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Swans chase top Cat
By Tim Morrissey
June 5, 2003
GEELONG saviour Brian Cook is on the shortlist of chief executive candidates to lead the Sydney Swans out of their financial woes.
Cook - credited with rescuing Geelong.
Embattled Swans chairman Richard Colless believes the CEO appointment will be the most important decision the club will make over the next five years.
Getting the right man for the job will be a major factor in convincing the AFL that it should offer the Swans a $1million-plus rescue package to keep the club afloat.
The Swans are determined that past management practices, which have plunged the club to a forecast $2million debt by the end of October, will not be tolerated,
The AFL and rival clubs have indicated they will support Sydney but only if they improve their fiscal competence.
Colless believes the Swans need "world best" management practices after it was discovered last July that the club was nose-diving into debt.
Colless alerted the AFL to the Swans' plight in August and has since had a hands-on role in the administration of the club.
In the same period, former Swans CEO Kelvin Templeton resigned and his successor Colin Seery was recently moved on to "special projects", effectively leaving the club without a chief administrator, and allowing Colless and fellow board member Andrew McMaster calling the shots.
A Swans spokesman revealed that Cook, who has been credited with rescuing Geelong from financial disaster after reducing their debt from $8 million to $1.3 million, was very much in the picture.
The club has appointed an international head-hunting company to find the right man.
Cook is so highly considered within AFL circles that the Cats CEO is also being touted as a replacement for outgoing AFL boss Wayne Jackson.
The need to find the right person for the Swans' top job gained even more urgency yesterday when Jackson put an end to speculation that the AFL would step in and take over the club's administration.
"There is no suggestion that we would take control of the Swans administration or indeed any other football club," Jackson said.
"It is appropriate that Richard as chairman of the board accepts the ultimate responsibility ... and he's done that."
Jackson said Colless had to be given credit for alerting the AFL to the Swans' plight in August last year.
Sources have revealed that an independent report by the AFL's corporate consultants into the Swans' financial affair was highly critical of the club's management for not anticipating the looming cash crisis after corporate Sydney abandoned the club for the Rugby World Cup.
http://foxsports.news.com.au/story/0...-23211,00.html at
By Tim Morrissey
June 5, 2003
GEELONG saviour Brian Cook is on the shortlist of chief executive candidates to lead the Sydney Swans out of their financial woes.
Cook - credited with rescuing Geelong.
Embattled Swans chairman Richard Colless believes the CEO appointment will be the most important decision the club will make over the next five years.
Getting the right man for the job will be a major factor in convincing the AFL that it should offer the Swans a $1million-plus rescue package to keep the club afloat.
The Swans are determined that past management practices, which have plunged the club to a forecast $2million debt by the end of October, will not be tolerated,
The AFL and rival clubs have indicated they will support Sydney but only if they improve their fiscal competence.
Colless believes the Swans need "world best" management practices after it was discovered last July that the club was nose-diving into debt.
Colless alerted the AFL to the Swans' plight in August and has since had a hands-on role in the administration of the club.
In the same period, former Swans CEO Kelvin Templeton resigned and his successor Colin Seery was recently moved on to "special projects", effectively leaving the club without a chief administrator, and allowing Colless and fellow board member Andrew McMaster calling the shots.
A Swans spokesman revealed that Cook, who has been credited with rescuing Geelong from financial disaster after reducing their debt from $8 million to $1.3 million, was very much in the picture.
The club has appointed an international head-hunting company to find the right man.
Cook is so highly considered within AFL circles that the Cats CEO is also being touted as a replacement for outgoing AFL boss Wayne Jackson.
The need to find the right person for the Swans' top job gained even more urgency yesterday when Jackson put an end to speculation that the AFL would step in and take over the club's administration.
"There is no suggestion that we would take control of the Swans administration or indeed any other football club," Jackson said.
"It is appropriate that Richard as chairman of the board accepts the ultimate responsibility ... and he's done that."
Jackson said Colless had to be given credit for alerting the AFL to the Swans' plight in August last year.
Sources have revealed that an independent report by the AFL's corporate consultants into the Swans' financial affair was highly critical of the club's management for not anticipating the looming cash crisis after corporate Sydney abandoned the club for the Rugby World Cup.
http://foxsports.news.com.au/story/0...-23211,00.html at
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