Tim Silvers Q&A: Adelaide’s chief executive opens up on how the club is tracking on and off field
As the Crows push hard to make the finals, chief executive Tim Silvers shares his view on the club’s five-year plan, AFL fixture ideas and the future of two of the club’s most important figures.
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Tim Silvers has been one of the key pillars during Adelaide’s rebuild since joining the club as its new chief executive in March 2021.
Just over two years on, Silvers had a lengthy chat with Matt Turner about everything from the Crows’ five-year plan, the push for a Friday night Showdown, being a sports nut, the proposed move to Thebarton Oval, Tom Doedee’s future, whether he considers himself a Victorian or South Australian and finals.
Matt Turner: Take me inside the AFL’s CEOs conference. What are they like? Do they serve party pies and cordial? What is the format?
Tim Silvers: They’re interesting. You go to Melbourne, which is AFL HQ with 10 clubs in Victoria, and it’s at the Werribee Park Mansion, so a nice place to be. It’s structured with a full agenda over two days, hot topics that are set. The AFL will present themes and discussions, and you break off into different working groups for the most important pieces, the CEOs discuss their views and formulate recommendations. It’s a great way to catch up and build relationships, which I think helps with big decisions. It’s good in my role to get our position – both the Crows’ and South Australian footy – across the table. As for food, there’s some typical footy fare – lunch is chicken sandwiches, party pies and sausage rolls, but we did do a nice dinner at Werribee mansion.
MT: That was a throwaway line about party pies. So there were party pies during the day?
TS: There was.
MT: Are you someone who is very vocal at those meetings?
TS: When there’s issues that are important to me and the footy club, that’s when I’m vocal. Whether in the group setting or breakout sessions, you time your run for when you’ll have the most impact. Soft cap was the primary one for me this week and it was the topic at the conference that got the most airtime. Post-Covid, we’ve been able to rebound effectively with player payments and in administration to get salaries back to where they were, and also with staffing numbers, but we haven’t been able to do that with the soft cap for a variety of reasons. To keep the best people in the industry, we need to have flexibility to do that. We’d like to see that increase over the next two to three years significantly. But it won’t be an amount that it’ll increase by, it’ll be allowances and different deductions in areas we think are most important. My expectation is they’ll be targeted increases but no decisions were made.
MT: What did you make of the suggested fixture shake-ups – playing every team once then six games against those in your section of the ladder and also the idea of a wildcard week?
TS: I love that we’re talking about it and are continually challenging the status quo. If we sit still, we’re going to get left behind. We need to continue to evolve. There’s going to be traditionalists out there who will be opposed to it but we need to keep having these conversations to make the game more attractive. In terms of the fixture reset, it’s a real challenge to have fairness in this competition when you play 23 games and there’s 18 teams, so I like the concept of playing every other once for the first 17 games … and I think having the top six, bottom six and middle six playing each other in the last six games would be exciting. But we need to find out what it’d look like. As for the finals wildcard, I’m supportive of investigating the concept thoroughly. The finals bye is a dead week, so for us to play a couple of games in that week would be really exciting for footy.
MT: What about a best-of-three grand final series?
TS: It wasn’t on the agenda but it was certainly raised. I’ve grown up loving a lot of American sport and see in the NBA that they have seven games and how exciting the Finals series can be. However, we’re not the NBA. I do see some value, especially for interstate teams, where the home-ground advantage is obviously null and void. It would be amazing to see interstate clubs get an opportunity to play a home (grand) final. It sparked some interest, whether it can be done through contractual arrangements with the MCG is yet to be seen.
MT: The club has not had many night games this year. Do you expect and hope to receive more in 2024?
TS: Yes. What we got with our fixture this year was on the back of our performances in prior years, where we won three, eight and seven games. We obviously think this year’s we’ve played an exciting brand of footy, played some terrific games at home, been able to challenge the best teams and have exciting, young talent. Our push with the AFL and the broadcasters is to look at giving us marquee timeslots and more night games. And the lobbying’s already started on that. We’d love the opportunity to play our Showdown in a marquee match on a Friday night. The rivalry is amazing, they always produce great games and we think it deserves a national stage, so that’s something we continue to talk to the AFL about. And we’d love to get an opportunity to play some more Thursday night games, which we played going back a few years.
MT: How much frustration is there in clubland at the lateness of the AFLW fixture?
TS: We were aware of what our fixture would look like four or five weeks ago, but it’s been down to the CBA negotiations. I totally understand the players’ association’s position and the women’s players’ position – they want an extended season for 2023. But we need to grow responsibly and I think 10 games was the right amount for this coming season. We need to invest and try to grow our attendances and TV ratings in women’s footy. As an industry, I think we’ll expand the season in the not-too-distant future and hopefully we can get to 12 games in 2024.
MT: The club had some bold goals as part of its five-year plan, which was released in March. Drilling into some of them – a membership figure of 100,000. How is your membership tally going this year?
TS: We’re a couple of thousand in front of last year and well over 60,000. We’re aiming to break our record, which is just over 64,500. So any fans who aren’t members, please sign up. It might be the easiest and only way to get to the Showdown (next week), buying a Showdown membership, because I think general admission is sold out.
MT: The five-year plan also includes a fourth AFLW flag. How is the team shaping up?
TS: Really well. We’ve changed our pre-season a little bit so on Fridays we have an all-day session, attended by all players, which I suppose is another step towards professionalism. We’re the fittest we’ve ever been and some of the new talent we’ve brought in is looking really good. We expect to challenge for top four this year and hope to be at the pointy end come the December grand final.
MT: A home base move by 2026 is also included in the plan. What is the latest regarding the proposed shift to Thebarton?
