How Jeff Browne united Collingwood after turmoil of Do Better report, Eddie McGuire exit
If Eddie McGuire was Collingwood’s saviour, Jeff Browne has been the club’s unifier. He tells JON RALPH about how the Magpies have overcome one of the most tumultuous periods in their history.
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Collingwood president Jeff Browne laughs at the suggestion he is a lover and not a fighter.
Instead he is prepared to agree with the proposition he just chooses his battles very carefully.
On Saturday night Browne will join the other five living Collingwood presidents to celebrate the 50th season of influential Pies coterie group The Woodsmen.
It is a historic gathering of that group for the first time and one that in previous decades might never have been possible given the bloodshed and animosity of board battles.
It would have escaped few in the know at Collingwood that joining him at that gathering will be former president Mark Korda, who after a pitched board battle in 2021 eventually made way for Browne’s hand-picked team.
Instead of excommunicating the long-term finance guru and board member Browne made the KordaMentha co-founder a life member at the earliest possibility.
Feel free to label Browne as Collingwood’s great uniter.
As Browne and Woodsmen coterie member Max Grundmann said this week, Collingwood’s long-time president Eddie McGuire helped save the club from financial oblivion in his 23 years at the helm.
Our President Jeff Browne speaks on Leon and Andrew's return to the club. pic.twitter.com/5UwLgrdEGg
— Collingwood FC (@CollingwoodFC) July 11, 2022
But while McGuire waged war with the AFL, rival clubs and at times the media to transform the Pies from laughing stock to great again, it laid the platform for Browne.
He was able to shepherd the club through the fallout of the Do Better report into historic racism as it brought back figures like Leon Davis and Andrew Krakouer to work on its anti-racism stance.
Korda was made a life member in 2021, while Mick Malthouse’s relationship with the club is again fully restored after his exit as part of the contentious succession plan with Nathan Buckley.
Browne certainly has picked his battles — still blueing with the AFL about a football department salary cap that he believes restricts innovation.
And yet allowing Port Adelaide to rejoice in its own history by wearing its prison bars jumper once a season as a show of good faith.
Now in remission from myeloma — a form of blood cancer — he says rival clubs might still hate Collingwood.
But they will also have a grudging respect for the Pies.
“I have just been to a funeral where someone very important in the club lost his wife. At times like that the club can offer a lot of comfort to people,” he told the Herald Sun this week.
“That gives me a lot of satisfaction knowing we are a good club that can look after people. People can turn to it when they need it.
“There aren’t big schisms in the club. We have got a great coaching panel, and it’s my job to make sure they can do their job without any interference. We have a really strong board and we have a great CEO (Craig Kelly) who has a terrific experienced team.
“So we are nothing like we were. We don’t look anything like we did three years ago.
“The proof is in the pudding and we went out and won the premiership, so we have to be doing something right.
“But we also feed 3500 people a week at the Magpie Cafe, we have 42 houses accommodating people who otherwise might not have a home. Those are really important things around the club.“
The fallout from the Do Better report ultimately saw McGuire move on but Browne will never try to steal the credit for his achievements or minimise what he built.
“I was there with Ed when he originally had a discussion with (president) Kevin Rose. Rose was very gracious and also appreciative of the need for change. And in a way it was a bloodless coup which had Kevin’s blessing. The reality is that Eddie then rebuilt the club into a powerful organisation, from Victoria Park to where we are now. It was a significant move and an achievement and he secured funding for the refurbishment of facilities that are only just completed. Eddie’s legacy is huge”.
Yet even Browne’s harshest critics would say he has been thunderously successful in navigating a way out of the Do Better report with his own brand of soft diplomacy.
Former players Davis and Krakouer are doing important work at the club after speaking of the impact of racism on their lives as footballers.
They believe they are making profound change rather than being employed simply for the symbolism alone.
Ex-player Heritier Lumumba, so aggrieved at his treatment by key Pies officials after failed mediation, even lauded the Pies for their cultural change as he celebrated last year’s premiership.
“Part of the rebuild was we had to implement the recommendations of the Do Better report and we implemented every recommendation,” says Browne.
“It was really important. I am happy to say Collingwood is a safe place for everyone now. It is fundamental to our culture that people feel safe and supported. We always work to be better and to try to help those around us. They sound like slogans, but it is how we feel about it.
“I guess the smile on Darcy Moore’s face as he leads us out typifies that.”
He admits the culture definitely needed to change.
Former Pies vice-captain Taylor Adams spoke recently of how Brodie Grundy was a key driver in making Collingwood a more progressive club from one where not everyone felt safe in the blokey male-driven culture.
Browne said everyone is on board that ride.
“The coach (Craig McRae) was fundamental in changing the competitive culture. We brought in Cray Kelly and connected the administration of the football program and that was very important in uniting the club.
“Even just bringing families in, seeing our guys singing the song with their children. Seeing Leon Davis’ father designing the jumper for the Indigenous round. The family connection is very important and the players and families all feel very comfortable.”
Browne describes himself as in “deep remission” from myeloma, a form of blood cancer, that he battled across September as his Pies won the premiership.
He quips that he might have to get out his sandwich board and campaign for his re-election this year he is going nowhere, keen to serve one more three-year term to 2027.
A Collingwood side which made $7.5 million last year after the premiership wants to build a $50 million future fund to cement its status as an AFL powerhouse even when the on-field or financial headwinds hit the club.
“My health is good. I got myself into deep remission and I am working hard every day,” he says.
“I won’t do 23 years, but I have got a little bit more to do.
“This club makes a social impact. But if you look at the game plan and effort and what it took to overcome North Melbourne on the weekend, it says something about our self belief and determination.
“It runs right through the club. It’s about the process and having discipline and a great plan. I attribute that to the coach and his coaching panel. And great disciplined young players. They know the style and they know how to play our style and they execute it really well.
“That win was enormous. It shows this incredible fighting spirit and self belief. Collingwood stands for that. Do rival fans hate us? They probably still do. But they admire the way we play our footy.”
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