Essendon appoints Josh Mahoney as new football boss after Steven Trigg knocked back approach to enter race
Essendon has appointed a new football boss following revelations a big name passed on the chance to be interviewed for the role.
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Essendon has appointed Melbourne’s Josh Mahoney as its new head of football operations.
The Bombers announced the decision on Tuesday afternoon after a “brutal” end-of-season review led to the axing of Dan Richardson.
The news followed the Herald Sun’s revelations that former Carlton and Adelaide chief executive Steven Trigg had knocked back an approach to enter the race for Essendon’s vacant football operations position.
Trigg was fined and suspended for six months for his role in the Kurt Tippett salary cap cheating affair which rocked the Adelaide Crows.
But he returned to the AFL in 2014 to become chief executive of Carlton before being forced out in 2017.
Mahoney, who was part of Port Adelaide’s 2004 premiership team, spent 13 years as an administrator at Melbourne.
But he had been moved sideways - with the Demons splitting their football role and handing key responsibilities to Alan Richardson.
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Mahoney said he was motivated by the “collective ambition” at Essendon to “get better in all aspects” of its football program
“Having lived in Essendon and being a Bombers supporter growing up, to captaining the VFL side and now returning to the club, there’s also a nice romance and I’m thrilled to now be heading up the football program,” he said.
Chief executive officer Xavier Campbell said it was a significant appointment.
“He has philosophies that align with (senior coach) Ben Rutten’s leadership so we are confident Josh will build a strong rapport with Ben and provide important guidance and support across the football program more broadly,” Campbell said.
Melbourne chief executive Gary Pert said Mahoney was a highly respected administrator within the AFL.
“He was one of the key drivers of our AFLW program at its inception, oversaw our AFL list management strategy and has played a pivotal role managing the Casey Fields facility redevelopment,” Pert said.
Ex-AFL Tasmania boss Rob Auld and former North Melbourne coach Brad Scott were also floated as contenders for the Essendon role.
Richardson has since landed a new job as head of the AFL’s umpiring department.
The Dons have just completed a comprehensive football department review under new president Paul Brasher and have promised to implement significant changes.
The Herald Sun understands Geelong administrator Brett Johnson also discussed the role with the Bombers.
Emerging talent Johnson worked at the AFLPA before moving to Geelong as their performance and development manager.
He is seen to have a bright future, but despite an interview at Essendon has been told he will not win the role.
He has just been handed a new role at the Cats as head of AFLW, football pathways and player development.
RUTTEN STEPS UP
Jon Ralph and Lauren Wood
Cementing Essendon’s identity is one of the first items on Bombers coach Ben Rutten’s agenda as he officially began his first pre-season as senior coach on Monday.
Rutten took over from John Worsfold at the end of the season and said while contact had been limited with players in the 79 days since the team’s 2020 campaign ended due to leave and COVID restrictions, his first port of call would be working with players, coaches and club figures to discover the essence of what it is to be Essendon after finishing outside the top eight in 2020.
And he is determined to drive a strong and “disciplined” standing as coach.
“I think it’s important that we do really establish who we are,” he said on Monday.
“That’s where we’re going to be spending a lot of time throughout the summer. We certainly need to improve parts of our game on field, but we also need to understand and give the players and the coaches and everyone here a really good understanding of who we are and who we’re representing and the responsibility that it is to be part of Essendon.
“That will all unfold over the summer, but I certainly can see the real desire and the want … (for) some really hard work and strong coaching.
“A disciplined way of playing is certainly what I’m going to be driving.”
Rutten agreed that having clarity of one senior coaching voice would be a positive, but said he had learned plenty under Worsfold — and doesn’t intend to stop.
“You probably don’t really know until you get in the position yourself, so my learning doesn’t stop now,” he said.
“It almost begins again. I’ll make some mistakes again, but I feel really well supported by the club, the other coaches and certainly our playing group.”
The Bombers farewelled key trio Joe Daniher, Adam Saad and Orazio Fantasia in the recent trade period, but Rutten said their absence had fuelled anticipation among the team about what could be achieved.
And while he said the team “will never be a finished product in the way we play”, the Bombers are determined to improve and solidify its game plan after the tumult of 2020.
“All the teams with less experienced playing groups or less ingrained styles of play kind of suffered a little bit last season,” Rutten said.
“It was a great effort from Richmond and Geelong to get to the Grand Final and it’s probably no surprise that they’re the most experienced teams throughout.
“We’re going to be spending a lot of time on the way we play, yes, but also building in some really core foundations of who we are and what we stand for as a playing group and as a footy club.
“We’ll be looking to progress our game and evolve it all the way.”
