AN IMPORTANT club update from Carlton President Rob Priestley, who has confirmed an upcoming date for our CEO transition to be finalised.
It’s a pretty difficult period for the football club at the moment:
We can’t sugar coat it, I think all Carlton people would agree we’re not where we want to be to this point in the season, but we are where we are so we need to be focused on how we move forward. We’ll be really focused on the next eight weeks, which are really important, as we move into the end of the season to make - if we need to - decisions that are really calm, rational and thought through.
How are you going to do that?
As Carlton people, we all want the same thing – we want to build for long-term success here and success on a sustainable basis. We’ve got a lot of work to do, but there are three things I’d like to mention today. The first is that we’ve just announced to staff and members the CEO transition from Brian Cook to Graham Wright, we’ve announced that will occur on the 15th of August. Graham and Brian have transitioned really well. Graham is ready to go, but we’ve picked that date for a couple of reasons. One, it enables Brian to finish up some of the projects and commitments that he’s got, but also it gives us the next few weeks - which are really important to us in terms of football - allows Graham to be fully supportive and focused on football with our football department – which we think is really important. Later in the year, we’ll clearly thank Brian for his invaluable contribution to the Club and more broadly to the AFL., He’s been a leading CEO for 35 years, so we’ll do that at the right point in time. I wanted to announce that to members, because we brought that forward, we think it’s the right thing to do, we think it’s a good date to allow Graham to support the footy department and utilise his skills and experience at a really important time for our Club. Also Brian is contracted until the end of October, it allows him to stay in an advisory capacity around the club as well until that final date.
Why is that a future date and not an immediate one?
I think clearly this season is not panning out how we would all like, so we want to make sure Graham is utilising his skills and expertise, and that’s fully available to our football department. The second thing there are still some non-football related things and commitments that Brian is in the middle of that we would like him to complete. The third thing is we think Graham is ready, the transition has been very, very good, they’ve worked very well together, Graham is ready. By bringing it forward to August is still around in an advisory capacity that we think is important.
Is there a timeline on how we’re going to go about making those decisions?
We’re certainly not sitting on our hands; we’re really focused on getting the most that we can out of the last eight weeks. It’s the end of June, so there’s still a long way to go in the season. We need to make the most of it, we need to continue to work on areas that we know we need to improve and address. We want to get ourselves into the best position that we can so by the time we come into the end of the season and the off-season, we’re in a place where we can make really calm, rational and thought-through decisions for the long-term interests of this football club.
How is the Club going about supporting pressure on individuals?
There’s constant communication. The Club is really aligned - notwithstanding where we’re sitting on the ladder - but the alignment across the Club is really good, there’s very good support for everyone within our football department. There’s constant communication going on between Graham, myself, Brian, other senior leaders in the footy department, working with Vossy and Brad, working with the team there. We just need to make sure they feel supported and there’s an environment where they can get after the rest of the season and look to address some of those areas that we’ve addressed in the past, we need to work on that address those areas that we need to. That’s what we’re really focused on, and open communication is vital to that.
Is football the focus right now?
Football should always be our main focus; we’re a football club. Myself and the board are really focused on making sure that we behave and do everything we should a really good and mature football club. In my first four months in the role, a couple of people have made the observation to me from the outside, they feel as though we’re a bit of a business that also plays football – that’s not what we want. Our overarching objective is to absolutely be a football club, to focus on winning games of football and bringing great experience and joy to our members – that has to be our main focus and our overarching objective. Of course, it’s a professional sport, so we need to make sure that we’ve got the Club in a shape and revenue streams that we can invest everything that we need to invest into our football programs to try and build success over the medium to longer term. We are a football club and our focus should always be on winning football games.
What are we going to do to improve football?
There are two things there. The CEO transition, the next eight weeks we think are really important to us to just address some of those concerns and issues that we’ve on the field and Vossy has talked about that a lot. I think not bringing the transition forward to being immediate - even though Graham is ready to go – I think giving him some weeks to support football and utilise his experience is important. We’re really focused on making sure we’re a really mature and well run environment so that when we get to the end of the season as we move into the off-season, there’s a real conviction to make decisions - if we need to make them - in a really mature, well thought through, rational and thoughtful way.
What would be your message to Club members?
I think I speak alongside all Carlton members that we’re just not satisfied or happy with where we are at this point in the 2025 season. We want our members to walk down the street wearing their Carlton apparel and jumpers with real pride. We want to be a successful football club on a sustainable basis, so we know we’ve got work to do. The season so far hasn’t been what we were hoping or expecting. We’ve got a lot of work to do, it’s incumbent on us to make sure, and we have a responsibility to our members, to focus on the football side, improve our on-field performances and make sure we are improving and addressing the areas that we need to. In terms of that collective, our membership is so powerful. I’ve asked a number of people within our club to think more about that. We are a football club, how do we connect more to our members? How do we make the experience a better experience, and we gain the benefit of that? When we are a collective, we’re incredibly strong, and we need to make sure everything is aligned, and as a collective, we move forward together.
