Adelaide Football Club chairman Rob Chapman signals end of 11-year reign
The chairman of the Adelaide Crows’ board will stand down within 12 months after 11 years at the top — and a past captain is one of the possible successors.
Adelaide Crows chairman Rob Chapman is signalling he will stand down within a year and declaring his successor likely will be from the current board, which includes past captain Mark Ricciuto, former MP Kate Ellis and assistant police commissioner Linda Fellows.
In an interview with The Advertiser, Chapman said he was “much closer to the end than the beginning” of his 11-year chairmanship but did not endorse a replacement.
“My personal view of tenure is that AFL board members should serve for between nine and 11 years depending on the scenario of the day,” he told The Advertiser.
This indicates next year likely will be Chapman’s last as chairman, to which he was appointed in 2009, even though he would not be drawn on precisely when and whether he would step down.
Live stream the 2019 Toyota AFL Premiership Season on KAYO SPORTS. Every match of every round. Live and any time on your TV or favourite device. Get your 14-day free trial >
But he left open the prospect of drafting a replacement onto the nine-member board and said every member would be capable successors, if they had the time.
Amid a horror end to the season that has triggered calls for a club overhaul and coach Don Pyke’s scalp, Chapman conceded “we haven’t had the success that we all desired and let’s face it, that’s why we exist” but said the club was in healthy shape off the field.
He said Pyke, contracted until the end of 2021, had the “trust and support of the board and playing group” and revealed “externally-led and independent” end-of-season reviews had been commissioned, which he expected would reaffirm that position.
Chapman, the AFL’s second-longest-serving chairman after Collingwood’s Eddie McGuire, also defended Ricciuto from fan forum accusations that he had contributed to forming an old boys’ club at the Crows.
Chapman, also the Adelaide Airport chairman and a Coopers Brewery director, acknowledged his Crows chairman term expired in early 2022 but signalled he would go earlier.
“It’s all about timing and the best interests of the footy club. And that’s why I say somewhere between nine and 11 years is the right time because the timing has to be right. But anybody on my board could do it – it’s whether they have the time and spare capacity to do it. I’ll make the point — I’m much closer to the end, much closer to the end than I am the beginning,” he said.
An AFL chairman would be expected to sacrifice two to three days per week for the voluntary role, at a cost to personal finances and family time.
Ricciuto, who declined to comment, likely would have to give up co-hosting Triple M radio’s breakfast show, while former Labor sports minister Ellis, who also declined to comment, quit politics at May’s federal election to spend more time with her young family.
Fellows, who also declined comment, is one of two women among the force’s senior executive group of eight sworn officers and two non-sworn.
There also has been speculation that a Crows premiership player, not on the board, is being groomed as a successor to Chapman.
Dual premiership player David Pittman, a director of Adelaide-based financial services firm Taylor Collison, said he had “a 0.00 per cent interest in any board position at the AFC”.
Asked to explain why football director Ricciuto had been viewed as a future chairman but now had become a lightning rod for fan forum accusations of an old boy’s club, Chapman urged the Brownlow Medallist not be pigeonholed because of his football pedigree. “His views and opinions on all things Adelaide Football Club have been invaluable.
“He’s been a wonderful contributor. His specific role as director of football, again, I can’t think of a better person in this state who could do that job,” Chapman said.
“I get the outrage and anger – it’s an easy solution to sack people. The reality is, it’s only easy when there is a superior candidate, and in this instance there’s not.
“I couldn’t think of a better person to do it. Why? He’s universally respected in the industry. He’s well-liked. He opens doors. He’s got phone numbers. He’s very pragmatic. He has opened up conversations that we probably couldn’t have opened up with somebody else in that role.”
Chapman, who stressed he was not endorsing Ricciuto above other board members, said accusations of an old boy’s club could be considered insulting: “I’m not the sort of leader that’s going to get influenced by anybody to make the wrong decision, because getting the right person for the job is fundamental for success.”
Chapman said he was proud of appointments, including Pyke and chief executive officer Andrew Fagan, saying there had been a thorough process with independent input and recommendations put to him. “(Head of Football) Brett Burton is another one who cops criticism, so let’s get on the front foot with it,” he said. “When Brett got interviewed, (former teammate) Mark (Ricciuto) stepped away from that process.
“But I can say there were people within the industry that spoke to us and said: ‘Why are you wasting your time interviewing others? Why are you being hesitant in appointing him?’ And the response was ‘Well we’ve got to do our due diligence, a choice of one’s never a choice’. So we interviewed lots of people and industry sources, independent of our football club were going: ‘He’s got the pedigree, he’s got the background, he’s got the experience — appoint him.’
“And eventually, when we concluded our process, we appointed him.”
Chapman declared himself happy with Burton’s performance. He said the late deputy chairman and tourism industry leader Bob Foord, who died in late 2017, would have taken over as chairman this year.
“Brett is a new-age, innovative football manager who is learning, by his own admission. And as soon as any of us stop learning, we’ll give the game away,” he said.
“He’s learning and has learned a lot in this role. But I’m backing him to be one of the elite football managers, when judged at the end of his tenure.”
“I would have happily handed over to him, it would have been a seamless transition going into this next phase — he would have been a wonderful chairman of our football club. Every person on this board would be capable of being the chairman of our football club. I think we have a wonderful board. It is a complete cross section of skill set and of society.”
— The author is an Adelaide Football Club foundation member.