30 minutes ago, La Dee-vina Comedia said:

"Miles away"? Caulfield Racecourse is right next to a train station with the unsurprising name of Caulfield Station.

I think Rab was referring to Hawthorn's Dingley base.

12 minutes ago, deanox said:

I'd rather a CEO who is a fantastic strategic thinker and overall business manager than a big footy person.

More than half the staff at the MFC would work in commercial related departments, not in the footy department. Sure the purpose of the corporate services is to support the football department (including raising revenue to allow it to run) but the footy department is a relatively small part of the organisation. In my opinion if the CEO is regularly making football department decisions, then we would likely have a very inefficient organisation.

The last part if that is why Carlton bought in Brian Cook to stop that interface.

14 minutes ago, Demonstone said:

I think Rab was referring to Hawthorn's Dingley base.

Apologies to Rab, then. My mistake.

57 minutes ago, roy11 said:

Some minor concerns he's not from a football background but he's obviously a talented businessman.

Hopefully he steers us in the right direction and we start ticking off some items on the to-do list.

But is he a talented businessman? He has the "job titles", but some of the boards he sits on top of don't have the best reputations either....

❌ experience in AFL club/environment

❌ experience as CEO in another sports organisation

❌ MFC member/supporter/diehard

✅ CEO with business ties to assist sponsorship and club direction to new home base

1 out of 4 meets requirements

We had two strong CEOs previously.

Peter Jackson had nearly 18 years in leadership at Essendon and the AFL. Had 5 years at the Dees.

Gary Pert had 10 years as Collingwood CEO prior to joining the Dees. Had 6 1/2 years at the Dees.

Guerra is a massive Bombers supporter and coterie person by all early reports. Well connected no doubt.

We wish Guerra the best and good luck

Edited April 29Apr 29 by spirit of norm smith
J

We’ve just had a CEO leave after being too involved in the football department

Perhaps it’s better to bring in someone who won’t think they know better when it comes to football-related decisions

23 minutes ago, spirit of norm smith said:

❌ experience in AFL club/environment

❌ experience as CEO in another sports organisation

❌ MFC member/supporter/diehard

✅ CEO with business ties to assist sponsorship and club direction to new home base

1 out of 4 meets requirements

We had two strong CEOs previously.

Peter Jackson had nearly 18 years in leadership at Essendon and the AFL. Had 5 years at the Dees.

Gary Pert had 10 years as Collingwood CEO prior to joining the Dees. Had 6 1/2 years at the Dees.

Guerra is a massive Bombers supporter and coterie person by all early reports. Well connected no doubt.

We wish Guerra the best and good luck

I feel like the final requirement is the most important for us right now.

Cameron Schwab met the first three fwiw.

1 hour ago, La Dee-vina Comedia said:

"Miles away"? Caulfield Racecourse is right next to a train station with the unsurprising name of Caulfield Station. It also has tram lines at both its northern and southern ends.

As to Paul Guerra's supposed lack of football experience, why should this matter? Do we expect our hospitals to be run by doctors? Do we expect our courts to be run by lawyers? Do we expect the wholesale fish market to be run by a fisherman? I could go on...

I believe this was in reference to Hawthorn's Dingley base, which sits in the void between the Frankston and Dandenong/Pakenham/Cranbourne lines which diverge beyond Caulfield.

Edited April 29Apr 29 by gs77

2 hours ago, dazzledavey36 said:

Can't say I'm all that impressed with this appointment.

The fact that we need to get him up to speed from a Football perspective is already a concern in itself.

Dazzle it’s not like he’s been home schooled, sometimes it is refreshing to get someone in that hasn’t been modelled by the System, that way they can think outside the Box and we could do with a new perspective. He will be coached by our Board and people close to the club.

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From my perspective, the CEO is running a $60 million business as well as overseeing a $30 million future fund and a further $9.5 million funding for the Caulfield project.

He has a team of GM's and managers that oversee day to day management of the business from delivery of the football program through to sensible investment of the future fund to generate returns and overseeing project delivery for Caulfield including stakeholder management.

