Can Jeff Browne beat Mark Korda in Collingwood board battle?

The fight for the Collingwood presidency looms as the biggest battle in the AFL for the rest of the season, as agitation grows about the current state of the club on and off the field

Jeff Browne, veteran AFL lawyer and long-time manager and friend of Nine Network CEO McGuire, in his office in Melbourne.

It has all the hallmarks of a Melbourne football soap opera, with plenty of colour and intrigue, big name personalities, background manoeuvring and public posturing in the race for the coveted prize.

And, of course, Collingwood is at the centre of it all.

With Covid-19 yet again throwing the AFL’s capital into lockdown and forcing games to shift elsewhere around the country, attention has turned to the biggest battle left in town.

But this time it is off the field, and at stake is control of the Collingwood boardroom and presidency of the biggest club in Australia. And it has all the typical traits of Melbourne, where AFL, politics and business are at the intersecting heart of power and influence in an AFL-mad city.

In one corner is incumbent Mark Korda, only months into the Collingwood presidency after Eddie McGuire’s long 23-year tenure was brought to a sudden end in February in the wake of the club’s Do Better report into its problems with racism. Korda is an accountant and insolvency expert with a track record stretching back to the Ansett receivership two decades ago.

In the other is Jeff Browne, who worked himself up from Melbourne’s northeast suburbs to become a lawyer of note, including two decades as the AFL’s top legal mind before going on to run television network Channel 9 – ironically in the wake of McGuire’s ill-fated stint as boss – and then more recently chairing big public companies such as Carsales.com and Moelis.

There is a power vacuum at Collingwood given Magpies have won only two of their 11 matches heading into Saturday’s clash against the Crows in Adelaide.

Of their nine losses, six have been against sides currently in the top eight at an average margin of 14 points, which includes one point losses to Brisbane and Port Adelaide.

With some fortune, they might well have still been in contention for the top eight, which would have eased the agitation for change at board level.

But matters became heated this week as the growing rumours of Browne challenging Korda’s board were confirmed with his pronouncement to News Corp that he would seek four board roles in a peaceful transition after a previous “cordial” meeting with Korda failed to result in Browne gaining a directorship.

Korda and his board were having none of it, with the seven directors – including the likes of vice-president Jodie Sizer, former Australia Post boss Christine Holgate and controversial newcomer Bridie O’Donnell – saying in a statement: “The board of the Collingwood Football Club stands for unity, not division, and will therefore stand against coups driven by personal ambition.”

There is discontent about some of Korda’s recent moves, including the installation of O’Donnell, a doctor and former national sports champion who was discovered to be ineligible to vote on board matters as pictures of her in a Western Bulldogs jumper also surfaced on social media.

He has also since withdrawn a pronouncement that new football general manager Graham Wright would likely decide the fate of under-fire coach Nathan Buckley.

Former players, prominent fans and ex-board members are all giving their opinions on what should happen. On Friday, Buckley himself was drawn into the debate. “I believe the people that are on the current board are the right people to take the club forward and believe in time that that will be vindicated,” he said.

Korda and Browne are both digging in and it seems a long winter of struggle is ahead both on and off the field for the Magpies. Much will hinge on what Collingwood members want to do, with one collecting signatures ahead of a possible emergency general meeting that would spill the board and pit the incumbents against Browne’s yet to be announced ticket in a battle for the hearts and minds of the estimated 15,000-20,000 eligible voters. Otherwise he has to wait for the annual general meeting, where three board roles are up.

Korda says that the current board is “a modern handbook-type board that you would want for the changing nature of a football club. We are now a men’s and women’s football club. It is evolving.”

“Jeff’s position is that he wants to be president. So he has to remove at least four of the board to become president. So it is all about Jeff, not the Collingwood Football Club,” he said.

Browne, a one-time under-19s player at Collingwood for whom brother Murray played 47 games in the 1980s, tells The Weekend Australian that he wants to oversee a “refresh” and that the club is badly in need of an injection of confidence.

“The core business of a club in the AFL is winning football matches. We have to do whatever we can to win football matches. That’s the primary focus for the club.

“I think I can make a difference there, I wouldn’t be doing it if I didn’t think that. Footy clubs stand and fall on levels of confidence. Fans and members have been despairing about a lot of things. It needs a new energy around the place.”

