President John O’Rourke

[Bunnyman]

I thought Yze's speech could have been better but Im certainly not jumping off him for stuttering his way through his first major speech in which his jokes didnt really land.
He may have very little public speaking experience. It is the biggest fear of all humans after death after all.
Weird night, most bummed out about bakes, he was my favourite player and I do wish him and Shai had just acknowledged the fans or spoke to what his journey at the club meant to him. Shai saying nothing and bakes saying "Take it easy" after nabbing 3 flags is a bit weak.
Anyways, draft week is going to very fun and this will all be forgettable...

 

[yo_eddy]

I scrutinized these threads all last night and today before watching the footage. Now that I have I must say the needle on my outrage meter didn't move.

Ouze looked unwell and clearly nervous but he feels genuine to me. I didn't think O'Rourke was terrible. Overall sombre mood expected after the year we've had. Baker and Bolton looked awkward and embarrassed. Even if Bakes was a little gassed, I felt sorry for them. Yeah they could have made more of an effort but the performance shows they aren't/weren't future leaders of the club.

 

[achillesjones]

a couple of posters have expressed not knowing much about our President.

he has a wealth of experience in and around people of all sorts...


Co-founder and non-executive director of Plenary, a global investor, developer and manager of public infrastructure, specialising in public-private partnerships (PPPs).
John was Plenary’s inaugural Chair from Plenary’s inception in 2004 to 2024.
Since the establishment of Plenary in Australia in 2004, Plenary has developed a portfolio of infrastructure assets across Australia, North America, United Kingdom and the Middle East.
Prior to establishing Plenary in 2004, John spent 10 years leading the Melbourne-based Infrastructure Capital business of ABN AMRO (formerly BZW).
He is a board member of the Australian Grand Prix Corporation.
John was also a board director of the Victoria Racing Club from 2011-2020, and during his term served as Honorary Treasurer and Vice Chairman.
In December 2022 appointed President of the Richmond Football Club where he had been a member of the board since 2015.

I wasn't impressed with last night's speech. O'Rourke is hopefully better than that.

The awkward Broad tribute has been perceived as a pointless drive-by for 3 popular blokes who have served Richmond extremely well.
Will the clubs we are negotiating with now see a point of no return? Not smart at all.

It would have been far more astute to mention them and to say how much they have been valued by the club. "Richmond men", always welcome back. (a la Benny Gale)

It's Diplomacy 101.

 

[BillyJean17]

I think the prez words have been completely misconstrued or delib twisted to serves ones own agenda . I’m sure he was applauding broady for his unwavering commitment which in the current climate and status of our mighty club is admirable , not by direct comparison to his teammates that are fleeing like rats

 

[artball]

I wasn't impressed with last night's speech. O'Rourke is hopefully better than that.

The awkward Broad tribute has been perceived as a pointless drive-by for 3 popular blokes who have served Richmond extremely well.
Will the clubs we are negotiating with now see a point of no return? Not smart at all.

It would have been far more astute to mention them and to say how much they have been valued by the club. "Richmond men", always welcome back. (a la Benny Gale)

It's Diplomacy 101.

the information i supplied are facts about O'Rourkes working life
not theories on what people think about the meanings of a speech and any hypothetical ramifications

Diplomacy 101 ? ...considering O'Rourkes experience he might know a bit about diplomacy you'd imagine

all of the talk and action going on around the RFC right now reminds me of a certain coach who once said,
"football clubs move on pretty quick". he's right.

 

[achillesjones]

No doubt he will do better in future.
He has only just started as an AFL president.
Clinton Casey and Alan Bond had fabulous resumes.
As I said, my criticism is based on one speech only.
That speech set an awkward tone for others to follow.

 

[silvertiger]

I wasn't impressed with last night's speech. O'Rourke is hopefully better than that.

The awkward Broad tribute has been perceived as a pointless drive-by for 3 popular blokes who have served Richmond extremely well.
Will the clubs we are negotiating with now see a point of no return? Not smart at all.

It would have been far more astute to mention them and to say how much they have been valued by the club. "Richmond men", always welcome back. (a la Benny Gale)

It's Diplomacy 101.

Gale's tenure ended with us finishing last. He started strong as a Richmond man(more of a dream) and left as a woke flog. In short, his evolution was one example of building a culture and then due to hubris, degrading a culture he assisted building. To be clear, his first 75% of his tenure was fantastic. However, most people understand a true mark and significance of a contribution from a leadership perspective is how the entity performs at the end of your tenure or after you have departed. On this metric, Gale has gone full circle - 360 degrees! O'Rourke's speech was everything Gale would have done at the start of his tenure. Rioli, Bolton and Baker deserve a backhander because they enjoyed success on the back of legends. People that created the culture (Cotchin, Jack, Dusty, Rance, Grimes, Astbury, Lambert). All these players had STANDARDS. Broad has standards and is a Richmond MAN. Rioli, Baker and Bolton will never be regarded as Richmond men. They are mercenary's. They played in premierships. They were not the reason we won premierships in our recent dynasty. F**K all three and the horse they rode in on. Trade them like the piece of meat that deserves to be chewed up and spat out. Get Ruthless again. Like Gale was at his start! What O'Rourke has indicated he may become. Screw diplomacy on players that are fake and disingenuous. Richmond MEN do not leave a club in tough times.

