Who Carlton president Robert Priestley really is — and the big calls that lie ahead
Robert Priestley parachuted Kevin Kline-style into Carlton’s top job. But who is the unlikely 32nd president of the club — and what decision will he make on head coach Michael Voss?
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Nearly 50 years after Robert Priestley caught the Sydney Road tram from his family’s Moreland home to watch Big Nick and Jezza’s Princes Park feats, he faced a critical decision on the same hallowed turf.
Those childhood days of the now Carlton president with grandfather Clive, father Syd and brothers Steven and John as young Rob watched while perched on a portable stool taught him the value of Carlton dominance.
If the seniors and reserves won the boys got a six-pack of donuts to gorge on as they basked in Carlton’s glory era.
And yet in the days after Carlton’s loss to Port Adelaide this year, the mood at the renamed Ikon Park was one of outright mutiny.
The glory days are decades gone.
The fans had scrawled graffiti on the surrounding brick walls demanding action in the wake of the 50-point loss and football boss Brad Lloyd had failed to reassure the restless natives.
Five months into the most unlikely AFL presidency forced upon him by Luke Sayers’ ‘dick pic’ saga, Priestley could have handed Voss the full support of the board.
A man known for his genial nature and determination to avoid enemies as he rose to the chairmanship of the Australian arm of global bank JP Morgan could easily be painted as Carlton’s anti John Elliott.
A nice, affable, inoffensive banker unlikely to rock the boat.
The accidental president parachuted Kevin Kline-style into Carlton’s top job by accident or controversy.
Instead as he stood on that same Princes Park concourse in front of assembled reporters he drew a line in the sand.
In his calm, measured manner Priestley put every member of the football department on notice.
He refused to use Voss’ 2026 contract as a crutch, making clear Carlton was prepared to move on the AFL great if the evidence backed that decision.
As someone there that day said this week: “It was interesting to observe. He could have taken the blind faith route and he understood it was putting pressure on people but the footy club comes first.
“What he said to the microphone, he had already told people internally. The club comes first. That is his responsibility.”
In 30 days time Carlton’s season will end.
Priestley and new CEO Graham Wright will decide to sack Voss - forever banishing him to the senior coaching wilderness - or back in their man.
But regardless, elements of the football department will be tipped on its head in what is Priestley and Wright’s first chance to set Carlton up for the long-term future.
As one insider said recently: “Change is inevitable. It’s just how much change is coming.”
Wright is seen as the agent of change and yet it is Priestley’s board which will make the ultimate decision.
But who is the unlikely 32nd president of the club, one unlike the publicity-seeking mover and shaker in Sayers despite their shared pedigree in Sydney banking and investment circles?
Brighton Grammar and Melbourne University commerce student Priestley graduated to work in senior management across Australia, New Zealand, Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia Pacific.
Starting in what the Australian Financial Review has dubbed the “less glamorous world of debt financing,” he worked in London for a New Zealand investment bank, spent time at the Macquarie Group and had a stint in Hong Kong.
In 2002 he and his English-born wife Alexandra Goodfellow returned to Sydney where he became head of JP Morgan, which now generates more than $1 billion in revenue.
So far, so very boring.
And yet his abiding love of Carlton and financial acumen meant that he was the perfect person to join the Carlton board in 2021 before being elevated along with Patty Kinnersly as the co-vice president in 2022.
When Sayers stepped down he was the easy choice despite speculation swirling that ex-AFL Commission Mike Fitzpatrick might have a crack at the title.
Insiders say Priestley is adept in all circles - playing the Carlton ‘nuffy’ with the ex-stars or the corporate high flyer in the corridors of power.
He has moved from the family’s Mossman home to live predominantly in Melbourne given his new role.
He is tight with the old Carlton crew - Adrian Gleeson, Fraser Brown, Steven Kernahan.
At the 1995 premiership reunion at the MCG in late April he brought the house down, admitting that on that glorious day 30 years ago he was so desperate to watch the premiership he was four hours late for his daughter’s christening.
Says Kernahan in a text reply to the Herald Sun: “Rob Priestley is a ripping bloke and the club is lucky to have him. Also only runs the biggest bank in the world.”
To be a ripping bloke in the Kernahan vernacular is high praise indeed.
And yet the fan boy who doesn’t have an enemy has a glint of steel under the surface.
Former Collingwood president Jeff Browne tells this masthead the ‘hail-fellow-well-met’ vibe is deceiving.
“You don’t get to be the chairman of JP Morgan unless you are a hard nut. He has a welcoming exterior but underestimate him at your peril,” Browne says.
Essendon president David Barham has struck up a firm recent friendship with Priestley and agrees with Browne.
“I tell you what I think - sometimes people who look genial are not the most genial people when it comes to business. I don’t think you would be worried about someone in his position not making a hard decision,” Barham says.
