AFL 2023: Adelaide Crows chairman John Olsen opens up to Matt Turner in a revealing Q&A
The Crows didn’t just ponder legal action after the review blunder, they sought advice from a pair of King’s Counsels. Chairman John Olsen opens up on the 24 hours that followed.
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It has been disappointing, rollercoaster week for the Crows and their chairman John Olsen.
Adelaide copped its second apology from the AFL in two months for a late-game umpiring blunder and the club had its men’s finals hopes ended amid the latest controversy.
Olsen had a lengthy chat with Matt Turner about last week’s error, why it did not pursue legal action and what was next, as well as updates on the proposed move to Thebarton Oval, AFLW and Tom Doedee.
Matt Turner: Have you had much sleep this week or just had Ben Keays’ shot replaying in your head?
John Olsen: There was not a lot of sleep Saturday night or Sunday night on the basis of addressing the circumstances and making sure we protect the players’ interest in this. They worked their backsides off all year to position themselves for finals and they don’t get the opportunity because it was eliminated by this mistake and decision. From the supporter base point of view, the passion and emotion of the Crows family, wanting us to succeed and play finals, it is devastating for them.
MT: How close were you to taking things further?
JO: Over those first 24 to 48 hours, we wanted to explore every opportunity to redress the set of circumstances unfolding. We sought legal advice and sought two KCs’ advice on that legal advice. We asked ‘is there a capacity for us to legally challenge this decision and in any way seek a changed set of circumstances?’ Bearing in mind the rules of the game, the simple fact is when the Sydney Swans player (Jake Lloyd) kicked that ball back into play, under the rules there was no capacity for the field umpire to then go back to review. The human mistake was reviewed in calling it a point and not calling a review … because if he had, it would’ve been awarded a goal (by the AFL Review Centre). There were also 70 seconds of play left to go. If it had been the last kick of the match, the legal option would’ve opened up. So the clear legal advice was that if you challenge this, it’ll cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to pursue and you’re unlikely to be successful. We’d be spending a substantial amount of members’ money on a futile exercise, which would be a dereliction of duty by the board.
MT: What did you make of well-known lawyer Greg Griffin’s comments during the week about the club owing the AFL money and that affecting who sat on the board and its decision-making?
JO: It’s been suggested we owe the AFL money but we do not owe the AFL one cent. We have no indebtedness to the AFL. Even if we did, it wouldn’t influence our decision in how we would approach this. Secondly, the board positions at the Adelaide Football Club have not been interfered with by the AFL over the period that I have been involved. Not at all.
MT: You had a board meeting this week. How much time was spent discussing this issue?
JO: It was one of the longest board meetings we’ve had in three years. We canvassed a whole raft of things, everyone expressed a point of view and had a thorough discussion. Some people externally have suggested ‘the footy department has moved on, why doesn’t the club?’ Simple. When you’re playing elite sport and there’s another game to play, you’ve got to switch on to that and don’t have the luxury of wallowing in self-pity. At the 4pm in the team meeting on Monday, Nicksy (coach Matthew Nicks) gave the players one minute to vent and then ‘we don’t talk about it again, we focus on the game on Saturday’, which is important to us to prove a point or two. And it’ll be a challenge with the retirement of three West Coast stars and a sold-out stadium. Our footy department’s job is to focus on the next game, but our job (off-field) is to focus on correcting the injustice that’s been done.
MT: Beyondthe obvious, what frustrated you most about last week?
JO: Trying to convince myself not to get angry but to get even.
MT: What is the redress you are seeking from the league?
JO: The club has been pressing the AFL all this week on removing the disadvantage we have as a club on the fixtures you’ve provided to us over the years. We get regional grounds to play on. Home, Launceston, home, Geelong, home, Ballarat, home, Darwin – no other team has had a schedule like that this year. No other team has played the top-four sides seven times this year. We deserve and are entitled to a better fixture and the disadvantage we have needs to be removed. We played two games at the MCG this year. Collingwood president Jeff Browne said at a function in Melbourne three weeks ago ‘we have 14 games at the MCG’. It’s their training ground for the grand final. I’ve had a discussion with the chairman of the AFL commission (Richard Goyder) on that – it’s not reasonable from our point of view. Not having an opportunity to play more there is a disadvantage to us.
MT: What else specifically are you seeking from the fixture?
JO: We want more timeslots at Adelaide Oval that maximise the attendance of our members and supporters. (Getting a lot of games) lunchtime on Saturdays – everyone has school sport, local sport and country sport. That needs to be corrected. I accept that if you’re not performing on-field and not getting eyes through broadcast you do suffer in fixtures, but we bottomed out several years ago and are on a pretty good journey, so there needs to be more flexibility in the scheduling to reward your performances in the season.
MT: Could the blunder be the impetus to finally getting the AFL to give you a Thursday night or Friday night stand-alone Showdown?
JO: Yes. We have got a series of requests already in and will be pressing those.
MT: The AFL also apologised to the club for an umpiring error against Collingwood in June that would have given Jordan Dawson a shot in the dying stages.
JO: (The two major mistakes) would have had an opportunity to provide the club with eight premiership points, which would have secured our finals berth. It is unfair treatment and will be the basis of discussions again next week in Melbourne. We will continue to push our case and leave no stone unturned.
MT: Was the goal review system an issue for too long waiting for an error like this to provoke change?
JO: Yes. It has been a problem waiting to occur and it’s occurred in dramatic fashion, which has forced immediate action. If there’s something good to come out of this, it’s at least that the rules will get changed. They need to be and should’ve been changed in the past.
