Statement from Peter Gordon

[bornadog]

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It has been a challenging couple of weeks for the Club, culminating in Brendan McCartney’s resignation today as our Senior Coach after it became clear his position had become unfortunately untenable.

The Board and I support his decision and believe it is in the best interest of the Club.

The Board took the decision to support Brendan staying on late last month following a review that included serious critique around communication issues that had been raised by a number of people including our captain Ryan Griffen in relation to the Coach.

Macca accepted the validity of a number of these concerns and readily agreed to participate in a number of measures we put in place to help him address them. While we were all committed to working hard on these issues, we and Macca himself were concerned about whether the position was recoverable.

While we believed that the issues had been aired appropriately and solutions found – as agreed to by Ryan - yesterday’s news in relation to Ryan’s change of position meant that the Board needed to further consider the matter with Brendan.

Ryan’s unfortunate change of mind in the last few days in our judgement has had principal effects:

1. It took away one of the central planks – the support of the Captain which had been pivotal and even critical in our decision to press on with Macca.

2. And it created a new impediment in that in 2015, Macca would be communicating his message to a group who even with the best will in the world; would have this difficult event entrenched in their minds, whenever hard messages needed to be delivered.

When we met yesterday, I asked Macca whether his best judgement was that he could overcome these new significant impediments.

He was uncertain. He asked us to get some further feedback from some key people. We spent a lot of yesterday doing so. The feedback was not all one way – but it was sufficiently compromised to make it clear that Macca’s task next year would have been extremely difficult; and his continuation might itself present an impediment to our continued improvement.

Macca therefore made the decision to resign as senior coach, a decision that is supported by the Board.

Some of you will agree – others will not. That’s your right as a Bulldogs person.

Brendan is a good man. As President, Board and Senior Management – we all like and respect him. And we want to thank him for his significant contribution in building our Club.

There has been a lot said about our review, our Club and our players – and indeed our Board – over the last month.

Lots of old footy sayings like “you can let the players run the Club” have been trotted out. They are too simplistic for the complex environment of the management of professional AFL Clubs in the second decade of the 21st century.

I want to say these things about our group:

a. Our players do not run the Club of course. We the board and senior management do. But we make decisions based on evidence and our best judgement – and it is only appropriate some of the evidence comes from the players.

b. I’m very proud of our players. The fact that they had these concerns but that their first and predominant position has been to look to work through them and reflect on what they themselves needed to do to get better and make things work better reflects well on them as a group.

I want to thank our players for their honesty and concern yesterday.

Foundations are strong for an exciting future if we hang together and continue to work hard.

We now will look forward to an extensive process to appoint a new senior coach and continue to strengthen our club.

Peter Gordon
President

[bulldogtragic]

If I had a million dollars on this stock/share I'd be in white knuckle terror. Thank God for PG.

[comrade]

PG has been holding the reigns as we slid into this mess. I'm not so confident that the man in charge of this debacle has the ability to get us out of it.

And this is coming from someone who worshipped the man 24 hours ago.

[Doc26]

PG has been holding the reigns as we slid into this mess. I'm not so confident that the man in charge of this debacle has the ability to get us out of it.


Whilst I have been a supporter of Peter previously, I am one of those who do not agree with the actions of our Board and President with today's decision and I'm still trying to reconcile why it is deemed to be pivotal to have the support of a Captain who has displayed the behaviour and conviction that he has for us to take such a course of action.

Whilst our President might applaud the stength and courage of Ryan in today's speech, I feel more inclined to condemn it. Ryan wasn't a reluctant Captain of this Club, he was overjoyed at the prospect to take on the privileged position of leading this Club, and my own suspicion is that this GWS offer has been in the pipe works since at least May of this year. Another lucrative GWS offer on the table should not be lost in this discussion.

Macca acknowledged that he needed to adjust, as far as I am aware, it was also acknowledged that more targeted coaching support was necessary. I would back Macca's integrity, his values and development experience over what Griffen's colours have come to show us all.

I feel strongly that this Board and President have backed the wrong horse and in doing so have displayed just how far out of their depth they are to manage this Club out of our plight.

[soupman]

And this is coming from someone who worshipped the man 24 hours ago.

Very similar to myself.

Peter Gordon has been fantastic as president. He has been vocal, generous, passionate and done everything that could have been asked of the position, but todays decision has been as disappointing a decision as I've ever experienced.

To his credit and as is his norm, he presented today in the calm and measured manner we are becoming used to, but despite his solid reasoning, I am still completely opposed to what happened today and feel as though the club has lost its dignity and any respect it had in the sporting community.

I have confidence that Peter is the man to lead us back, but I don't think today is a day that he should be proud of.

[azabob]

His name is Brendan. You don't sack a man and call him by his nickname.

[Greystache]

Why draw it out so much? Why not just say our best player wasn't happy with the coach and we value individual players above all else?

The club sacked the coach to placate our veterans. Anything else is an insult.

[Remi Moses]

It's a backflip of massive proportions .
Let's peel it back and start again

[Remi Moses]

Why draw it out so much? Why not just say our best player wasn't happy with the coach and we value individual players above all else?

The club sacked the coach to placate our veterans. Anything else is an insult.

Those veterans have to bite the bullet as well.Enough is enough

[chef]

We got rid of the wrong person/people. I don't care if we had to clean out 6 plus to fix the place and I don't care who they are and if it's Griff, Willy, Dahl etc who cares how good they are, if they are holding us back they have to go.

It's bleeding obvious that the culture needs to change, yet we keep pandering to the same group. We are never going to win anything while we do this.

And I agree, his names Brendan.

