Latest news with #Olsen
Otago Daily Times
8 hours ago
- Business
- Otago Daily Times
Joint CCO best water option: Infometrics
A leading economist has voiced strong support for Southern Water Done Well's preferred water services delivery model, saying it offers the best pathway to safe, reliable water services and long-term financial benefits for the southern region. At a recent meeting of Southern Water Done Well (SWDW), political leaders and senior staff heard from Infometrics chief executive Brad Olsen and his views on water reforms. Southern Water Done Well project leader Andrew Strahan said Infometrics was provided with documents to review. Those included the latest Morrison Low report, which included work last year for the group of eight Southland and Otago councils, a peer review of the benefits, briefings for elected members and consultation documents. SWDW's four partner councils — Waitaki, Gore, Central Otago and Clutha district councils — are consulting on three options for the future delivery of water services to meet the government's Local Water Done Well legislation. Their preferred delivery model is a jointly owned council-controlled organisation (CCO). The Infometrics chief executive and principal economist agreed, saying it provided a strategic, carefully considered approach to meeting future water services challenges. "Status quo is just not going to cut it any more. And if it does, it'll become so expensive that the community won't tolerate it ... the government clearly isn't tolerating it already. "So, effectively, things needs to change." One of the most compelling advantages of SWDW's preferred model was the leap in bargaining power it delivered. Individually, the four councils each represented just 1% to 2% of the South Island's population, placing them 13th to 18th out of 23 South Island councils, in terms of scale. By forming a jointly owned CCO, they collectively moved into the fourth-largest position, representing 6.6% of the South Island's population. "That shift in scale is transformative," said Mr Olsen. "It gives councils and their communities far greater influence when negotiating with contractors, accessing skilled staff and securing funding. In a tight infrastructure market, scale gives you options and leverage." Even greater efficiencies would be gained if other councils were accepted into a jointly owned CCO at some point in the future. Mr Olsen noted SWDW's deliberately conservative approach to financial modelling for the jointly owned CCO and emphasised the importance of looking long-term. While short-term financial gains might be modest, water assets were long-term (20 years+) and by year 20, modelling for other joint water services delivery entities had shown potential savings of up to 20% compared to going it alone, he said. Just as significantly, the joint approach improved resilience, attracted talent and helped councils meet more demanding compliance standards without overburdening local ratepayers. Mr Olsen believed there was potential for even greater gains beyond initial projections. "We've reviewed the assumptions, and they're conservative. That's appropriate, given the significant changes that have to happen, but even under these conservative assumptions, the numbers still stack up." The conservative modelling still projected 15%-16% operating and capital efficiencies being achieved over "roughly a decade", which was "a similar timeframe to achieve efficiencies as seen in other spaces". Morrison Low's modelling of the benefits of a jointly owned CCO shows SWDW consumers would save $44 million by 2033-34 compared to where costs would otherwise increase to. In its first 10 years, the jointly owned CCO would deliver $82 million in savings to consumers. Olsen also highlighted that the proposed model retained community ownership while delivering greater long-term benefits through scale and co-ordination. Southern Water Done Well's preferred delivery model gave councils the scale, flexibility and financial sustainability they simply could not get on their own while retaining community ownership and voice, Mr Olsen said. Southern Water Done Well consultation closes this Friday.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Travis Kelce retiring? Patrick Mahomes, Greg Olsen talk TE's future
Travis Kelce has checked off all the boxes on the football field – except retirement. Everyone has an opinion on the 35-year-old, who is coming off, statistically, the worst season of his career since becoming the starter for the Kansas City Chiefs. As he authors the final pages for the story of his football career, Kelce's retirement continues to be a topic. Advertisement In an interview with USA TODAY's Mackenzie Salmon, former NFL tight end and current Fox Sports broadcaster Greg Olsen spoke about Kelce's future. "He's got the world at his fingertips," Olsen said. "I think he's one of the unique guys that's gonna be able to control how he leaves the game and when. And that's not the reality for most guys." Kelce, who will turn 36 in October, is coming off a