TS: We’re working feverishly on finalising our plans. We’ve just done a major change in our design, which is moving our training and administration facility from the west to the east side of the oval. That improves the situation with tree retention and we’ve been working with the local community. We’ve got one more meeting with the masterplan advisory group and hopefully we’re not too far away from getting an official lease from the council. We’re hoping to start construction by the midway point of next year.
MT: You had experience with Hawthorn’s planned move to Dingley. Has this one been more difficult than you’ve expected?
TS: It certainly has and the main reason is because of the number of different stakeholders we are working with. There’s certainly been some challenges, but we’ve been working hard on this for over two years, we feel like we have an amazing design and want to be a destination club that attracts the best players, staff and coaches. This new facility will deliver on that. It’ll be worth the wait. And we can’t wait for our members and fans to be out at Thebarton Oval, seeing our players and our AFLW girls have a home ground, which they really deserve. The focus of the residents has been around tree retention, carparking and traffic, so we’ve worked with those three objectives to find what’s a good result for the community and a reasonable compromise for the footy club. I think we’ve landed in a reasonable spot where we can say we’ve been a good neighbour and we’re still able to build a fantastic facility for our members and supporters.
MT: What’s your assessment of the men’s season?
TS: If I look back to the pre-season, we set some targets around challenging the best teams, being in the fight for the finals and being more consistent. I feel like we can tick off all of those boxes. There’s no doubt we’ve improved as a footy club and you can see our young stars performing more consistently. The areas we need to improve are our away record and having some drop offs throughout games. Last week’s loss to GWS was a prime example and we were disappointed with our last term. That can still happen with young teams, but I feel like we’re building.
MT: Why is the club’s away record so poor? It looked overstated when you came so close to beating Collingwood, but then very valid when you disappointed against Essendon a few weeks later.
TS: I think it is a little bit overstated, however we can’t shy away from that we’ve only won one away game this season. You look at the history of young teams come through, it does take them a little while longer to become more consistent in their away performances. Potentially it’s part of our journey. We need to get better in that space, more consistent, but I don’t feel like we’re too far away. I’m looking forward to what we can do on Sunday against Melbourne at the MCG.
MT: If you listened to talkback radio or read a lot of social media, you would think you were out of the finals race now, but reality is you are still right in the hunt. What would it mean after six years without finals to make it this year?
TS: It would be amazing for our members and supporters that have stuck fat with us through this rebuild. It’s a high goal for our footy club to achieve. The reality is we’ve got to perform well over the next six weeks to give us a chance and we play some really tough teams, so if we make it, we’d certainly deserve it.
MT: On the flip side, what would missing the finals mean, particularly given the club has been in the top eight for most of the year?
TS: It would be really, really disappointing. However, it would be that sting in the guts that could hopefully inspire us to do bigger and better things next year. But with six weeks to go we’re certainly in the window and our destiny’s in our own hands.
MT: The club has spoken about Nicksy as a generational coach. How do you think he’s going? And can we expect a contract extension before next season?
TS: He’s been fantastic. He’s in his fourth season and has built a wonderful culture at the footy club, getting buy-in from not only players but staff and all the club. His contract runs out at the end of 2024 and as a club and board we haven’t discussed it as yet. We will pick that up in the off-season at the end of the year.
MT: Are contract extensions close for former captains Taylor Walker and Rory Sloane?
TS: Both players have had fantastic seasons and have exceeded expectations. Taylor’s been a little like Benjamin Button, like a fine wine, playing really well and has led the Coleman Medal. Sloaney, the way he’s been able to come back from a knee construction, has been terrific, playing every game. And they’ve both given great support to Jordan Dawson in his first year of the captaincy. Because they’re both in their 30s, we hadn’t started official contract conversations until just after the bye. Those discussions are ongoing.
MT: Does the club expect to keep Tom Doedee?
TS: We do. He’s been an outstanding servant for our footy club. He’s in his eighth year, he’s part of our leadership group, he’s been part of the rebuild and he’s invested in our club.
MT: The club has obviously been linked to Essendon’s Mason Redman. After recruiting Dawson and Izak Rankine the past two off-seasons, are you intent on again bringing in someone from a rival club in their early to mid-20s who can help fast-track the list build?
TS: I don’t want to speak about specific players, but we feel like we’ve got a lot of internal growth to come and a great core of young players who will improve year on year. But we’re still looking to target key players that are needs for our list who will make us better.
MT: It’s a busy time of year for sport. The Women’s World Cup is on, there’s cycling, Wimbledon’s just finished, golf, the Ashes. As a CEO of an AFL club, how much do you consume of other sports? And what are your interests outside of footy?
TS: I’m a sports nut, so there’s no doubt the last couple of months have been really difficult. Last night it was a tough call for me to decide between the Ashes, the Matildas and the British Open golf. I try to consume as much sport as I can. I love being part of the AFL but think we can learn so much from other sports, so I keep a keen eye on what they’re doing and what their innovations are. Our game is the greatest game in the world but we can continue to make it better. In terms of American sport, I follow the NBA first and foremost. Because it’s so marquee player driven, I follow players more than clubs, but because of my Australian heritage, I’m a big fan of (Oklahoma City Thunder star) Josh Giddey.
MT: Just finally, you’ve been here two-and-a-half years now, where are you on the path to becoming a fully fledged South Australian. There’s no South Australian citizenship test that I’m aware of, but what do you consider yourself – a local or a Victorian? And have you had any more chances to get away and see anymore of our great state?
TS: I love living in South Australia and so does my family (wife Kelly and two children) and we’ve settled really well here. I tell people I’m an ex-Victorian and am now South Australian. I probably haven’t seen as much of the state as I’d like and Sloaney is constantly into me about some of the great places I can see to broaden my South Australian heritage. He’s been here 15 years and loves it and hopefully I can also have a long-term job here and enjoy what the place has to offer for years to come.
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