The big business of AFL is leaving members more and more in the dark about how their clubs are operating
Could a Port Adelaide member’s idea of holding a ‘happy hour’ as a way to meet and greet the club’s board members be a way to reduce the disconnect between supporters and administrators? Michelangelo Rucci takes a look.
Michelangelo Rucci
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How football club annual general meetings have changed.
Gone is the long line at the door where membership tickets and numbers were scrutinised to determine if a member was ‘financial’.
No longer is there a formal agenda.
And – more often than not, certainly recently with the ‘independent’ SA-based AFL clubs – there is no ballot paper to fill out in an annual election for the board.
Not changing, however, is how members surprise their clubs’ directors with their own order of business at question time.
Port Adelaide’s AGM last Friday was expected to put the heat on the board for that unpopular decision to go with co-captains – revoked for 2020 – that last season ended 149 years of tradition at Alberton.
And there is that longstanding question of just how much debt is on the Port Adelaide books.
Adelaide has its turn on March 2 at Adelaide Oval where Crows chairman Rob Chapman can expect the questions on that camp to be replaced with curiosity on the external review.
Or should he?
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Port Adelaide president David Koch was taken aback – at a forum once famous for the annual chestnut being the need for the club to challenge the bus timetable to Football Park at West Lakes – with a member’s call for a ‘happy hour’ each month with a club director.
Once a month, a board member would be available to answer questions with a director over a beer at the social club, as it was in the 1970s with “Big Bob” McLean.
“Who is paying for the drinks?,” was Koch’s first reaction.
Here was the telltale sign of a member feeling disconnected from his club’s leadership.
He probably did not even know the leadership team at Alberton beyond Koch and soon-to-depart chief executive Keith Thomas.
This is increasingly inevitable at AFL clubs that have become $65 million annual revenue machines in need of accountants, lawyers and marketing experts in a board room once filled by former players.
TJ is in the house and ready to answer your questions! 👠#weareportadelaide https://t.co/AJhFWAl7yC pic.twitter.com/8Bd7VdIrhy
— Port Adelaide FC (@PAFC) February 4, 2020
It also is an indicator of the frustration of members who hear so much of their club from the outside – and are more confused by the strategic silence that follows from the inside.
The old theme of “never complain, never explain” is outdated in the new AFL that has its own media enterprise feeding the 24/7 news (and opinion) cycle.
Just reflect on the damage done to the silent Crows from a supposedly malicious and obsessed Victorian media last year.
A monthly ‘happy hour’ with a director from either the Port Adelaide or Crows board rooms would be fascinating for the awareness a club member has with the men and women around the tables chaired by Koch and Chapman.
Most directors would have to wear a red carnation and introduce themselves to avoid being taken as a fellow club member rather than the star of the ‘happy hour’ show.
At Alberton, former federal politician Amanda Vanstone has stood down.
She is to be replaced by a female – on Koch’s recommendation and with AFL endorsement – without a members’ vote.
Asian business expert Andrew Day, who was co-opted to the board last year to fill the seat vacated by former player Ross Haslam, is now formally elected – by the AFL’s vote, not that of the members.
At West Lakes, premiership defender Rod Jameson is to stay on the board after no-one chose to stand against him in a members’ nomination vote that would have needed AFL endorsement.
Is this a sign of indifference, or has the Crows board won back the members’ confidence after a difficult end to season 2019?
One long-established Crows identity did consider nominating for the board but, ultimately, decided to stay outside.
So what does this say of recent calls – led by former federal senator Chris Schacht – for constitutional reform at the SA-based AFL clubs with more member-elected directors and less AFL-appointed board members in Adelaide?
In a professional league, AFL club board remain filled by volunteers.
And some might even enjoy a ‘happy hour’ session every so often with the membership base until the on-field performance make the natives restless.
So, can you name the directors running your club?
And how many on the board did you vote for?