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  1. #1
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    CEO message to members and fans

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    Bulldogs CEO Gary Kent responds to media speculation over his tenure at the Club.

    Over the past few weeks, questions have continued to surface in the media over my tenure as CEO at the Club. I’ve tried to address these questions with our staff, but this industry being what it is, questions and rumours still abide.
    So here is some further clarification.

    I was asked by the Club Board to step into the role of Club CEO at a critical point mid-way through the 2016 season following the departure of David Stevenson. Though I had retired from full-time executive roles and had taken up a number of executive consultancies, I agreed to the Board’s request out of a sense of obligation to this footy club which I have loved all my life.

    Initially, I wanted my appointment as CEO to be characterised as interim. But as things progressed and the unique circumstances of 2016 unfolded, the Board and I both thought it was in the Club’s best interests that I stay on into 2017.

    Our President Peter Gordon has said in recent weeks and so have I, that I never intended to take up the CEO job for the long term. And this is true. The Board and I haven’t had a set leave-by date for me to depart. We haven’t needed to. We have simply maintained a dialogue about it as the events of the year have unfolded.

    In June this year, I wrote to the Board and said I would prefer a new CEO be in place by the first AFL Premiership season game of 2018. The reasons for my preference as to the timing of that departure are in that letter. Needless to say, they are a far cry from some of the recent media reporting. The letter was a statement of my intentions. It was not a letter of resignation. Despite a recent false media report to the contrary, I have not resigned.

    Since my letter, the Board has gone about its business of identifying a replacement CEO quietly and professionally, and I have been kept informed of the Board’s work.

    The task of appointing a new CEO during this period comes at a time when the Club has the greatest set of on-field and off-field opportunities in its long history. The job will have greater breadth than in times past. So it is appropriate that selection process take place with caution and with professionalism.

    Some of the recent media commentary about our club, especially the false report that I have resigned, the allegation that the club is ‘imploding’ and the suggestion the whole club is run by an ‘autocrat’ President, is particularly disappointing to me especially in the light of the demonstrated results which have occurred under my leadership as CEO this year and our Board’s governance of the Club since 2013.

    The Club has virtually eradicated our debt, we will pay out our long-held Westpac overdraft this year, we have had our third straight year of record membership, and our third straight year of record revenue, and last year we posted the biggest profit in our history. We have had record attendances, record tv viewing results, and outstanding growth in social media metrics.

    Our investment in new and innovative community activities is at an all-time high. We broke a 62-year AFL premiership drought and have won two out of the last four VFL flags. We led the introduction of AFL Women’s football. This year, we will again post a profit in excess of a million dollars.

    Despite all this, this week, a football talk show tweeted that we as a club “have more issues than ever”. The same program made the claim that the ‘problem’ lies in the fact that our President is ‘an autocrat.’ When I joined the board in 2012, the Club had a total accrued debt of over $12 million, one of the largest debts in the competition.

    It had a multi-million dollar liability risk hanging over its head due to the failing Edgewater development. It was struggling to break even from year to year, had membership of 30,000, had finished 15th on the AFL ladder and had not won a premiership in 59 years. It had no VFL team and no women’s team.

    The idea that in September 2017, we ‘have more issues than ever’ suggests we are worse off as a club now compared to then. It is a ridiculous and totally indefensible claim being made by journalists who claim expertise and experience in the AFL industry and who should know better.

    Western Bulldogs members can count on us to inform them of matters when there is a genuine need to. We can’t comment on every individual player trade rumour or piece of gossip that comes up. It’s not in the Club’s interests to do so. Let us do our talking to our players, and where relevant, to their managers. Obviously our goal is to get the best outcome for the club we can.

    In the meantime, we will all get on with our job of preparing for 2018 and delivering on the significant opportunities we have for future success on and off the field.

    Exclusive to westernbulldogs.com.au
    Last edited by bornadog; 20-09-2017 at 03:30 PM. Reason: New Photo of CEO
    FFC: Established 1883

    Premierships: AFL 1954, 2016 VFA - 1898,99,1900, 1908, 1913, 1919-20, 1923-24, VFL: 2014, 2016 . Champions of Victoria 1924. AFLW - 2018.