Says Browne: “He’s a very smart guy. He’s very methodical. He knows and loves his footy. He’s a perfect combination with Graham Wright. They will be a very successful pairing and I am convinced they will get it right. Rob brings a lot of logistic business smarts to his decision making and Graham is a smart guy with great footy instincts and experience.
“There is a lot of yin and yang about them. They are big decisions but they will make the right ones.”
The point is this - sacking Voss will be a tough and brutal decision.
But if that is the conclusion new CEO Wright and Priestley come up with he will do it in a heartbeat without a hint of emotion.
Browne is the chairman of MA Financial Group, with Sydney Swans chairman Andrew Pridham the group vice chairman.
In a little-known fact in football circles, Priestley’s wife Alexandra is not only on MA Financial Group’s board but also is a board member of the Sydney Swans.
She is the Australian vice chair of global management consulting firm Korn Ferry and despite her English roots knows her football backwards like her Blues-loving husband.
Blues fans pondering the club’s next move have suggested Voss would only be jettisoned for an experienced coach but in truth Wright could sell a new face because his last hire Craig McRae turned into a premiership smash hit.
Yet if Priestley does want the forensic run-down on John Longmire’s suitability to Sydney he has ready access to his wife’s intel on his strengths and weaknesses.
It will give him so much more insight than googling the record of Longmire’s 12 finals appearances in 14 completed seasons.
Longmire’s friends this year have talked about his desire to set up his businesses in Sydney, his love of the extended family farm in NSW, his want to take time out of the game and decompress.
But no one has ruled him out of a return next season.
The elephant in the room is that as Sydney’s season sagged after a 13-1 start Longmire got especially cranky.
Players were on eggshells, Longmire showed signs of that coaching fatigue and while the Swans made the grand final he knew it was time to take a break.
Yet if he wasn’t at his best in those last few months he remains a fabulous coach with five grand final appearances in his 14 seasons.
Priestley values Voss’s leadership and dignity as he tries to sort through how many of the club’s failings can be sheeted home directly to the coach.
Players are grumpy about the little things - selection, injuries, which midfielders get the lion’s share of hit-outs directed to them.
So Priestley and Wright will need to assess whether those issues can be fixed by changing everyone around Voss or whether it is easier to sweep a broom through the entire football department.
Sydney president Pridham has no doubt he is capable of setting this club up for its next era of success.
“Rob is highly experienced at making complex and business critical decisions,” he said.
“Importantly, he won’t be distracted by keeping up appearances for perception sake. He is a genuine football person with navy blue flowing through his veins.
“I have known him for over 20 years. He is a true professional capable of managing situations based on relevant data-points but balanced with the need to cater to the imperfections of human behaviour and emotion.”
Barham has spent his working life in the media world as Ten’s AFL boss while also mixing with the high-flyers working on broadcast deals in racing and football.
A man most at home having a punt at Warrnambool’s May races rather than sitting in stuffy board rooms can sniff bullshit and bluster a mile away.
He likes what he sees in Priestley.
“I just find him a very impressive character. He is a high quality person,” Barham says.
“He makes calm, sensible decisions. He understands he has to do the work. I think he’s going to be great.
“He’s a really good listener. It’s another good quality. And he will gather all the information before he does anything. He’s proved to be a pretty good media performer. His press conference around the Port Adelaide game was a really good one.”
Like all banking executives across the recent Royal Commission Priestley did not emerge unscathed.
The $2.5 billion sale of ANZ shares to banks including JP Morgan was investigated by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, with six bankers charged with ‘knowingly being concerned in’ an alleged cartel.
Financial media reported that JP Morgan boss Priestley testified to the ACC, with JP Morgan executives promised immunity over the case. Making the case challenging was the fact his brother John, also a brilliant amateur Melbourne football and cricketer, was the ANZ company secretary.
Priestley was not accused of any wrongdoing.
As one insider says: “There was some corporate controversy, but the way he dealt with it was very sensible and very practical and in the end there were no adverse findings.”
So now the money man in Priestley gets to weigh the cost-benefit analysis of keeping or flicking Voss.
He is contracted with a mostly guaranteed contract, with Carlton likely up for more than half a million in football department luxury tax if Voss and his assistants are sacked and replaced by a coach of Longmire or Adam Simpson’s calibre.
He and Wright will decide the fate of football boss Lloyd and consider a shake-up of the list team, aware how quickly circumstances can change.
Inject Carlton’s best four runners back into this team next year - Sam Walsh, Jagga Smith, Elijah Holland, Matt Cottrell - plus their best defensive stopper and ball user in Nic Newman and they already look vastly better.
Some draft experts believe father-son defender Harry Dean is headed to the top 10 of the draft with a bullet.
So in a month where Voss has shown so much class in how he has handled himself amid the on field turmoil, there are signs of life but few guarantees.
Whatever he and Wright do next could consign the club to yet more mediocrity or set them on a path to rectifying a premiership drought that will drag on past three decades.
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