The board should go over Schwab alone

[Guest]

People talk about how the board should be voted out due to the last 5 odd years of underperformance/total disaster. This is something I do not disagree with. However, the one thing I think that should have sealed their fate already is that after 186, Cameron Schwab was supposedly given his head and told to stay out of football department matters. Yet Peter Jackson comes out this week and says there were FOUR people who were still answering to him (they weren't named but I've heard that they are Mark Neeld, Tim Harrington, Neil Craig and Josh Mahoney). I thought it was highly likely that he was behind the disenfranchising of blokes like Moloney and Rivers, the selection of the pair of Jacks, getting Grimesy to wear number 31 (let the kid make his own history FFS!) but I never thought there was actual proof. It was all here-say.

I'm not going to get too caught up in Peter Jackson as a man just yet. He has some runs on the board but whether or not he can apply his skill set to the MFC remains to be seen. However, I am a HUGE fan of the brief he has been given: a non-partisan, clean-skin efficiency expert who is here to do a job and when it is done, he will leave. I believe he has been fair (less calmer heads would have sacked Neeld after last week) and I support his call for people to operate in 'clean air'. The fact that he revealed that Schwab was STILL sticking his hooter into the FD shows that the board is essentially toothless. What did they actually do after 186? Give him a 'naughty naughty' speech but not actually redraw his contract to redefine who was answerable to him? Shouldn't there have been clauses in his new deal that clearly spelled out duties entailed? And termination clauses that indicated if there was non performance then he would be sacked? It just seems they told him to keep his head out of media street but that he could do whatever the hell he liked.

I felt the club needed to protect our employees in the wake of the tanking inquiry but hearing what PJ said pizzes me off no end. It's not like CS is Rick James and you are dazzled by his aura when you meet him.

[rjay 25,307]

People talk about how the board should be voted out due to the last 5 odd years of underperformance/total disaster. This is something I do not disagree with. However, the one thing I think that should have sealed their fate already is that after 186, Cameron Schwab was supposedly given his head and told to stay out of football department matters. Yet Peter Jackson comes out this week and says there were FOUR people who were still answering to him (they weren't named but I've heard that they are Mark Neeld, Tim Harrington, Neil Craig and Josh Mahoney). I thought it was highly likely that he was behind the disenfranchising of blokes like Moloney and Rivers, the selection of the pair of Jacks, getting Grimesy to wear number 31 (let the kid make his own history FFS!) but I never thought there was actual proof. It was all here-say.

I'm not going to get too caught up in Peter Jackson as a man just yet. He has some runs on the board but whether or not he can apply his skill set to the MFC remains to be seen. However, I am a HUGE fan of the brief he has been given: a non-partisan, clean-skin efficiency expert who is here to do a job and when it is done, he will leave. I believe he has been fair (less calmer heads would have sacked Neeld after last week) and I support his call for people to operate in 'clean air'. The fact that he revealed that Schwab was STILL sticking his hooter into the FD shows that the board is essentially toothless. What did they actually do after 186? Give him a 'naughty naughty' speech but not actually redraw his contract to redefine who was answerable to him? Shouldn't there have been clauses in his new deal that clearly spelled out duties entailed? And termination clauses that indicated if there was non performance then he would be sacked? It just seems they told him to keep his head out of media street but that he could do whatever the hell he liked.

I felt the club needed to protect our employees in the wake of the tanking inquiry but hearing what PJ said pizzes me off no end. It's not like CS is Rick James and you are dazzled by his aura when you meet him.

I think the board was more interested in protecting some than doing what was right for the club, hence the 500k fine. I don't trust that we will ever know the truth of that.

[dees64 104]

A Train wreck!

[Pitchy 196]

If only the board had stuck with the players after 186. The business heads on the board went with one of their own. The snake CEO lived on, the players were poisoned and killed off. We are 18 months down river from that decision.

I honestly believe that if they had stuck firm with the players and sacked Cameron Schwab then and there that in 2013 the MFC would be a talented and exciting team coached by Mick Malthouse. We were the ones Mick said had the list he wanted to coach. We have Neeld's list now. We are a disgrace and Schwab and Neeld are to blame.

[Return to Glory 8,453]

If only the board had stuck with the players after 186. The business heads on the board went with one of their own. The snake CEO lived on, the players were poisoned and killed off. We are 18 months down river from that decision.

I honestly believe that if they had stuck firm with the players and sacked Cameron Schwab then and there that in 2013 the MFC would be a talented and exciting team coached by Mick Malthouse. We were the ones Mick said had the list he wanted to coach. We have Neeld's list now. We are a disgrace and Schwab and Neeld are to blame.

I do agree re the decisions made after 186. When CS wriggled out of that one it did feel like the priorities were horribly out of wack.