bad season by his standards. He totaled 97 receptions, 823 yards and only three touchdowns. While that may be a career-year for some, it continued a downward trend that began following the 2023 season. Despite that reality, Olsen highlighted how he was also 36 in his last season, noting that he wasn't as productive as Kelce has been at this stage. Advertisement "He was highly productive last year," Olsen said. "I think we've kind of gotten spoiled that we think every year he's gonna have twelve-hundred yards and 10 touchdowns. And I don't think people realize just how hard that is. I wouldn't put a limit on anything he does." He added that he could call it quits after this upcoming season or play a few more years. Olsen maintained that Kelce has done enough throughout his career to be afforded the opportunity to leave when he wants to. Retirement talk has been a common theme throughout the Chiefs' run of success, especially in the lead-up to Super Bowl 59 before they lost to the Philadelphia Eagles. Now with training camp around the corner, even quarterback Patrick Mahomes is being asked about Kelce's future. Advertisement "If it's the last ride, you would never know," Mahomes said in a press conference Thursday. "The way he's talking about football, the way he's talking about working and trying to be even better this year than he was last year. He doesn't seem like a guy that, it's his last ride or he's tired of the job. He's in here, he's working. I know his body feels good. I think it feels better than even last year before going into last season. I think he's motivated to go out there and have an even better year." Kelce appeared to truly debate walking away from the game this offseason but elected to return for another season. He spoke about that decision during the March 5 episode of his "New Heights" podcast with his brother, Jason. "I think the biggest thing is that I (expletive) love playing the game of football," Kelce said. "I love playing. I still feel like I can play it at a high level and possibly at a higher level than I did last year. I don't think it was my best outing. I think I let my guys down in a lot more moments than I helped them, especially if you look at my track record and how I've been in years past. I want to give it a good run. I got a bad taste in my mouth in how I ended the year and how well I was playing and how accountable I was to the people around me." Of course, the Chiefs have played a lot of football over the years and the miles can begin to add up. Advertisement It's not out of the question that Kelce's drop in production could be attributed in part to fatigue, especially given the attention he receives from defenses every week. Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce (87) reacts in the fourth quarter against the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LIX at Ceasars Superdome. All eyes will be on Kelce as he enters his 13th season NFL season and 12th as the starter, which will be the final year of his current contract. It carries a $19.8 million cap hit for 2025, according to Spotrac. Having already accomplished so much, these final years can be about chasing more rings and putting a bow on a great career. He's a three-time Super Bowl champion, a four-time All-Pro and has been selected to the Pro Bowl 10 times. He's a lock for the Hall of Fame and statistically ranks amongst the best tight ends in NFL history – No. 3 in receptions (1,004) and yards (12,151), despite playing just 11 seasons as the Chiefs primary starter at the position. Advertisement Tony Gonzalez and Jason Witten, the two who rank above Kelce in those categories, each finished their careers with 16 seasons as a starter. Off the field, Kelce is one-half of arguably the biggest celebrity couples going right now given his relationship with Taylor Swift. He has a successful podcast with his brother, helping him maintain his media presence. Retirement will continue to be a storyline on the field. Off of it, however, Kelce appears to just be getting started. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Travis Kelce retirement: Patrick Mahomes, Greg Olsen on TE future
Yahoo
5 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Merrimack schools superintendent named citizen of the year in hometown of Chelmsford, Mass.
Merrimack Schools Superintendent Everett 'Bill' Olsen Jr. was recently named the 2025 Chelmsford Citizen of the Year in his Massachusetts hometown. Olsen received the accolade on May 23. A statement from the town noted that Olsen was selected for the recognition "because of his lifetime of service" as an educator and school system leader, including many years as the superintendent in Westford, Mass., and now in Merrimack. Olsen began his career as math and science teacher. He also served as the assistant superintendent in Westford before being elevated to the top spot from 2006 until 2021, when he left to helm the Merrimack schools. He is a 1966 graduate of Chelmsford High and was inducted into the school alumni association's Hall of Fame in 2001.
