Swans chat Tom Harley

[The Big Cat]

Head of Football... with no coaching experience.
I think he's as poisonous, if not more, than Stevie J.

Andrew Ireland was the best head of football the AFL has seen and he had no coaching experience.

[AnnieH]

Andrew Ireland was the best head of football the AFL has seen and he had no coaching experience.

Yeah, but he's not a dickhead.
Tom is a dickhead, as is Stevie J. Has Tom got the "corporate" background experience that Andrew Ireland has?
I think not.
I think the exodus of our coaching staff has a lot to do with Tom Harley.

[Cosmic Wizard]

Getting Jackson Thurlow makes the trade period a resounding success. He's the kind of player who has some real underlying talent, but hasn't been able to show it at Geelong, in part due several injuries. By no way is he a sure thing, but a real chance to be a good player for us. Plays in right position as well.

How good a CEO could Ireland be if he chose Tom Harley as Head of Football? So you're saying the best CEO in the business chose a dickhead to run football operations, but wasn't clever enough to realise that Tom was a dickhead.

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Check out what's happening this year. Not a joke.

People are being harsh to compare Harley with Ireland, the best in the business.

If Harley is only half as good, we are still way ahead!

[goswannies]

Sounds like Grohan 2.0. I don't know much about him but wasn't he one of the players that tore us a new one in the finals last year?

That was a whole team full of players that day IIRC

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People are being harsh to compare Harley with Ireland, the best in the business.

If Harley is only half as good, we are still way ahead!

Problem is, I’m getting the vibe here that he’s not even co sidered one tenth as good. Time will tell I guess

[Bexl]

Harley's outside run is pretty good. I saw him running outside closely followed by a woman with a baseball bat. It might have been AnnieH.

LOL big time.

[moocher]

Tom Harley

A sensible appraisal of all things Swans atm.....as opposed to Barrett's 'fake news' drivel.....and a lesson to some posters here on how to 'chill'. I, like Harley and Horse, have massive confidence in our list and future. Our best 22 can be a powerful team.

I don't understand all the negativity surrounding Harley on this site. He was a mighty popular and highly respected captain at Geelong and not because he was an elite footballer, he wasn't. It was because he was thought of as a good leader and was a highly respected human being.
I agree if we can get our best 22 on the park and in form we will be formidable.

[dimelb]

I don't understand all the negativity surrounding Harley on this site. He was a mighty popular and highly respected captain at Geelong and not because he was an elite footballer, he wasn't. It was because he was thought of as a good leader and was a highly respected human being.
I agree if we can get our best 22 on the park and in form we will be formidable.

I agree with you about Harley. On my admittedly scanty knowledge I think very highly of him and think he has mastered the Horse approach to journalists: be polite, tell the truth and don't say more than you need to.

I also think he's highly regarded by his peers, both on the football side and the management side. As is so often the case, we got a good one.

[barry]

I agree with you about Harley. On my admittedly scanty knowledge I think very highly of him and think he has mastered the Horse approach to journalists: be polite, tell the truth and don't say more than you need to.

I also think he's highly regarded by his peers, both on the football side and the management side. As is so often the case, we got a good one.

Great footballers don't make great dentists, engineers, doctors or CEO's. I think he's to inexperienced at a corporate level to run a $30m business. I mean, does he even have an MBA?
He may become a great corporate leader but I wish he practiced somewhere else first while he hones his skills.
Just my opinion.

[CureTheSane]

Great footballers don't make great dentists, engineers, doctors or CEO's. I think he's to inexperienced at a corporate level to run a $30m business. I mean, does he even have an MBA?
He may become a great corporate leader but I wish he practiced somewhere else first while he hones his skills.
Just my opinion.

In general I agree with what you have said there.
I've said the same thing a few times regarding AJ etc
You get the best person for the job, and having played the game should count for something, but not much.

I see Harley's case as a bit different because there is no way in hell he would have got to where he has so quickly (within a professional organisation) without having the goods.
I dare say his elevation has been organic, deserved and eagerly allowed to happen.
As usual we don't know anything about his expertise, so we can only trust in the club making the right decisions at board level, and in recent history they have nailed it so no reason to start doubting now, without any real reasons.

[The Big Cat]

Great footballers don't make great dentists, engineers, doctors or CEO's. I think he's to inexperienced at a corporate level to run a $30m business. I mean, does he even have an MBA?
He may become a great corporate leader but I wish he practiced somewhere else first while he hones his skills.
Just my opinion.

Yeah. Let's get some experienced corporate types like those we've seen before the banking royal commission. Overpaid inbred corporate ladder climbers whose only skill appears to be owning the achievements of others and disowning their own failures. Without doubt the moral bottom-feeders of society. There. I've had my say! Now let's get back to footy.

[Bloods05]

Yeah. Let's get some experienced corporate types like those we've seen before the banking royal commission. Overpaid inbred corporate ladder climbers whose only skill appears to be owning the achievements of others and disowning their own failures. Without doubt the moral bottom-feeders of society. There. I've had my say! Now let's get back to footy.

+1

[stevoswan]

Great footballers don't make great dentists, engineers, doctors or CEO's. I think he's to inexperienced at a corporate level to run a $30m business. I mean, does he even have an MBA?
He may become a great corporate leader but I wish he practiced somewhere else first while he hones his skills.
Just my opinion.

Oh yeah, the oft held myth of the 'real world'......exposing yourself to corporate governance doesn't always make you a better person......often it makes one an asshole.

[Markwebbos]

Yeah. Let's get some experienced corporate types like those we've seen before the banking royal commission. Overpaid inbred corporate ladder climbers whose only skill appears to be owning the achievements of others and disowning their own failures. Without doubt the moral bottom-feeders of society. There. I've had my say! Now let's get back to footy.

+2

[liz]

Oh yeah, the oft held myth of the 'real world'......exposing yourself to corporate governance doesn't always make you a better person......often it makes one an asshole.

Not sure whether you really mean "corporate governance" in this post, or more generally "the corporate world". Exposing yourself to (sound) corporate governance principles can never be a bad thing. From the snippets that have been released to the public, sound corporate governance, and broader compliance systems and ethical policies, seem to have been severely lacking in many of the big financial institutions. But that doesn't mean they are completely lacking in all companies. I've worked for some companies that have shown a great deal of respect for compliance and corporate governance, and who have been very successful commercially while doing so.

On Tom Harley, I think he might actually have an MBA. But having an MBA doesn't equip one to run a $30m pa turnover business. Only experience and learning from the right people (and somewhat from your own mistakes) can help you do that. I do think Harley is pretty inexperienced in aspects of running a football club other than the football department itself, and even his experience in that department is relatively short. Only time will tell whether he has what it takes. The strongest endorsement is that he would have worked very closely with Andrew Ireland for the last few years, and I reckon Andrew's experience and track record present a strong case for him being one of the very best in the football business. I doubt he would have been appointed as CEO unless Andrew believed he was capable of it.

BTW, in case anyone is wondering, I've shifted posts about Harley and other related (non list management) issues out of the trading and list management thread. Or at least, if anyone is reading this shortly after I've posted it, I'm about to go and do so.

[CureTheSane]

Yeah. Let's get some experienced corporate types like those we've seen before the banking royal commission. Overpaid inbred corporate ladder climbers whose only skill appears to be owning the achievements of others and disowning their own failures. Without doubt the moral bottom-feeders of society. There. I've had my say! Now let's get back to footy.

-1

Rash generalisation