 

[achillesjones]

Gale's tenure ended with us finishing last. He started strong as a Richmond man(more of a dream) and left as a woke flog. In short, his evolution was one example of building a culture and then due to hubris, degrading a culture he assisted building. To be clear, his first 75% of his tenure was fantastic. However, most people understand a true mark and significance of a contribution from a leadership perspective is how the entity performs at the end of your tenure or after you have departed. On this metric, Gale has gone full circle - 360 degrees! O'Rourke's speech was everything Gale would have done at the start of his tenure. Rioli, Bolton and Baker deserve a backhander because they enjoyed success on the back of legends. People that created the culture (Cotchin, Jack, Dusty, Rance, Grimes, Astbury, Lambert). All these players had STANDARDS. Broad has standards and is a Richmond MAN. Rioli, Baker and Bolton will never be regarded as Richmond men. They are mercenary's. They played in premierships. They were not the reason we won premierships in our recent dynasty. F**K all three and the horse they rode in on. Trade them like the piece of meat that deserves to be chewed up and spat out. Get Ruthless again. Like Gale was at his start! What O'Rourke has indicated he may become. Screw diplomacy on players that are fake and disingenuous. Richmond MEN do not leave a club in tough times.

I feel as if I know more about Daniel Rioli than I do about Shai and Bakes.
Daniel has shown nothing but dedication to the cause and is one of the most humble and decent blokes to pull on the jumper.
3 flags as a forward and a B and F as a back flanker. He's a star on and off the field.
Richmond man? Richmond champ, every day of the week.

 

[Little Ziggyadee]

Gale's tenure ended with us finishing last. He started strong as a Richmond man(more of a dream) and left as a woke flog. In short, his evolution was one example of building a culture and then due to hubris, degrading a culture he assisted building. To be clear, his first 75% of his tenure was fantastic. However, most people understand a true mark and significance of a contribution from a leadership perspective is how the entity performs at the end of your tenure or after you have departed. On this metric, Gale has gone full circle - 360 degrees! O'Rourke's speech was everything Gale would have done at the start of his tenure. Rioli, Bolton and Baker deserve a backhander because they enjoyed success on the back of legends. People that created the culture (Cotchin, Jack, Dusty, Rance, Grimes, Astbury, Lambert). All these players had STANDARDS. Broad has standards and is a Richmond MAN. Rioli, Baker and Bolton will never be regarded as Richmond men. They are mercenary's. They played in premierships. They were not the reason we won premierships in our recent dynasty. F**K all three and the horse they rode in on. Trade them like the piece of meat that deserves to be chewed up and spat out. Get Ruthless again. Like Gale was at his start! What O'Rourke has indicated he may become. Screw diplomacy on players that are fake and disingenuous. Richmond MEN do not leave a club in tough times.

100% agree. besides Bolton, Why does Baker really want to go back to WA? If it wasn't for us he would never been in the competition.
As for Rioli, unless they give up Gold in return, don't trade him, play him in the 2's for the next 3 yrs. There's no real reason besides his misses wanting to move to Queensland.
What ORourke said in his speech was beautiful. Wake them all up in the room and side kick the ones who want to leave.
Noone wanted to leave between 17-22.
Now we have a bad season, and they are bolting to the door.
I don't care that they want out, besides losing quality, we finished last with the 3 of them in the team.
I think the not listening to who the players wanted to coach them has divided the group.
The group has to realise now Yze is the coach and to get on with it.

 

[Tigers of Old]

Need to be careful the 'Richmond Man' mantra isn't weaponised or used as leverage ultimately to keep the salary cap in check (loyalty card).

I'd like to give Jon the benefit of the doubt with his Broad reference that it wasn't when he said that.

As ever it's up to the club to create an environment where players ultimately want to stay despite incentive$ to be elsewhere.
Given the unprecedented player exodus this year, it appears we've lost a bit of that..the hard questions the club should be asking itself is why?

 

[ToraToraTora]

Gale's tenure ended with us finishing last. He started strong as a Richmond man(more of a dream) and left as a woke flog. In short, his evolution was one example of building a culture and then due to hubris, degrading a culture he assisted building. To be clear, his first 75% of his tenure was fantastic. However, most people understand a true mark and significance of a contribution from a leadership perspective is how the entity performs at the end of your tenure or after you have departed. On this metric, Gale has gone full circle - 360 degrees! O'Rourke's speech was everything Gale would have done at the start of his tenure. Rioli, Bolton and Baker deserve a backhander because they enjoyed success on the back of legends. People that created the culture (Cotchin, Jack, Dusty, Rance, Grimes, Astbury, Lambert). All these players had STANDARDS. Broad has standards and is a Richmond MAN. Rioli, Baker and Bolton will never be regarded as Richmond men. They are mercenary's. They played in premierships. They were not the reason we won premierships in our recent dynasty. F**K all three and the horse they rode in on. Trade them like the piece of meat that deserves to be chewed up and spat out. Get Ruthless again. Like Gale was at his start! What O'Rourke has indicated he may become. Screw diplomacy on players that are fake and disingenuous. Richmond MEN do not leave a club in tough times.

