Carlton’s tumultuous off season continues with Cain Liddle sacked
Carlton is seen by many to be a shambles after losing its coach and CEO. But what the club does next could turn a disaster into the start of a golden era.
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You don’t sack a chief executive that has dragged your club from a financial abyss unless you are confident about nailing a superior replacement.
Carlton’s decision to move on Cain Liddle on Friday ended weeks of uncertainty as new president Luke Sayers repeatedly refused to back the man who had cleared Carlton’s debt and spearheaded their off-field renaissance.
It could be seen as the latest disastrous chapter for a club that has sacked its coach, half its board, moved on its president and failed to guarantee its football boss his future.
The prevailing view was that Carlton was finally, officially a shambles.
But strangely enough, Sayers’ confidence in moving on Liddle might be a sign the club is on the verge of at least one coup.
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Outgoing Geelong chief executive Brian Cook has not knocked back the Blues’ overtures and is now seen as extremely likely to join Carlton as its new CEO.
Cook famously told North Melbourne in 2012 he would join them then backflipped, but he has postponed an official decision this year until Geelong’s season is over and seems intent on a new challenge.
If Sayers were able to secure Cook, it would open up all manner of possibilities including a renewed bid for Hawthorn master coach Alastair Clarkson.
The club might also reconsider whether Ross Lyon is the kind of coach they need.
The message out of Carlton is clear and is repeated in the official review - this is a club that needs an uncompromising, unflinching attitude to elite performance.
The club is seeking a harder edge to all football decisions. It is why club champion Greg Williams is the new football boss. Lyon and Clarkson also fit that bill.
Adding to the intrigue is that Liddle will not be replaced on the newly formed Blues coaching subcommittee - an interview process that turned Lyon off the coaching job.
Despite his stance, Carlton insiders have not ruled out Lyon — a great mate of Stephen Silvagni who left the Blues in acrimonious circumstances after falling out with Liddle.
Carlton said the decision to axe its CEO was made on Friday after Liddle sought certainty over his future at the club.
The board had met on Thursday night and decided that the Blues had not closed the gap between significant financial gains off the field and poor performances on the field.
“We are entering a reset phase for our football club, and while we have built a strong platform in a business sense, the ability to ensure our on-field position matches our off-field one is an area that must be addressed,” Carlton president Luke Sayers said.
Clarkson might end up committing to a year-long sabbatical, but if Cook were on board it would represent Carlton’s best chance to show it has finally found off-field stability.
Clarkson didn’t rate the way Carlton treated Brendon Bolton and has long been dismissive of the way moneyed interests run the Blues instead of the appointed board and executive.
Sayers hasn’t exactly dispelled that notion with his executive decisions so far but if he could pitch an elite CEO, a new board that does not represent the old school, an attractive list with Adam Cerra and George Hewett added in, it would at least give Clarkson food for thought.
Sayers said in a statement on Friday the club would seek a new CEO who could “drive a sustainable level of high performance across every department of the football club”.
The club also temporarily erased doubt over football boss Brad Lloyd’s future yesterday, with Sayers saying the board had completed its personnel decisions.
The Blues have started contacting prospective coaches, but made it clear on Friday the process could go forward however the club sees fit.
It might involve detailed interviews with first-time coaches such as Adam Kingsley but could see former senior coaches brought in at any time if the panel believes that is the best way forward.
Liddle will surely find another CEO role in the future, having learned from his mistakes in tinkering in list management.
But as Cook would well know, as a CEO responsible for a football club, you absolutely have to be intimately involved in its running.
On face value, the Blues have axed a senior coach only to be turned down by two high-profile candidates, have replaced a cashed-up board with one under immediate EGM challenge, and have lost a CEO whose financial performance dragged them from the mire.
Rock bottom wouldn’t seem far away.
But if Sayers can land Cook, who in turn might land an elite coaching candidate, who might walk into a club on day one of pre-season with Cerra and Hewett in navy blue, then this current crisis will all have been worth it.
Blues in turmoil as Liddle follows Teague out door
Carlton’s tumultuous off season has claimed another victim with chief executive Cain Liddle sacked from the role.
It comes just weeks after the Blues sacked coach David Teague and launched bids to secure Alastair Clarkson and Ross Lyon as potential replacements before both withdrew from the process.
Liddle was seem to have done an excellent job in helping to resurrect the club’s parlous financial situation and clear significant debt in his time in the role.
But new Blues president Luke Sayers had refused to guarantee Liddle’s position on multiple occasions in recent weeks, even at the press conference to announce Teague’s sacking.
Rumours have swirled around football circles in recent weeks about Liddle’s demise, with the club putting out overtures to rival CEOs including departing Geelong boss Brian Cook, who has not yet knocked back that approach.
Cook has said he will only consider the offer once Geelong bows out of the finals.
Liddle was seen to have interfered too much in list management and removed list boss Stephen Silvagni after several disputes, including the possible recruitment of Richmond premiership player Brandon Ellis.
When asked late last month to guarantee the jobs of Liddle and Blues football boss Brad Lloyd, Sayers said on 3AW: “I’m not sure anyone is guaranteed anything in life.”
Carlton said the decision was made on Friday after Liddle sought certainty over his future at the club.
The board met on Thursday night and decided that the club had not closed the gap between significant financial gains off the field and poor performances on the field.
“Under Cain’s leadership the Club has cleared historical debt, significantly grown membership and commercial revenues, as well as introduced new non-traditional revenues, which now leaves the Club in the strongest financial position we have been in for many years,” Carlton president Luke Sayers said
Sayers said the club would seek a new CEO who could “drive a sustainable level of high performance across every department of the football club”.
“We are entering a reset phase for our football club, and while we have built a strong platform in a business sense, the ability to ensure our on-field position matches our off-field one is an area that must be addressed,” Sayers said.
“Whilst the performance of the entire club has been under review, the Board has now completed all personnel changes.”
Liddle was one of six people recently named on the Blues’ subcommittee to chase the club’s next coach, alongside Lloyd, football director Greg Williams, fellow directors Tim Lincoln and Patty Kinnersly and club great David Parkin.
The move will intensify speculation Cook is seriously considering the role at the Blues, which would be an astonishing coup for Carlton.
Alastair Clarkson is almost certainly taking a season off to go on a fact-finding mission overseas.
But if he were to backflip on that decision – with some Blues powerbrokers still holding out distant hope – he could point to the new CEO at the club.
Clarkson was seen to be frustrated by close friend Brendon Bolton’s treatment at Carlton and also believes too factions away from the board help run the club.
Carlton’s new selection committee, which had included Liddle and under-fire football boss Brad Lloyd, is continuing to work on a process for selecting the new coach.
A long list of senior figures who would have been perfect for the task have now declined to enter the process, including Clarkson, Ross Lyon and Justin Leppitsch.
It means if the Blues cannot change Clarkson’s mind – with speculation of an offer of $12 million over seven seasons – they will have to choose an untried coach or a figure like former Lions coach Michael Voss.
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