Peter Gordon sets the record straight on Tom Boyd deal and his approach as Western Bulldogs president

DON’T believe that Peter Gordon single-handedly brokered the mega deal to secure Tom Boyd or that he’s a control freak as Bulldogs president, he tells MICHAEL WARNER.

Western Bulldogs president Peter Gordon. Picture: Josie Hayden

PETER Gordon wants to set the record straight.

Did he broker the massive deal that brought Tom Boyd to the Western Bulldogs? Yes.

Did he do so without the football department’s authority? Absolutely not.

Does he have his own office at the Whitten Oval? Not anymore.

Has he poured more than $2 million of his own hard-earned into the club since re-assuming the Bulldogs presidency four years ago: Yes. (“Let’s just say I have an understanding wife.”)

Gordon, 58, is one of footy’s most intriguing characters.

He grew up less than 1km from the kennel in Palmerston St, West Footscray, and as a tear-away young class action lawyer completed his first stint as Dogs president in 1996.

“I was 32 when I first did this job and I didn’t have any money and we were a poor club and getting left behind in all sorts of ways,” Gordon says.

“I found it quite frustrating. It wasn’t until I left the presidency and in the years that followed that I realised what a drain it is on your head space and business life.

“Business worked a lot better for me after I got out and it was nice to be able to come back and solve a few problems by throwing a bit of money at things.”

Plenty of the folded stuff went Tom Boyd’s way in October 2014, but Gordon outright rejects the perception he went rogue to lure him out of Greater Western Sydney.

“No I didn’t go above the footy department,” he declares.

“The football experts at our club identified him as the target, the finance experts and the board audit committee authorised the financial parameters and (former chief executive) Simon Garlick I made the deal happen in the last couple of days.”

Western Bulldogs president Peter Gordon in his office at Gordon Legal. Picture: Josie Hayden

Boyd, the 2013 No.1 national draft pick, first came on to the Bulldog’s radar during a secret meeting with player agent Liam Pickering in June 2014, but club bosses considered his recruitment a pipe dream until former skipper Ryan Griffen’s dramatic end-of-season walkout.

“Everyone thought — given that Griffen had indicated that he was going — that if we can configure to get Tom Boyd then that’s a great outcome for us,” Gordon says.

“Everyone thought that, including me.

“We had four days to get it done and we had Liam Pickering telling us that the next year there will be a queue a mile long to get him, and we had (GWS chief) Dave Matthews saying hell will freeze over before we trade this player.”

I did understand, as we all did, that it was a risk to go after a young player who was unproven, but it was a decision about investment in a young player for the next 10 years — and it just happened to also make a dramatic statement that we weren’t going to get bent over anymore.

- Peter Gordon

The breakthrough came when Gordon told Matthews over speaker phone in his Hawthorn study with Garlick listening in that the Dogs were prepared to pay a chunk of Griffen’s salary at the Giants.

“So, yes, I did get involved at that time, but it’s also fair to say that given the circumstances and given the contract, it required and it got authorisation from the audit committee of the board,” he says.

The sudden resignation of Bulldogs chief executive David Stevenson two weeks ago — just 11 months into his tenure — has triggered fresh questions about Gordon’s hands-on style.

Is he a control freak?

“I don’t think that most people who know me well would describe me that way, but they would all agree that I’m passionate about the Bulldogs,” he says.

“I am pretty hands on ... but I’m also a busy guy, and I run other businesses.

“I’ve been chair or acting chair of over a dozen companies and in my time worked with about 16 CEOs. Some require different levels of involvement, in my judgement, than others.

“Not all companies are like the Bulldogs. What’s the core difference? Our club is basically trying to outperform clubs which have a much greater level of, sometimes twice the financial resources, that we do.

“We don’t just have to compete with them, we have to outperform them and having a strong and committed board — not just a president — who actually add their expertise and make contributions is one area where we think we can bridge the resource gap and cut ourselves a competitive advantage.”

Gordon says the Bulldogs made a statement with the Tom Boyd deal. Picture: Getty Images

Gordon meets with the chief executive (former board member Gary Kent) every Tuesday and sits on the finance committee, the ethics committee, the people and culture committee and the steering committee that sealed the deal for the Dogs to play home-and-away games in Ballarat next year.

