Graham Wright - ex-General Manager of Football

[qldmagpie67]

Wright was brought in to sort out our cap mess (Grundy) reshape the list with the view to having a finals tilt (2022 2023) then transition the veterans out and bring in new blood
He got 2 of the 3 jobs done
I have a strong belief the exiting of veterans (as I mentioned weeks ago) was going to be the line in the sand moment
There’s no secret Wright is ruthless in list management decisions
After last year he wanted 2 veterans gone. We lost Adam’s which left it down to 1. I know for a fact him and the coaching staff clashed over this (coaches believed it would create disharmony to exit veterans after a GF win) Wright was of a differing opinion
He was asked by a board member to relent
Now whether that had a affect on his decision to take off 6 months (after he offered his resignation) only he knows
But he was never coming back to a job share watered down position and why would he
He’s highly respected and will be highly sort after
We are left with no list manager/leader
It’s shared between Leppa Bolton Kelly
Honestly decision making by committee hardly ever works in these situations
Now reports have Leppa looking at other opportunities and Kelly basically a lame duck until after the investigation is finalised who’s responsible for our recruitment and drafting and trading in the coming months ?
We enter next season with the oldest list in the AFL and with our veterans showed signs throughout the year of being very close to the finishing line and our plan is give them another year they’ll be better next year than they were this year !
Seriously now we will delist players aged 22/26 to make the necessary space to bring in new players
I’m not saying those players deserve a list spot but outside of Macrae and Johnson have any of the others been given real consistent opportunity to prove if they can or can’t make it at AFL level ?
We will likely lose Richards because he’s been treated (in his mind) poorly and not given fair opportunity. Harrison will miss most of next season while he recovers from a ACL
Our veterans are all coming to the end quickly and that end is likely next year
So instead of being able to manage the staggered departure of experience over a 2/3 year period we will likely lose Pendles Sidey Howe Cox and maybe a Mitchell (his body will decide) and also a checker (again his body will decide)
Try replacing that in 1 off season
Anyone who thinks we can reinvent this list to be a premiership threat in 2025 is dreaming
We will struggle to make finals given the improvement of other clubs ranked 7-13
Clubs like Suns Hawks Fremantle and even North will be better next year than this year
Even the Dee’s have a few kids coming though (but they might lose some players)
I hope the club is out advertising now for a experienced list manager who isn’t into fairytale endings and makes decisions based in best long term interests of the club

[Culprit]

Rather than be negative about the situation I prefer to thank him for two Premierships. I loved #19 on the wing and the flag in 1990 was unbelievable. Having him back at the club has been great and sad to see him go but that is the nature of the beast.

[derkd]

^ all of what you say QLDmagpie67 is correct

I also want to thank Wright, without his work the premiership would never have happened. That alone means we can all wish him the best with whatever he chooses to do next.

The reality of the situation for Collingwood is this, we have fans who have blinkers on who think 2025 will roll around and we will by magic, snap back to being a premiership threat.

We have no list boss, (six weeks out from the trade window), we have an old list and very limited draft picks.

I think we all need to be straped in for what most likely will be a very difficult 2025.

Once again thanks to G.Wright for the 2023 cup. Forever a legend of Collingwood

[Piesnchess]

I just dont understand how he was at the Dawks for so long, helped get them 3 flags, but only one with us, then gonski. ?? Dont get me wrong, I apprecitate what he did for us, regarding rebuilding the list culminating in the Premiership last season, I just thought after his long service leave, which I guess we paid for, he would have resumed his position at least for one more season ? Guess hes off to this new Tasmanian team, along with Gale from the Tigers, seems to be all the rage now, this Tassie mob. Farewell Wrighty, thanks for the good times, the memories.

[SLORT]

I doubt anyone would have anything negative about Wright leaving. I would however think a few of us are pissed off that the club knew this was a possibility and seem to have zero plan for his successor? Hope to be proven wrong as list management is the most vital role within a club. Maybe they'll bring back Ned Guy...

[derkd]

I think you will find he (Wright) is heading for bigger and better things...AFL house or building a list from scratch at a club that will have a full deck of draft picks (Tasmania). At his age, probably wants one last crack.

I will add you say he was only at Collingwood for one flag Pienchess, some list managers will spend a lifetime at a club and achive maybe a final at best! What Wright has done is still amazing.

Lol, SLORT...I don't blame Ned Guy for what happend in the 2020 trade period, that was all the poor decisions of Gubby Allen and Eddie. But wow, that interview that Ned Guy gave post trade period 2020 was one of the biggest train wrecks I have seen. So no, I don't want to revisit anything or anyone from that time of events.

If we could pouch Tom Harley from the Swans, he really knows his stuff, unlikely I know, as he is settled in Sydney with a young family. He would be my pick for the role.

[lazzadesilva]

Oh dear, I think the disappointment of missing out on the finals has brought out all the negative Nellie’s and Chicken Little’s out of hibernation The sky will not be falling in and leaving Collingwood in the dumps for many years. That’s not to say that we will win a series of flags (that is almost impossible in these days of limits around list management, drafting and recruitment) but the club will still be competitive and will not go to the gutter under McRae. He is far too smart for that. Maybe replace Wright with Maxwell. Poach another good administrator from somewhere. I think this chucking the baby out with the bath water is a knee jerk reaction to the unfortunate reality of missing the finals. I cannot imagine the team merely giving up the chance for success next year, especially with it being Pendlebury’s last season of playing. No way known. Hopefully with a few gap filling recruits, rested players who are injury free, fresh inspiration and some game plan tweaking, we will be back in the hunt in a seriously competitive way.

