Richmond board challengers oblivious to changeThe Australian12:00AM
September 21, 2016
Melbourne
PATRICK SMITH
Observers say that when Neil Balme arrived in the Melbourne radio studio for his weekly spot last Friday he had the spring of a high jumper in his step. If he was not quite a new man he did have a new job.
Balme began as the boss of Richmond’s football department on Monday after successfully performing in that role at Geelong and Collingwood. The switch was prompted by Collingwood reshuffling their football operations at the same time as the Tigers were transforming theirs. The Richmond board pounced.
The trip back to his old club where he was a critical member of two premiership teams might have been long and it might have meandered but there was a meaningful sense that Balme had come home. A 36-year return trip.
His mood might have cooled a little now, the bounce in the step not so extravagant. While what happens at board level is not Balme’s concern, experience tells us that board challengers can quickly destabilise if not disable clubs from their top to their bottom.
So news yesterday that a group of supporters, who call themselves Focus On Footy, plan to continue with their plans to overthrow the board is an unwanted and unnecessary disturbance.
It must be irritating to supporters, who have hailed Balme’s appointment and watched as the football department was restructured after a detailed and independent review of all things footy within the club.
Given the record of the present board to pay off debt, move the club into profit and rebuild facilities while climbing into the finals for three consecutive years, the Focus On Footy plotting is without substance.
The group was represented by Mag Kearney and Martin Hiscock at a meeting yesterday with Richmond president Peggy O’Neal and chief executive Brendon Gale.
Afterwards Hiscock released a statement. “At what was a positive meeting, we reiterated our view that it was time for new and re-energised thinking at Richmond,” Hiscock said. “They (the board) are going to think about what we said and see whether there is a way to address our concerns…”
The Focus On Footy group maintains it has the mandatory 100 signatures to force an extraordinary general meeting if the board does not stand down. However, it is believed its early ambitious claim for seven board seats has been reduced by nearly half and they are now not seeking O’Neal to stand down.
“We have to do something. We don’t want to wake up in 15 years time and say we should have done something before it became half a century since our last premiership (1980),” Hiscock said. He appears oblivious to all that has happened at the club since the end of the season.
In a confused and messy interview on SEN earlier in the day, Hiscock said coach Damien Hardwick, contracted until the end of 2018, would be replaced if he did not satisfy new criteria
“If he doesn’t meet those criteria at a certain stage during the year the football department, directors and Neil Balme will make a decision as to whether he goes or not,” Hiscock said.
“We’d like to build that support around him and see how he goes … I’ve said that from the word go that he’ll be there next year.” He also made this extraordinary claim: “Damien’s already said, ‘I’m a dead man walking’. People have told me that.”
It is expected that the board will dismiss the group’s demands abruptly. And it would be reckless for O’Neal and her directors to take any other action than exactly that. Focus On Footy has no experience running a club in the increasingly competitive AFL environment. The group’s messages are mixed and volatile. To expect Hardwick to coach and his players to remain focused when Hiscock’s team has pronounced he is no certainty to see out much of the season is at best naive and at worst quite mad.
It would be helpful if the plotters had a look at the four clubs left in the race to the premiership. All have strong and stable boards who have a clear, unequivocal vision of how to deliver success.
GWS have maximised the largesse of the AFL expertly so that in their fifth year on the planet as a senior club they are one game away from a grand final.
Sydney have missed the finals just once since 2003. Geelong have been in all but two finals series since 2004.
And the Western Bulldogs stopped Hawthorn from moving closer to a modern milestone of four consecutive premierships when they thrashed Alastair Clarkson’s champions last Friday night.
(This last bit might be news to readers of yesterday’s column where it stated that it was GWS who had thwarted Hawthorn. Distracted mind, appalling error. Humble apologies).
This is a critical and sensitive time of year for every club. But especially for Richmond who, under Balme, must configure a new path ahead for the football department.
That means luring new players and assistant coaches to the club. But they will take short steps if they see a board at war with dills.
Gale must look after a business, cement in sponsors and negotiate all manner of things with the AFL. The club certainly does not need to be fearing interference from a group of supporters who might be intoxicated by their own egos.
If they loved the club they would disappear. Walk away now. But not before apologising to the board, members and supporters.
From: theaustralian.com.au (via 1 off twitter access)
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