Sydney Morning Herald
6 days ago
- Sport
- Sydney Morning Herald
How a club legend, a meat billionaire and a former premier led the Crows out of the darkness
Every AFL club has a network of influencers who make things happen through their wealth, fame or political connections. This is our series on the football world's movers and shakers. See all 9 stories. As Mark Ricciuto picked up the phone to call Neil Balme in the winter of 2020, little did the former Crows captain know that he was speaking with the figure who would become his replacement as the most senior football person on the board of the Adelaide Football Club. Back then, Ricciuto was wrestling with the struggles of the bottom club in the league, with a rookie coach in Matthew Nicks, a thin playing list and a psyche bruised by the 2017 grand final defeat, the infamous 2018 pre-season camp and all that flowed from it. Balme, then ensconced at Richmond, seemed the obvious choice for Ricciuto as what he called a 'godfather of football' for the Crows, steeped in both South Australian football (as former coach of Norwood and Woodville West Torrens) and more contemporary successes as a football department overseer for Collingwood, Geelong and the Tigers. Those initial conversations with Ricciuto planted a seed for Balme to think more about Adelaide, even as health problems precluded him from accepting a full-time job. The Crows were also searching for their next chairman. Rob Chapman, who had held the role since 2009, was aware that the club needed a fresh figurehead after the camp scandal. His first succession plan had been waylaid by the death of his well-liked deputy Bob Foord in December 2017, leaving Chapman to turn to someone who'd often been on the opposite side of the negotiating table: SANFL chairman and former Liberal premier John Olsen. Olsen spent as much as eight weeks mulling it over. He was conscious of how the Crows carried so much expectation within the state, dating back to his time as premier between 1996 and 2001. Tellingly, Olsen had experienced the rush of optimism wrought by the club's only flags, in 1997 and 1998. 'The first flag was won just after we'd lost the [Formula 1] grand prix to Melbourne, we'd had a drought, the State Bank had fallen over, the psyche of the state was flat,' he says. 'But that win just lifted people. I can't describe to you just how impactful that was in the community.' Olsen made two swift decisions on his arrival. He parted ways with the club's previous chief executive Andrew Fagan, who had a background in rugby union, and replaced him with Tim Silvers, Hawthorn's longtime COO. The other call was to push for the introduction of term limits on the board, to allow for continuous regeneration of the club's leadership and to head-off accusations of a 'boys' club' at Adelaide. Olsen wanted a 10-year limit, but ultimately agreed to a compromise of 12. That meant Ricciuto's time would be up at the end of this year. He was the club's football director from 2014 after becoming disenchanted by the Crows' decision-making in the years after his playing retirement in 2007. Ricciuto has been central to every major football appointment since: sacking Brenton Sanderson, then hiring senior coaches Phil Walsh, Don Pyke and Nicks, football department heads Brett Burton and Adam Kelly, and this year's addition of Brisbane Lions coaching stalwart Murray Davis to assist Nicks. He has since been a driver of the current rebuilding path. But over the same decade, Ricciuto has also been a high-profile lightning rod for criticism of the club. In his morning radio gig with Triple M, the Brownlow medallist did not always respond to these barbs with measured words, and fired a few of his own at other clubs. And while there was robust debate around the board table about the extent to which the turkeys would vote for Thanksgiving, a fresh approach to Balme, alongside former Crows utility and St Kilda list manager James Gallagher, brought reassurance that the club's football expertise would be enhanced rather than diminished in Ricciuto's wake. Loading Importantly, Balme and Gallagher are running their eyes over the program of head coach Nicks, who is under contract until 2026, and will decide what else can be done to help the players make the most of their 'premiership window'. Balme, of course, has relationships with the likes of Damien Hardwick and Chris Scott, should the Crows decide they need to headhunt a premiership coach as the last piece of the puzzle. But as multiple other clubs will attest, Balme primarily brings reassurance and a seasoned eye. 'Some of the meetings I've seen where they've had an issue they needed to fix and the way they've done that and engaged the players to come up with an answer and buy-in has been very, very good,' Balme says. 