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Re: LOL Aints
Anyone have any insights why they have parted ways?
Anyone have any insights why they have parted ways?
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More of an In Bruges guy? -
Re: LOL Aints
I heard from a very good source (take itto the bank) just after Ratten was sacked, that some incredibly influential people at the club were not at all impressed with either Matt Finnis (very nice guy, just too soft) or Lethlean (not at all liked, "part of the old boys club"). He basically said it will take a little bit of time but they are going to put a broom through the place. Well, that is what has happened.Comment
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Re: LOL Aints
Well according to my Saints mate Lethlean made a number of bad appointments and it's come back to bite him in terms of how he is viewed as an executive. There might have been some questions on how committed he really was. It's not a job to have if you aren't chips in.Western Bulldogs Football Club "Where it's cool to drool"Comment
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Re: LOL Aints
Not Lethers. Say it ain't so.
Sedat will be inconsolable."It's over. It's all over."Comment
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Re: LOL Aints
Who has Lethers been caught rooting this time?"Look at me mate. Look at me. I'm flyin'"Comment
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Re: LOL Aints
Simon Lethlean and St Kilda “agreed to part ways” after the club made it clear it wanted the chief executive to steer clear from the football department.
St Kilda president Andrew Bassat has denied Ross Lyon wields too much power at Moorabbin after another departure continued 16 months of upheaval at the Saints.
The Saints announced the split with the former club football boss on Thursday, after Lethlean had been frozen out of the football department since Ross Lyon’s return as coach in October, 2022.
St Kilda appointed Lethlean to the CEO job before enacting drastic change to the club in a bid to put football first.
The Saints said on Thursday the chief executive’s role had “shifted” and Lethlean’s hopes of straddling both the business and football side of the club were taken away.
The Saints have not begun the search for a new CEO yet, with chief operating officer and former North Melbourne chief executive Carl Dilena to step in as interim.
Dilena played alongside Lyon at Fitzroy in the late 1980s and early 90s.
It’s understood that Lethlean and Lyon never worked particularly closely together but also didn’t butt heads in any meaningful way.
The Saints believed the pair worked amicably but Lethlean was forced further away from the football department and the role he envisaged in 2022.
Lethlean became the latest figure to depart St Kilda after a lengthy review in 2022 that most notably saw coach Brett Ratten sacked.Western Bulldogs Football Club "Where it's cool to drool"Comment
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Re: LOL Aints
You hire someone who then freezes you out. That's all types of nuts, unless you're a bit of a stooge.TF is this?.........Obviously you're not a golfer.Comment
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Re: LOL Aints
?Bet the house on Ross?: The slow-motion takeover at St Kilda
When St Kilda made the brutal call to jettison Brett Ratten and bring back Ross Lyon, they were hiring far more than a coach with a proven capacity to command a playing group and get immediate improvement.
Lyon?s first stint as St Kilda coach, especially the years of 2009 and 2010, represents a kind of Camelot for the Saints. The best players of that period ? Nick Riewoldt, Lenny Hayes, Brendon Goddard, Nick Dal Santo, Leigh Montagna, Robert Harvey (who?d retired in 2008) ? can be seen as knights of the round table.
And they?re now knights at Ross?s table.
While the grail eluded them and Lyon, those players carry enormous weight with the St Kilda faithful; if a club does not have a premiership era ? and 1966 is too long ago to retain relevance ? then the gallant knights who almost touched the cup become the benchmark and perhaps the guardians of the club.
Those players also have significant media profiles ? Riewoldt, Dal Santo, Goddard and Montagna have been/are commentators with Fox Footy or radio ? while Hayes and Harvey are bona fide legends.
So, when Lyon was brought back at the behest of president Andrew Bassat?s board, he did so with the backing of the knights and a round table duly was erected at Moorabbin.
Simon Lethlean learnt in 2023 that he didn?t have a seat at the table, certainly not where the business of football was concerned.
