Off The Record: Who will fly to become new Crows’ chair?
As Mark Ricciuto’s chances of becoming the new Crows chair fade, who will step up to guide a club in crisis? Plus, political fun and games at Adelaide Uni and is one of Adelaide’s most successful couples leaving town?
- Mark Ricciuto: Fans vent their anger at Crows board member
- Former Crows champion Mark Ricciuto apologises to fans
As Mark Ricciuto’s chances of becoming the new Adelaide chair fade, who will step up to guide a club in crisis? We check the odds on all the contenders. Plus, political fun and games at Adelaide Uni and is one of Adelaide’s most successful couple thinking of leaving town?
Long march for Chairman Roo to lead the Crows
Adelaide Crows great Mark Ricciuto has almost certainly torpedoed any prospect of taking over as club chairman from the soon-to-depart Rob Chapman with his blundering comments about supporters.
Based on his comments this week, Chairman Roo would lead a totalitarian regime in which members were expected to pay their fees, turn up to games and toe the party line.
Kind of similar to communist China under Chairman Mao, really.
So, Off the Record presents our guide to who might replace Chapman sometime in the next year. One candidate stands head and shoulders above the rest.
Joint number one ticket holder Carolyn Hewson is one of Australia’s most influential and experienced company directors. A BHP director since 2010, former investment banker Hewson lives in Adelaide and has been a director of firms including Stockland and Westpac. Unfortunately, Hewson is more likely to see herself as a backroom person rather than the figurehead for the state’s biggest AFL club.
This leaves former federal Labor sports minister and Adelaide MP Kate Ellis and SA Police assistant commissioner Linda Fellows as the prime candidates.
Ellis quit politics in May to spend more time with her young family. But that might suit Chapman’s.
He could guide a substantial rebuild, then pass the baton.
But Ellis’s husband, FIVEaa breakfast co-host and Advertiser columnist David Penberthy, diverted briefly on Monday from his condemnation of Ricciuto to declare: “The only person realistically on the board who’s the next chairman is Mark Ricciuto.” Co-host Will Goodings did not ask why Penbo did not consider his wife a contender.
Former defence minister Christopher Pyne will be mentioned by some but we consider that unlikely. It’s too early for former CEO Steven Trigg to be rehabilitated, but his boss Warren Randall or fellow Sturt alumni Darren Thomas might be wealthy backers who could put their mouth where their money is.
Well-connected sources say the incoming chairman’s biggest challenge will be to seal the $60 million property deal to bring the Crows to the Adelaide Aquatic Centre. This will require deft political and business acumen, which means the Crows might have to hunt for an outsider.
THE ODDS
3/1 Kate Ellis
5/1 Linda Fellows
10/1 Mark Ricciuto
15/1 Carolyn Hewson
17/1 Darren Thomas, Warren Randall
20/1 Christopher Pyne, Nick Minchin
50/1 Steven Trigg, Graham Cornes
100/1 John Olsen, Alexander Downer, Raymond Spencer
1000/ 1 Tony Modra, Chris McDermott, Andrew Jarman
Adelaide Uni comrades repel the imaginary enemy
After much wailing and gnashing of teeth, the proud student union body of Adelaide University has slammed the door on the controversial Ramsey Centre.
The lofty-sounding centre was — to some — the beginning of the resurgence of Western Civilisation.
A righting of history’s meanderings. To others, it was a Trojan Horse for the old-fashioned, nationalistic, whitewashing, heteronormative old fogies to sneak back onto campus.
It didn’t help that former old fogey-in-chief Tony Abbott was its main spear carrier. So tensions were rising, and the scene was set for a showdown. The debating club debated the motion.
Then, the Adelaide University Union prepared for a vote. The venerable student paper On Dit reported breathlessly on the ongoings. There were security checks. The fear things could get “dangerous”. Chatter had to be quelled.
Sparks flew between young Liberals, the Socialist Alternative, Labor left faction ‘Activate’ and Labor Right faction ‘Unite’, and another faction mysteriously called ‘Swipe Right’. “Finally, the meeting moved on to the moment everyone had been waiting for,” reporter Maxim Buckley (who appears to be a real person) wrote. “The Ramsey Centre.” The room was “at bursting point”, he intoned, the mood “overwhelmingly negative”.
Then …‘’.the debate was interrupted by an ill-timed toilet break. Chaos reigned. Ultimately, the motion did not carry. The night was won by the progressives, who once again had beaten back the forces of darkness.’’
A postscript: The Ramsey Centre has no intention of setting up at Adelaide Uni. Still, it was a good dry run for the coming revolution that will be needed when ex- Australian Conservatives Senator Cory Bernardi is made Vice Chancellor.
Talk of a move just hurly burly
At first glance, we thought one of South Australia’s most successful business couples had up stumps and headed for the Gold Coast.
An article in last Saturday’s Advertiser quoted major South Australian hotel operator Peter Hurley saying he and wife Jenny Hurley were now residents of the Gold Coast. The story was about the Hurley Hotel Group’s first interstate acquisition with the purchase of the Ivory Tavern in Tweed Heads.
The Hurley Hotel Group operates 10 hotels and employs more than 700 staff in SA and, the article reported, Hurley said he looked forward to bringing the Ivory Tavern into the stable.
“Jenny and I are now residents of the area, having purchased a property in Northern NSW, and we are looking forward to the opportunities the Ivory has to offer,” he was quoted as saying.
We knew Peter was upset about Treasurer Rob Lucas’s land tax changes but had the long-serving former Adelaide Crows board member really abandoned ship? We telephoned Peter, who calmly and politely assured us he and Jenny had not relocated from SA.
The couple have had a home in the area for some time and have just bought a new one. But the Ivory Tavern agent, probably correctly, thought the purchase would achieve better coverage in our sister publication, The Gold Coast Bulletin, if the Hurleys’ local roots were amplified.
Former teacher Hurley, who in 2016 was honoured with an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO), told Off the Record: “If the Crows finish on the bottom of the ladder or land tax increases, we may move north. Otherwise, we treasure our South Australian lifestyle too much.”
Owen goal
The eyebrows of PR operatives around town were raised in unison this week when a new player entered the crowded market. Owen Media Relations is the creation of former Australian reporter Michael Owen.
Owen was renowned for his abrasive approach as a journo, famously incurring the ire of former Prime Minister Julia Gillard and prompted the Twitter hashtag #rudereporter.
Owen apologised to Gillard following the exchange at a press conference.
A new leaf
Martyn England, formerly of the State Government’s Office of Industrial Hemp and Medicinal Cannabis (who knew we had one?), has found a new home at prominent medicinal cannabis company LeafCann.
England — a senior public servant for more than a decade, most recently in the State Development Department — was reported to have been shown the door mid-year as part of a reshuffle of senior ranks.
He’s popped up at LeafCann, which has a budding SA project, forgive the pun, as an executive manager.
All change
If the point of the Committee of Adelaide is not always entirely clear, it has certainly attracted some decent names over the years.
The latest to join up is University of SA vice chancellor David Lloyd. Lloyd is the new chairman, taking over from James Blackburn.
Other new board members include KPMG chairman Justin Jamieson, Hassell associate Kyrstyan Mcleod, PwC principal Paul Hindle and Commercial and General’s Simon Toovey. Founding members Ian Smith and Colin Goodall have departed.