North Melbourne set to keep highly-respected administrator Peter Jackson
Alastair Clarkson’s North Melbourne continues to make big off-field moves, with a highly-respected administrator set to remain at the club.
AFL
Don't miss out on the headlines from AFL. Followed categories will be added to My News.
North Melbourne looks set to keep highly-respected administrator Peter Jackson at the club in another major boost for its off-field team.
Jackson joined the Kangaroos several months ago to help find the club’s new chief executive, Jennifer Watt, and assist president Sonja Hood in the bid to secure premiership mastermind Alastair Clarkson as new coach.
While it was initially viewed as likely a short-term role, News Corp can reveal the former Essendon and Melbourne chief executive is interested in staying at the club.
Hood, Watt and Jackson have been in talks about a permanent position heading into the 2023 season.
It would be another coup for North as Jackson, who is one of the most experienced senior club executives in the game, could stay to help mentor Watt who beat Geelong football boss Simon Lloyd for the CEO job this week.
Jackson has almost 30 years of experience in the AFL and would provide an outstanding sounding board for Watt as the club moves into a new era under Clarkson.
The four-time premiership coach has returned to the club to begin pre-season training while he participates in the league’s investigation into Hawthorn First Nations’ players from 2008-2016.
Clarkson and Brisbane coach Chris Fagan have said they will vigorously fight allegations they mistreated players at Hawthorn with Clarkson adamant there is more “depth and history” to some of the reported claims.
While it remains unclear if Clarkson and Hawthorn will face sanctions, the Kangaroos have enjoyed an excellent off-season which on Monday night included picks three and four in the national draft, taking explosive midfielder George Wardlaw and classy forward Harry Sheezel.
North has also considerably bolstered the football department in recent weeks, adding former Carlton and St Kilda coach Brett Ratten and ruck coach Damian Monkhorst, on top of the appointments of Clarkson and football boss Todd Viney.
The Kangaroos were thrilled to land Watt who has strong commercial skills from her time working under Stuart Fox at the MCC, the AFL and at the Melbourne Football Club.
Watt and Jackson worked together at the Demons as the club rebuilt under Sydney Swans’ premiership coach Paul Roos.
NORTH’S NEW DOUBLE ACT A ‘PERFECT MATCH’
Scott Gullan
Jen Watt‘s first job in football was to enter the names and details of Melbourne Football Club members into a computer.
Twenty years later she has become the second female to become an AFL chief executive and part of a historic double act at North Melbourne with president Dr Sonja Hood.
The girl power dynamic at Arden St is a “perfect match” according to Watt who will start her new gig in January.
When the announcement was made on Tuesday Watt’s phone blew up and it wasn’t until 11.30pm that she finished replying to every single message as well as congratulatory emails.
“I love that the industry is changing a little bit,” Watt said. ”We have got three female presidents, we had four, and this is another really great step.
“I don’t think it is necessarily about gender but I feel really proud to be able to represent that moment for the game.”
Hood said Watt, who is currently the commercial operations and partnerships manager at the Melbourne Cricket Club, went through the same recruitment method as senior coach Alastair Clarkson.
“I am delighted that it is history making, I’m delighted that it is forward thinking but to be perfectly honest I’m most delighted that she is the best person for the job,” Hood said.
“We knew we needed someone to bring our club together and that became really clear particularly once Todd (Viney) was in and Clarko was in. We’ve got a really strong footy IP, really strong executive team here and we needed someone to make the thing gell.
“I reckon in a footy club you think of it as a doughnut, footy is the jam and our jam is sitting out over there and it needs to sit in the middle of the doughnut. How you make that happen and how you make it permutate everything that you do and vice versa is one of the real challenges.
“We were really clear on who we were looking for and Jen was an absolute standout.”
The journey for Watt, 45, started at the Demons as a membership co-ordinator after she’d got her taste for the football industry working for player management group Flying Start.
“The early days at Melbourne was literally entering members details into the computer and I loved it,” she said. ”I got to understand match days, selling memberships in the tents at games and then issuing membership scarfs.
“Over my 14 years at Melbourne I worked my way through a range of jobs, I was marketing manager and then for the last eight years there I was general manager of marketing and communications looking after events, membership and merchandise.”
Watt was awarded the AFL’s Graeme Samuel Scholarship in 2016 which saw her spend five months learning the ropes at league headquarters.
She then moved over to the MCC to broaden her skill set and it was there where she first dreamt of one day running an AFL club.
“After 14 years you have a really strong sense of the club environment and then going to the MCC gave me an understanding of the industry environment,” Watt said.
“There’s the commercial side, the venue relationships with clubs, the Cricket Australia relationship and also working with promoters for the first time gave me an understanding of how to put on a Eminem concert.
“That all gave me a really great understanding of the economy of the whole industry and I’ve been there for five years which means I’ve driven to the MCG every day for 20 years.”
The mother of two has already got an indication from her eldest daughter that she may be willing to swap allegiance from Melbourne to the Kangaroos, a team Watt already had a soft spot for.
“I have always had a soft spot for them because Melbourne, North and the Bulldogs, people used to talk about them in the same fashion, AFL dependant, low supporter bases, lots of challenges,” Watt said.
“So then when North secured Alastair Clarkson and Todd Viney, it just started to feel like something pretty exciting. You just get a feeling that I think I really want to be part of it.”
CEO SEARCH: AFL CLUB NAMES FEMALE BOSS
North Melbourne will have an all-female leadership team with Jen Watt becoming the Kangaroos next chief executive.
The long-time sports administrator edged out Geelong football boss Simon Lloyd to get the coveted role at Arden St, supporting president Dr Sonja Hood.
Watt comes from the Melbourne Cricket Club where she is the general manager of commercial operations and partnership.
She is highly-regarded by MCC boss Stuart Fox and has a strong relationship with former Melbourne and Essendon chief executive Peter Jackson, who helped North Melbourne find its new boss.
North Melbourne is delighted to let you know that following an exhaustive process, the Board has appointed Jennifer Watt as CEO.
— North Melbourne FC (@NMFCOfficial) November 29, 2022
President Dr @Sonja_Hood has shared the news with members in an open letter 📬
Watt spent 14 years at the Demons in various roles, overlapping with Jackson, and was awarded the AFL’s Graeme Samuel Scholarship in 2016.
Lloyd surged into the reckoning over the past week on the back of the Cats premiership success.
He ticked a lot of boxes with his extensive football CV which included serving as Geelong’s head of football since 2018. He has also been an assistant coach at Fremantle and worked in high-performance roles at Collingwood and Hawthorn.
Lloyd earlier this month spent time at Harvard University with Cats star Patrick Dangerfield completing a leadership course.
But it’s understood Watt’s commercial background helped get her over the line in what was a close decision.
She isn’t the AFL’s first female CEO with Hawthorn appointing Tracey Gaudry in 2017 although it was for a brief tenure.
AFL Finals: Power shut down as Swans inch closer to GF berth
The Swans have a commanding lead in this crunch preliminary final with just a quarter left in this one. Can the Power pull off a miracle in Sydney? Follow live.
Elder slams ‘absolute stupidity’ over Welcome
The man behind this week’s divisive and viral Welcome to Country has broken his silence and delivered a fierce spray.