Pies president Jeff Browne talks Collingwood’s premiership defence, footy’s hottest issues
Plenty has happened since the Pies claimed the 2023 flag, and with a new season to attack, Collingwood boss Jeff Browne talks to GLENN MCFARLANE about the hottest issues in footy.
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On the morning after the Giants ambushed reigning premier Collingwood last week, Magpies president Jeff Browne posed a question to coach Craig McRae as they were flying back from Sydney.
What went wrong?
Almost as soon as it had been asked, McRae began to provide detailed explanations for the 32-point loss to the Giants before the president politely cut him off.
Browne had heard enough. He didn’t need to hear anymore.
“I came back from Sydney and I was on the plane with the players and the coaches, and (I) sat in front of Craig McRae,” Browne told this masthead this week.
“I said to him: ‘Do you know what went wrong?’ He started talking about a lack of connection … I said, ‘Mate, I don’t need to know the details, I just need to know that you know’.
“That’s the way we do it here (at Collingwood). My style is to empower the people who have got their responsibilities, not to tell them how to do their job.
“I think everyone has really felt supported, felt like they can express themselves and do their best without anyone looking over their shoulder.”
Browne is about to enter his third season as Collingwood’s 14th president, confident the pillars in place will drive the club onto another successful season on and off the field.
He won’t measure that on wins or losses, or more silverware, but more fundamentally on a collective thirst to get back to work.
“We need to work hard, we need to be modest, and we need to achieve the best we possibly can this year,” he said.
“What (we) are concentrating on is making sure the effort is there.”
As he said at last week’s AFL launch in Sydney – when the Magpies took possession of the 2023 flag that will be unveiled pre-game against Sydney on Friday night – “It is now all about stoking the fire, not worshipping the ashes.”
THE WRIGHT CALL
Collingwood executive general manager of football Graham Wright effectively resigned his role after last year’s flag, eager to take an extended in-season overseas holiday with his wife.
The president didn’t want that outcome.
Instead, he told Wright, who had overseen so much of the Collingwood transformation in recent seasons, he wanted him to take long-service leave, which is a rarity in the all-or-nothing AFL world.
“There is (effectively) no long-service leave in this industry,” Browne said.
“If you work in a job that Wrighty does, tell me he is less deserving of long service leave than someone who has worked in the tax office for 35 years!
“As an industry, we have to provide better support for our key people. He originally wanted to resign because he thought there were no options.
“(I said) ‘before you tell me that, tell me what’s troubling you’? I can imagine, he goes home at night and sits there with his wife and he is talking about someone’s Achilles.
“So (now) he has gone off and he has gone to New York, he is going to Italy and he is going to walk the Cinque Terre and they are going to come back and he is going to have so much more to talk about. He is going to be a happier guy and he is going to come back here.”
Asked if there was any chance Wright might not return to his role in September, Browne said: “I am sure he will … he will be refreshed and (will be of) even greater value to us.”
“He might decide that he might want to go in another direction. I doubt it. I have told him I want him to come back.”
LETHAL PILE-ON
Browne has enormous respect for Leigh Matthews, but disagrees with his assessment that the Magpies have dwelt too long on what happened last September, most notably the launch of the documentary Take The Steps on a national cinema release the week before opening round.
Matthews’ assessment was picked up by others, and fuelled by the loss to the Giants.
“It is just an easy, predictable thing to say, particularly when you lose (in week one),” Browne said. “Everyone is going to pile on.
“We played a very good side on their ground and we gave up a bit by going up there for the (opening) round, but I am happy we did it. The development of the northern states is really important to the competition.”
Browne added that the documentary would make the club money.
“I think we were No. 2 (for a time) behind Dune Part Two,” he said. “We did that to share the experience with our members, but we might actually make some money out of it.”
But he strongly refuted suggestions the Magpies had lingered too long on their 16th VFL-AFL premiership instead of preparing for the 2024 campaign.
“I don’t get any indication of that from the playing group, we made that documentary to show our fans what happened last year,” Browne said.
“One of the things I am proud of is that we have connected (more) to our fans, the members and the supporter base. We have informed (them) and brought them in, and you will see some evidence of how highly we regard them when we unfurl the flag on Friday night.”
Browne explained the club had tried to welcome the “19th person” – the Magpies’ army – into every part of the club’s operations as it “inspired” the players.
“For me, personally, I have moved on from (the flag), but I acknowledge the fans want to see that flag come out (on Friday night),” he said.
“When (AFL chairman) Richard Goyder handed me the flag, it was pretty emotional because I am holding this thing that is so hard to get. It was the pinnacle of our (2023) season … I was just so happy and I couldn’t help but rub my head into it.”
PROTECTING THE FATHER-SON RULE
Browne is all for innovation and modernisation, but he says some traditions are sacrosanct.
He was responding to suggestions that the father-son rule, having already been tightened in recent years, should be discarded or further diluted.
