North Melbourne has had an off-season of good news. Source: News Limited
North Melbourne chairman James Brayshaw worries that talking about an off-season of good news may make it seem like North Melbourne is satisfied - that a below-par season in which the Roos failed to play finals doesn't burn as it should.
SCROLL DOWN TO READ THE FULL BRAYSHAW TRANSCRIPT
But there is no downplaying the gains North has made. There will be a seven-figure profit; debt is down; revenue, attendance and TV audience is up.
And, after the arrival of football manager Geoff Walsh and a fistful of new assistant coaches, the "suits" have now put coach Brad Scott and his players in a position where they want for little.
There's also been the arrival of a gun player from another club. The symbolism of Saint Nick Dal Santo (right) choosing to join North Melbourne may even be more important than what he can delivers Scott's midfield.
As Brayshaw says, it may not have happened a few years ago. He recalls a similar situation in which a high-profile player was changing clubs and had a decision to make.
"I remember being on air (radio) with some people and one of the people I was on air with said, would the particular player look at coming to North Melbourne, and one of the other people I was on air with sort of sneered - didn't realise he was doing it - but sneered and said, 'Why would anyone want to go to North Melbourne?'
North Melbourne chairman James Brayshaw. Source: News Limited
"And I remember vividly, that day, I remember thinking, 'We've got to fix that. We have got to fix the perception of that'. Because we know how great this club is, but from outside people had that view."
DALLAS Brooks Hall was packed on the evening of December 6, 2007.
It was only a matter of hours after the Kangaroos board had met and voted no to a reported $100 million offer from the AFL to pack up and head to the Gold Coast.
No one outside the board and the AFL yet knew of that decision. Brayshaw, appointed chairman that day, had travelled straight from the meeting to Dallas Brooks.
"There was this unbelievable simmering tension in the room - 3000 people there - and the simmering tension I think came from that fact that the majority of people turning up thought they were going to hear that the club was moving and they were ropeable," Brayshaw said.
"So to then be able to stand up and say we are not going anywhere, I remember this unbelievable exhalation of air from all these people and it turned into a rallying cry almost, it was quite amazing."
But Brayshaw was alive to the enormity of the task he had just signed up for - even if he was "nowhere near" to understanding the full scale of the financial mess the club was in.
"I remember standing up there thinking, 'What the hell have I got myself into - how are we going to do this?'
Andrew Swallow Source: News Limited
"It was all very well to say, but the doing was going to be the hard bit.
"There were a lot of people in the room that night who, I am sure, were pretty sceptical.
"They would have looked down and thought, 'Here is this media guy, TV guy - who does he think he is and how is he going to do this?'
"And they were right to have that scepticism at the time, I reckon."
The Kangaroos - then not yet returned to the North Melbourne name - were drowning in $8 million of debt and hamstrung by a complicated and, at times, destructive share-based club ownership structure.
The Roos' base at Arden St was a series of portables, a condemned grandstand and a ramshackle players' race that served only as an atmospheric backdrop to countless newspaper photographs.
Coach Dean Laidley was operating on a shoestring and with only a couple of assistants. Remarkably, he led the team into a preliminary final.
But punching above their weight had always been the Roos' thing, and not even another strong year on the field was going to change the prevailing view; until that night, almost everyone - including many great North Melbourne people - thought they had to go to Carrara.
THE first order of business was to straighten things out with the AFL, which plainly wanted North to go.
"There was angst there - no question," Brayshaw said. "And I remember going to see (AFL chief executive) Andrew (Demetriou) and I remember going to see (AFL Commission chairman) Mike (Fitzpatrick) and they were pretty cool, as in distant.
"But I remember sitting with Andrew and saying to him, 'We've got to earn your respect. We have got to prove to you that we can run this business properly. Once we prove to you that we can run it properly, then I expect your help if we deserve it'.
"And to his absolute credit, he looked me in the eye and said, 'Mate, when you start running your business properly, we'll give you the help you need'. And they have."
Next was devising a plan.
The Roos have tried to poach Geelong chief executive Brian Cook - and failed only narrowly last year.
However, they unashamedly pinched the strategy which Cook and then-president Frank Costa implemented at Kardinia Park in the early 2000s - a strategy that has already reaped three premierships.
Mostly, Cook's plan was about getting the right people in the right jobs.
