Brereton says secrets are hard to keep in the AFL
Dermott Brereton | August 01, 2008
WHY is it that for however many hundreds of years the Freemasons have been in existence, we never hear a leak of information? Why we never hear a shred of news or even the slightest hint of what their secret handshake is?
The Masons have thousands upon thousands of members, but try to find a secret about the organisation and you'll hit a dead end very quickly.
They are so guarded of their secrets that it's a secret who's a member.
So with thousands of members around the world, how can the Masons keep a secret, yet with a membership of a dozen or fewer, the Richmond Football Club board can't?
Late on Sunday the Tigers issued a media release saying they were parting company with football director Greg Miller. Of course, the whole world knew by then.
The club board apparently made the decision to sack Miller last week but wanted to keep it secret until Miller was told face to face. Unfortunately, someone on the board couldn't keep it to themselves for that long.
It's not as if the Tigers' board is the only one that has ever leaked. Having been a part of the board at Hawthorn for nine years, we too occasionally had to deal with leaks from within.
As a board member, it is hard to stomach when the board makes a hard decision and resolves to keep it stitched up as a water-tight secret because of a necessary time frame, and then have the media reveal your secret before you have the chance to institute it.
It is a betrayal. It goes against the grain of everything you want your football staff to teach to your playing personnel.
As a board, you ultimately employ all paid positions at the football club and you expect loyalty, but all too frequently you are unable to deliver the same in return.
Love him or hate him as Collingwood president, Eddie McGuire is to be admired. In a world of football clubs that leak like sieves, McGuire's Collingwood board is the tightest.
Eddie promised that if any inside information leaked from Collingwood, the culprit would be found regardless of how long all the suspects had to sit in a room. When found, the guilty party would face instant dismissal.
In a land where the media eats up Collingwood's slightest move because the Magpies sell newspapers like few others, we hear no information ever leaks. It is a credit to McGuire and his board.
There are a few reasons why some people leak information from a football club board.
Leaks can be used to destabilise another faction on the board or within the club that is viewed as an enemy.
Leaked information can be used as an upcoming story that the leaker feels is of benefit and interest to the club. More or less an early revelation of a feel-good story.
Rarely is it an old-fashioned journalistic scoop where a reporter overhears a piece of important information in whispered tones.
However, sometimes a board member feels they "owe" a member of the media or has an alliance and friendship with the newshound.
The rarest, but most insidious, of all leaks comes from the "liniment sniffers" - people who get intoxicated with the profile of being a visible mover and shaker within an AFL club.
These people are the board version of a pyromaniac. They sit back and watch all the carnage they have started and derive some sort of pleasure from feeling that they have had power to start the fire.
It is rare, but don't think it doesn't happen.
I don't know which category covers the Richmond gaffe, but my view is it is highly unlikely it was the work of a liniment sniffer or the overhearing of a poorly chosen whisper.
Former Hawthorn president Ian Dicker was bewildered by the media's ability to guess secret meeting places and a couple of our particular strategies within the board.
He narrowed down the possibilities. On one hand, it could have been amazingly accurate predictions by the media. And on the other, a semi-regular leak within our board.
Dicker was so loyal to his board members he had the boardroom swept for bugs before trying to find the source of the leak. As we expected, nothing was found.
It was a strange feeling of relief when I had some personal information about myself circulated in the media. It took the microscope off me. It would be peculiar to divulge embarrassing private information about yourself to the media.
But that is how destabilising a leak within the board can be.
Even though you know you have had no part in the wrong-doing, you feel as though you will be painted with the same brush as the person who made the leak - especially if no one knows who that was.
But then again, perhaps you should be, too, because a board should be a single entity made up of different skill sets and different voices. It is only as strong as its weakest link.
Determining the source of a leak is usually best started with working backwards from the journalist who spread the word and then ascertaining who could possibly gain most from the fiasco.
I don't envy the innocent Richmond board members, because Tiger supporters deserve better.
If decisions are made by the board with the club's best interests at heart, those decisions should be made in silence and then clinically administered.
Whether the axing of Miller was right or wrong, Richmond supporters have reason to feel aggrieved that a media personality who lives 2500km away predicted such an event seven days before it happened.
I'm not sitting in judgment as a former cleanskin board member. Quite the contrary, the board I sat on leaked as well.
But we learnt from our mistakes. Richmond hasn't and doesn't.
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sport/afl/story/0,26576,24107720-19742,00.html
