40 years ago.
Weston was a good average player, who played for 60 games over three seasons and went home in 1985.
If you want exPlayers then Solly has more to offer, played 158 games and was a better player and Essendon person.
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Not sure if youâve found what youâre after but I went looking when this Director election exercise came up too. Particularly wanting to double check on Dorothy Hisgroveâs credentials again, and past record although she was appointed back in 2021. AnywayâŚ
Hope it helps.
especially seeing how cheap and nasty subdivisions around the Melbourne area are.
Weston moved to FB and was became best FB in the comp. In hindsight, his going back to SA in '86 was the start of the decline of that great era, of course accelerated by what was probably the worst string of injuries in VFL/AFL history.
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Assume you mean FaceBook, because there is no way the Weston was the best Full Back in the competition. Two from memory were Chris Langford at Hawthorn and Bruce Doull at Fark Carlton, and there were others ahead of Weston, who was a good average player.
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Something doesnât add up.
Likely, she is just full of âŚ
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Dean Solomon makes his case to become Essendon board member
Days after one of president-elect David Barhamâs allies questioned the need for football voices on Essendonâs board, ex-Bombers hard man Dean Solomon has outlined why he deserves a spot.
Dean Solomon was a heart-on-sleeve player in 158 matches with Essendon from 1998-2006 and, as such, he is hurting as much as anyone given a lack of red-and-black relevance this century.
During this season Solomon, 44, began thinking of ways to help his beloved Bombers from his northern NSW home where he is the founder/managing director of Salt Movement & Recovery and owner of a childcare centre.
He declared his intent to stand for the clubâs board, with voting currently underway before closing on Tuesday, December 17. Results will be announced at Essendonâs annual general meeting on December 18.
Jon Anderson: Why did you decide to put your hand up?
Dean Solomon: Iâm like all Essendon supporters, I love this club and it owes me nothing, but itâs time I gave back, and initially that wasnât necessarily at board level. But I think from my playing and coaching experiences I have a skill set that can help. I will be forever be in debt to the Essendon Football Club.
JA: Does the board require another ex-footballer, a point made by current board member Melissa Verner Green who is up for re-election after eight years in the job?
DS: I donât want members to vote for me because Iâm a past player. I want them to vote for me for what I can bring. The current board boasts a wealth of commercial experience and part of that has delivered us a profit of $400k plus for 2024! Sensational! But vice-president Andrew Welsh is the only member who has spent a considerable amount of time in a football department. Football is our core business so I feel diversity on the board is critically important.
THE BOMBERS BOARD CONTENDERS
Dave Barham (incumbent) â Essendon president since August, 2022. Long term media executive, including as boss of Chanel 10âs AFL programming.
Melissa Verner Green (incumbent) â Board member since 2017. National Agency Lead at Meta, former Sales Director at Fairfax Media.
Paul Weston â Essendon premiership player 1984-85, 60 VFL games for Bombers.
Dean Solomon â Essendon premiership player 2000, 158 AFL games for Bombers. Founder of Salt Movement and Recovery, former longtime assistant coach at Gold Coast.
Luke Maxfield â Lifelong Essendon fan, member for past seven years (after letting membership lapse while living overseas), works in business development with a water company.
JA: Is the club on the right path?
DS: I like some of the language that is coming out of the club regarding alignment and stability. Letâs be really transparent, letâs share our vision with the Essendon people. We have won the equal most premierships in the competition, letâs embrace that, be proud of who we are, where we are going and most importantly letâs ensure we are doing it together!
JA: I look at the Bombers and see a lack of genuine match-winners, making the departure of Jake Stringer surprising to my eyes?
DS: I donât know the ins and outs of Jakeâs situation but it was reported his standards dropped a little bit, something I can relate to, a lived experience for me as I got traded from Essendon (to Fremantle) when my standards fell. Great clubs set the bar high â you either meet the expectation or you donât.
JA: Is living interstate a problem for a board member?
DS: People could perceive it as a problem but Iâm down a lot through my business so the short answer is no.
JA: A couple of Essendon legends bemoan the lack of obvious leaders in the playing list?
DS: Leadership is massive in any organisation. Itâs an area I believe I could support and help in. I loved the fact that coach Brad Scott plus Zach Merrett and Andy McGrath went overseas to enhance their leadership.
JA: Are you a supporter of current president David Barham?
DS: Iâm not here to challenge Dave for his position. Iâve enjoyed listening to Daveâs language about making decisions purely based around âwhat is best for the clubâ only! I admire the suggestion of him entering into a succession plan with Andrew Welsh. And if Andrew did succeed Dave then someone would need to take over football governance at board level, something the members need to consider when voting.
JA: Do you look at the models employed by other clubs?
DS: I always analyse sporting clubs and businesses from a far. I have a huge amount of respect and admiration for two Aussie clubs in the Sydney Swans and Melbourne Storm. Both organisations for decades now have made calculated, thorough decisions based on leaving the club in a better place than they found it.
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can you post?
âGet pastâ.
RiiiiightâŚ.
How did Andrew Thorburnâs Essendon appointment get past diversity hero Dorothy Hisgrove
Among the strange aspects of the Andrew Thorburn saga is how his appointment got past Essendon director Dorothy Hisgrove, a diversity champion.
Yoni Bashan and Christine Lacy
Among the more puzzling aspects of the Andrew Thorburn saga is how his appointment made it past Dorothy Hisgrove, a club director, diversity champion and leading figure of Essendonâs search for a new chief executive.
Hisgrove was appointed to the clubâs board last year, but her nine-to-five is at KPMG where sheâs the National Managing Partner for People and Inclusion, a loathsome title with considerable power to instil dread in just about anyone.