"With the best footy clubs there are minimum five boxes that you have got to tick - the chairman, your managing director (or CEO), your head of football, your coach and your captain.
"You've got to be able to put five emphatic black Artline ticks in those boxes before you can expect success.
"At that time in 2007-08 when I looked around, Geelong with Frank (Costa) and Brian (Cook) and Neil Balme, as well as Bomber Thompson and Tom Harley - they had five black ticks in those boxes, and it's no surprise they were the best club in footy."
Cook's other piece of advice was to forget the gimmicks and set North on a path that would see it make money out of its core business - football.
"You can try and bring out special label wine, you can try and do all sorts of weird stuff, but he said, 'Mate, I'm telling you, you've just got to get your core business right. You've got to get your membership right, your attendance right, your money from playing football has got to be what drives your business'," Brayshaw said.
"And it took me a while to properly understand what he meant, but now we are sitting here in 2013 and I absolutely understand what he meant and totally agree with him."
BRAYSHAW is up for re-election before next season and will serve only one more three-year term as chairman, finishing in 2016.
He is reluctant to talk about his own performance; but happily declares that with managing director Carl Dilena, Walsh, Scott and captain Andrew Swallow the Roos are now ticking all the right boxes.
Brayshaw is determined that everyone at the club shares the credit for its progress - and he acknowledges that all their hard work would be for nought if not for the generosity of members and benefactors - including major financial contributor Peter Scanlon chief among them.
But there is now a confidence rather than hopefulness about what he wants to achieve in his final years in the top job.
"When I hand over to whoever is going to do it next, I would like us to have a locked-in 25-year future, where we are not concerned about six inches in front of our face," he said.
"I'd love us to be debt-free in that time - I think that would be a great statement to the competition; to have Tassie established, to have one more game would be a really good result and to have a long-term deal locked in so that we have got some surety around that which allows that growth to continue.
"On the field, we are all about a long period of sustained onfield success - we don't want five minutes in the sun.
"I spoke at the best and fairest about in the last month (of the season) we beat Geelong, we beat Collingwood and we beat Essendon, who were all in the top five at the time, and ran Hawthorn to within a kick and a half, with 16 players who had played less than 100 games.
"That is the blue sky for our football club."
"Those guys are all going to play 100, 150, 200 games hopefully and in doing that give us a look at long-term, sustained onfield success.
"That's what I'm passionate about, getting us there and keeping us there.
"There will be fans of other clubs who will read this and say, 'oh North Melbourne, making a lot of noise for a club that finished 10th'.
"We acknowledge that, we've got a lot of work to do."
THE FULL JAMES BRAYSHAW TRANSCRIPT
Q: With the appointments of Walsh, Tudor, Brown, Ling and Donehue - it seems like you are now armed for a fair fight - is that how you see it?
A: Yeah, for people outside the club, quite understandably, it looks like this has all happened in a hurry. But really for us, this has been a seven-year build to get to the point where we think we're getting there.
I remember saying to people back in 2007, the analogy I always used was I likened it to a James Bond movie where the plane is plummeting to earth … it was always going to take three or four years just to get the plane level, let alone starting to go back up again.
It was really was going to be that tough to do and history tells you that, if you look at what Frank and Brian did at Geelong it took them 10 years to turn that amazing club around, look at what Eddie did at Collingwood - a good decade until they got the place properly sorted.
We were kidding ourselves if we thought it was going to happen quicker than that.
So it's been bloody hard work and a lot of work from a lot of people to get to a point where we are able to attract Geoff Walsh and Leigh Tudor.
It's been a long time coming, but it is a good thing too, because we need to give our players but also our members and supporters and our family, every opportunity to succeed.
Q: Is it right that from next year you are able to pay close to 100 per cent of the salary cap?
A: There are two things there - firstly it is whether you use that money elsewhere in the business because you have to, which has been a big part of the last six or seven years. But secondly, when you are sitting outside the eight there is a strong argument to say you shouldn't be spending 100 per cent anyway. You want to leave yourself some room for your list to grow into, and we have certainly done that.
When next year comes around, we should be in a position where 100 per cent is what we are paying and our players, by that stage a large bulk of them will be around the 100 game mark and they warrant being paid it.
So there are a couple of reasons why that is a good place to be.
