X Gon Give it to Ya

Football Discussion Dustin Fletcher Hangar
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If we have threads for players, why not one for all things about the man who is running the show?

This morning I was at a business event where X was the guest speaker. The theme was how to rebuild trust in damaged organisations. Some really interesting insights, including the following;

  • X didn’t apply for the CEO role, but rather was tapped on the shoulder by Little and Brasher;
  • since the saga, the club has actually had its lowest staff turnover in the past 15 years or so. This is due to making the welfare of staff the club’s number one priority at all times, through many practical measures - for instance, making the staff knock off at 3pm on a Wednesday and go out on the oval to play games;
  • the club has a 2022 plan, whereby it aims to exhibit ‘top 4’ performance in a range of business areas (and presumably football as well, though this wasn’t specifically mentioned);
  • the biggest challenge of the saga was how all encompassing it was - every single staff member was constantly being asked about it by friends/family etc and the club developed strategies to manage this (what they could and couldn’t say etc);
  • the club had a morning tea once a fortnight during the saga for interested past players who wanted to come in and ask questions of X and Sheeds;
  • in time, he would like the board to contain 2 or so non-Essendon people, for balance and a different perspective;
  • X was always ahead of the game every time there was a media article that raised concerns. He would stay up till the articles dropped online at around midnight, and then compose and personally send a text to every player at 7 the next morning explaining the article, what was right, what was bullsh1t, etc, so they’d wouldn’t be worried;
  • X personally has a one on one meeting with each one of the 34 once a quarter, and plans to continue this for many years;
  • he stands by the content of his tweet, but thought that twitter was the wrong forum to deliver that message. He has since apologised to the leadership group but has also delivered the same message in person.

There was much more than this, but the more juicy stuff I won’t post here out of respect for the room.

Overall, a really impresssive operator and after hearing him talk for a hour I’ve got great confidence in him in leading the club.

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Thanks for sharing what you could share, @SMJ.

Sounds like X is doing very good things at EFC.

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Great post.

Yep he’s very impressive!

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One last thing actually, which I thought was hilarious.

He said that he has received a higher volume of emails from angry members this week than at any time throughout the entirety of the saga.

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Ooooh, we’ve got a 5 year plan!

This can only end well.

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Business plan, not football plan, so don’t panic.

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Oh great we are getting Terry Wallace

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I assume most people on club boards follow that team (except for that tool at Whorethorn who barracked for Essendon, but swapped allegiances), otherwise I would question their motives. However, I would be happy to get a couple of high calibre people who haven’t previously followed football, for whatever reason.

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X Gon Give it to Ya…

…then apologise.

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That’s all well and good. Just start being serious on the field and not a running joke. That’s all I care about. Win fkn games

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Ha!

Three things

  1. I almost wrote one this week for the first time ever, seems I wasn’t alone, which brings me to
  2. Blitzers aren’t the only upset supporters, turns out
  3. What WOB said
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Its almost like the year the club was meant to move forward it instead went backward.

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To be fair the club has moved forward but the players are still catching up.

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He’s the CEO, not the coach.

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so we’ve got another five years to get our crap together. Thanks for telling us.

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The truth is the club…had moved forward even before any of us knew it had gone backwards.

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Boldly going from 18th to losing to 18th.

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He seriously cares about the club and is a very sharp operator. Have met him once for a chat during saga. Glad we’ve got him

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The club moved forward before any of us not just the players we were left stuck backwards.

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The club is currently Planet Express from Futurama and X is this guy:

Who cares what your core product is? Just have some slick advertising and don’t worry about “blank”. You let me worry about “blank”.

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