MT: Can you quantify how much not playing finals has cost you?
JO: You can’t because it’s the opportunity that’s been lost for a young squad to get finals experience. The match payments for players is gone, the coaching group – there are bonuses to get to the finals and how you progress, and the opportunity is gone. On a good day, we can mix and match it with the best teams in the competition so who could predict if we’d got into the finals how far we would have gone?
MT: What are your thoughts on the potential changes to the score review system for the finals?
JO: We’ve been pressing the AFL for that to happen. The AFL have had a working party looking at suggestions and putting in interim measures for the finals series and are looking at a more permanent solution in 2024 and going forward, so this sort of incident doesn’t happen again. Let’s just see where the changes end up.
MT: What changes would the club like to see happen?
JO: There’s a billion-dollar broadcasting income stream and we need to have the best technology available, coupled with rules for umpires to be able to make decisions, reviews to be done in a timely way and limit human error influencing outcomes. We’ve put a number of suggestions through to the AFL. It’s a moving feast because there’s now an avalanche of ideas from around the AFL.
MT: How difficult is it going to be watching the finals next week given how close the club was to making them for the first time since 2017?
JO: At the start of the year, I was asked ‘how do you think we will go this year?’ I thought if we could finish ninth or 10th and move up the ladder, 2024 and 2025 were going to be our years. Our performance exceeded my expectations. And then when our defence was decimated (with injury), we had young players step up in a way that I thought was a real credit to them. During the course of the year I started to think perhaps we’d position ourselves to make finals. We had significant improvement. Next year and the year after will be years we hope to play finals.
MT: Last week’s result summed up the season in some ways. It was the club’s fifth loss by six points or fewer this year.
JO: A young squad’s got to build character, depth and perseverance, and we have shown that. Accuracy cost us in a couple of games, our skills need to improve in some areas. But I’d say to our members and supporters, we’re on a really good journey and have the coaching staff and the team that can take us through the finals.
MT: The focus will soon turn to list management. Is the club still confident it can keep Tom Doedee?
JO: I’d like to see Tom be a Crow for life and would hope we might be able to get that end result. That’s the basis of contract negotiations and discussions.
MT: What about Matt Crouch?
JO: The quality of Matt Crouch has shown up during the course of the year when he’s been prepared to play and give his all in the SANFL, then in these last five games at AFL level. Contract negotiations will take place in the next week or two and I’d also like to see him continue. Both Tom and Matt are quality people.
MT: The club missed out on signing Essendon’s Mason Redman. Can Crows fans still expect the club to land a significant off-season recruit?
JO: List management is a very complicated scenario and not always will you enter the market if the person you want is not available. The progression of a number of our players might mean we have changed what our needs are and making an assessment over the next three to five years what the composition of the team should look like. We’ll make a value judgment as to who is available.
MT: Let’s switch to the proposed move to Thebarton. It keeps dragging on. What is the latest?
JO: This has been a very long and protracted process but we will persevere and are determined to get an outcome for our members and the local community. We said we wanted to arrive at Thebarton being a good neighbour and I think we’ve arrived at a position that is the best outcome for the club and the local community. We are in the final stages of putting the financing package together to enable us to be able to proceed.
MT: You have made some changes to help appease residents, moving your administration and training centre and changing the size of your second oval.
JO: When the plans are released, the amount of green space, trees, skate park, cricket nets, the local community will be stunned at what is going to be delivered to them as a by-product of us going there.
MT: Should the club have engaged more with residents from the outset? I was at one of the early community forums last year and no one from the Crows attended.
JO: If we weren’t there at the first couple, we’ve certainly been open in everything else that we’ve done. Over the course of nearly two years, we have presented to the council on numerous occasions and had majority support every single time and residents were attending some of the council meetings where (Crows chief executive) Tim Silvers and the team presented. Then we indicated we would put up a website dedicated to it and responded to queries, we put out our proposal to the community in four or five different languages, we had two open sessions at Richmond Oval and another one at Thebarton Community Centre, then we’ve had the MAG (masterplan advisory group) meetings.
MT: As one campaign closes for your men’s team, the AFLW one is set to begin next week. Can the side win a fourth flag?
JO: Our objective is to be in the top four and that’ll give us the best chance to win another cup. They’ve had to put up with concessions being given to other start-up teams in the women’s competition that have meant we’ve had to be best practice in list management in recruitment. The thing that really impresses me is while they’re semi-professional, our players have made the decision to forego finance (a day of work) and forego some study to participate in their love of footy by training all day Friday, which is a precursor of things to come.
MT: The AFL and your club are very different landscapes to when you started in your role in October 2020. Back then, it was the Covid pandemic, the Crows had a different chief executive and the club was coming off a wooden spoon. Can you believe you have been in the position for three years?
JO: It’s gone so quickly, principally because it’s an all-consuming job. Thoroughly challenging but enjoyable. I would argue the club has evolved successfully over those three years but we’ve still got a lot more to do.
MT: How has it compared to running the state?
JO: There is far more passion and emotion in the footy club where everyone has an opinion as to what you should be doing and are uninhibited in telling you what that is.
MT: How does the club make sure that any woulda, coulda, shoulda clouds from 2023 don’t linger into 2024, when there will be more expectation on the team?
JO: I’ve got confidence in the footy department to really focus on this new foundation from which we build. The foundation has been reset and there’s a higher level of expectation going forward. I’m confident we’ve got a team that’s up to the task of demonstrating that we’re good enough for finals.
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