Q: Current financial situation then. You've talked about the club going from about $8 million in debt in 2007 to two-point-something million in debt now, does that mean that you are getting closer to a position where special financial assistance from the AFL is not required?
A: What people need to understand in the broader footy community is that in our footy club - I don't ever speak for anyone else - but in our footy club, when people mention special assistance, what it is a balance amount for the stadium deal we have at Etihad.
In loose terms, we used to play 11 games there before we took a couple down to Hobart and we used to nett- across those 11 games - about $600,000. So in comparison, Geelong makes more than that in one game. So we were just getting smashed at the gate. And the AFL recognises that and we get an amount of money granted to us every year to compensate the fact that we have a horrendous stadium deal handed to us.
We don't have any choice about that - we are told that we have to play our home games at Etihad. We can't take them to the 'G or anywhere else for that matter.
It is really recognition by the AFL that we don't get anywhere near the money we deserve from the gate at Etihad.
One of the easiest ways to get a club like ours free from needing any assistance is to address the stadium deal - but the contract is in place between MSL and the AFL until 2025 - it is what it is.
Q: Should they call it (special financial assistance) something else?
A: Well they probably should, but for us it is an education thing too, because for us there is no other measurement by which we need assistance around other than when we play games there. Doesn't matter if we get 35-40,000 people, we just don't make anywhere near the same money as 40,000 people gets you at Subiaco Oval or the SCG, so that is just a fact of life.
Other than that, the business is in a good, strong position.
Debt is a huge thing for us. We inherited it at $8 million - $1.5 million of that was an old MSL load that Kerry Stokes had been good enough to forward our club well before my time, to really keep us afloat. So we've been able to get that off our books, the accrued debt is down under $3 million.
Q: But how are you doing that? What are the drivers that are getting the debt down?
A: Our unbelievable members are the biggest driver. Each year since we've launched the campaign, they have just been so generous in helping us. Once we have eliminated the debt, we can begin to do so many things that you can't do when you are constricted by debt - as well as just having a yearly interest payment that is just wasted money.
We're really pleased with that, we're really pleased with the revenue figure - things like merchandise sales, attendance, viewership on television - all the things that three or four years ago were stagnating, they are really starting to move.
Q: So it is a matter of doing the basics well?
A: Yeah, I remember way back in 2007 - there's lots of talk about Brian Cook because we did try and get him to our club, but I have always got on really well with Brian and had great regard for him - I remember having a coffee with him around that time and he said exactly that, there are no magic tricks to this.
You can try and bring out special label wine, you can try and do all sorts of weird stuff, but he said 'mate, I'm telling you, you've just got to get your core business right. You've got to get your membership right, your attendance right, your money from playing football has got to be what drives your business'.
And it took me a while to properly understand what he meant, but now we are sitting here in 2013 and I absolutely understand what he meant and totally agree with him.
You've got to make money in AFL footy from you're playing - and that includes getting properly rewarded when people come and watch.
Q: Hobart appears to be going well - it is about what, $500k a game?
A: $500k-ish, depending on a few things, but that's about the round figure.
Q: Would you like to see more games there?
A: Yeah, I think we could easily with the current quota system accommodate one more game. I think three would be great. Blundstone Arena by August next year is going to be beautifully set up for AFL footy.
It will be amazing. It is an incredible place to watch footy - I actually love it, it's like the old Arden St, blue and white everywhere. It's a small venue, intimidating for the opposition. It's great for our supporters in Tassie but also our supporters in Melbourne who want to come down to a beautiful city and have a great event day at a game. Everything about playing in southern Tasmania works for us - so if we could take it to three games, that would be fantastic.
Q: There was a bit of noise around last year - Ron Joseph and others saying Hobart could be the next Gold Coast, waiting to happen. Can you put paid to all of that once and for all?
A: Absolutely. We made a guarantee last year - when there was an item at our AGM to be discussed around games played, what I said to people who had concerns at that time is at the next AGM we will include relocation with merging in our constitution - because we're not going anywhere. We'd be mad to. We've got a $20 million facility at Arden St that we basically nearly own and have an unbelievable time training out of. We've got a huge supporter base in Melbourne, our home is three minutes from the CBD - we think we have one of the best training facilities now in the competition, in the best location so we're not going anywhere. We're just getting stronger and stronger. But, we need to grow. And that is where Hobart is so important because we have got a small supporter base and historically that has been the case and we need to engage more people, their kids need to wear North Melbourne jumpers and beanies and scarfs and come and watch us playing. And in future generations their kids need to be North fans as well and that is how you get bigger. And the simple facts of this comp is the bigger you get, the stronger you are.