The Magpies had three father-son picks – skipper Darcy Moore as well as Josh and Nick Daicos – in their 2023 premiership side.
“It has already been watered down with the bids,” Browne said.
“The thing that makes sport really important in people’s lives is tradition … and the father-son rule is absolutely critical to tradition.
“One of my greatest moments ever at this club was seeing Peter Moore hand the cup to his son (Darcy). Peter lost four grand finals and drew one … I said to Darcy when I spoke to the players prior to (last year’s) preliminary final … ‘You have got an opportunity to make your father whole’.”
He said Moore’s appointment as Scott Pendlebury’s successor at the end of 2022 had been a critical moment, along with McRae’s ascension to the coaching job.
“He (Moore) is a highly-intelligent, motivated guy who only does things he loves doing and you can tell he loves playing football, and he loves being captain.
“After Pendles stood down we had a vote for captain, and we were going down to a training camp at Lorne. I rang Darcy and said ‘Make sure you do the work, go out and campaign and get yourself elected, because it is going to save me a really embarrassing job of overriding someone else’s choice (as captain)’.
“He was the guy. He is different, we are different, we play different.”
NEW-LOOK AFL
Browne has been encouraged by the changes made at AFLHQ.
He said the appointment of his good friend and long-time football administrator Andrew Ireland to the AFL Commission had been “an outstanding” decision while saying he had a long-term relationship with AFL chairman Richard Goyder.
“I lived in Perth for five years, so we talk semi-regularly,” he said of his connection to Goyder.
New AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon had been “a breath of fresh air” since he took over from Gill McLachlan late last year.
“I’ve had a great relationship with Andrew Dillon … for a long time,” he said.
“I spoke to him twice (on Tuesday) and I know that I am trying to get this concussion indemnity (for clubs) through. I am getting a few roadblocks from lawyers, so I rang (Dillon) and said: ‘We have to clear this up, can we work on the wording?’. He said: ‘Yeah, I will find the wording to make it happen’.
“You can have those sorts of conversations with him.”
The AFL has given its 18 clubs a verbal undertaking they will not be liable for any past, present or future liabilities in terms of concussion actions.
“I think (that) is absolutely appropriate,” he said. “Let’s face it, if a club ever got into strife, the AFL are not going to let a club go, so you might as well do it upfront.
“It is sensible and it is overdue and I was assured (on Tuesday) in my conversation with Andrew that we will get that done pretty promptly. I am expecting that to be done in the next week or two.”
MORE GF TICKETS, FUTURE FUND, AND MORE MEMBERS
Browne insisted the two clubs who play off in this year’s grand final should have greater access to tickets for their fans.
“It is pretty hard (getting fans in) when you have 106,470 members and they (the AFL) give you 17,500 seats,” he said of last year’s experience. “We need more than that.
“Every competing club should get 25,000 each, it will probably settle around 20,000. I would expect we would get an improvement this year (for the clubs that make the grand final), but it’s tough.
“We can’t fit everyone in.”
He said the Magpies would continue to push for more members, across Australia, including the northern states.
Browne had a number of meetings with key stakeholders in western Sydney last week about what the club can do to further support football in the region.
He said Collingwood was looking at bringing in a low-cost subscription-based membership for those fans unable to attend matches.
The president also said the club had locked in its key commercial partners and detailed plans to double the club’s future fund in the coming years.
“What I want to do is take that (future fund) from $23m to $50m, so that means no one can hurt us,” he said.
“I think that is possible within three or four years.
“When I leave here that (future) fund will be a guarantee that, firstly the AFL can’t hurt us, and secondly, nothing can hurt us.”
WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE IN 2024
One of the Magpies’ messages on one of their walls inside the AIA Centre reads: “Connect, Grow, Win.”
Browne said that encapsulates what 2024 holds in store for the club.
“It is not about winning x number of games, it is about making sure you do your best and you are well prepared and you fight it out.
“You have to aspire to win … I know (we do) under the coaching structure that we have, with Leppa (Justin Leppitsch) taking a more strategic role. He is a very smart football person, to put him more in charge of tactics and strategy on the day, through putting him in a bunker where he has camera views of every aspect of play where he can analyse and (make) one phone call to the coach.
“I believe if you don’t throw challenges to people they don’t grow.”
Asked how the Magpies can guard against hubris in their premiership defence, he said: “In the past, it would have been a problem.”
“It is an overused word ‘culture’ and it is used to describe all sorts of things that you think you are good at, but the reality is that we all want to get better and we want to encourage the people around us to get better.
“We were so happy to win the premiership (last year) … but there was so much hard work that went into it, and if we don’t work harder, because the other teams have improved, we won’t be able to do that again.
“I am confident this year we are right to challenge again, but (there are) injuries and other sides getting better. If you look at the game (last) Saturday, we had more inside 50s, and a few of the other stats were pretty good for us, they kicked accurately and we didn’t.
“I think we can learn a lot from that game, that is a part of the culture. You learn a lot more from your failures than your successes.”
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