Mark Robinson on how the looming reviews could play out at North Melbourne and Essendon
Essendon said initially that its review was going to be undertaken by Kevin Sheedy and Simon Madden — but that’s not the case now.
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Footy in the inner northwest corridor of Melbourne is teetering.
North Melbourne is on fire and Essendon is smouldering.
These once combative neighbours, whose pride and culture and performance were the envy of the competition, are undergoing reviews to work out what’s gone wrong.
Internally, they are looking for answers. Externally, they are the subject of ridicule and disdain.
North’s review is two weeks in and looms to be bloody.
Essendon’s review is five weeks and counting, and while it started with a profound public announcement, it has since managed to undergo its self examination under Maxwell Smart’s clumsy cone of silence.
Clumsy because not everyone at Essendon agreed that such a public hanging out of the washing by president Paul Brasher was needed in the first place.
And clumsy because part of the problems at Essendon were arguably the doing of the people doing the review — and that’s not Kevin Sheedy and Simon Madden as the club initially said.
The review is being handled by CEO Xavier Campbell, football boss Josh Mahoney and director Sean Wellman.
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The North review looks less clumsy and probably because that looks like a straight up and down hit job.
The query is whether coach David Noble will be the only casualty.
In the face of emergency, both clubs made promises to their coaches — Noble at North and Ben Rutten at the Bombers — promises which they might not keep.
Kangaroos chief executive Ben Amarfio on May 26: “The coach has our backing, he has my backing, he has the board’s backing and, as you’ve heard, he’s got the players’ backing. They’re saying they’re happy, they’re saying he’s created a great environment, they’re saying they’re enjoying coming here. He’s our man.”
Bombers chief Campbell, when asked on SEN on June 8, if he had unwavering support for Rutten, said: “Absolutely, yeah, absolutely. We believe Ben is absolutely the right person. I hear that from the players, I know that from the staff, I see it every day.’’
Amarfio is Exhibit A that clubs can and will change their minds.
Noble needs a miracle to survive, and if the current 4-11 Bombers lose to North Melbourne in Round 20, then Rutten might need a miracle himself, despite having a year to run on his contract.
The game should be played on Friday night and be billed as a horror/bloody/comedy.
Noble’s no dummy. He knows what’s coming.
And when the review starts and midway through the review the president, Sonja Hood, throws her “100 per cent” support behind Amarfio, and not Noble, the writing is not on the wall, the writing’s on billboards all over town.
Amarfio — who is a curious figure in football, like, why did he get the job in the first place? — also can’t be safe.
He arrived at the club in late 2019, carrying baggage from his dismissal from Cricket Australia amid discussion and accusation about culture and leadership. Surely, you’ve all heard about him getting his assistant to cook and serve him eggs at his CA office, and that at the end, security were there to see him be evicted from CA’s offices in Jolimont.
Former cricketer Brett Geeves, writing for the theroar website, this week rekindled those unfortunate days for Amarfio, and also mused about James Brayshaw and Eddie McGuire.
A pointed read, the headline was: Is it just coincidence that Roos are biggest dog’s breakfast in Aus sport since Sandpapergate?
Staff who have departed North Melbourne since Armafio’s arrival have privately shared their feelings about Armafio’s style of leadership to friends and to board members. It is not positive. Others, however, say he’s an engaging boss and it must be noted that this week Hood supported her No. 1 executive.
Amarfio was appointed by former president Ben Buckley, who also appointed Noble, and when doing so, said he expected the Kangas to be contending within two or three years. Seriously?
At the time, former board member Mark Brayshaw — the older brother of James — was overlooked for the CEO’s role. Asked this week if he would again canvas the role if Amarfio was forced out, Brayshaw said his commitments to the medical marijuana business he works for would preclude him.
People who know Brayshaw say he loves football, and the club, so he shouldn’t be so blunt on a comeback.
Clearly, former player Brayshaw has more of a football background than Amarfio.
In fact, the man Amarfio replaced, Carl Dilena, was moved on because while it said he was a brilliant financial CEO — he oversaw the massive debt wipe-out — he didn’t have enough football nous.