That's where Hobart is hugely important and the people of Hobart have embraced us amazingly well. So we will continue to play there - we absolutely love playing there but we are not relocating anywhere and never were going to.
Q: Neither you or Carl have had a lot to say on the AFL's equalisation push, is that something you are involved in behind the scenes or going to become more involved in - given North could be one of the club's to benefit most?
A: Carl has been involved a lot and has driven that from our club's point of view - he's been an unbelievable addition to our club as managing director - and has driven a lot of our views on equalisation. And as we have discussed a lot of it stems around stadium economics. And I don't blame anyone, by the way. Because in 2025 the AFL is going to pay $30 and own a billion-dollar asset, so we all understand the end game.
But what we don't want is for it to cripple us along the way, and therefore quite rightly the Western Bulldogs and St Kilda and ourselves, Carlton and Essendon have gone to the AFL and said we need to be compensated for in effect purchasing this asset for the 18 clubs. There is no secret in any of that, and the AFL have been really good with it and said 'we understand that'. So that is a big part of equalisation.
Every club is different. You've got different needs and different reasons for needing additional funding.
Q: Are you pleased that the AFL has gotten more bolshie about it?
A: Absolutely. It had to happen. Otherwise we would have just ended up with an EPL model where you've got three or four clubs that have everything and 15 clubs that are just doing their best.
That's not what our competition is about - there's no point having a draft, no point having a salary cap if you are supporting a team that every year you think has no chance of winning.
So, the way it should work is every 18 years you get your chance of getting a look at it (a premiership). All we do, like every other club, is try and beat the odds and hope it happens more than once every 18 years.
Q: Nick Dal Santo deciding to come to North - is it exciting that North has gotten to a point where it is a "destination" club?
A: That's been a long time coming too. I remember a couple years ago a player was sort of on the market and I remember being on air with some people and one of the people I was on air with said would the particular player look at coming to North Melbourne, and one of the other people was on air with and sort of sneered - didn't realise he was doing it - but sneered and said 'why would anyone want to go to North Melbourne?' And I remember vividly, that day, I remember thinking, 'we've got to fix that. We have got to fix the perception of that'. Because we know how great this club is, but from outside people had that view. That is four or five years ago, but now to have the marquee player outside of Buddy in free agency to come to North Melbourne above all other clubs.
That is a great sign of health and respect and future.
Q: Is it right that under the constitution at the club that you have got two more years and then you must hand over?
A: As I understand it, I have got one more term. I am up for election at the start of next year and provided I am elected by the members I have got one more term, which is three years. And as I understand it, that's it. That fits, and for me, we should have by rights achieved everything that we said we were going to do by that stage. Certainly, I'd be looking for us to be being pretty close to debt-free, if not debt-free and having a lot of the stuff we have discussed embedded. One of the things I say all the time and funnily enough Brad says it too - and he could be forgiven for being a bit more selfish given his position, but he is really passionate about it as well as myself - is we must hand the club on in better shape than when we found it. So whoever takes over from me is going to be chairman of a club that is in good shape. That is something that we are all really proud of, all the board members because it is not just me. I keep saying this, I think four of the current board have been there from day one (in 2007) Goff Lewis, Carl Dilena, my brother (Mark) and it's been unbelievable, all the hard work that they have done. Now Julie has come on board and Ben Buckley has been fantastic and Brady Scanlon, a member of the amazing Scanlon family. We have got a great board, and all our staff do great work. So any success that we have is because everyone in our place right through to the volunteers, they are just rippers and they work really hard and no one deserves the credit more than anyone else.
Q: Do you see a successor on that current board.
A: Lots of people could do it - it's just a matter of whether they are in a position to do it, because there is a lot of work attached to it. I'd be lying if I said there wasn't. Ben Buckley is a great example of someone who would do it on his ear. Ridiculously over qualified, a very driven professional person and a family man. He lives in Sydney at the moment. But in three years - the great hope is that someone will pop up and make themselves known, but it's not something I am particularly concerned about at the moment.