Browne is known to be a close friend of McGuire but stresses he is “his own man”. Korda seems to have deliberately set about not being a commander-in-chief style president that McGuire – rumoured to have been known as “The Compere” in Collingwood board meetings as would do most of the talking – famously was for two decades.

“I wouldn’t be as visible as Eddie but I would work just as hard,” Browne says, adding he would seek to reconnect with members, sponsors and broadcasters.

Korda also stresses his financial acumen, noting that the very structure of the club, with its AFL and AFLW teams and a Super Netball team, is why global giant Nike has signed a seven-year sponsorship deal.

“Collingwood will never go nearly broke again. That is a legacy of the collective boards, but this current board has inherited a strong position coming out of my contribution to that,” Korda says.

“We have built this into a club that is financially independent now and you have to remember that most of the clubs are not, because the AFL is funding them.”

Collingwood’s balance sheet is relatively sound, with net assets of $42m, a future fund of almost $18m and $10m cash in the bank. It operates out of luxurious facilities at its training centre across from the MCG and has $15m allocated for the building of a medical and rehabilitation clinic as part of its latest revamp. The much criticised O’Donnell, a former elite rower and cyclist, will lend valuable input into that, “which will be great,” says Korda.

On the field though, many of the issues go back to the last couple of years after Collingwood almost snatched victory in the 2018 grand final, and happened while Korda was on the board.

A batsman’s journey back to the pavilion after the loss of his wicket is considered one of the loneliest in sport. But following Collingwood’s 68-point loss to Geelong last October, the sombre walk across the Gabba by Buckley and a couple of Magpies staffers resembled a funeral march.

A week before, Collingwood had posted one of its best finals wins of the modern era when edging West Coast by one point in Perth after spending a week in quarantine.

Reality hit hard a week later. And it was sobering. The 68-point margin was flattering, for Collingwood were obliterated by the Cats.

The chaos that ensued in the trade period, caused by a salary cap bursting at the seams following the failed acquisition of Dayne Beams two years earlier, was bruising.

Adam Treloar, Jaidyn Stephenson and Tom Phillips were offloaded. Collingwood concedes the initial messaging around the decision was wrong but is adamant it made the right decision.

The view was to ease salary cap pressure to enable them to be in position to sign a big star next year to add to a younger talent pool including prospective father-son recruit Nick Daicos, the son of the legendary 1990 grand final winner in “Macedonian Marvel” Peter Daicos who will become a Magpie in November.

Such is his talent, Daicos Jr would be playing now if he was old enough.

The salary cap remains an issue but Korda believes the problem will be corrected by the end of next season.

“The salary cap is always tight and probably will be tight for another 12 months. Graham Wright is a great football manager, but his real expertise is list management and he is building a review of the list, coaching, game plan and where we want to be in the future.”

Korda is also working to finally put some structure in place around the board, including forming a membership committee. There is already an integrity and finance and risk committees. There is no football committee though, but Korda says ex-player Paul Licuria and Peter Murphy are the board’s experts in that field.

Browne meanwhile says he has had discussions with at least 40 prospective board members that could join his ticket, describing it as “overwhelming” the number of good candidates that want to help. “It shows I’m not alone.”

While he won’t reveal names, rumours of potential candidates include ex-player Paul Tuddenham and Warner Music boss Dan Rosen, along with a digital marketing expert.

The experts Browne wants on his board are in finance and risk management, people and culture, marketing and fan engagement and football. Some Browne backers says there is a lack of customer focus on the current board.

Francis Galbally, a prominent Melbourne lawyer, is a Browne supporter. “He creates an atmosphere of collaboration, listens, takes it on board and will listen to criticism – whereas a lot of people won’t,” Galbally says. “He would be able to rally people together. He knows everybody in the game. He’s trustworthy.”

Ex-Collingwood champions Peter Moore and Craig Kelly have also emerged as Browne supporters publicly, though any involvement is clouded by both having sons currently playing for the club.

Ultimately, any movement will likely depend on Collingwood’s on-field fortunes.

Despite huge fan numbers, financial power and acumen there is a lingering thought that the biggest club in the AFL has underachieved and regime change may be warranted.

Korda says both charges are unfair.

“You have to remember that Collingwood has been in six grand finals since 2000. This is more than any other club. So you need infrastructure and you need good administration to be successful. In terms of the number of grand finals, we have been successful. You can tick that box. But unfortunately we have only won one of them.”

It remains to be seen whether Korda suffers the same fate should a leadership stoush with Browne officially eventuate.