Andrew Fagan resigns: Adelaide officially begin search for new CEO
Adelaide has officially started its search for a new CEO to replace Andrew Fagan as the club reveals what it’s looking for in a new boss.
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Adelaide has kicked off its national search to replace Andrew Fagan as its new chief executive, and his successor will be tasked with “building stronger connection” with members.
Crows chairman John Olsen made the shock announcement at the club’s season launch that Fagan, who has been at the club for just over six years, had tendered his resignation to the board.
Along with executive recruiting agency Morton Phillips, the Crows on Monday launched online advertising to find candidates “to lead and guide the organisation to greater heights”.
“With a move to a new home for the Adelaide Crows in the planning, a focus on building stronger connection with the membership and a drive to achieve the ultimate goal of winning premierships, this is an exciting opportunity for a proven CEO,” the advertisement says.
“This high profile role demands commitment from a passionate leader, with unquestionable integrity, demonstrated resilience, exceptional communication and engagement skills with an ability to skilfully manage multiple stakeholders.
“You will have a successful track record and proven ability in strategic planning, driving a high performance culture, football administration, innovation, commercial operations and extensive media relations expertise.”
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West Coast’s football boss Craig Vozzo, a South Australian, has been touted as a possible successor to Fagan – as has Richmond’s chief marketing officer Simon Matthews.
Norwood chief executive James Fantasia, a former football boss at Hawthorn and the Western Bulldogs and ex-Crows recruiting manager, could also make a play for the role.
James Gallagher, General Manager Legal and Player Affairs at AFL Players’ Association and son of Redlegs great Phil was linked to the role on Monday.
Crows head of football Adam Kelly has previous experience as a CEO for both East Fremantle and Murray Mallee Racing, while he also worked with Olsen at the SANFL as its general manager if Adelaide looks inward.
Jake Parkinson and Darren Chandler have also worked with Olsen at the SANFL.
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Keith Thomas has ruled himself out of the soon-to-be-vacant Crows’ chief executive’s job, as a top South Australian commercial lawyer says it will be the AFL, not Adelaide, that selects Andrew Fagan’s replacement.
Thomas, who lifted cross-town rival Port Adelaide from the doldrums when he took over in 2011 to become a premiership contender by his departure last year, had been linked to the position but told The Advertiser he would not be in the running.
West Coast football boss Craig Vozzo, a South Australian, has been touted as a potential candidate to succeed Fagan, along with Richmond’s chief marketing officer Simon Matthews.
Adelaide dual premiership captain Mark Bickley expected being a football person would hold a lot of weight during the club’s nationwide search.
But SA lawyer Greg Griffin said no matter who took over the post at West Lakes, it would be a league appointment.
“Why don’t you jump in the car to AFL House in the Docklands and ask them because they are the ones who will be making the decision,” Griffin said.
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“That will continue to be the case until the Crows constitution is amended to remove their absolute power over the appointment of the board.”
Under the terms of the Crows’ constitution — quietly revised in 2014 — the AFL took effective control of the Adelaide board and became the club’s ultimate authority.
The league appoints seven of Adelaide’s nine directors and has sole voting rights of all matters at annual general meetings other than the election of the two remaining board members.
“If you control the board, you control the club,” Griffin said.
Vozzo, the Eagles’ football chief since 2010 and the club’s former list manager, reportedly interviewed for Adelaide’s chief executive post in 2014 but Fagan got the job.
Matthews – the brother of GWS chief executive David Matthews – could also emerge as a contender.
Nigel Smart, who departed as the Crows’ chief operating officer in November, would not be in the mix.
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Bickley said a chief executive with a football background would be a huge plus for the Crows.
“But if they are all footy and they don’t have the other acumen that isn’t ideal also,” Bickley said.
“I don’t think there is one model that is a huge advantage but I’m sure there are plenty of examples of CEOs who have come from other backgrounds and have been successful.
“CEOs are well-rounded people and I think the Adelaide footy club will put a fair weighting on a footy person, that’s what I think they would be looking for and I think it will be a coveted position.
“I don’t think they will be short of applicants.”
New Crows chairman John Olsen said the club would go to the national market immediately seeking the best possible candidate to “underpin our plan for the next five years”.
Fagan planned to stay at the club until a yet-to-be-determined date to help with the handover.