To say matters of equity and diversity are concerns dear to her heart would be something of an understatement. Hisgrove led the AFLâs diversity push during her tenure as one of the gameâs executives between 2013 and 2016, while her LinkedIn account remains a veritable paradise of inclusion and other very modern, purple-bearing concerns.
Itâs therefore strange that her antennae didnât twitch during Thorburnâs overtures for the job, given the very clear governance failures attributed to him by Kenneth Hayne during the banking royal commission â and which ultimately forced his resignation as chief executive at the National Australia Bank.
Nor, apparently, was there much reaction from Hisgrove to Thorburnâs chairmanship of City on a Hill, a Christian church known to have espoused some rather repugnant injunctions on homosexuality and abortion, along with a most morally confused comparison of the latter to deaths in concentration camps.
The remarks were made prior to Thorburnâs appointment at the church, but given an ultimatum by the board â to choose between the church and the CEO position â he made his bed accordingly.
We would have thought Hisgrove might have been especially alert to these scandal-bearing anomalies. Wasnât that the whole point of her nomination to Essendonâs review panel â the one expressly tasked with finding a CEO?
As club president David Barham said: âDorothy ⌠(will) provide the latest testing protocols to ensure the panel has a clear picture of the personality and leadership capabilities of each candidate.â
A fat lot of good that did. The panel seems to have been completely ambushed by matters already on the public record, and the results of those âtesting protocolsâ are playing out for everyone in real time, with Barham himself now facing calls to walk the plank.
If Hisgrove did twig to any of these concerns, she wouldnât tell us about them. We contacted her for comment.
Gillon pad unwanted
Meanwhile, in other first-world problems, AFL boss Gillon McLachlan appears to be having some serious trouble offloading his home, which first went to market in mid-August.
The six-bedroom, five bathroom pad in the Melbourne suburb of Prahran comes with a pool and tennis court â one of only two in homes in the suburb to sport the amenity. It was first listed by prestige market specialist Marcus Chiminello with a price guide of $10m to $11m.
Alas, the ensuing six-week campaign has seen no interest, with the price tag slashed this week by more than 10 per cent. Itâs now on offer for between $8.8m and $9.3m.
Thatâs just as the RBA lifted the cash rate for the sixth-straight month to 2.6 per cent, its highest level in nine years.
Rubic heads for exit
Healthscope boss Steven Rubic is exiting the top office at the private hospital operator after more than three years in the job.
Now owned by Canadian private equity giant Brookfield, Rubic told staff on Wednesday he was stepping aside and the business would be led from next Monday by Brookfield managing director Greg Horan.
âIt is after much soul searching and with a great deal of sadness that I am writing to let you know I am stepping down as CEO,â Rubic wrote in his all staff memo.
The news comes amid reports that a consultant has been engaged to cut costs at the business, which is Australiaâs second biggest private hospital operator, and boost earnings, with staff reductions and redeployments already underway.
âAs Healthscope emerges from the pandemic and the organisational changes draw to a close, I feel that now represents a natural transition point,â Rubic said.
Rubic, who described the past three years helming the company as âtoughâ and âchallengingâ, will remain in an executive capacity for a month-long hand over to Horan and will then join the Healthscope board as a director.
It is understood that Horan has spent at least the past six months in the Healthscope business and is already a director of the holding company. He was also a key part of the team that drove the 2019 buyout, which cost the private equity group $4.4bn.
Long queue
Investors have begun queuing up to try scrape back funds from Magnolia Capital and its elusive founder Mitchell Atkins. We wish them luck on that journey, with Atkins apparently rather difficult to reach these days.
The investment firm very quietly and abruptly closed up shop in late July, according to an email dispatched by Atkins while the ship was keeling.
âOver the past five years, I have worked extremely hard to build a robust financial services business that delivers strong returns to investors,â Atkins wrote.
âWe have been forced to make the difficult decision to cease all operations, restructure Magnolia Capital, and return money to investors.â
A difficult decision indeed. We imagine the firmâs swag of lawsuits and efforts to meet several margin calls might have something to do with the matter.
Melbourne businessman David Koadlow is seeking the return of almost $12m from Atkins through the Federal Court, while another suit from investor Dong Zhang led to a NSW Supreme Court judge placing a $750,000 freeze on Magnoliaâs assets.
As for Atkins and his pledge to return the funds, weâre hearing from a number of investors who are yet to see a dime. The 30-year-old is not so easy to contact, either.
âSincere apologies for not providing you with an update earlier. I am working to come back to all enquiries as soon as possible,â he wrote to one investor with about $1m on the line. That was in September. No contact from Atkins since, and we suspect there may be further legal consequences to follow.
Asked whether the business was finished, a spokeswoman for the Magnolia founder said: âMr Atkins has nothing to add for the moment.â
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The Board Nominations Committee selected the appointment of Hisgrove. I wonder how many are in the appointments queue. There should be two more vacancies for appointments after the elections.
Donât vote for me cause Iâm a past player but instead for what I can bring to the board, which is that Iâm a past player and I did a stint at the suns
Sheesh
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I get you donât like Solomon but donât verbal him. His message was I want Essendon to be a fair dinkum football club than competes in the AFL. Contrast that with Barhamâs message which is Essendon is a franchise of the AFL so vote for me.
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Yes, his messaging is horrible - If you feel like youâre qualified for a job, explain how youâre going to achieve success in the role. Otherwise itâs just window dressing
I also donât dislike him, but heâs a terrible candidate for a board seat. Better than Weston though, Iâll give him that
next time dont recommend we draft a back pocket with the #1 pick shawy.
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19thman is a past player > everyone type.
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When is it all done and dusted and we know who won?
At the AGM next week.
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Voting closes 17th december and results announced on 18th December I believe
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