By Jake Niall
Carlton have sounded out Collingwood’s premiership-winning ex-football boss Graham Wright about potentially taking over as chief executive from Brian Cook in an orderly handover.
Under the potential succession plan, Wright would join the Blues in a senior role and work under Cook, the game’s longest-serving and most decorated club chief executive, until later next year when Wright would take over as CEO.
Former football boss Graham Wright is being sounded out for the Carlton CEO role.Credit: Penny Stephens
Carlton president Luke Sayers spoke to Wright about the handover scenario – he was sounded out about in his interest in the role – but Wright has not been formally offered the position, according to a source with knowledge of the discussions who would only speak anonymously.
Carlton are keen to run an in-depth process in finding a replacement for Cook, who agreed to stay on as CEO for one more year before stepping down, which means that Wright is not yet guaranteed the position.
Wright has simultaneously been in discussions with the AFL hierarchy about joining the league’s football operations, with the former Collingwood and Hawthorn football boss potentially working alongside AFL football chief Laura Kane. He has been in discussions with AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon, and also sounded out by Adelaide about a senior position overseeing football, having worked with Crows CEO Tim Silvers at Hawthorn.
Wright joining the Blues as CEO-in-waiting would be a seismic development in the industry, given his track record and high regard as a football operator and recent contentious departure from Collingwood – where he was a premiership player in 1990 and was instrumental in their 2023 premiership.
Wright headed the panel that hired Craig McRae as senior coach and drove the successful trading and list management calls from 2021 and 2022, and also navigated the exits of Nathan Buckley, as senior coach during the tumultuous 2021 season, and Brodie Grundy to Melbourne.
He was behind the recruitment of premiership players Bobby Hill, Tom Mitchell, Patrick Lipinski and Billy Frampton, as well as Dan McStay, who missed the grand final through injury. He was list manager at Hawthorn in their three-peat from 2013-15 and then head of football alongside Alastair Clarkson from 2018 until 2020.
Wright fell out with Collingwood CEO Craig Kelly, his former 1990 premiership teammate and ex-influential player agent, during 2024, which was a key factor in his decision to leave the Magpies, despite the premiership and attempts by president Jeff Browne to smooth the issues and retain him as football boss.
Wright’s exit had followed the decision by Kelly and the club board to allow the football boss to take a sabbatical, as he travelled overseas with his wife, in the hope of retaining him in the role. Wright had resigned from Collingwood after the 2023 season but the Magpies encouraged him to take leave, paying him as a consultant, and re-shaped their football department in his absence. They moved assistant coaches Justin Leppitsch (now head of strategy and list management) and Brendon Bolton into positions that split Wright’s duties.
Wright filled in as acting CEO at Collingwood before Kelly’s appointment and had harboured an interest in becoming CEO of a club.
This masthead cannot confirm which, if any, other candidates have been approached by Carlton as a prospective successor to Cook, who has been involved in five premierships – two at West Coast in the ’90s and then Geelong’s treble of flags in 2007, 2009 and 2011.
Given that Sayers is almost certain to exit the club at the end of 2025, when his extended term expires (having completed the limit of four terms as a club director), Wright’s appointment at Carlton would need to be fully supported by the club board, not simply the president.
Board member Rob Priestley is viewed as the prime candidate to take over from Sayers, with vice president Patty Kinnersly, the founder of Our Watch, also a potential successor to Sayers, who has been on the club board since 2012.
Wright was contacted for comment.
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