I don't need a CEO that can run a sub 8 minute 2km time trial or kick off both sides of his body. I need him to ensure his team feels empowered, has all the resources they need to succeed and hopefully delivers an operating profit at the end of the financial year.

Honestly I'm a little bit uneasy about the lack of footy experience and the conjecture surrounding Keith Thomas.

But on the other hand, the number of people whinging about Guerra not having a Melbourne background (mainly on Facebook) is laughable. It's like they suddenly forget about Schwab & co. Why do they want a Melbourne person so bad? Get the best, it's not a hard concept to grasp.

10 minutes ago, In Harmes Way said:

From my perspective, the CEO is running a $60 million business as well as overseeing a $30 million future fund and a further $9.5 million funding for the Caulfield project.

In reality a small to medium business with no control over 70% of its expenditure and constrained growth opportunity.

On the other hand it's a highly exposed business with enormous HR management risks.

Fascinating MBA discussion as to what type of manager is best. I'm sure the issue has been done to death given the number of professional sports clubs around the world

2 hours ago, La Dee-vina Comedia said:

"Miles away"? Caulfield Racecourse is right next to a train station with the unsurprising name of Caulfield Station. It also has tram lines at both its northern and southern ends.

As to Paul Guerra's supposed lack of football experience, why should this matter? Do we expect our hospitals to be run by doctors? Do we expect our courts to be run by lawyers? Do we expect the wholesale fish market to be run by a fisherman? I could go on...

I think the poster was referring to Dingley, not Caulfield 👍

28 minutes ago, Foopy on the telly said:

But on the other hand, the number of people whinging about Guerra not having a Melbourne background (mainly on Facebook) is laughable. It's like they suddenly forget about Schwab & co. Why do they want a Melbourne person so bad? Get the best, it's not a hard concept to grasp.

I'm not concerned about previous affiliations.

PJ was an EFC supporter from memory.

I am concerned about a lack of AFL experience...it's not about dealing in FD matters but it is about working within an industry that is a bit of a closed shop.

36 minutes ago, In Harmes Way said:

From my perspective, the CEO is running a $60 million business as well as overseeing a $30 million future fund and a further $9.5 million funding for the Caulfield project.

He has a team of GM's and managers that oversee day to day management of the business from delivery of the football program through to sensible investment of the future fund to generate returns and overseeing project delivery for Caulfield including stakeholder management.

I don't need a CEO that can run a sub 8 minute 2km time trial or kick off both sides of his body. I need him to ensure his team feels empowered, has all the resources they need to succeed and hopefully delivers an operating profit at the end of the financial year.

Some football industry experience would have been a bonus but he seems a suitable candidate all things aside.

But it's an interesting one, I know its a very different sport/industry. But Manchester United previously appointed a M&A banker as their CEO and he was absolutely cabbage.

4 minutes ago, rjay said:

I'm not concerned about previous affiliations.

PJ was an EFC supporter from memory.

I am concerned about a lack of AFL experience...it's not about dealing in FD matters but it is about working within an industry that is a bit of a closed shop.

Yeah I think he walked into the doors as an Essendon supporter and exited a Melbourne supporter.

I don't know if we had good CEO's in the 80's and 90's but PJ was (surely) by far the best CEO we've ever had.

Edited April 29Apr 29 by Bring-Back-Powell

2 hours ago, La Dee-vina Comedia said:

"Miles away"? Caulfield Racecourse is right next to a train station with the unsurprising name of Caulfield Station. It also has tram lines at both its northern and southern ends.

As to Paul Guerra's supposed lack of football experience, why should this matter? Do we expect our hospitals to be run by doctors? Do we expect our courts to be run by lawyers? Do we expect the wholesale fish market to be run by a fisherman? I could go on...

Hi LDvA. Are you sure you’re replying to the right post? Mine was about the Kennedy Community Centre in Dingley, not Caulfield and I never mentioned Paul Guerra at all. I don’t even think he’d been named as our new CEO when I wrote it.

