CEO Simon Lethlean parts ways with St Kilda after being told to steer clear of football
The root cause of Simon Lethlean’s departure from St Kilda can be revealed, months after Ross Lyon denied suggestions of a rift with the club’s former CEO.
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Simon Lethlean and St Kilda “agreed to part ways” after the club made it clear it wanted the chief executive to steer clear from the football department.
St Kilda president Andrew Bassat has denied Ross Lyon wields too much power at Moorabbin after another departure continued 16 months of upheaval at the Saints.
The Saints announced the split with the former club football boss on Thursday, after Lethlean had been frozen out of the football department since Ross Lyon’s return as coach in October, 2022.
St Kilda appointed Lethlean to the CEO job before enacting drastic change to the club in a bid to put football first.
The Saints said on Thursday the chief executive’s role had “shifted” and Lethlean’s hopes of straddling both the business and football side of the club were taken away.
The Saints have not begun the search for a new CEO yet, with chief operating officer and former North Melbourne chief executive Carl Dilena to step in as interim.
Dilena played alongside Lyon at Fitzroy in the late 1980s and early 90s.
It’s understood that Lethlean and Lyon never worked particularly closely together but also didn’t butt heads in any meaningful way.
The Saints believed the pair worked amicably but Lethlean was forced further away from the football department and the role he envisaged in 2022.
Lethlean became the latest figure to depart St Kilda after a lengthy review in 2022 that most notably saw coach Brett Ratten sacked.
Two heads of football came and went and the recruiting team has been largely replaced since Lyon moved back in to Moorabbin.
Old colleagues of Lyon, such as list manager Stephen Silvagni and current footy boss David Misson, were all brought in before last season.
Bassat said Lyon was not attempting to take control of the club.
“Ross is absolutely the boss within the player’s environment and he is doing that very, very well,” Bassat told Channel Nine.
“Ross is not seeking to in any way control the board or control the club beyond that. And if he tried, it wouldn’t go well.”
Lethlean acknowledged the club had shifted to a different direction in a club statement released on Thursday.
“The club has a new coach and a new strategy and I have agreed with the president that it is time for the club to seek a new CEO,” he said.
St Kilda president Andrew Bassat also pointed to the 2022 review, which pushed the Saints to zero in on winning games as the club’s clear priority and led to a change in roles within the club.
“The club has undergone significant changes as a result of the 2022 football program review which highlighted the need to elevate our football department and place football at the heart of everything we do, which we hope will see St Kilda competing for premierships before too long,” Bassat said.
“Simon and the board share the view that a new CEO would be best placed to take the club forward.”
The president told Channel Nine that the board and Lethlean agreed the chief executive’s “fit wasn’t great going forward”.
Bassat said Lyon was not attempting to take control of the club.
Bassat declined to comment further when contacted by this masthead.
The chief executive’s departure came just over a week after the Herald Sun revealed noses were out of joint about St Kilda planning to charge the Danny Frawley Centre fees.
He was gone eight days later but Saints insiders pushed back on the timing of his departure being anything more than a coincidence and that discussions had been ongoing with the board about Lethlean’s future.
Lyon addressed talk of a rift between him and Lethlean in July.
“Clearly when I’ve been transitioning into the club, there has been a new regime in football,” he said then.
“There has been some change and with change, I wouldn’t say there is unhappiness but sometimes not everyone is comfortable with change.
“From my end and Simon’s end we are fine. We have common friends and people professionally we have worked with.”
In October, Lethlean said there had been “some robustness” in the relationship.
“I’m a one-year CEO, and I’m learning more from Ross and how he wants to run football than I’m sure he’s learning about how to run a footy club,” Lethlean said then.
WHO COULD REPLACE LETHLEAN?
St Kilda has not begun its process yet to replace Simon Lethlean, with chief operating officer Carl Dilena now in the interim CEO role.
The Saints likely haven’t even created a criteria for the role but these are some names within the industry who could eventually land on the club’s long list.
Carl Dilena – The interim CEO held the same role at North Melbourne for six years and led a financial turnaround at Arden Street. The Saints has reduced its debt levels in recent years but has some way to go. Dilena knows the club as chief operating officer and played with Ross Lyon at Fitzroy. “Without a doubt, Carl has helped set us up for an exciting future with a level of stability and strength that we’ve never had before,” then Roos chairman Ben Buckley said upon Dilena’s departure.
Kylie Rogers – No doubt Rogers would be on the St Kilda long list but she turned down Hawthorn’s interest for the same position last year. Rogers said in March she has ambitions to be the boss of the AFL one day and stuck fat at league HQ even when Andrew Dillon was appointed over her to be Gillon McLachlan’s successor.
Giles Thompson – Former CEO of Racing Victoria, Thompson was touted as going deep in Hawthorn’s CEO search.
Steve Rosich – Another name thrown up from the Hawthorn search, Rosich is the boss of the Victoria Racing Club and was the chief executive of Fremantle. Rosich was at the Dockers when Ross Lyon was coach and departed the club at the same time as the coach, in 2020.
Other names to watch: Sue Clark (Western Bulldogs), Simon Lloyd (Geelong)
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