent in. Thats politics.

 

[tigertim]

You can't fault Benny's vision and acumen.

3 Premierships by 2020
70,000 members
And no debt.

Ticks a lot of boxes.

pfft, Benny just got lucky.

 

[royce67]

He would be, but for show only IMO. He's not in the boys club.

They go one of two ways, status quo, yet another internal appointment, or they realise they have gotten stale (putting it charitably) and appoint an outside candidate to clean the place up. My money would be on the first, and even if they do go for the second, Benny might be seen to be in-between the 2 options.

A mate of mine was on the shortlist for a top job in a well known powerful institution. The place was known in the industry, all over Australia, as being stale, barely competent and nepotistic. My mate, a mad tiger, had impeccable qualifications, but wasn't in the club. They got down to 3 and called him in for an interview, he was on his first family holiday in 3 years in a very remote location. He said 'can't it wait a few days?', the process had gone for 3 months. No must come immediately. Didn't get the gig and spoilt his time off with his young family, 2 days travel each way, the interview was just for show before putting the Auld equivalent in. Thats politics.

You're mates with "I don't hold the hose in Hawaii" Morrison?

 

[tigerman]

pfft, Benny just got lucky.

Benny and his Jets.

 

[The Big Richo]

My thoughts below.

Ok let’s run through your suppositions.
1. Brendan Gale inherited the Wantirna club and because he chose not to exit to your acceptable timeframe, it’s a “stain” on his reputation? Do you honestly believe it’s his decision alone and that he would not have the support for this decision from the entire board. Including Peggy? In my eyes it's a stain on all of them. Absolute disgrace that we have not even announced a plan to exit them.

The people with better financial acumen than you would also understand the dire financial position we were in as recently as 2013 when we had raging debts, a very disproportionately small, high net worth supporter base compared to other big clubs, only a few loyal sponsors and a medium membership base that still expected results and wouldn’t accept mediocrity ( like bottoming out ) As I said, I'd be interested in what people with a better eye for financials make of how we have performed, all factors included.

2. Our membership operations are poor? This is simply an outrageous sensationalist claim. Over $100k members for multiple years and clearly number one in recruiting new members. Gale introduced industry leading innovations like hiring a demographer to map out our potential demographic support base and set about marketing directly to them. Disagree completely. Our membership department failed in the initial 3-0-75 plan and there have been issues around reserved seating that have gone public. Anecdotally, there are many, many examples of poor interaction with the membership department shared on this forum and others and our beloved fan engagement platforms like the family day and members cocktail night have disintegrated or been poorly recieved. And our social media/website operations are well off the best practice pace in my opinion after looking around at what other clubs do.

3. Our sponsorship arrangements are underwhelming? Think you’ll find we’re in the top 3-4 clubs for sponsorship revenue. Is that available somewhere? That is certainly where we should be, if we are in the top three I'm wrong on this, if not I see it as a poor result.

4. You’re blaming Gale for the AFL’s decision to deny us an early AFLW license? That is an unimaginable stretch. Peggy and a couple of board members actually formed a subcommittee to formulate their strategy and presented it directly to the AFL. He's part of it for sure, not he alone. Not sure you can blame the honorary board members and not the highly paid CEO when a massive project fails. The lack of VFLW team was another failure in this area.

5. Governance disquiet? What does that even mean? The slippery extension of O'Neal into the third term was shaky practice and the selection committee badly received by many concerned members. Similar to above, that's not solely on Gale but he is a party to it.

To be clear I'm not questioning if he has been a great CEO for us, I'm wondering why he isn't considered ready for the next level, if he should be and why he isn't.

 

[Dont Argue]

To be clear I'm not questioning if he has been a great CEO for us, I'm wondering why he isn't considered ready for the next level, if he should be and why he isn't.

Does the below comment ring a bell?

Unpopular opinion time, probably sacrilegious on here, but I've been considering why Gale is not seemingly a strong candidate for the position, and I'm wondering if it is actually because he isn't that outstanding a CEO.

 

[tommystigers]

Unpopular opinion time, probably sacrilegious on here, but I've been considering why Gale is not seemingly a strong candidate for the position, and I'm wondering if it is actually because he isn't that outstanding a CEO.

If you share my view that a CEO's influence on football performance is minimal and thus the three flags aren't particularly significant in terms of his performance, then what about the other aspects?