'They've got a very logical feel for how things are going, not 'if we don't play well you're a useless player, you're a useless coach'. And that's more important if you're a club like Adelaide where everyone has an opinion about you.' Ricciuto is revered in Adelaide. He is in business with pub baron and former Crows director Peter Hurley, whom he counts alongside Chapman as his two greatest mentors. Until 2023, Ricciuto owned the iconic Alma Tavern in Norwood alongside Hurley and Crows champions Rory Sloane and Taylor Walker. 'I've always said to CEOs or chairs that I'll stay as long as I'm wanted and as long as they think I'm the best person for the job, that's all I'm interested in,' Ricciuto says. 'If term limits are going to help the football club then I'll do what needs to be done, but personally they're not the sorts of things I'm concerned about.' But now that the club has put a limit on his tenure, he is relieved that Balme was eventually able to answer the call. So is Olsen. 'Mark's hard to replace in the context of time commitment, his absolute passion for the club,' Olsen says. 'But in bringing Neil and James in, you bring in not only Neil's footy experience and a whole raft of intellectual property he brings to the board table, but also James in a different generation that brings in a list management skill set. 'You ensure that as far as football strategy is concerned you have people well-versed and experienced being able to have an informed debate at board level where decisions are made. You could argue there's two replacing one to get that, but the simple fact is term limits give you the guardrails to ensure you put in place measures for continuity, not disruption.' Adelaide's $2.27 billion benefactor If Ricciuto has been the Crows' highest profile powerbroker over the past decade, its wealthiest has arisen from the most successful business in South Australia over the same period. Darren Thomas and his father Chris are the principals of the meat company Thomas Foods International, which posted revenue of $3.29 billion last year to make it Australia's 14th largest business by that measure. Formed in 1988, the company built up over the same period in which the Crows did. In recent years Darren Thomas has effectively taken over from club patron and Clipsal impresario Rob Gerard as the club's most important benefactor. It's no coincidence that Thomas was one of a select few invited to help turn the first sod for the club's new base at Thebarton Oval. Thomas played for South Adelaide and Sturt, before turning full-time to the family business, of which he is now the managing director. He counts inaugural Crows Peter McIntyre, Mark Bickley and Nigel Smart among his friends from South Adelaide, and also reels off Ricciuto, Simon Goodwin, Tony Modra and Matthew Powell as close mates. He was with Goodwin when Melbourne won the 2021 flag in Perth, and attended the Melbourne coach's wedding earlier this year. He also has links to AFL House royalty, as a friend of Gillon McLachlan and one of his predecessors, Wayne Jackson. 'We still buy a lot of Wayne's cattle,' Thomas says. 'And we provide the meat for the annual AFL lunch at Australia House in London.' It is not uncommon for Thomas to mentor Crows players. He was introduced to James Podsiadly in 2014, becoming friends and then business partners around the creation of the AFL Max indoor facility that numerous other Crows figures also invested in. And he is a regular coffee partner of Adelaide's precision goalkicker Darcy Fogarty. 'You're just there to listen and help them think through some things,' he says. 'Going back to the early days when we were nothing and I knew nothing, I had some people who were impactful on me, who happened to come through football and my school, Westminster, some of the teachers there. So I've never forgotten those things and I like to give back. 'Darce being a country boy and knowing his family for a while, it was just a good opportunity to be a sounding ear for him. If you keep players in the right headspace, the clubs will get them to perform at their optimum.' Sturt's Unley Oval home was named Thomas Farms Oval last year, but it is with the Crows that the family has had a national impact, starting with a small sponsorship in the early 2000s and banner advertising at Football Park, to becoming one of Adelaide's biggest sponsors, alongside Toyota. Loading Thomas' commitment can be measured by how he drove 17 hours from Toowoomba, where his daughter was competing in a national equestrian competition, to Melbourne in time to watch the 2017 grand final. He is hopeful the Crows have learned the necessary lessons from that period to sustain success. 