Essendon has three top-10 picks in Wednesday night’s national draft, which Rutten said was “a great opportunity for us as a club”.
“It’s something that we haven’t had for a while,” he said.
“To have three early picks in the draft gives us a great hand and we know we’ll pick up some really solid young talent for us moving forward.”
OPINION: HOW ESSENDON CAN WIN BACK ANGRY FANS
– Jon Ralph
My diehard Essendon mate is angry and frustrated at the direction of his football club.
Let’s call him the Mallee Bull.
He wonders at the cultural issues which led to the departure of Adam Saad in his prime as Joe Daniher, Orazio Fantasia and Conor McKenna also walked out the door.
He bemoans the off-field own goals that saw a club finally past the ASADA dramas apologising after hitting players with a 9 per cent pay cut as it sorts out AFL-imposed TPP issues.
What he has pushed for all year is Essendon moving on from the Daniher-Hurley-Hooker flag window that tries to snag a premiership for older brigade, and establish an opportunity that has players of the calibre of Andy McGrath, Sam Draper, Jordan Ridley, Kyle Langford and company as its centrepiece.
The Mallee Bull is representative of more than 17,500 members who didn’t sign up from 2019 to 2020, who the club must win back next year.
Even North Melbourne amid its horror show of a year had only 2 per cent of members drop off through COVID-related issues, so Dons who stuck fat during the ASADA issues very much voted with their wallets.
It is why Wednesday night’s draft is one of the most seismic days in the club’s future as it attempts to plunder the class of 2020 with selections six, seven and eight.
It is perhaps the only true selling point the club has over summer as it goes about the business of inspiring hope to a fanbase beaten down by a lack of success.
For the acquisitions of Jy Caldwell and Peter Wright, the Dons didn’t get the deal done on Dogs midfielder Josh Dunkley so can’t laud his leadership and onball grunt.
Essendon has already wheeled out its new coach, Ben Rutten, in a media assault that showed him to be a meat-and-potatoes media performer who – to be honest – didn’t do a lot to inspire the fanbase with words alone.
The good news is that only one year back Fremantle was able to do exactly what Essendon must now with a trio of top-10 picks.
It kickstarted the resurgence with a no-nonsense first-year coach, who was far from a polished media performer, and a team that seemed to be lacking in talent after Ed Langdon and Brad Hill walked out the door.
In the 2019 draft it added Hayden Young (No. 7), Caleb Serong (No. 8) and Liam Henry (No. 9) as its first moves in the post-Ross Lyon era.
Silky Indigenous junior star Henry provided the summer hype then battled injury all year.
Young quickly emerged as a Rising Star contender before a season-ending Round 6 injury, then Serong took up the cudgels to roar home as the eventual Rising Star winner.
The Dons will take a trio of players likely to be taken at picks seven, eight and nine after Jamarra Ugle-Hagan’s selection pushes them back one pick.
In 2018 those players were Bailey Smith, Tarryn Thomas and Chayce Jones.
In 2017 they were Hunter Clark, Nick Coffield and Aaron Naughton.
In 2016 they were Jack Scrimshaw, Griffin Logue and Will Brodie.
In 2015 Jacob Hopper, Callum Ah Chee and Sam Weideman.
In 2014 they were Caleb Marchbank, Paul Ahern and Peter Wright.
So turn these selections into a Clark-Coffield-Naughton year and the Dons have the opportunity to layer the established talent base with elite talent that will one day put them in the premiership window.
Say what you want about Fremantle’s eventual 7-10 win-loss record, but its fans couldn’t have been more impressed with the club’s direction or influx of talent in a team that finished a spot above Essendon on the ladder.
Their new coach, Justin Longmuir, was big on substance and totally absent in spin.
Like Rutten in his recent interviews, Longmuir talked about building an identifiable brand based on defence, then he didn’t just follow through, he took fans on the journey as well.
Sometimes in those interviews he mumbled and bumbled and there wasn’t a single Ross Lyon catchphrase in sight, but he spoke the truth and he gave incredible insight into what the club wanted to do.
It is the template for Rutten, who will try to eradicate a selfish on-field culture and try to crack down on senior players who new president Paul Brasher admitted might have had too much power given the club’s desire to please them as they exited the peptides era.
Who cares if he isn’t Neil “The Reverend” Daniher if he can get Devon Smith to play team-first football, if he can eradicate Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti’s inconsistencies, if he can get Jake Stringer in something approximating AFL shape even if he suffers mid-season injuries.
Adrian Dodoro did a mighty job turning crisis into a draft windfall, but the job is only half done.
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Revealed: AFL Integrity warns Dons over players’ associates
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