Chairmen no longer in charge

On their podcast the other day, Eddie McGuire and Jimmy Bartel mentioned how the evolution of the game had meant the end of the road for what used to be one of the most important roles at a football club –chairman of selectors.

Be it that name or its other moniker, match committee chairman, the best ones were often the power behind the throne at their clubs.

Some would put the fear of god into others at their club and a few outside as well, especially journalists. Others were more gentle, often playing the ‘good cop’, while still retaining their power and authority.

In the days of part-time semi-professional football, match committee chairmen were often former players who had done well in business off the field.

They had the capacity to get to training, or for a long lunch with the coach, restless board members or a potential recruit for the following season.

None fit the description better than Wes Lofts, for whom the term ‘club powerbroker’ was practically invented.

He was a rugged, close-checking and uncompromising 167-game defender for Carlton in the 1960s, playing in the 1968 premiership.

Lofts joined the Carlton board a decade later and his influence was profound.

He helped pick the team most weeks and if you watched any vision of a Carlton game you could find him seated immediately alongside the coach, be it Alex Jesaulenko, Peter Jones, David Parkin or Robert Walls.

He was a close confidante of every Carlton coach, but ruthless enough to move them on swiftly and with little emotion.

His fingerprints were across every area of the club and in his case, he installed presidents, found board members and was deeply involved in recruiting. Carlton people give him enormous credit for the 1981, 1982, 1987 and 1995 premierships.

The 1970s to 1990s era was the golden age for the match committee chairman and there is no surprise the successful clubs of the time had senior figures who held the role for several years.

Max Ritchie (resplendent in plaid blazers) was the soothing voice in Ron Barassi’s ear as the Kangaroos won their first two premierships.

Essendon people still rave at the role Brian Donohue played at the club for the first half of Kevin Sheedy’s time as coach. They likened him to Lofts, without the toe-cutting.

Brian Coleman was hugely regarded for his support and wise counsel to Hawthorn premiership coaches Allan Jeans and Alan Joyce.

Other clubs tried to replicate the model. Barry Richardson, the former Richmond premiership player and coach, later became a hired gun match committee chairman, holding the position at Melbourne, Carlton and Geelong.

Fast-forward a quarter of a century and the old match committee chairman has joined the drop kick, woollen jumpers and suburban grounds in the great footy graveyard.

The move to full-time professionalism for the players, with the massive spike in coaching and administration numbers that went with it, made the position redundant.

These days, the senior coach usually picks the team, with the assistant coaches, and with input from high performance managers, data analysts and opposition scouts taken into account.

The general manager of football usually takes part in these meetings but their level of active involvement varies.

Back in the day, the chairman of selectors was also on the club committee, serving as the conduit between the coach and the board. There are football-focused directors at every club, but they almost never help pick the team.

They still act as the go-between the coach, the football department, and the board but they tend to involve themselves in long-term planning such as list management rather than who will start in the midfield.

They don’t even have to be at every game.

As GWS Giants football director, Bartel was widely praised for the painstaking process to identify Adam Kingsley as the club’s next coach, but because of his media commitments, he does not get to every game.

It is the sort of model that works at most clubs most of the time.

But there have been a few senior coaches in recent years who have barely got out of the starting gate.

How might Rhyce Shaw, David Teague or Ben Rutten have fared with an old-school match committee chairman in their corner?

Perhaps a little better in our estimation.

@hashbrowne