Mind you, Dilena played 33 games for Fitzroy and North Melbourne, while Amarfio, who is a marketing guru, played suburban footy.
The AFL ticked off Amarfio’s appointment — he did work at the AFL previously — but only two weeks ago the AFL also ticked off the appointment of Geoff Walsh to do the football department review.
The reason? Because a veteran footy person was needed.
You have to ask: Why was Dilena moved on again?
The AFL is concerned for the Kangaroos, but it seems not as much as Eddie McGuire, for McGuire continues to push his plan to partly relocate the team to Tasmania. It’s an idea McGuire believes is worthy of a Nobel Peace prize, but one that the majority of others dismiss.
McGuire’s plan will only come to fruition if AFL boss Gillon McLachlan is really a wolf in sheep’s clothing, in other words, that Gill’s strategy all along has been to bump the Roos south. That would be devilish from the boss.
It’s not true and as an aside, the AFL’s Travis Auld and Sam Graham are leading an expansive team building a business plan for the 19th licence, which centres on 11 building blocks which include list build and retention, stadium, governance and the financial package. None of it involves a relocated North Melbourne.
McGuire’s plan is about numbers, which is important, but football mainly is about emotion, which is absolute. Just ask the Tasmanians.
Emotion is bristling at the Kangaroos, however.
Fans are furious and shooting off emails demanding change to the club’s hierarchy, and on the field, for a multitude of reasons, the team has been non-competitive.
That hurts the most. Kangaroos teams have lost before, but fans then have had pride and taken some comfort in the effort on display. Not this time around.
The AFL will demand change — and probably oversee change.
In the past, the league has, for example, manoeuvred Peter Jackson into Melbourne, Greg Swann into Brisbane, and encouraged Brian Cook to Carlton.
Those three, and West Coast’s Trevor Nisbett, have been tagged the “Warhorses’’ by other, younger CEOs, in that they’ve been there and done that over many years and at different clubs.
Maybe, the AFL could convince Nisbett, 65, to take a new challenge at North and replace Amarfio?
Mark Evans is another AFL troubleshooter, having been deployed to the Gold Coast.
If Noble goes — and it is a trembling “if’’ — the next coach doesn’t jump off the page, while it also remains to be seen if first-year football boss Daniel McPherson also keeps his role.
That’s no sleight on McPherson, but the fact is the club needs football experience in its key positions — coach, CEO, and football manager — and the AFL knows that.
Premiership coach Paul Roos was hired as a consultant last year to aid the coach in that regard, but with Roos in Hawaii this year, that relationship has petered to the point where the two barely speak.
Mark Brayshaw’s great mate, Alastair Clarkson, would be the ideal replacement for Noble.
A dream paring of those two looks unlikely, but if Clarkson called McLachlan and said he’d like to coach North Melbourne next year, McLachlan would say: “You had me at hello.’’
But you have wonder if McLachlan has called Clarkson himself?
Clarkson and the Giants loom large. The premiership coach this week caught up with Giants football director Jimmy Bartel in Melbourne, and while Clarkson and the Giants are not at the holding hands stage yet, clearly they like the look of each other.
Clarkson’s manager James Henderson does not return this person’s calls, but he does others in the media, and it’s curious that Essendon has this week emerged as a potential Clarkson destination — eight weeks after it was first suggested by News Corp.
The Bombers privately say Clarkson wants Essendon more than Essendon wants Clarkson. But we know that could change if Essendon’s season blows up again. You know, promises are made to be broken in football.
If Rutten was to be replaced — and that’s a far less trembling “if’’ — there are forces at Essendon still believing James Hird could return as senior coach.
Those forces are understood to be considering a ticket to run against the current board. In fact, there is a whiff of a board challenge at North too, so watch this space.
The funny thing is Hird was keen to join North Melbourne as an assistant coach when Noble was first appointed and despite support from some within the club, it’s understood Noble thought otherwise.
It’s funny because while Hird would love to coach Essendon again, he could be a surprise candidate to replace Noble at North Melbourne.
His spell at the Giants under great mate Mark McVeigh has somewhat rekindled a desire he thought was dead and buried. You could say he has smouldering ambition.
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