The pokies issue is clearly an absolute stain on his performance, and when you factor that into our financial performance vs clubs off them I think we have been solid but certainly not outstanding or industry leaders. People with more financial acumen than I might also see us as worse than that given the membership numbers and success he has overseen.

In my eyes our membership operations are poor and certainly our social media/fan engagement stuff is very much at the end of worst in the competition.

Our sponsorship arrangements are a bit underwhelming, we were unable to get an AFLW team when we should have and there is certainly some disquiet around some of the governance of the club.

Premierships are the greatest artificial CV inflation tool there is, maybe our guy hasn't performed all that well when you really analysis it?

An interesting take Richo.
I think the real question is, Does Benny actually want the job?

It is widely accepted that the AFL is a cesspool. It would take a certain type of person to go in and sweep it clean. You would want to have the political willpower to tear down the existing corrupt network and rebuild. It would be a fight to overcome the egos and destroy the status quo.
And all that before you begin the work of much needed directional change.

Do the AFL want someone new to come in and challenge the status quo? I highly doubt it. Josh Schadenfreude might fit nicely.

 

[tommystigers]

FFS, please put me on ignore

Is this a poem by Burns?

Literary class.

 

[TrialByVideo]

there is certainly some disquiet around some of the governance of the club.

Can you expand on this please...? I appreciate this is a discussion on the CEO but I thought governance type stuff was in our presidents field of expertise.
I imagine alarm bells over at RMIT if word gets out that an organization their Chancellor heads up is a basket case.

 

[The Big Richo]

Does the below comment ring a bell?

Unpopular opinion time, probably sacrilegious on here, but I've been considering why Gale is not seemingly a strong candidate for the position, and I'm wondering if it is actually because he isn't that outstanding a CEO.

Yeah fair point, I should have written isn't seen as that outstanding a CEO by outsiders.

 

[The Big Richo]

Can you expand on this please...? I appreciate this is a discussion on the CEO but I thought governance type stuff was in our presidents field of expertise.
I imagine alarm bells over at RMIT if word gets out that an organization their Chancellor heads up is a basket case.

The nominations committee stuff and some of the subsequent appointments to avoid elections, the extending the President into a third term in contradiction to the rules they brought in.

Not a basket case but also caused some grumblings amongst the membership.

 

[TigerPort]

There will always be grumblings from a certain % (not the same % makeup every time) of invested people attached to the club no matter how well we are going.

 

[IanG]

Yeah fair point, I should have written isn't seen as that outstanding a CEO by outsiders.

Yet he is apparently a favored candidate of other clubs.

 

[Baloo]

This is all a bit like a News Ltd article

 

[IanG]

The nominations committee stuff and some of the subsequent appointments to avoid elections, the extending the President into a third term in contradiction to the rules they brought in.

This is a Board decision not a CEO decision

 

[T-Shirt Tommy]

Unpopular opinion time, probably sacrilegious on here, but I've been considering why Gale is not seemingly a strong candidate for the position, and I'm wondering if it is actually because he isn't that outstanding a CEO.

If you share my view that a CEO's influence on football performance is minimal and thus the three flags aren't particularly significant in terms of his performance, then what about the other aspects?

The pokies issue is clearly an absolute stain on his performance, and when you factor that into our financial performance vs clubs off them I think we have been solid but certainly not outstanding or industry leaders. People with more financial acumen than I might also see us as worse than that given the membership numbers and success he has overseen.

In my eyes our membership operations are poor and certainly our social media/fan engagement stuff is very much at the end of worst in the competition.

Our sponsorship arrangements are a bit underwhelming, we were unable to get an AFLW team when we should have and there is certainly some disquiet around some of the governance of the club.

Premierships are the greatest artificial CV inflation tool there is, maybe our guy hasn't performed all that well when you really analysis it?

Someone's not getting enough attention.

 

[IanG]

4. With Peggy, it was mystifying we didn't have an AFLW team for the inaugural season.

Form all reports this is purely on the AFL. In terms of the club actions what exactly did they do wrong?

 

[TT33]

Form all reports this is purely on the AFL. In terms of the club actions what exactly did they do wrong?

Iirc Richmond had a strong case for inclusion in the inaugural season & the industry was very surprised that we didn't get a berth.

 

[T-Shirt Tommy]

Form all reports this is purely on the AFL. In terms of the club actions what exactly did they do wrong?

We did nothing wrong. It was purely an AFL decision and entirely out of our hands no matter how impressive our presentation was, but... you know... why deal with reasoning and logic when you can take another cheap shot at our president and CEO?