“I drove that deal at a macro level,” Gordon says.

“The senior interactions with the Premier and the Treasurer and with the government were originated and followed up by me and by (chief operating officer) Michael Quinn.”

Pressed on whether Stevenson’s departure was linked to his constant presence, Gordon said: “We achieved a lot together and in the course of working intensely with people you’ll always have your good moments and your differences.”

He makes no apologies for his in-your-face approach to the Dogs’ top job.

“You can either accept the status quo in that we are always going to make less money and be a smaller player and be accused of irrelevancy, or actually strike out on a course to try and win the flag and reach deep into September despite the structural inequalities that we face,” he says.

“We have chosen, and I have chosen, to pursue that course aggressively and one of the lateral ways that we can do that is to deploy the resources of not just the president, but of the board.

“Our board participates proactively in many areas of the club.”

Gordon said the Boyd deal was a “watershed moment for the club”.

“I did understand, as we all did, that it was a risk to go after a young player who was unproven, but it was a football decision and a decision about investment in a young player for the next 10 years — and it just happened to also make a dramatic statement that we weren’t going to get bent over anymore and that the days of the Bulldogs shrinking from a calculated risk or from a big deal were over,” he says.

“I believed that at the time and I believe it now, and I remain thrilled to have him.

“I really like him as a person, I like his mum and dad and I think he’s going to be a great part of our future.”

You can either accept the status quo in that we are always going to make less money and be a smaller player and be accused of irrelevancy, or actually strike out on a course to try and win the flag.

- Peter Gordon

Gordon is tight with coach Luke Beveridge, skipper Robert Murphy and new football boss Chris Grant.

“They are the four pillars of the club and are all in love with each other,” a club insider quipped this week.

Since Gordon’s return the Bulldogs have broken records in membership, reserve seating, corporate sponsorship and revenues.

His own contributions have topped $2 million, with another $10 million raised through sponsorships and fund-raising driven by him.

In his role as acting chief executive last year, Gordon locked away recruiting boss Simon Dalrymple and list manager Jason McCartney on long-term deals.

Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge and Peter Gordon after a win. Picture: Michael Klein

Most importantly, the team under coach Luke Beveridge has thrived.

“I’m proud to have been the first to say that Luke will be one of the great coaches of the next 10 to 20 years,” Gordon says.

“He’s been the perfect fit for our club and the synergy that he’s has had with Rob Murphy has been a great blessing for us.”

Gordon has been accused of acting like a private owner, and for most of last year shared the chief executive duties with Quinn after Garlick’s departure.

But reports he still keeps an office at the club are false.

Gordon’s business interests include directorships at Gordon Legal and litigation funding company CLF as well as investments in the US.

He’s a keen, but average, tennis player.

“My wife Kerri and I hold the distinction of being the only tennis court owners never to have won on their home court,” Gordon says.

“I did make a very serious effort to get Rob and Justine Murphy to play shortly after he did his ACL. I thought that was our best chance, but Murphy piked.”

Kerri also part-owns the Whitten Oval cafe, a link that has also raised eyebrows in some quarters.

“What’s the criticism? No one who has had a latte before and after we took it on would maintain that criticism,” Gordon says.

His love for the club and preparedness to fight for it — as he did in 1989 to kill off an AFL merger push — has never been in doubt.

“My dad was a Bulldogs supporter and one of my earliest memories was him taking me to the Western Oval and watching the game through the legs of the adults in about 1963.”

“At the end of Barkley St there used to be the Tottenham RAAF Base and he worked there for 28 years.

“When I was sharing the CEO last year role I would sometimes buy my sandwich at lunchtime and drive to the house where I spent my first 16 years in Palmerston St and just park out the front and remember what it used to be like.”

As for the intended length of his Bulldogs second coming, Gordon says: “I don’t have a fixed period in my mind, but I’ve got a strong board and there are six or seven people on there who could seamlessly take over from me when the time was right.

“And if at any time they said: “Mate, it’s time”, then I would do so happily and the same would be true if Murph and Bevo said it to me, but for the moment I think I’m the right person for the job.”