Whats a woke flog?

 

[TigerMasochist]

Whats a woke flog?

6 a.m. chubby.

 

[IanG]

Gale's tenure ended with us finishing last. He started strong as a Richmond man(more of a dream) and left as a woke flog.

What do you mean?

 

[Baloo]

the information i supplied are facts about O'Rourkes working life
not theories on what people think about the meanings of a speech and any hypothetical ramifications

Diplomacy 101 ? ...considering O'Rourkes experience he might know a bit about diplomacy you'd imagine

all of the talk and action going on around the RFC right now reminds me of a certain coach who once said,
"football clubs move on pretty quick". he's right.

Even the most skilled operators can slip at times. This was his first real public showing as the Pres and the club he has inherited is hurting. He may end up being as good as Peggy, but that doesn't mean his speech was good. It certainly wasn't inspiring.

 

[Ian4]

Gale's tenure ended with us finishing last. He started strong as a Richmond man(more of a dream) and left as a woke flog.

Please explain to us what "woke," or "woke flog" is?

 

[RoarEmotion]

Need to be careful the 'Richmond Man' mantra isn't weaponised or used as leverage ultimately to keep the salary cap in check (loyalty card).

I'd like to give Jon the benefit of the doubt with his Broad reference that it wasn't when he said that.

As ever it's up to the club to create an environment where players ultimately want to stay despite incentive$ to be elsewhere.
Given the unprecedented player exodus this year, it appears we've lost a bit of that..the hard questions the club should be asking itself is why?

This.

Internally we better be holding a *smile* mirror up.

Including on this speech which I think subtly made the club an even less desirable place to be.

As woke as it sounds to some we are missing a competent female in the leadership team massively.

With all the controls on costs the main competitive edge in the long run now is being a place that players want to stay at or come to.

Do we still have that for aboriginal players now? It seemed we did but maybe not.

Big crowds, mcg and fan base we compete with Collingwood.

Come home factor we compete with every other vic club - not a big one for us.

Be out of the spotlight not our go - see Dusty for what it means if you don’t want it.

Chance of premiership we are way down the list right now.

After that it’s a desirable set of coaches or players and stable leadership. Questionable right now.

Get PRE right and we have the best location in footy so that needs to stay in our long term strategy.

 

[artball]

It certainly wasn't inspiring.

no it wasn't. nothing much around the club is, but i think come trade week and the draft the energy will change. it has to.
all the doom talk & theory that emerged after O'Rourkes speech is dumb and only feeds the ill feeling around the club.

 

[TigerForce]

Please explain to us what "woke," or "woke flog" is?

An AFL dumpire who just got out of bed?

 

[Aegean Tiger]

Classy thing would have been to honour those who had worn the jumper but who may not be at the club in 2025. Retirees, delistings and trades. Not necessarily by individual names but all of them nonetheless. Most importantly, we needed to show some love and respect to those who have worn the jumper in our premiership teams.

You would expect nothing less from clubs with a strong cultural fabric.

 

[Ndts]

Gale's tenure ended with us finishing last. He started strong as a Richmond man(more of a dream) and left as a woke flog. In short, his evolution was one example of building a culture and then due to hubris, degrading a culture he assisted building. To be clear, his first 75% of his tenure was fantastic. However, most people understand a true mark and significance of a contribution from a leadership perspective is how the entity performs at the end of your tenure or after you have departed. On this metric, Gale has gone full circle - 360 degrees! O'Rourke's speech was everything Gale would have done at the start of his tenure. Rioli, Bolton and Baker deserve a backhander because they enjoyed success on the back of legends. People that created the culture (Cotchin, Jack, Dusty, Rance, Grimes, Astbury, Lambert). All these players had STANDARDS. Broad has standards and is a Richmond MAN. Rioli, Baker and Bolton will never be regarded as Richmond men. They are mercenary's. They played in premierships. They were not the reason we won premierships in our recent dynasty. F**K all three and the horse they rode in on. Trade them like the piece of meat that deserves to be chewed up and spat out. Get Ruthless again. Like Gale was at his start! What O'Rourke has indicated he may become. Screw diplomacy on players that are fake and disingenuous. Richmond MEN do not leave a club in tough times.

I’m glad someone else has observed Gale failings over the last 5 years. We’ve had a dynasty, the biggest membership and massive commercial exposure but somehow we need to sell bricks to get a redevelopment done….it’s embarrassing. I did start to feel that they took the eye off the ball commercially as soon as we started winning premierships. As a 35 year paid up member and contributor in other ways, I could see that they were taking us members for granted. They just rolled the arm over. Gale has spent his energy over the last 2 years trying to land his next gig and not on Richmond. This smells a bit like Graeme Richmond. The first 75% great, last 25% terrible.