Casey goes sailing on as plot thickens at Richmond
Patrick Smith
The Australian
September 14, 2004
RICHMOND president Clinton Casey is on holiday. He is in Cairo and plans a trip down the Nile. He may find himself without a paddle.
The board he left behind is not anywhere near as solid as he previously believed. Casey has been trusting to the point of naivety. He thought it best that he run to the December elections with an unchanged board to show solidity and stability. He now knows that this has been an unwise strategy.
He now wants board members Rob Turner and John Matthies to step down immediately. Casey has simply lost confidence in them and fears they are plotting directly to overthrow him. For the sake of unity he believes he has no other choice but to demand their resignations.
Casey told The Australian that Turner had been creeping in the dark to negotiate with the rival ticket led by Charles Macek and Brendan Schwab. Indeed, Turner met Schwab early last week and the football community was driven by rumours that a board challenge from within would topple Casey at last Tuesday's meeting of directors.
Casey said he believed Turner thought he might become president-elect of the Schwab ticket, but was unaware that Macek had been recruited to head Schwab's team. Turner might find he is not a member of the incumbent board or its rival.
Of both Matthies and Turner, Casey said he thought neither brought anything to the table. Casey has previously asked Turner to step down but he has resisted. Not a lot is known about Matthies except that he should spend some time with his fellow board member and broadcaster Anthony Mithen and learn how the media work.
Matthies apparently believes AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou calls members of the media into his office and instructs them about what to write.
After Demetriou's week from hell, how must the AFL boss wish that was right. It isn't, of course, and it is a major concern that a member of a football board can hold such ill-conceived and fanciful theories. You wonder what other bizarre conspiracies keep him awake at night.
If Matthies took time out to think, he would realise the only body more criticised and reviled than the AFL is that of The Elephant Man.
Casey is working to restructure his board and plans to announce a new addition to his team as early as next week. Casey said the person to be appointed to the board had a superior financial background.
That will help the Tigers. Casey said the loss this year has been reassessed and will fall somewhere between $1.9 million to $2.1m. Casey's new business plan, which has the support of the AFL, will have the club return to profit within two years. A new coterie group organised around football director Greg Miller will deliver $250,000 next year.
The battle at Richmond is an odd one. Casey's board has under-performed, but has still been able to appoint Terry Wallace as coach for next year, appoint the well-credentialled Steve Wright as chief executive and its new financial direction is being closely monitored and approved by the financial gurus at AFL headquarters.
Spending on the football department has been prolific and profligate. That will be reined in next season and plans to nab a talented but expensive player will need to be prudent. The Tigers will get their talent infusion through two early draft picks.
Among the challengers are four men who have been on Tigers boards before. Schwab and Peter Welsh worked under Casey until earlier this year when they said time restraints meant they had to resign. Michael Humphris served on the Tigers board from 1986-93 when the club was broke and never finished higher than 10th.
Macek worked under president Leon Daphne and attempted to win the presidency when Daphne stood down. Under Daphne's presidency from 1993-99 the club went through three coaches - John Northey, Robert Walls and Jeff Gieschen. Danny Frawley took over in 2000. In Daphne and Macek's last three years the club finished 13th, ninth and 12th.
Macek, Humphris, Welsh and Schwab hardly come from the Tigers' glory days.
There is no doubt that Demetriou believes the nucleus of the Casey board has the nous and experience to steer the Tigers to better times. He said so publicly two weeks ago.
Certainly Casey has a better understanding of what is required to make a football club work in Melbourne. He has spent time as acting chief executive and sought the best men available to fill the coaching and CEO positions. He is about to strengthen his board.
For all that he is either a brave man or a naive one to take a holiday two months away from an election. The plot and plotters thicken.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,10755763%255E12270,00.html