[BBHS]

What was the contingency plan, knowing this was a significant possibility? Hopefully some more announcements to come I would imagine.

[Dark Beanie]

The club would have known this was on the cards.
By giving Wright 6 months off probably only postponed the inevitable but again not uncommon for an employee to be given time off to reassess especially in senior roles.

The club may have a plan in place but not announcing anything until the season is formally finished.
If they have approached someone from another club, they may, out of courtesy, wait until that individuals club season has finished.
On the other side of the coin, they may have also been waiting for definitive response from Wright once he was back and saw the lay of the land (and sized up other options ie. Tassie or AFL job).

Unlike the NRL, most moves happen after the finish of the season.

[Rd10.1998_11.1#36]

Doubt it has anything to do with an epiphany while on long service leave... more like the LSL was only putting off the inevitable

I just thought after his long service leave, which I guess we paid for, he would have resumed his position at least for one more season ?

If you have a fundamentally different view on how things should be done from the coach and president, then it's time to move on

I don't blame Ned Guy for what happend in the 2020 trade period, that was all the poor decisions of Gubby Allen and Eddie

Let's hope we're not heading for the same situation. The president shouldn't be getting involved in list management. His statement a month or two? ago about how we're still in the window was a bit of a worry

The timing of Wright's annoucement, coinciding with our finals hope's evaporating, could be interpreted as a bit of an "I told you so" IMO. Or, he had agreed to hold off his announcement until it was clear our season was over so as not to distract

From my side, no problem with how Wright has handled it. Thanks for the flags and good luck

[dalyc]

The Vets struggled with form injury motivation and method.

Which veterans?

Pendles was good and deserves another year.
Sidey was a bit up and down but good when it mattered, and I think can play again.
Cox was missed all year. When he came back we were much better for it.
Howe was good without being great. But is good enough for another year I feel.

The real problem is that we don’t have players in the reserves bashing the door down. It’s pointless getting rid of older but good players when all you’ve got is young and average players to replace them.

[stui magpie]

Sorry to see you go Wrighty, thanks for the flag, best wishes with what you do next.

Browne isn't a dunce, he would have anticipated this and him and Ned will have contingency plans. Just hope they work.

[The Black and White Lion]

The Vets struggled with form injury motivation and method.

Which veterans?

This might be regular season stuff exaggerated by the injuries though.
I think most players were off for the first 3 rounds including the vets. Only a handful of players Naicos, Cameron WHE and Frampton were consistent early. Then players and the team kicked into gear.

Most vets have struggled with injury this year. Cox lost kicking and marking touch after his injuries but his form before the injury wasn’t that good. I remember the first Hawks game in particular.

Sidey’s form was off, it wasn’t really until he went behind the ball against the eagles / crows and then into the mid against North that things turned around for him.

Crisp has had a lot of good half games.


You’re right that the VFL group really hasn’t knocked the door down to get in, particularly between VFL rounds 4 and the last month. We picked players due to injury cover only for most of the year. Having said that I still don’t believe the players that came in had the same opportunity as vets and other regular seniors.

Either way it doesn’t matter now as the records says we missed the finals, moved out of the first round in what seems like a bumper draft year, gambled our second round pick and lost, our Exec footy boss resigned and we have an uncertain off season and year ahead

[doriswilgus]

This is disappointing but not surprising news.I think most people thought that Graham Wright would not be coming back and that’s exactly what’s happened.

First of all,we owe Graeme Wright a debt of gratitude for what he has done for the club in the past few years.Hiring Craig McRae as coach was a master stroke,and the recruiting of five good ready made players at the end of 2022 helped us win the flag no doubt at all,We simply wouldn’t have won the flag without either of those things,and the credit must go solely to Graeme Wright for those decisions.

I just find it strange that he offered to resign last year and the club refused,offering him a six months sabbatical instead,I don’t think that idea was ever going to work,so it probably would have been for the club to cut its ties with him then, especially if his heart wasn’t in the job anymore.

Now we have to get someone new into the role of footy manager,someone who is fully committed to the job.Someone suggested Nick Maxwell,I think he would do a great job in that role,as he seems to be a very good people manager.

[SLORT]

Any current GM's we should / could poach?

ADELAIDE - Adam Kelly
BRISBANE - Danny Daly
CARLTON - Brad Lloyd
ESSENDON - Josh Mahoney
FREMANTLE - Peter Bell
GEELONG - Simon Lloyd
GOLD COAST - Wayne Campbell
GWS - Jason McCartney
HAWTHORN - Rob McCartney
MELBOURNE - Alan Richardson
NTH MELB - Todd Viney
PORT ADELAIDE - Chris Davies
RICHMOND - Tim Livingston & Blair Hartley
ST KILDA - David Misson
SYDNEY - Charlie Gardner
WEST COAST - Gavin Bell
WESTERN BULLDOGS - Chris Grant

https://www.afl.com.au/news/881115/lawy ... o-footy-gm

I think that the obvious choice will be Leppa and if that doesn't eventuate (quickly) then he's probably leaving as well.

Perhaps someone should do a poll with possible candidates?