'The club's really had a good inward look at itself and said 'we've got to change the way we go about things' and we're starting to see the fruits of that now,' he says. 'It was always hard for the club to attract or retain players, so I think the club has done a wonderful job to get into a position where players want to come here. 'Having Jordan [Dawson] and others coming back to the club has been a huge benefit and could set up one of those foundations, where clubs like Geelong and Hawthorn have been able to have very good success from stable groups of senior players, which allows you to blood younger players and gives you stability.' Tragedy and misadventure The Crows' sustained off-field success has long competed with unwanted headlines, fluctuating on-field fortunes and an Adelaide fishbowl. The club sat highly in the public's estimation for how bravely, openly and gracefully it handled the unfathomable tragedy of senior coach Phil Walsh's murder in the middle of the 2015 season. The off-field response, combined with a sterling performance on the park, resulted in a finals campaign fought in Walsh's memory. Adelaide's AFLW program is the envy of the league, with three premierships to date, despite not yet having a home ground on which to play consistently. But over the past 15 years, there has also been the Kurt Tippett salary cap scandal, the aforementioned camp and former captain Taylor Walker's racial vilification case, to name three instances where the Crows became a national conversation topic for the wrong reasons. 'Having such a supporter base, anything that happens to the Crows is newsworthy, good or bad,' Olsen says. 'That brings a focus and profile that sometimes you would prefer not to have. 'The profile builds supporter base, membership and interaction with the club, but the high profile also brings its challenges, particularly for some of the players where the 'fishbowl' is evident in their daily lives out and about in the community. That's a part of it, but it goes with the territory. 'I think it's really important to be as transparent and open as you can be. If you make a mistake, the best thing to do is to front up and explain it immediately, and cop it on the chin, certainly not to attempt to obfuscate.' Since 2020, Adelaide's efforts to recover from the own goals of 2017 and 2018 have been slow but steady. The club now has an enviable playing list, an improving industry reputation, and is back growing its membership and supporter base after several years of dwindling numbers. Olsen and his board have made a point of reconnecting with past players, supporters or the small and medium-sized businesses that have always been the lifeblood of SA. Counsel is sought from a clutch of former club decision-makers, including Chapman, his former deputy Jim Hazel, Hurley and also Bill Sanders, the club's avuncular first chief executive and later its third chairman. Sanders has spent long hours working to repair the relationship between the club and Andrew McLeod, one of their greatest players. McLeod was among the most outspoken critics in 2020, pointing particularly to a sense that Adelaide's history had been taken for granted. That is something Silvers and Olsen have worked to rectify, although the chairman says carefully that the Crows' relationship with McLeod is still 'a journey'. Another member of the premiership group is former ruckman Shaun Rehn, who spoke frequently and at length with Olsen in the early part of his time in the chair. But, adds Olsen, 'Not recently, because I presume that therefore we've done a journey and picked up on a number of aspects that guys were disappointed about.' Other past players spoken to by this masthead still believe the Crows can do more to connect with those who did not play in premierships or play 100 games or more. Sam Jacobs leads the past players' group, with premiership captain Bickley as his deputy. 'There's not that tribal connection you see at other clubs,' one player says. Nonetheless, Balme's appointment has offered cause for optimism. He is a figure synonymous with smart decisions, care for players and staff and premiership success. It has taken a long time to get there, however. 'If I gave advice to future chairs, avoid rebuilds,' says Olsen, who plans to retire from the board in 2027. 