Casey's gamble on revival
By Stephen Rielly
The Age
December 10, 2004
Richmond president Clinton Casey will resign if he fails to meet the club's aims for 2005.
With the outcome of the Richmond election less than two weeks away, president Clinton Casey has announced that he will resign within 12 months should he be re-elected but not meet any of the club's expectations in 2005.
Casey told the board of his decision on Tuesday evening, revealing that he did not feel he could stay on and see out a new three-year term unless the club met its budgets and demonstrated on-field improvement next year.
In an interview with The Age, Casey described the often bitter election campaign as a contest between old, or establishment, Richmond and his own new guard and said a complete victory for his rival, the Charles Macek-led Big 4 ticket, would be preferable to a split vote and a factionalised new leadership.
After losing $2.2 million this year, the Casey administration has budgeted for a loss of $150,000 next year, a projection the president describes as conservative as it is based on the poor figures returned from this year's disastrous season.
Casey said that only a similarly horrible year would keep the Tigers from recording a profit in 2005.
"The sponsorship budget we've written for next year is already 85 per cent complete. Our coterie budget has already been met, 100 per cent, and our membership figures are 10 per cent ahead of what we forecast," Casey said.
"To that extent, if we finish 16th again and our crowds are miserable next year, we will lose no more than $150,000. If our crowds are a little better and the team offers improvement, we will record a profit. We're budgeting on a worst-case scenario, though, so that no one is under any illusion."
It is with these figures that Casey says he will determine his future as president should he be returned to power on December 22. He said his own faith, and that of the members, in his abilities required reassurance and that only a turnaround could provide that.
"If people can't look at Richmond in July or August next year and measure improvement across every division of the club then I will leave. It's that simple," he said.
Casey said he believed the outcome of the election would come down to "a judgement call - is this guy smart enough not to make the same mistake twice?" but that the broader issue of choosing between distinct leadership philosophies was more important.
He said that the likes of Macek, a director on Leon Daphne's board in the 1990s, or Brendan Schwab, a one-time Casey director and the son of the late Richmond and AFL administrator Alan Schwab, were woven into the fabric of a culture that no longer adequately serves the club.
"In real simple terms, over the last two years we approved expenditure increases based upon projected revenue increases and the only thing we got right was the spending. The revenue flat-lined. So what we've done for next year is base our spending on another year of flat-line revenue and cut our expenditure, primarily in membership and football, by about $1.5 million. This is a plan the AFL have endorsed," Casey said.
"When I started out I thought I could apply standard business principles and common sense and all would be well. I now know differently. In some areas those principles do work but in others they are irrelevant.
"But what they (Big 4) are about is the old Richmond and I'm about something more progressive than that. They're about looking back into the past which, as grand as it was 30 years ago, has consistently failed to lead the club anywhere since.
"I think I've got a responsibility to develop a new Richmond culture that is very different to the one I'm fighting."
Casey said it was in part the prospect of the club being returned to the care of the disciples of the legendary Graeme Richmond that convinced football director Greg Miller to join forces with the president several weeks ago.
"Greg is saying, 'I'm not going to start again.' He's put two years of hard work into a direction that we all believe in. I think the disappointment of abandoning that for yet another new start is too much for him to contemplate."
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