[Topdog]

Why draw it out so much? Why not just say our best player wasn't happy with the coach and we value individual players above all else?

The club sacked the coach to placate our veterans. Anything else is an insult.

Come the end of trade period I'm hoping this statement will be proven wrong. Perhaps it is blind hope but it is still hope...

[bornadog]

Why draw it out so much? Why not just say our best player wasn't happy with the coach and we value individual players above all else?

The club sacked the coach to placate our veterans. Anything else is an insult.

There is no way the club is pandering to 4 players out of 44. Can't you accept that Macca perhaps doesn't know how to manage people? I for one can't see we would sack the coach because 4 guys didn't do what they were told. Peter has more intelligence than that.

[LostDoggy]

The stark contrast for me in all of this, is that it's widely acknowledged that Macca agreed to address his shortcomings. But the players couldn't agree to address theirs.

We are 10 years off a flag.

[LostDoggy]

Do yourselves a favour and don't read the papers today. Incorrect facts or not, the articles reinforce many people's opinions that the club is run by the players and that we couldn't stay the path taken by powerhouse teams before us.

Just extremely sad.

[Topdog]

There is no way the club is pandering to 4 players out of 44. Can't you accept that Macca perhaps doesn't know how to manage people? I for one can't see we would sack the coach because 4 guys didn't do what they were told. Peter has more intelligence than that.

I agree but his statement basically says we sacked the coach because his captain walked out on him.

[Remi Moses]

Bornadog has a decent point, as it would have to be passed the tipping point as far as discontent is concerned.
However in saying that the players have put themselves under enormous pressure now and would need to perform .
They look like royal idiots if they don't

[boydogs]

Do yourselves a favour and don't read the papers today. Incorrect facts or not, the articles reinforce many people's opinions that the club is run by the players and that we couldn't stay the path taken by powerhouse teams before us.

Just extremely sad.

I think everyone involved with the club, supporters, players and management alike, needs to see that. Losing Macca isn't the worst thing that could happen, but failing to now acknowledge and address the weakness of our club to stay the course is.

[BulldogBelle]

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Would have loved to have heard this version, which is no doubt gathering dust in someone's bottom draw:

It has been a challenging couple of weeks for the Club, culminating in Brendan McCartney offering his resignation today as our Senior Coach after he expressed that he thought his position had become unfortunately untenable.

The Board and I did not accept his resignation and we believe that this is in the best interest of the Club.

The Board took the decision to support Brendan staying on late last month following a review that included serious critique around communication issues that had been raised by a number of people including our captain Ryan Griffen in relation to the Coach.

Brendan accepted the validity of a number of these concerns and readily agreed to participate in a number of measures we put in place to help him address them. While we were all committed to working hard on these issues, we and Macca himself were concerned about whether the position was recoverable.

While we believed that the issues had been aired appropriately and solutions found – as agreed to by Ryan - yesterday’s news in relation to Ryan’s change of position meant that the Board needed to further consider the matter further.

Ryan’s unfortunate change of mind in the last few days in our judgement has had principal effects:

1. It took away one of the central planks – the support of the Captain which had been pivotal and even critical in our pursuit of our next premiership.

2. And it created a new impediment in that in 2015, Macca would be communicating his message to a small group who even with the best will in the world; would have this difficult event entrenched in their minds, whenever hard messages needed to be delivered.

When we met yesterday, I asked Macca whether his best judgement was that he could overcome these new significant impediments.

He was uncertain. He asked us to get some further feedback from some key people. We spent a lot of yesterday doing so. The feedback was not all one way – but it was sufficiently compromised to make it clear that Ryan Griffin's position as captain of our great football club was untenable

[COLOR=#000000][FONT=arial] Under this enormous pressure, Macca therefore made the decision to offer his resignnation as senior coach, a decision that is not supported by the Board. Therefore Brendan will continue as senior coach, and both parties will honor his contract as a strong and united football club should.

Some of you will agree – others will not. That’s your right as a Bulldogs person.

Brendan is a good man, but not a faultless man. As President, Board and Senior Management – we all like and respect him, and will help him with whatever means necessary, continue his development as a senior coach. And we want to thank him for his continued significant contribution in building our Club.

There has been a lot said about our review, our Club and our players – and indeed our Board – over the last month.

Lots of old footy sayings like “you can let the players run the Club” have been trotted out. They are very simplistic for the complex environment of the management of professional AFL Clubs in the second decade of the 21st century, however, they still ring true.

I want to say these things about our group:

a. Our players do not run the Club of course. We the board and senior management do. As a board, we are entrusted with the responsibility to make tough and difficult decisions. That is what we have done today.

b. I’m very proud of a majority of our players. The fact that they had these concerns but that their first and predominant position has been to look to work through them and reflect on what they themselves needed to do to get better and make things work better reflects well on them as a group. These players are prepared to endure the hardships that are part and parcel of winning a premiership. They will, I'm sure, achieve that goal in their careers here at Whitten Oval.

Those that do not share our vision have been advised that the club will do its utmost to find them a new club. When trading though, our position is that these players will be traded in such a way that the Western Bulldogs football club gain the maximum benefit. Our supporters deserve as much. If that means that the "club of choice" is not where these players end up, so be it. We thank them for their service.


I want to thank our players for their honesty and concern yesterday. It has been a " line in the sand" moment for our club, and I hope that the members and supporters understand our stance. No individual is greater that the club.

Foundations are strong for an exciting future if we hang together and continue to work hard.

We now will look forward to an extensive process to appoint a Captain and continue to strengthen our club.

Peter Gordon
President
That would have bought a smile to my face.