'They are long and they are painful and you've got to work your way through it. I remember Rob Chapman sending me a text when we had a really good win, he said 'enjoy the moment, because it will make up for all the others you'll go through'.' Ghosts of Football Park Max Basheer, the long-serving SANFL president, has penned a memoir of his decades in football that will only be published after he dies. One nugget Basheer has offered up already is how he effectively secured the creation of the Crows in September 1990 with cold, hard cash. He promised to hand the league's then-chief Ross Oakley $1 million in the AFL's bank account within days of a secret meeting at the Southern Cross Hotel in Melbourne. The speed and the secrecy were necessary because Adelaide's creation came as a result of Port Adelaide's own attempt to join the AFL by stealth a couple of months earlier – after years of talks about an SA-based VFL/AFL team had got nowhere. A court injunction by SANFL clubs succeeded in stalling Port's bid, but it was Basheer's speedy use of the league's bank account that truly kicked off the Crows. Loading That 1990 saga was the starting point for a rich rivalry between Adelaide and Port, but it also underscored how much the Crows were considered to be the SANFL's baby. Independence from the state league, a more focused club identity and even a base to truly call home were elusive for decades, largely because of those origins. It is also why when the AFL, the state government, Port Adelaide and the South Australian Cricket Association began scheming for a way to get football back to Adelaide Oval, the Crows were initially left out of the loop, and spoke for some time about not leaving Football Park until they got the best possible terms. All parties – even Basheer – now accept that the Adelaide Oval redevelopment was a multimillion-dollar revelation. Not only did it save Port from insolvency but helped the Crows to grow, also attracting previously unseen levels of interstate interest, personified by Gather Round. Even so, the move came with financial machinations that were added to the case, often made by Port supporters and others, that the Crows are not a 'real club'. In moving home games from West Lakes to Adelaide Oval, the SANFL handed over the licences for the two clubs to the AFL, which held them as security for the Crows and Power to pay a fee back to the state league. Loading Until that fee is paid off in 2028, the AFL owns the licence and theoretically has the right to veto club board appointments and other major decisions. That has led to claims that the Crows are the plaything of AFL House. But Olsen stresses work is under way to turn Adelaide into a more traditional, membership-based organisation when the final payment is made three years from now. 'At that point, the licence held by the AFL and their one voting member returns to us and we will then look at the constitution,' Olsen says. 'We're a club that's never reached out for mendicant funding from the AFL, always stood on our own two feet, and in this whole period the AFL has never rejected a board member or any decision the Adelaide Football Club has taken in regard to its governance structure.' The Crows' new home at Thebarton– a $100 million development partly funded by donors including the Thomas family in addition to $40 million in state and federal money – will mark the completion of a journey from SANFL invention to fully realised independence.
The Age
6 days ago
- Sport
- The Age
How a club legend, a meat billionaire and a former premier led the Crows out of the darkness
Every AFL club has a network of influencers who make things happen through their wealth, fame or political connections. This is our series on the football world's movers and shakers. See all 9 stories. As Mark Ricciuto picked up the phone to call Neil Balme in the winter of 2020, little did the former Crows captain know that he was speaking with the figure who would become his replacement as the most senior football person on the board of the Adelaide Football Club. Back then, Ricciuto was wrestling with the struggles of the bottom club in the league, with a rookie coach in Matthew Nicks, a thin playing list and a psyche bruised by the 2017 grand final defeat, the infamous 2018 pre-season camp and all that flowed from it. Balme, then ensconced at Richmond, seemed the obvious choice for Ricciuto as what he called a 'godfather of football' for the Crows, steeped in both South Australian football (as former coach of Norwood and Woodville West Torrens) and more contemporary successes as a football department overseer for Collingwood, Geelong and the Tigers. Those initial conversations with Ricciuto planted a seed for Balme to think more about Adelaide, even as health problems precluded him from accepting a full-time job. The Crows were also searching for their next chairman. Rob Chapman, who had held the role since 2009, was aware that the club needed a fresh figurehead after the camp scandal. His first succession plan had been waylaid by the death of his well-liked deputy Bob Foord in December 2017, leaving Chapman to turn to someone who'd often been on the opposite side of the negotiating table: SANFL chairman and former Liberal premier John Olsen. Olsen spent as much as eight weeks mulling it over. He was conscious of how the Crows carried so much expectation within the state, dating back to his time as premier between 1996 and 2001. Tellingly, Olsen had experienced the rush of optimism wrought by the club's only flags, in 1997 and 1998. 