Brendon Gale - next AFL CEO?

[gerkin greg]

Sir Richard Tambling got us the dolla dolla bills lady 

[Judge Roughneck]

not sure anyone said we didn't start making profits , was more about taking us from the bleaches to one of the contenders with the right amount of off field clout that goes with successful clubs. His predecessors did an outstanding job in the club surviving, Benny g has built the bridge to take us further than survival mode 

Survial mode?

With all due respect if it wasn't for Steve Wright and his vision re the Indigenious Institute & the lobbying of govts to get the funding for it and the re-development of Punt Road then we wouldn't have the facilities we have today. Originally we were to get $6mil in total Steven Wright got us just on $20mil

Thanks to TAMBLING

[WilliamPowell]

not sure anyone said we didn't start making profits , was more about taking us from the bleaches to one of the contenders with the right amount of off field clout that goes with successful clubs. His predecessors did an outstanding job in the club surviving, Benny g has built the bridge to take us further than survival mode 

Survial mode?

With all due respect if it wasn't for Steve Wright and his vision re the Indigenious Institute & the lobbying of govts to get the funding for it and the re-development of Punt Road then we wouldn't have the facilities we have today. Originally we were to get $6mil in total Steven Wright got us just on $20mil

Thanks to TAMBLING

Yes in part but who's idea was it use Richie Tambling and get him to speak to the folks up in Canberra 

[gerkin greg]

not sure anyone said we didn't start making profits , was more about taking us from the bleaches to one of the contenders with the right amount of off field clout that goes with successful clubs. His predecessors did an outstanding job in the club surviving, Benny g has built the bridge to take us further than survival mode 

Survial mode?

With all due respect if it wasn't for Steve Wright and his vision re the Indigenious Institute & the lobbying of govts to get the funding for it and the re-development of Punt Road then we wouldn't have the facilities we have today. Originally we were to get $6mil in total Steven Wright got us just on $20mil

Thanks to TAMBLING

Yes in part but who's idea was it use Richie Tambling and get him to speak to the folks up in Canberra 

Joel Bowden's

[WilliamPowell]

Yes in part but who's idea was it use Richie Tambling and get him to speak to the folks up in Canberra 

Joel Bowden's

 

 

[gerkin greg]

Yes in part but who's idea was it use Richie Tambling and get him to speak to the folks up in Canberra 

Joel Bowden's

 

 

wasnt hard was it

[Rampstar]

peoples rewriting of history isnt fair. Wright was the CEO when we got the funding for the redevelopment. I like Richie Tambling and yes he made a very fair contribution to the whole project but lets not go overboard. The project, the negotiations the outcome came as a result of the work of Steve Wright and his management team. People want to give all the credit to Brendon but thats not fair on his predecessor who IMHO did a fine job to bring balance back to the club after the club lost millions of dollars in a 12 month period during the Campbell period.

[cub]

Blind Freddy can see jillian will get it

[gerkin greg]

I'm pro Gale bashing Ramps 

[bojangles17]

not sure anyone said we didn't start making profits , was more about taking us from the bleaches to one of the contenders with the right amount of off field clout that goes with successful clubs. His predecessors did an outstanding job in the club surviving, Benny g has built the bridge to take us further than survival mode 

Survial mode?

With all due respect if it wasn't for Steve Wright and his vision re the Indigenious Institute & the lobbying of govts to get the funding for it and the re-development of Punt Road then we wouldn't have the facilities we have today. Originally we were to get $6mil in total Steven Wright got us just on $20mil

Yeah I was a fan of Steve wright and was disappointed he fell ill  whilst making some real progress , he was our first real effective CEO since the 70 s , Benny has taken it up a notch again 

[Gigantor]

I guess Benny can sell the vision better than just about anyone(maybe excluding Eddie)

[RedanTiger]

"(a) Economic Dependency

The Richmond Football Club Limited is economically dependent on the ongoing financial assistance of the Australian Football League ("AFL"). This ongoing assistance provided by the AFL is in the form of a Redirection Order of up to $4.27 million to the ANZ Bank as security for the current borrowing facilities......."

The same guarantee that is still in place today? Only difference is the value has steadily reduced over time. A guarantee I might add the majority of clubs have from the AFL

From the 2013 Full Financial Report (page 25: note 21):

"Throughout the financial year ended 31 October 2013, the AFL provided a guarantee of up to $3.0 million to the Westpac Banking Corporation as security for borrowing facilities. From 1 November 2013 this guarantee has been reduced to $1.5 million. The reduction in the guarantee is as a result of the elimination of the Company’s debt in the year ended 31 October 2013. Consequently, the facility limit has also been reduced from $3.0 million to $1.5 million. No other matter or circumstance has arisen since 31 October 2013 that has significantly affected
"

I'm not disputing Benny has done a very good job. But to say the Club wasn't or didn't start making profits until Benny Gale became CEO is not correct; it is simply wrong.

