Another Farce | PUNT ROAD END | Richmond Tigers Forum
  • IMPORTANT // Please look after your loved ones, yourself and be kind to others. If you are feeling that the world is too hard to handle there is always help - I implore you not to hesitate in contacting one of these wonderful organisations Lifeline and Beyond Blue ... and I'm sure reaching out to our PRE community we will find a way to help. T.

Another Farce

Laff

September showers
Dec 19, 2002
1,282
2
Casey's chief hope fails test
By Greg Denham and Patrick Smith
June 05, 2004
RICHMOND's search for a chief executive was blown wide open yesterday when odds-on favourite Leighton Wood was removed from the running.

The Tigers will now concentrate on up to six remaining candidates after Wood failed to live up to expectations during a second interview in Melbourne this week.

It is believed Richmond's attractiveness to potential candidates has waned slightly because of threats of a boardroom challenge to president Clinton Casey.

Agents acting for the Tigers spoke last week to at least two AFL chief executives - Essendon's Peter Jackson and Geelong's Brian Cook - about moving to Punt Road.

Meanwhile, across town, the high-flying Demons are understood to have narrowed their short list of chief executive candidates to five.









Wood had been Casey's first choice as the Tigers' new CEO even before the departure of Ian Campbell last week.

Casey and football director Greg Miller interviewed Wood in Brisbane two days before Campbell was dismissed, just 12 months into his chief executive role.

Wood came highly recommended by the AFL executive, which was shocked yesterday after being told that he had fallen out of favour.

The 44-year-old Wood had previously worked in Melbourne as the 2006 Commonwealth Games bid chief.

Although Casey was believed to be keen to appoint Wood on the spot, pressure from other board members ensured further assessment and a meeting with the full board.

Another of Wood's stumbling blocks was his insistence last week on a long-term contract at the club, which employs its leading executives on a month-to-month basis, according to Casey.

"Like anyone, if you've got to move your family interstate, you look for evidence that you're going to be around for a while," Wood said.

But Casey said: "At the moment, the board's approach is that we don't offer contracts at all."

However, it is understood that Casey was considering offering Wood a two-year deal.

The Richmond football department, which had a rift with Campbell, was also critical of Wood's remarks that the club needed at least five years to get back on its feet.

Casey told The Australian this week that Wood was the club's new CEO in waiting, though no job offer had been made officially.

"The short list is pretty short and we're looking through a file of eight or nine candidates to be interviewed by board members this week," Casey said.

"It's not a one-horse race, but having said that, no-one denies that he (Wood) is a very good candidate.

"We want to canvass the landscape as quickly as we can to see who is out there."

Casey said the appointment of a new chief executive was his No.1 priority.

"With a $2million loss looming this year, we can't hide from the position we're in at the moment," he said.

"Campbell was the wrong appointment and we've got to get the best person this time."

Casey acted as interim chief executive from the end of 2002, when Mark Brayshaw departed, to May last year, when Campbell was appointed.

"Having spent seven months looking last time, and meeting Wood in the process, we don't want to be sitting on our hands if we think we've found the right person for the job," Casey said earlier this week.

Last week, AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou described Wood as having "outstanding credentials" for the vacant Richmond job.

But he warned the Tigers they had no margin for error. "The Richmond Football Club would be acutely aware that they need to get this appointment right," Demetriou said. "I think they will do everything they can and leave no stone unturned to get this appointment right."

It has been a traumatic week for Richmond. After Casey said he was happy to work with a reduced board of seven, and was in no rush to fill the two vacancies, the club appointed a new director 48 hours later.

Alan Nicklos, managing director of Motorola, one of the club's major sponsors, was rushed on to the board.



http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,9746572%255E2722,00.html
 
I must be little dim.Why do you consider this a farce Laff?

I think it would be great if we could secure Cook or Peter Jackson.They have great track records.I felt we were rushing into the Woods signing anyway.
 
Its not a farce...signing up wood and then finding out he was not up to it,would have been a farce...
With this heading laff you would proberly get a job at any leading newspaper that turn ANY richmond story into a negative.
 
Im talking about his process, remember they interviewed him for the original job and were on the verge of appointing him now they knew what he was like. All of a sudden he is no good. He knocked them back because of no contract.
 
I'd be saying it was another farce in one respect and quite the opposite in another.

Casey had been spuiking all along that this guy was the best thing out there and was just about a done deal, but it fell over.

The opposite is that it was Casey's board of yes men that made him actually talk to the bloke, with everyone else present, that meant Wood did not get the job because he wasn't the right person.

Maybe the rest of the board are fed up with being Homer's nodding bird ;D ;D

However I don't like the chances of getting a decent CEO who will only work on a month by month basis. Whoever the incumbent is MUST get a 2-3 year contract to get a decent business plan and follow it through. It can't happen overnight and definitely not in a month either.
 
You've got to wonder did we not want Wood or did Wood not want us.

Geez I'm becoming cynical. :'(

I'm glad the rest of the board insisted on being part of the process if that statements accurate.
 
Agree with Laff, its a farce.

The board obviously have so little faith in their own ability to pick the right person for the job they don't even want to commit to a contract, instead opting for the safe option where they can remove the CEO at any time. This will just create another situation like Frawley's performance based contract where they are forced into short sighted, illconceived decisions to cover their own backsides but crippling the club in the long run.

How can you make an honest, accurate assessment of a CEO performance after a couple of months?  They need at least 2 years before their effectiveness can be accurately assessed.

To those out their thinking of challenging Casey PLEASE get your act together and do it now!! Our once great club is dying at the hands of Casey and is in desperate need of saving.
 
im absolutely certain casey couldnt organise a naughty in a brothel with a $1000.oo bill.
 
I don' tknow that this, in itself, is a farce. If the board weren't sure that Wood was the right man for the job, then it is a good thing they have removed his name from the list of candidates.

It will be hard, though, to attract a good CEO if we offer him no stability. I can't imagine Cook or Jackson leaving their current positions for the chance they will be fired a month after being hired.

Like Rosy, I think I might be getting a bit cynical. It just sounds like Wood may have said, "If you won't offer me a contract, I'm not moving my family from Brisbane to take your job." In any case, at least the board insisted on meeting and speaking to the guy directly - that's a good thing.

As far as Casey's performance goes...He seems to have prematurely announced the resigning of two major sponsors, his first-choice for CEO is now not on the short-list of candidates (for whatever reason) and he conveniently forgets, in every interview I have seen or heard, that he was acting CEO for quite some time, he is currently the President and so must take a large measure of responsibility for the problems we now have. It's no good to say that "so-and-so wasn't up to it, blah, blah, blah..." He just seems to be trying too hard to hold on, and that, to me, is putting himself before the club.
 
I'm with Laff. It's a farce. The board, CC, the ceo - Wood or not to Wood - how else could laff call it.

Farce.