'The first flag was won just after we'd lost the [Formula 1] grand prix to Melbourne, we'd had a drought, the State Bank had fallen over, the psyche of the state was flat,' he says. 'But that win just lifted people. I can't describe to you just how impactful that was in the community.' Olsen made two swift decisions on his arrival. He parted ways with the club's previous chief executive Andrew Fagan, who had a background in rugby union, and replaced him with Tim Silvers, Hawthorn's longtime COO. The other call was to push for the introduction of term limits on the board, to allow for continuous regeneration of the club's leadership and to head-off accusations of a 'boys' club' at Adelaide. Olsen wanted a 10-year limit, but ultimately agreed to a compromise of 12. That meant Ricciuto's time would be up at the end of this year. He was the club's football director from 2014 after becoming disenchanted by the Crows' decision-making in the years after his playing retirement in 2007. Ricciuto has been central to every major football appointment since: sacking Brenton Sanderson, then hiring senior coaches Phil Walsh, Don Pyke and Nicks, football department heads Brett Burton and Adam Kelly, and this year's addition of Brisbane Lions coaching stalwart Murray Davis to assist Nicks. He has since been a driver of the current rebuilding path. But over the same decade, Ricciuto has also been a high-profile lightning rod for criticism of the club. In his morning radio gig with Triple M, the Brownlow medallist did not always respond to these barbs with measured words, and fired a few of his own at other clubs. And while there was robust debate around the board table about the extent to which the turkeys would vote for Thanksgiving, a fresh approach to Balme, alongside former Crows utility and St Kilda list manager James Gallagher, brought reassurance that the club's football expertise would be enhanced rather than diminished in Ricciuto's wake. Loading Importantly, Balme and Gallagher are running their eyes over the program of head coach Nicks, who is under contract until 2026, and will decide what else can be done to help the players make the most of their 'premiership window'. Balme, of course, has relationships with the likes of Damien Hardwick and Chris Scott, should the Crows decide they need to headhunt a premiership coach as the last piece of the puzzle. But as multiple other clubs will attest, Balme primarily brings reassurance and a seasoned eye. 'Some of the meetings I've seen where they've had an issue they needed to fix and the way they've done that and engaged the players to come up with an answer and buy-in has been very, very good,' Balme says. 'They've got a very logical feel for how things are going, not 'if we don't play well you're a useless player, you're a useless coach'. And that's more important if you're a club like Adelaide where everyone has an opinion about you.' Ricciuto is revered in Adelaide. He is in business with pub baron and former Crows director Peter Hurley, whom he counts alongside Chapman as his two greatest mentors. Until 2023, Ricciuto owned the iconic Alma Tavern in Norwood alongside Hurley and Crows champions Rory Sloane and Taylor Walker. 'I've always said to CEOs or chairs that I'll stay as long as I'm wanted and as long as they think I'm the best person for the job, that's all I'm interested in,' Ricciuto says. 'If term limits are going to help the football club then I'll do what needs to be done, but personally they're not the sorts of things I'm concerned about.' But now that the club has put a limit on his tenure, he is relieved that Balme was eventually able to answer the call. So is Olsen. 'Mark's hard to replace in the context of time commitment, his absolute passion for the club,' Olsen says. 'But in bringing Neil and James in, you bring in not only Neil's footy experience and a whole raft of intellectual property he brings to the board table, but also James in a different generation that brings in a list management skill set. 