Lyon likes to say ?let the cobblers cobble?, a variation on Mick Malthouse?s ?let the bakers bake their bread,? which really means that the coach shouldn?t interfere with staff who have particular expertise in their field.
But the coach also must have faith in the cobblers. If he doesn?t trust what?s being produced ? whether that?s the players recruited, the preparation of their fitness or the psychologist helping them think and run straight ? there?s a chance that he?ll want his own cobblers, or at least cobblers he?s aligned with.
On Thursday, after Nine?s Tom Morris broke the news that chief executive Lethlean was leaving, the reaction within the AFL ecosystem ? from current and former officials from rival clubs and others within the industry ? was that this was a victory for Lyon, in terms of consolidating power/control; that, as one senior official at a Victorian club put it, the Saints ?bet the house on Ross?.
Lyon?s enhanced power base and clout ? and St Kilda?s judgment that their list isn?t up to contention-level yet ? is in contrast to the situation of Luke Beveridge at the Bulldogs, who has seen a raft of changes made around him, and then a further review of the football program by Peter Jackson, the ex-Essendon and Melbourne CEO.
Beveridge, as this masthead reported, was overruled on the removal of assistant coach Rohan Smith late last year. His control of the football domain has eroded.
Bassat downplayed the notion that Lyon and Lethlean clashed, telling this column that the pair had tried to make their relationship work. But the president acknowledged that Lethlean had ended with less input into football and that he would have preferred ?a role that was the original conception?.
The balance of power that led to Lethlean?s exit can be discerned simply by examining who?s been hired and who?s left before and after Ratten was replaced by Lyon.
In: Hayes, Goddard, Harvey (all in coaching crew). Stephen Silvagni, a close friend of Lyon?s, has a role as list manager. David Misson, initially brought in to oversee conditioning, is the new head of football and is another Lyon ally from the Camelot of 2008-11. Simon Dalrymple, ex-Swans and Dogs recruiting boss, has come in to work under Silvagni and his veteran ally, Graeme Allan.
Out: football manager/strategist David Rath (now at Essendon), list boss James Gallagher, recruiting manager Chris Toche, recruiter and ex-Hawk great Jarryd Roughead, psychologist Ben Robbins.
St Kilda had initially hired the highly experienced Geoff Walsh to head the football department, shortly before Ratten?s removal by Bassat, only for Walsh to walk away after four months for personal reasons. It is hard to say how Walsh would have navigated any Lyon/Lethlean discord ? certainly he and Lyon established a rapport ? but the upshot is that Misson is more wedded to the coach, who technically reports to Misson, but realpolitik says is answerable only to Bassat and the board.
Carl Dilena, the acting chief executive and ex-Kangaroos CEO, is well regarded by Bassat and favourite to land the CEO job. It is hard to imagine that Dilena will be much involved in Lyon?s domain ? Bassat, indeed, suggested that the next CEO would be less football-focused than Lethlean had been.
Ross Lyon had no say in CEO exit, St Kilda president explains
From outside, this has the appearance of a slow-motion coup d?etat.
But really the driver of this takeover is Bassat, rather than Lyon himself. The board ? whose football director is Jason Blake, another knight of 2009-10 ? has handed the keys to the coach.
Bassat said of the Lethlean exit: ?Ross had no agency in this decision at all. It was a conversation between the board and Simon. So it [Lethlean and Lyon?s relationship] wasn?t perfect but it was fine.?
Bassat, in effect, has considered the Lethlean vision of St Kilda?s football operation and Lyon?s version and chosen to back the latter.
It is unclear who will stand in Lyon?s way on football matters if there?s a disagreement or an overreach. As it stands, due to the overlapping relationships and history, he arguably has more power within his club than any other current coach, John Longmire possibly excepted.
But the question of whether Lyon and the knights land the grail will hinge more on the quality of players that Dalrymple and Silvagni find than on how the coach marshals the Saints in his second coming.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.Comment
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Re: LOL Aints
I've got the marshmallows roasting and the popcorn out for this, another inevitable disaster at the perennial self destroyers : the Aints.BT COME BACK!
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