Q: Can I take you back a bit to the start of your time, that night at Dallas Brooks Hall, where you completely across the mess at that time?
A: No, nowhere near.
A younger Brayshaw Source: News Limited
Q: What was it like?
A: Well the interesting thing about that was the board vote about whether to stay or go was that day, so we had no idea what was going to happen at Dallas Brooks Hall, so we voted, we voted to stay which obviously I was really pleased with because it was what I thought we should do, and we really went from there to Dallas Brooks Hall.
I remember getting there and there was this unbelievable simmering tension in the room - 3000 people there - and the simmering tension I think came from that fact that the majority of people turning up thought they were going to heat that the club was moving and they were ropeable.
So to then be able to stand up and say we are not going anywhere, I remember this unbelievable exhalation of air from all these people and it turned into a rallying cry almost, it was quite amazing.
But I remember standing up there thinking, 'what the hell have I got myself into - how are we going to do this?'
It was all very well to say, but the doing was going to be the hard bit.
There were a lot of people in the room that night who, I am sure, were pretty sceptical.
They would have looked down and thought, 'here is this media, TV guy - who does he think he is and how is he going to do this?'
And they were right to have that scepticism at the time, I reckon.
What we did was we banded together.
And we have had some great help along the way to get that plane levelled out and start climbing.
Q: Can you tell me about the level of heat from the AFL both before and after the decision to stay?
A: There was angst there - no question. And I remember going to see Andrew (Demetriou) and I remember going to see Mike (Fitzpatrick) and they were pretty cool - as in distant - because the result they wanted was for us to go and be playing out of the Gold Coast.
But I remember sitting with Andrew and saying to him 'we've got to earn your respect. We have got to prove to you that we can run this business properly. Once we prove to you that we can run it properly, then I expect your help if we deserve it'.
And to his absolute credit, he looked me in the eye and said, 'mate, when you start running your business properly, we'll give you the help you need'. And they have, and I have no problem at all with anything the AFL has done since, because they have been true to their word.
Q: What have been the key decisions or events between then and now that have got you to where you are?
A: What I always said right from the start was, with the best footy clubs there are minimum five boxes that you have got to tick - the chairman, your managing director, your head of football, your coach and your captain.
You've got to be able to put five emphatic black Artline ticks in those boxes before you can expect success.
At that time in 2007-08 when I looked around, Geelong with Frank (Costa) and Brian (Cook) and Neil Balme and Bomber Thompson and Tom Harley - they had five black ticks in those boxes, and it's no surprise they were the best club in footy.
And you look at Collingwood with Eddie, Perty and Walshy with Mick and Bucks and then you flick over to Hawthorn at that stage … you just keep doing the exercise and it is no surprise that the best clubs were able to emphatically tick those boxes.
The biggest aim for me was to, as quickly as possible, tick those boxes and I think we do now - modesty prevents me with the chairman's box, but certainly the other four … Carl Dilena is a superstar and has been unbelievable since he has come on board, Walshy is great and Donald McDonald was terrific before that, I have huge regard for what Donald has done at our club. Brad is fantastic and Andrew Swallow is great. So suddenly - and I am biased - I think we are ticking the boxes and it is no surprise on the back of that the club is starting to head in the right direction.
So you can say what are the game changers, but for me the only way you can get better in any business and certainly football is through people and just keep employing and attracting really good people to your business.
And by doing that you get better, so that is what we have done and we have.
Q: You mention Peter Scanlon before - obviously he has been an important benefactor and been a driver of The Huddle program - can you tell me about his influence on the club?
A: He's been incredible. I say to people regularly, people who are being really nice and come up to me in the street and say, 'I just want to shake your hand and say thank you very much, without you, we wouldn't be here'. And I always say, no, it's not me, without Peter Scanlon we wouldn't be here. Because if he hadn't done what he did in 2007 and then continued to do it every year since, we wouldn't be here. It's as simple as that - it wouldn't matter how hard any of us had worked. There would be no North Melbourne Football Club based out of Arden St if it wasn't for Peter.
If I'd have had my way, we'd put a statue out the front as soon as possible. But he is such humble bloke, that would embarrass him and he wouldn't want that. So we don't, we just appreciate in every way we can what an incredible person he has been.
