After two difficult years, the Crows have chief executive determined to direct Adelaide’s place in AFL

ANDREW Fagan has carried the title of Adelaide Football Club chief executive for a month – and, as he puts it, the time has come to make a “deep dive into the business”.

20.10.2014. New Crows CEO Andrew Fagan. pic tait schmaal.

ANDREW Fagan has carried the title of Adelaide Football Club chief executive for a month – and, as he puts it, the time has come to make a “deep dive into the business”.

“I’ve been here three minutes,” says Fagan – and he is learning quickly, even if he still doubts himself on knowing all the names of the 91 staffers at Adelaide’s West Lakes administrative centre.

“I have to get up to speed quickly with who is who in the zoo (inside the club and the AFL) . . . but as for the business, I know 1000 per cent more than I did three weeks ago.”

Fagan presents well. He speaks well . . . and perhaps aware this is a time for the Adelaide Football Club to be, as he puts it, “100 per cent authentic”, Fagan asks he be called to order if he sounds like a “salesman”.

It is far too early to judge Fagan. The measure of his leadership is still to be seen by how his administration behaves in the next 12 months.

There has been no soft introduction to a front office that, as Fagan notes, has suffered in the past two years, particularly in the summer of 2012-13 when his predecessor Steven Trigg served a six-month ban from the Kurt Tippett saga.

“I challenged the guys the other day,” Fagan said. “I did not ask for an answer, but I asked the question: Are we league-leading in anything we do at the moment?”

As Adelaide prepares to celebrate its 25th anniversary in the AFL, the question – if answered honestly at West Lakes – would acknowledge the Crows are not leading in some measures in their home city, let alone across the competition.

Fagan speaks strongly of holding everyone accountable at West Lakes.

“It does not matter what your role is, I want people to be clear on two things,” Fagan said. “One, they know what their job is. Two, there is a responsibility to perform that job at a level so we do deliver to our strategic goals.

“I have found the staff are passionate, hard-working and I think they want to be led. It has been a pretty disruptive time for the club in the past couple of years. All that change created a significant amount of unrest and uncertainty – and maybe a lack of confidence.

“One of the questions I asked during the interview process – and have now experienced in the first few weeks in the job – is: Where is the staff, in their culture, personality, openness to change and being challenged?

I heard the answer I wanted to hear in the interview session and I am really happy after putting my feet under the desk that there is a group here that is happy to be challenged. They clearly want to be led – and they are going to be.”

Fagan has moved from rugby, 12 years with the Canberra Brumbies. If coaches are measured by win-loss records, chief executives are judged by the money they bring into a club. “Over 12 years it was break even,” says Fagan of his resume built while working in a tough market.

“If the governing body (ARU) is making a loss, you know it is going to be pretty tough for the clubs too.”

The AFL – and the market-dominating Adelaide Football Club – gives Fagan more money to grasp to make the Crows a league pacesetter. But he does not believe having more cash makes his job easier.

“You spend your money very wisely,” Fagan said.

“The biggest lesson – that crosses every code of football - is lead strongly and make decisions boldly.”

Originally published as After two difficult years, the Crows have chief executive determined to direct Adelaide’s place in AFL