Essendon Football Club has finalised its football department review.
The internal review was conducted by Chief Executive Officer Xavier Campbell in consultation with former AFL player, coach and senior AFL Club administrator, Neale Daniher.
The thorough and comprehensive review was conducted over a ten week period. The review involved interviews with a broad cross section of the football department including coaches, players, senior management and medical staff.
As part of the review, key insights were identified, measured and externally benchmarked against the operations of leading AFL Clubs by Culture, Leadership and Organisational Performance consultant Shane McCurry. This aspect of the review included consultation with a number of experienced and highly respected AFL and senior sports administrators, along with looking at best practice culture and leadership development practices of several non-sporting organisations globally.
Senior Coach, John Worsfold, also provided input into the review following his appointment at the Club.
A number of positive insights were identified as key strengths of the existing football program, which provide a strong base for the football Club to progress into 2016 and beyond.
The review also identified a number of areas of improvement to ensure the Club provides an elite performance environment and works toward building a football program capable of sustained success and achieving the broader Club vision of becoming the most successful, inclusive and respected Club in Australian sport.
This has provided the Club with a number of best practice recommendations across all areas of its football department, with a particular focus on leadership, structure and people. These include;
- Expand the Club’s Player Development Program across the entire playing group, to acknowledge the importance of continual improvement regardless of playing experience, maintaining a particular focus on the first to fifth year players and enhancing the duty of care responsibilities for all coaching staff
- The introduction of a new function within football called People, Learning and Growth; this will involve the creation of the new position Head of People, Learning and Growth. This position will work closely with the coaches, players and football department staff to ensure key learning and development outcomes and teaching methods are achieved, and to uphold the standards and values of the Club’s elite sporting program. The introduction of this role follows trends in performance based industries and provides further investment into our people
- Introduction of an external leadership program for coaches and players to develop and establish a strong culture of coach and player driven leadership
- The two General Manager Positions have been consolidated into a single General Manager of Football role to ensure more effective communication and streamlined reporting. Current General Manager, Football Operations & Strategy, Rob Kerr has been elevated to this role. The dual General Manager roles allowed for the establishment of strong governance and compliance frameworks and the Club is now in the position to invest further and expand the number of senior managers within the football department.
- A newly created role of Game Performance Manager will be responsible for working closely with the Senior Coach to deliver game strategy and performance initiatives across the coaching and development area of the football department. Mark Neeld will take up this role and, along with the 3 Assistant Coaches, will report to the Senior Coach.
- A further analysis will be conducted by the General Manager of Football into the List Management operations. This analysis will have a specific focus on ensuring resources, data, analysis and review practices are in line with industry benchmark but also consider broader global trends and practice, in what is perhaps the fastest moving and most progressive areas of AFL.
The above recommendations will now form part of a performance framework that will be reviewed, modified and challenged on an ongoing basis to ensure we provide an elite performance environment for our players, coaches and staff.
It is also important to note that the key learning’s from the review also significantly shaped the position criteria for the senior coach role which has now been filled by John Worsfold. John brings premiership experience but also importantly has established skills and experience in driving key cultural change initiatives and building a performance based environment.
Update on other Football Department Staff changes:
Separate to the Football Review a number of Football Department staff changes have occurred in preparation for the 2016 season. The changes are as follows;
- John Worsfold has been appointed the Senior Coach of the Essendon Football Club for the 2016 season.
- Hayden Skipworth will be elevated to a full-time line coach in 2016.
- The Club is in the process of replacing Mark Neeld as Head of Player Development. That role will continue to be supported by Development Coaches, Mark Corrigan and Paul Corrigan.
- Justin Crow has been retained as the Club’s High Performance Manager for season 2016. Justin has been held the position since 2014.
- Jesse Campisi has been promoted to the position of Strength Coach. Jesse replaces Jarrod Wade who has accepted a position with NRL Club, Parramatta.
- Des O’Sullivan has been promoted to Development strength and conditioning coach replacing Jess Campisi
- Peter Blanche has been appointed the Club’s new Head Physiotherapist. Peter is highly respected in his field and has more than 30 years experience after working at the AIS, Cricket Australia and Swimming Australia. Peter replaces Meiron Jones who accepted a position with NRL Club, Melbourne Storm.
- Matt Little has stepped into the role of Player Development Manager with Ash Brown taking over the VFL Operations manager role for 2016