  2. #2
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    Re: CEO message to members and fans

    Fantastic letter, get stuffed all media and rumour mongers
    FFC: Established 1883

    Premierships: AFL 1954, 2016 VFA - 1898,99,1900, 1908, 1913, 1919-20, 1923-24, VFL: 2014, 2016 . Champions of Victoria 1924. AFLW - 2018.

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  4. #3
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    Re: CEO message to members and fans

    Any truth that this update was actually written by PG with Gary's blood on the entrance of WO?

    That's about as big as a swipe back as you can have.
    Rocket Science: the epitaph for the Beveridge era - whenever it ends - reading 'Here lies a team that could beat anyone on its day, but seldom did when it mattered most'. 15/7/2023

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  6. #4
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    Re: CEO message to members and fans

    No debts, No Loans - I have waited for that for a long time.
    FFC: Established 1883

    Premierships: AFL 1954, 2016 VFA - 1898,99,1900, 1908, 1913, 1919-20, 1923-24, VFL: 2014, 2016 . Champions of Victoria 1924. AFLW - 2018.

  7. #5
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    Re: CEO message to members and fans

    Quote Originally Posted by bornadog View Post
    No debts, No Loans - I have waited for that for a long time.
    I thought you'd like that in particular.
    Rocket Science: the epitaph for the Beveridge era - whenever it ends - reading 'Here lies a team that could beat anyone on its day, but seldom did when it mattered most'. 15/7/2023

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  9. #6
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    Re: CEO message to members and fans

    Quote Originally Posted by bulldogtragic View Post
    Any truth that this update was actually written by PG with Gary's blood on the entrance of WO?

    That's about as big as a swipe back as you can have.
    If he is stepping down, then I would hope we get an experienced person who has been a CEO before.
    Last edited by bornadog; 20-09-2017 at 03:35 PM.
    FFC: Established 1883

    Premierships: AFL 1954, 2016 VFA - 1898,99,1900, 1908, 1913, 1919-20, 1923-24, VFL: 2014, 2016 . Champions of Victoria 1924. AFLW - 2018.

  10. #7
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    Re: CEO message to members and fans

    Strongest work from the club in weeks, maybe months! On or off the field!!!

  11. #8
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    Re: CEO message to members and fans

    Quote Originally Posted by bornadog View Post
    No debts, No Loans - I have waited for that for a long time.


    Isn't it great news? Almost as good as the premiership. Our club is safe! It will still be there when we wake up in the morning.
    Have you been reading those Roddy Doyle books again, Dougal!?


    I have, yeah Ted, you big gobshite

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  13. #9
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    Re: CEO message to members and fans

    It is fantastic that we have come out with this clarity.

    We certainly have done exceptionally well off field over the past 5 years, while also providing our members with the best on field moments of their entire football supporting lives.

    Onward and upward
    GO DOGS!!!!!
    Life is to be Enjoyed not Endured

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  15. #10
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    Re: CEO message to members and fans

    Well done by Gary Kent. He said what needed to be said and giving a backhander to those media flogs he refers to in doing so.

    Our club is in excellent shape.

    If we need to kick the backsides of a few in the organisation who aren't performing then that is what we should be doing.
    Listening to Brahm's 3rd Racket

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  17. #11
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    Re: CEO message to members and fans

    For those that aren't aware, this is what has triggered the excellent response from the club.

    https://www.9now.com.au/footy-classi...0q0ipdhgew2n83
    For those who were always the underdogs and wore it as a badge of honour.

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  19. #12
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    Re: CEO message to members and fans

    Thanks, Aker. More cr*p from Carro. Sensationalist, tabloid-style drivel; sort of ordure that Barrett and Slobbo churn out.
    Great statement from Gary Kent. Congratulations to all concerned who have worked so damned hard to get the club to where we now are.

  20. #13
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    Re: CEO message to members and fans

    Great statement from the club bugger off Wilson and Barrett you flogs have no idea

  21. #14
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    Re: CEO message to members and fans

    Shows she hasn't done her research on what's happens at the club since Peter took over.
    Pretty amazing facts to prove the opposite.
    Bring back the biff

  22. #15
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    Re: CEO message to members and fans

    Did anyone hear that gossip columnist Wilson rattling on about another CEO going by the wayside ?
    When are the likes of Carro and Grub Barrett going to be held accountable for just bare faced lies ?
    Sadly now you have to swim through the steaming pile of poo which is the media coverage to get a decent story .

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