20 minutes ago, Rab D Nesbitt said:

Hi LDvA. Are you sure you’re replying to the right post? Mine was about the Kennedy Community Centre in Dingley, not Caulfield and I never mentioned Paul Guerra at all. I don’t even think he’d been named as our new CEO when I wrote it.

My apologies, Rab. I had misunderstood or perhaps misread your post and thought you'd said our proposed Caulfield training base was not near any public transport. I suppose I could have gone back and edited the post, given so many people have now pointed out my error.

I added in the Guerra comment because that was relevant to the thread topic.

1 hour ago, DeeZone said:

Dazzle it’s not like he’s been home schooled, sometimes it is refreshing to get someone in that hasn’t been modelled by the System, that way they can think outside the Box and we could do with a new perspective. He will be coached by our Board and people close to the club.

The last person we hired that had little to no AFL experience was Paul McNamee..

How did that turn out?

Unlike others i have no issues with his alliance with Essendon. But he's going to be dealing with football department matters and it's a completely different ball game compared to what he's previously done. He wouldn't have an ounce of insight into how that all operates so yes, it will be an incredible challange for him.

That he has no football club experience is of no matter if he has the backing and direction of a committed board who do have this experience.

His job is to get the job done as directed, not to invent the wheel.

Both Jackson and Pert had good management backgrounds (albeit at unlikable clubs) that worked for us.

Let's back him in and offer support to our CEO, board and club.

GO DEES

2 hours ago, In Harmes Way said:

From my perspective, the CEO is running a $60 million business as well as overseeing a $30 million future fund and a further $9.5 million funding for the Caulfield project.

He has a team of GM's and managers that oversee day to day management of the business from delivery of the football program through to sensible investment of the future fund to generate returns and overseeing project delivery for Caulfield including stakeholder management.

I don't need a CEO that can run a sub 8 minute 2km time trial or kick off both sides of his body. I need him to ensure his team feels empowered, has all the resources they need to succeed and hopefully delivers an operating profit at the end of the financial year.

Agreed. After months of being rudderless, it's great to finally get a CEO locked in who appears to have the business chops to push us where we need to be.

This is a positive day and it's a shame to see all the negative commentary on here as usual.

Let's support our new CEO and look forward to positive progress. A new home base is the primary priority he'll be focused on and hopefully he can deliver where our previous few leaders have failed.

2 hours ago, KozzyCan said:

I feel like the final requirement is the most important for us right now.

Cameron Schwab met the first three fwiw.

Was Cameron Schwab a diehard Dees supporter ? I always thought he was too corporate to align himself to a club.

Whiteboard Wednesday!! (aka the BS report) Salary cap breaches and Dees penalties!!! The Neeld appointment!!! Player upheaval!! MFC to Casey relocation!!! Just a few disasters during his tenure!!!

1 hour ago, La Dee-vina Comedia said:

My apologies, Rab. I had misunderstood or perhaps misread your post and thought you'd said our proposed Caulfield training base was not near any public transport. I suppose I could have gone back and edited the post, given so many people have now pointed out my error.

I added in the Guerra comment because that was relevant to the thread topic.

All good. Yeah, I’ve since noticed all of the other people that corrected you lol. Good to know I have people looking out for me! Have a good one.

28 minutes ago, spirit of norm smith said:

Was Cameron Schwab a diehard Dees supporter ? I always thought he was too corporate to align himself to a club.

Whiteboard Wednesday!! (aka the BS report) Salary cap breaches and Dees penalties!!! The Neeld appointment!!! Player upheaval!! MFC to Casey relocation!!! Just a few disasters during his tenure!!!

I was always under the impression that he was a Melbourne person but I could be wrong.

I know very little about Guerra so I'm going to reserve judgement for a while. I'm looking forward to hearing more about him and from the man, himself. I'd be keen to know how he presented to the board and what set him apart from the candidates to land himself the job.