[stuie 7,374]

Schwab is already gone, why dig him up so you can kill him off again?

Get over it.

[Pitchy 196]

His legacy needs to be seen for what it was. McClardy gave him a heroic send of in a sea of Red and Blue. He has broken this club and in order to fix it we have to isolate what actually happened and then protect ourselves from it happening again.

[stuie 7,374]

His legacy needs to be seen for what it was. McClardy gave him a heroic send of in a sea of Red and Blue. He has broken this club and in order to fix it we have to isolate what actually happened and then protect ourselves from it happening again.

Haha heroic send off? You're kidding right?!

FMD Schwab's story is a bit like Chinese whispers, seems to be getting bigger and bigger every time it's told.

[The heart beats true 18,183]

Agreed CBF. I get the distinct impression that the board thought everything Jim did was untouchable and so have been in paralysis since his death in the hope that everyone put in place would come good. It seems to be in direct contrast to their actual roles of oversight and governance.

Although what impressed me the most about your post was the Rick James reference. There is not enough Super Freak in modern footy.

[stuie 7,374]

Watch out! Here comes that big bad hairy Schwab now!

[stuie 7,374]

Oh no! Here he is on holiday in Scotland....

[Demon Dynasty 17,132]

If only the board had stuck with the players after 186. The business heads on the board went with one of their own. The snake CEO lived on, the players were poisoned and killed off. We are 18 months down river from that decision.

I honestly believe that if they had stuck firm with the players and sacked Cameron Schwab then and there that in 2013 the MFC would be a talented and exciting team coached by Mick Malthouse. We were the ones Mick said had the list he wanted to coach. We have Neeld's list now. We are a disgrace and Schwab and Neeld are to blame.

And this is the flaw that has haunted the hallowed halls of the MFC for decade upon decade. Over weighted with business eagles and big wigs about town, sticking to their own and never truly letting go of thier power clique and "star chamber" culture. While the Star Chamber culture and faceless nature of the MFC board (president & 2ic) continues, this club will never taste ultimate success at the highest level IMO and will continue to wallow from one under performing decade to another. They will never allow true football people to take over (ie., a few more football experts at board level who have a ruthless football business background) and turn the club into what it needs to be. A bloody football club, there to cater for it's members and to foster and get the very best out of it's players and coaching staff. For without regular and consistent success by the latter, a football club withers at the roots, resulting in an unstable foundation and little fruit on the vine. If left for too long it will eventually wither and die.

With success of the FD and players, the roots become embedded and eventually rock solid, finding sustenance from the new nutrients it finds (read members/sponsors/increased tv exposure via big matches/increased gate) and the tree will blossom and produce ample fruit once again.

It's time for this board, and most attached/linked/feeding from it, to let go and allow the Melbourne Demons to find its roots once more. Only then will success and respect return once more to this once great club.

I don't blame Neeld as he didn't appoint himself. It's the inept and closed (non-transperant) nature of the board. The rot starts at the head and works down. The MFC Board decided to appoint a 2nd untried coach within 4 years, along with a myriad of errors along the way. What we are witnessing now is the product of many earlier misdemeanors, some major and some minor, but in the end it's the sum of all parts that's led us to here.

Edited May 15, 2013 by Rusty Nails

[Guest]

Watch out! Here comes that big bad hairy Schwab now!

You are right. Schwab is gone but the revelation that he still had most of the footy department answering to him is recent. This revelation was in direct contradiction as to what was doing the rounds (the club didn't choose to dispel this perception either) that CS was no longer meddling in the football department. My beef as far as this thread goes isn't with him. My beef is with the board that saw what he was doing, made a symbolic gesture by tsk tsking him after 186 and then did nothing to actually reduce his power in the FD.

Edited May 15, 2013 by Guest

[DeeSpencer 26,301]

I think the comment about the club being in a state of paralysis after Jimmy's death is a good one.

Clearly McLardy was a reluctant leader who took over from Jim and would've hoped things worked out more than actually got in there and monitored things.

What we have to realise is that the one group of management/executive that we get to control is the board and it's also the group we can run for.

So this years board elections will be a time to put up or shut up. Hopefully we can refine the current board and keep aspects that have made it a commercial success and delivered reasonable facilities for our players. So for all those angry at the board who are you supporting? I know as far as the President goes I'll be supporting whoever is passionate and reasonable. As well I'll be looking for increased football knowledge.

[stuie 7,374]

Careful! It's the all-powerful Schwab scheming just before we play Geelong...