I think people forget or simply refuse to acknowledge the things the Club achieved under Stephen Wright's time as the CEO of the RFC.

The club was "economically dependent on the ongoing financial assistance of the AFL" because of the debt position, according to the auditors.
The club is not dependant on the guarantee now due to an improvement in the asset/liability position. Nor are other clubs.

[Darth Tiger]

not sure anyone said we didn't start making profits , was more about taking us from the bleaches to one of the contenders with the right amount of off field clout that goes with successful clubs. His predecessors did an outstanding job in the club surviving, Benny g has built the bridge to take us further than survival mode 

Survial mode?

With all due respect if it wasn't for Steve Wright and his vision re the Indigenious Institute & the lobbying of govts to get the funding for it and the re-development of Punt Road then we wouldn't have the facilities we have today. Originally we were to get $6mil in total Steven Wright got us just on $20mil

Ere Ere; Steve and his love for the Tigs cost him a chunck of his health.

Thanks to Steve (and Gary March) for the financial direction that got the club back on its feet, and in a position to establish the platform as comp heavyweights with a full list and a VFL side playingout of Punt Road Oval,

Benny has been critical to the execution strategy, but not the conceptual and implementation phase.

[one-eyed]

Richmond's Brendon Gale may be the man to replace AFL boss Andrew Demetriou

   Caroline Wilson
     The Age
    March 5, 2014

The AFL Players Association has become rightly cautious about its now well-deserved reputation as a pathway to executive positions within the competition.

It is five years since Brendon Gale quit as chief of the players' union to take over the running of the Richmond Football Club just months after completing an AFLPA-funded advanced management course at Harvard.

The course conservatively cost the players some $75,000 and Gale, equipped with his new and deeply entrenched values for which the Tigers were crying out, has transformed the business at Punt Road without having achieved any significant on-field success.

So much so that Gale, who is also popular, a good public performer and boasts a strong football and legal pedigree, remains at 45 the best-credentialled club chief executive to claim a chance of a place in the running to replace Andrew Demetriou at the helm of the AFL.

Gillon McLachlan, Demetriou's deputy, remains the favourite for Australian sport's most powerful job, particularly if the appointment is made from within the industry, but it is no coincidence that another AFLPA chief in Gale will be urged to put his hand up.

The union was more careful when it agreed to fund an international study grant for Gale's successor, Matt Finnis, who Fairfax Media revealed last week would also follow Gale's path into a club role and take over at the struggling St Kilda.

Finnis, having steered the union through a long, often bitter and ultimately successful pay negotiation and rallied firmly and consistently against Essendon's dangerous drugs program, headed to France late last year for a month-long intensive management course. But Finnis' contract dictated he repay to the players' association a significant proportion of the five-figure study tour - a repayment the St Kilda board has undertaken to take over.

Finnis had stated repeatedly that the players' union position - one revolutionised over two years by Demetriou in the late 1990s, grown and corporatised by Gale and more so by Finnis - should not be seen as a stepping stone to an executive role within the AFL or an AFL club.

But the influence of the role has dictated as much since Demetriou first won the admiration of commissioners Ron Evans and Bill Kelty with the players' historic first collective bargaining agreement. Demetriou's ascension was fast-tracked when he behaved in an honourable manner and did not hold the AFL to ransom as he could have done with that first wage negotiation.

For all Gale's commercial success, his clear aim has been to transform Richmond's long-ailing culture. It is a task he has attacked with gusto and achieved clear progress.

The Saints' culture has been the source of concern within and beyond the AFL and Finnis' stand against Essendon last year would not have harmed his prospects. St Kilda began chasing him in December and would not take no for an answer with McLachlan, a Saints fan, strongly supportive and reportedly influential in the appointment.

Demetriou was the pioneer in revolutionising AFL players' wages, conditions and welfare. That two of his three successors have proved influential leaders in the game says much about the work he achieved. And Gale's era and final contract with the players' association saw the job rewarded in line with other executive positions in the industry although not commensurate with club CEO roles.

By June, the players will be significantly better off also as a result of the equalisation restructure pushed by Finnis, which has been tied to a generous increase in the mid-term collective bargaining agreement negotiation.

It was a nice twist of timing that Demetriou's announced departure from the AFL's top job was immediately followed by the public promotion of Matt Finnis to the helm of St Kilda.

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/richmonds-brendon-gale-may-be-the-man-to-replace-afl-boss-andrew-demetriou-20140304-345d6.html

[WilliamPowell]

So is this opinion piece by Caro about Benny Gale or Matt Finnis or how now 3 former leaders of the AFLPA have moved up the corporate AFL ladder ?

Seems more about Finnis and the AFLPA

Only a few lines about Benny