John Coates may have won the AOC presidential election but now he has to repair the damage

JOHN Coates may have secured himself another stint at president of the AOC, but he’s lost a third of the support and life will never quite be the same again, writes Leo Schlink.

SUNDAY TELEGRAPH — 2017 AOC AGM held at the MCA in Sydney. President John Coates wins the vote and retains his seat. Pictured commiserating rival Danni Roche on left.

IT was a majority decision, but life for John Coates as Australian Olympic Committee president will never be the same again.

As Coates sat at the head table overlooking the AOC electorate which gave him a 58-35 victory over challenger Danni Roche, he savoured victory and realisation in equal measure.

For all his successes in a long and distinguished Olympic association stretching back to 1980, Coates knows more than third of his flock had abandoned him.

Vowing to step down from the presidency in 2021, when his reign will have ballooned to 31 years, Coates has been given a jolting message to reform and repair.

Truculent and extremely well connected, Coates was confident he had the numbers — and he was right.

President John Coates wins the vote and retains his seat.

But he has truly been put on notice by what the nation’s 40 Games federation and an executive decidedly edgy over his bellicose approach to negotiation.

Coates has resolved to work more harmoniously with the Australian Sports Commission, which bankrolls the teams the AOC sends abroad.

The ill feeling between Coates and ASC chair John Wylie reached a grubby nadir in February when Coates called Wylie a “c ...”

John Coates has a lot of repair work to do at the AOC

Coates gleeful retelling of the barb served only to compound a poisonous rift.

What has been sheeted home to a veteran leader accustomed to getting his own way during this campaign is that he needs to be more consultative and collaborative.

Encouragingly, he has made positive comments in that respect lately.

When Coates presides over his first meeting in what he says will be his final stint at the head of the AOC table, his language will be instructive.

Flanked by trusted lieutenants Ian Chesterman and Helen Brownlee, who have been re-elected vice-presidents, Coates retains significant backing.

Time will tell how much those lost 35 votes mean as Australian sport attempts to heal itself after a ferocious and often unbecoming internecine conflict.

Originally published as John Coates may have won the AOC presidential election but now he has to repair the damage