[waynewussell 6,902]

I've been following the Demons since 1961 and I rate CS very highly, may have been the best CEO we have had. There seems to be a notion around here that he was a bit shonky. Some of the most successful CEO's in this time frame have been a bit shonky. I don't know if he was or wasn't... like all of you! What I do know is that he was a charming host of various forums I attended, he was passionate about lifting the Demons out of the mire and he was intelligent (a commodity that many of his detractors lack). I like all of the changes he instigated and I thank him for what he tried to do for the club. Until I hear evidence to the contrary, I will respect him as a driving force in a cut-throat competition who had a vision and pursued it vigorously. If some of the players didn't approve of his involvement in their concerns, let them illustrate how they can put us back on the map now that he has been evicted!

[stuie 7,374]

I can just see old Cam sitting back and enjoying this thread right now.......

[Tim 3,531]

I've been following the Demons since 1961 and I rate CS very highly, may have been the best CEO we have had.

You late-comer, you!

Jim Cardwell says hi. Percy Page seconds the emotion.

And I reckon Cam might nod sagely.

Edited May 15, 2013 by Tim

[Guest]

I've been following the Demons since 1961 and I rate CS very highly, may have been the best CEO we have had. There seems to be a notion around here that he was a bit shonky. Some of the most successful CEO's in this time frame have been a bit shonky. I don't know if he was or wasn't... like all of you! What I do know is that he was a charming host of various forums I attended, he was passionate about lifting the Demons out of the mire and he was intelligent (a commodity that many of his detractors lack). I like all of the changes he instigated and I thank him for what he tried to do for the club. Until I hear evidence to the contrary, I will respect him as a driving force in a cut-throat competition who had a vision and pursued it vigorously. If some of the players didn't approve of his involvement in their concerns, let them illustrate how they can put us back on the map now that he has been evicted!

I hear a lot about how he was passionate and charming (that did come through at the final presser). I think from what I could tell though WW is that the marionette he was controlling had way too many strings attached (others have criticized his micromanagement). When watching Whiteboard Wednesday (to be fair, I watched it in retrospect as I was overseas when they first started getting put on the club's site), he reminded me of an old boss of mine. This boss was the kind of bloke who had read every management textbook around and used the lingo he had learned as a substitiute for any real management ability. That may be the most unfair of my criticisms but that's not really my overall point.

The main thing that annoyed me, and this is looking from afar, was that roles were not demarcated properly. This was a recipe for political conflict as people were bound to get their toes trod on. It was up to the board to actually do something about this, not CS. When he was re-signed, his duties needed to be clearly identified (almost to the point that there should have been clauses involved saying what he SHOULDN'T be doing). It seemed that the 'home truths' told to him after 186 were merely symbolic and that's what annoys me.

Edited May 15, 2013 by Guest

[DeeSpencer 26,301]

I've been following the Demons since 1961 and I rate CS very highly, may have been the best CEO we have had. There seems to be a notion around here that he was a bit shonky. Some of the most successful CEO's in this time frame have been a bit shonky. I don't know if he was or wasn't... like all of you! What I do know is that he was a charming host of various forums I attended, he was passionate about lifting the Demons out of the mire and he was intelligent (a commodity that many of his detractors lack). I like all of the changes he instigated and I thank him for what he tried to do for the club. Until I hear evidence to the contrary, I will respect him as a driving force in a cut-throat competition who had a vision and pursued it vigorously. If some of the players didn't approve of his involvement in their concerns, let them illustrate how they can put us back on the map now that he has been evicted!

It's damned if you do damned if you don't regarding getting involved. Look at Essendon where the CEO might (and according to the media heavyweights should) be fired for not knowing about the biochemistry research lab in his footy department.

If I could say one area that Schwab erred almost undoubtedly it is that the football department has no real leader (unless you count Neeld) and that it has a gaping lack of experience. Craig is fine and Misson and the physio from Collingwood come with high regard but in particular Schwab's reign has been overshadowed by poor player development and poor recruiting and the people in those roles lack experience.

[Guest]

I can just see old Cam sitting back and enjoying this thread right now.......

There's nothing sadder than a bloke who talks to himself and laughs at his own jokes.

[stuie 7,374]

There's nothing sadder than a bloke who talks to himself and laughs at his own jokes.

Careful or that evil Darth Cam will come for you!

[Guest]

Careful or that evil Darth Cam will come for you!

Can you please put after your next gif, one of the following

'I'll be here all week!'

'Try the veal!'

or

'I just flew in from (city name) and boy are my arms tired.' ?

[stuie 7,374]

Can you please put after your next gif, one of the following

'I'll be here all week!'

'Try the veal!'

or

'I just flew in from (city name) and boy are my arms tired.' ?

Sure, here you go.....

"I'll be here all week........ next week, not so sure...."

[The Song Formerly Known As 6,479]

Careful or that evil Darth Cam will come for you!

we get it.