Prickly president right for Dogs

Bulldogs’ prickly president Peter Gordon the man to lead them to the top
The Australian July 27, 2016

PATRICK SMITH
Senior sports commentatorMelbourne
@Smithersss

The Western Bulldogs will be a team to dominate the AFL competition sooner than any one dared think. But not sooner than president Peter Gordon wants. Gordon will rattle the club and rock the AFL administration until he sees the Bulldogs as one of the most influential sporting clubs in the land.

In his first stint at the presidency which began in 1989, his role was to save the club from a merger with Fitzroy. He needed to ensure the Bulldogs could survive independently at a time when the league was pushing mergers, relocations and strangulations as it tried to reduce the number of Victorian clubs. Ultimately it would be Fitzroy that felt the cold, quivering hands of the league commissioners around their neck and ever tightening.

Gordon had achieved that when he left the presidency in 1996 but his successor David Smorgon knew he had taken over a club that had stabilised but was not secure. That was Smorgon’s job. Gordon took over again in 2013 and he has chosen to push for the summit. He has abandoned base camp.

When Gordon returned, coach Brendan McCartney was in his second year. The experienced assistant coach won praise for patiently pulling together a young list. But after three years the highest he took the club was 14th.

At the end of that third season, 2014, there were rumblings the older players found McCartney abrasive. Skipper Ryan Griffen shocked everyone in football when he left the club for the Giants in Sydney. Some might say Gordon over-reacted but, importantly, he acted. Within days McCartney had left the club and soon after Gordon paid something like $7 million for promising but unproven Tom Boyd, No 1 pick in the 2013 draft.

It remains a mighty gamble and if Gordon was to look behind now he would not be able to see base camp. Next the club picked Luke Beveridge, untried as a senior coach, to take over from McCartney. As impressive as Beveridge was in interviews, the choice of an unproven coach is always something of a lucky dip.

Beveridge could coach all right. The team finished eighth in 2015 after losing a close elimination final to Adelaide. Boyd is another matter. His progress has been slowed because of injury and stupidity — he was stood down by the club for whacking a teammate when less than sober.

The club’s run of frightful injuries have meant that Boyd has now five matches to ensure his club maintain their place in the top eight. Settling time has come much quicker than Boyd had expected and no doubt hoped.

In just over three years, Gordon is now working with his third chief executive. Simon Garlick was the first to go, big-name Nike recruit David Stevenson was officially written out of the Bulldog story on Monday and replaced by Gary Kent, who had been in charge of the club’s *!finance committee. Just how long Kent stands will depend on how well he gets along with Gordon.

Working with Gordon must be a little like working with an echidna. Things get prickly very quickly. It is certain that Stevenson was not replaced because of a lack of ability — the folk at AFL headquarters rated him a real talent — but there are only so many sutures a body can take.

Stevenson would not admit to that when interviewed on sports radio SEN yesterday. Stevenson has tendered his sudden resignation after less than 12 months in the top job amid reports he endured a strained relationship with Gordon.

“No, I think that Peter said it last night, there’s always going to be robust conversations between any CEO and the president and the board. That’s healthy to have different points of view,” Stevenson said. Healthy for some.

“But the time was right for me. I’m really proud of the results we’ve driven in the time I’ve been there, a lot of club records, and I think it’s now time. I don’t feel like I filled the dance card but we had some tremendous results,” Stevenson said.

For his part, Gordon stuck with the nonsense. “It’s true for every organisation where people are trying hard to achieve a common result and trying to get ahead of the competition in something as intense as the AFL, that you’ll have your occasional argument and you’ll have your occasional robust discussion,” Gordon said. As for Kent, he may wish his first name was Clark and not Gary. Gordon has been called the Donald Trump of the AFL. That is grossly unfair. Gordon has a brain. The only thing he might share with the American is self-belief.

Gordon will make any decision he needs to if he thinks it can improve the lot of his club.

Stevenson was no doubt a good chief executive but he wasn’t when coupled with Gordon. So Stevenson had to go.

One of the few things Gordon cannot control — he is pretty much the club’s private owner — is injury. And it hurts him as much as it does the afflicted players. As it also does with Beveridge.

The coach was undeniably upset when he met the media yesterday to discuss the weekend carnage against St Kilda.

He lost midfielder Mitch Wallis (smashed leg) and Jack Redpath (knee reconstruction). “I’m an emotional person with our playing group and the way they care about each other,” Beveridge said.

“It’s my prerogative and responsibility to be strong, which I’m not being now, but I haven’t been this emotional with the group. They’ve been quite resilient when they’ve been around each other and they’re all in really good spirits.

“We’ve picked ourselves up, we’re going to train this afternoon and pump a bit of energy into that session and that will help us move on.”

You fancy Gordon would have noticed this and jotted down in his memory that the next time anyone at the Bulldogs cries it will be in premiership joy. Such is his single-mindedness.

It must be an echidna thing.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/spor...f56a88bd9cc754

Awesome someone actually seeing that Peter will leave no stone unturned and will not die wondering, he will make hard tough decisions for the better of the club

It's not an echidna thing. It's a Bulldog thing!

Leave no stone unturned, we are hungry for success - Go Peter!

I'm no fan of Patrick Smith but I liked this line:

Quote:

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Stevenson was no doubt a good chief executive but he wasn’t when coupled with Gordon. So Stevenson had to go.

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In a way he's right. You need to be a good fit for an organisation, irrespective of your level of expertise and/or skill.

Thanks for posting Aker.

Wow, IMO a balanced, objective news article. Thought the Rohan Connelly one on Sun or Mon in The Age was too.

Love the first sentence of this article.

Good article by one of the few decent journos. Mark Robinson could learn a bit by reading a bit of Patrick's work.