The whole white knights thing that everyone tries to bring up from time to time, and the reason I don't bang on about it is because we have the greatest white knight of all time. And he saved our club.
But he is such a ripper that he doesn't like it being talked about, so we don't.
But his legacy at club is enormous. I owe him an enormous amount - we all do.
Q: Eugene Arocca - I know the circumstances around him leaving weren't great, but can you tell me about the part he played during that period of your leadership.
A: The thing about Eugene is, he was terrific for his time. For what we needed to have done at that time, he did a great job. And I will never say anything other than exactly that.
Q: Parts of the presidency that you like and don't like - there are some presidents like Eddie and Richard Colless who seem to relish being in the thick of it, you don't seem to get involved in the cut and thrust of issues too much. Is that something you have deliberately done because of your media work?
A: Oh no. One of the things about our club is that it has never been about one person.
We are a genuine club. So for me, I don't consider myself - and I am very honest when I say this - I don't consider myself to be any more important than anyone else.
We are all in this together - so any success we have is no more attributable to me than to anyone else working there and the volunteers. I tend to take that view, all our board take that view.
When a fight needs to happen or when our club is being unfairly challenged, I hope all North Melbourne people have seen over the journey that I am more than happy to stand up and answer back really strongly, but outside of that I always think respect is earned and it is about what you do, not what you say.
You can be a great mouthpiece if you like, but at the end of the day you are judged by results, actions.
I think our club is starting to get there.
We are not there yet - we have got a long way still to go, but we are starting to get there and I am just a part of that.
Q: What are the major things in the next three year period that you want to achieve?
A: I'd love us to be debt free in that time - I think that would be a great statement to the competition to not have any debt any more after inheriting $8 million, that would be great.
To have Tassie established, to have one more game would be a really good result and to have a long-term deal locked in so that we have got some surety around that which allows that growth to continue.
They are two things that I think are really important.
40,000 members should be something that we are all aiming towards, we all should be aiming towards getting our attendance up because we do play an attractive brand of footy so for all North Melbourne people it is not good enough any more to support the club, you've got to get along.
In those three years, when I hand over to whoever is going to do it next, I would like us to have a locked in 25-year future, where we are not concerned about six inches in front of our face we can strategically plan and onfield, we are about a long period of sustained onfield success - we don't want five minutes in the sun.
We want to keep drafting kids, keep bringing the top 30 kids into our club and keep teaching them to play our way under a strong coach and strong support system in the footy department and this year we are going to do it again, Luke McDonald comes in and we'll keep pick 30 and we'll do the same next year.
I just have so much regard for how Geelong went about it in the early 2000s. They took a whole lot of kids, they all came from the Geelong area funnily enough, and they had Ling and Bartel and Enright and Corey and Johnson, Chapman. They played 10 years together. They all played their 50th game together, their 100th game together.
History shows, forget anyone else, this team has been at the cutting edge of footy for seven years. They have been in preliminary finals and grand finals pretty much every year through that time. And that has come about because they strategically and meticulously planned from the early 2000s. I have a huge regard for the way they went about it and I have said to Cooky regularly we have stolen their model.
We're not trading out, we're not bringing instant fixes in - Dal is a great addition but he is a free agent … we want to be there and stay there.
I spoke at the best and fairest about in the last month (of the season) - we beat Geelong we beat Collingwood and we beat Essendon who were all in the top five at the time and ran Hawthorn to within a kick and a half with 16 players who had played less than 100 games.
That is the blue sky for our club.
Those guys are all going to play 100, 150, 200 games hopefully and in doing that give us a look at long-term, sustained onfield success.
That's what I'm passionate about, getting us there and keeping us there.
There will be fans of other clubs who will read this and say, ' oh North Melbourne making a lot of noise for a club that finished 10th'.
We acknowledge that, we've got a lot of work to do.
Q: Just on that, there are no excuses now, are there?
A: We expect to play well, and we do that every time. We are devastated when we don't. One of the things about myself, and the members of our board but also about Brad and Walshy, we detest losing. Absolutely hate it.
Any thought that we go into the rooms after we've been beaten and are remotely happy about is miles off the mark. Scotty is … I've never known a bloke who gets more devastated when we don't win.
He's an animal competitor and so are we.
We are not happy about what happened this year and we've got to get better.
We're confident we will.
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