He did not believe the Crows had headhunted a replacement.
Olsen hoped to have someone in the role “sooner rather than later”.
“We’ll leave no stone unturned to identify the best possible person,” Olsen said.
Analysis: How will Fagan be remembered by Crows fans?
– Simeon Thomas-Wilson
Ultimately it will be the lows that punctuate Andrew Fagan’s career as chief executive of one the AFL’s biggest clubs.
He almost tasted the ultimate success.
Fagan took on the CEO role at West Lakes at the end of 2014 and within three years watched as his players lined up on the MCG in their trademark power stance before the first bounce of the 2017 Grand Final.
That they were trounced by a rampaging Richmond was not seen at the time as an omen of bad things to come. In hindsight, it should have been.
The Crows fall from grace was swift and brutal.
They embarked on a pre-season training camp designed to build character and spur them on to go one better that instead built a wall between the players and the administration.
In short it was an unmitigated PR disaster that refused to go away.
“The distraction that was the camp and the work of Collective Mind was a component piece but there were a bunch of other matters as well that probably started from how we recovered from the Grand Final loss, Fagan said as the Crows fell away and the pressure mounted.
“Collective Mind played its part; it was a massive distraction but we moved on from mid-season.”
It’s hard to say the club moved on – the sustained media heat and lack of success created so much pressure on Pyke that he eventually handed in his resignation.
Still, Fagan and his administration held their ground claiming that it was a blip rather than a growing stain.
A multitude of players walked out on the club between 2018 and 2021, including fan favourite Eddie Betts as a perceived lack of culture was consistently levelled at the Crows.
New coach Matthew Nicks was on a hiding to nothing. The club lost 13-games straight and Fagan had to cop the brunt of angry fan backlash as the Crows slumped to their first-ever wooden spoon.
His papers might not have been stamped, but Fagan himself admitted he was already thinking about an exit.
“I initiated this conversation about a transition with former Chairman Rob Chapman more than a year ago,” Fagan said.
The Crows have maintained a healthy membership and financial bottom line under their CEO of the past six and a bit years, allowing them to not rely on the AFL for assistance during the pandemic and remain “independent”.
These are seen as key markers in any career and if you base Fagan’s stint on this, as well as the establishment of the Crows’ Esports franchise and programs for schools and the purchase of the Adelaide Giants baseball team to give the club different revenue streams, then his time at the helm at West Lakes looks rosy.
He also had the club on its way to leaving its current base at West Lakes, which has been criticised of late as construction continues around it, for greener pastures at North Adelaide before COVID-19 struck.
But football trades on a different currency – winning games, making grand finals, bringing home premierships.
Fagan’s stocks rose high early, but plunged late.
He admitted on Thursday night that it was time for change and a new direction – after last year saying he wasn’t going anywhere.
“In recent times we have made a number of key decisions, relating to both football personnel and other areas of strategic focus, with a view to best preparing the club for a post-pandemic Australian sporting landscape,” he said.
“The CEO who leads the club through this process must be in it for the long haul and I am not that person, and I firmly believe this position should not be a long-term role for any individual.”
Adelaide added a women’s side under Fagan’s tenure and they won two AFLW premierships.
It will stand among his achievements, with Chapman last year declaring getting an AFLW team to potentially be the best thing the club has ever done.
But he should always be proudest of the steel needed to steer the Crows through its darkest time – the 2015 death of Phil Walsh.
That was a shaky time for a steady hand and Fagan – not even a year in the job and from a different sport in rugby – proved his worth having been at the helm of the ACT Brumbies in 2009 when player Shawn Mackay was hit by a car and died during a tour of South Africa.
You can’t prepare for your senior coach to be murdered in his first year at the job, but the way Fagan and the Crows dealt with the fallout and emerged won many admirers in the footy industry.
“Phil’s death was a tragedy beyond comprehension,” he said.
“The days that followed were tough. There was much to do and sleep was hard to come by. What I remember with absolute clarity however is slipping into Adelaide Oval on the Sunday to watch in amazement as 20,000 fans came to pay their respects to our fallen coach and wounded club.”
But when the “transition” period to a new CEO is up and he leaves his West Lakes office for the final time, it will be the lows that follow him closest out the door and ultimately define how the majority of Crows fans judge his tenure.
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