'You ensure that as far as football strategy is concerned you have people well-versed and experienced being able to have an informed debate at board level where decisions are made. You could argue there's two replacing one to get that, but the simple fact is term limits give you the guardrails to ensure you put in place measures for continuity, not disruption.' Adelaide's $2.27 billion benefactor If Ricciuto has been the Crows' highest profile powerbroker over the past decade, its wealthiest has arisen from the most successful business in South Australia over the same period. Darren Thomas and his father Chris are the principals of the meat company Thomas Foods International, which posted revenue of $3.29 billion last year to make it Australia's 14th largest business by that measure. Formed in 1988, the company built up over the same period in which the Crows did. In recent years Darren Thomas has effectively taken over from club patron and Clipsal impresario Rob Gerard as the club's most important benefactor. It's no coincidence that Thomas was one of a select few invited to help turn the first sod for the club's new base at Thebarton Oval. Thomas played for South Adelaide and Sturt, before turning full-time to the family business, of which he is now the managing director. He counts inaugural Crows Peter McIntyre, Mark Bickley and Nigel Smart among his friends from South Adelaide, and also reels off Ricciuto, Simon Goodwin, Tony Modra and Matthew Powell as close mates. He was with Goodwin when Melbourne won the 2021 flag in Perth, and attended the Melbourne coach's wedding earlier this year. He also has links to AFL House royalty, as a friend of Gillon McLachlan and one of his predecessors, Wayne Jackson. 'We still buy a lot of Wayne's cattle,' Thomas says. 'And we provide the meat for the annual AFL lunch at Australia House in London.' It is not uncommon for Thomas to mentor Crows players. He was introduced to James Podsiadly in 2014, becoming friends and then business partners around the creation of the AFL Max indoor facility that numerous other Crows figures also invested in. And he is a regular coffee partner of Adelaide's precision goalkicker Darcy Fogarty. 'You're just there to listen and help them think through some things,' he says. 'Going back to the early days when we were nothing and I knew nothing, I had some people who were impactful on me, who happened to come through football and my school, Westminster, some of the teachers there. So I've never forgotten those things and I like to give back. 'Darce being a country boy and knowing his family for a while, it was just a good opportunity to be a sounding ear for him. If you keep players in the right headspace, the clubs will get them to perform at their optimum.' Sturt's Unley Oval home was named Thomas Farms Oval last year, but it is with the Crows that the family has had a national impact, starting with a small sponsorship in the early 2000s and banner advertising at Football Park, to becoming one of Adelaide's biggest sponsors, alongside Toyota. Loading Thomas' commitment can be measured by how he drove 17 hours from Toowoomba, where his daughter was competing in a national equestrian competition, to Melbourne in time to watch the 2017 grand final. He is hopeful the Crows have learned the necessary lessons from that period to sustain success. 'The club's really had a good inward look at itself and said 'we've got to change the way we go about things' and we're starting to see the fruits of that now,' he says. 'It was always hard for the club to attract or retain players, so I think the club has done a wonderful job to get into a position where players want to come here. 'Having Jordan [Dawson] and others coming back to the club has been a huge benefit and could set up one of those foundations, where clubs like Geelong and Hawthorn have been able to have very good success from stable groups of senior players, which allows you to blood younger players and gives you stability.' Tragedy and misadventure The Crows' sustained off-field success has long competed with unwanted headlines, fluctuating on-field fortunes and an Adelaide fishbowl. The club sat highly in the public's estimation for how bravely, openly and gracefully it handled the unfathomable tragedy of senior coach Phil Walsh's murder in the middle of the 2015 season. The off-field response, combined with a sterling performance on the park, resulted in a finals campaign fought in Walsh's memory. Adelaide's AFLW program is the envy of the league, with three premierships to date, despite not yet having a home ground on which to play consistently. But over the past 15 years, there has also been the Kurt Tippett salary cap scandal, the aforementioned camp and former captain Taylor Walker's racial vilification case, to name three instances where the Crows became a national conversation topic for the wrong reasons. 'Having such a supporter base, anything that happens to the Crows is newsworthy, good or bad,' Olsen says. 'That brings a focus and profile that sometimes you would prefer not to have. 'The profile builds supporter base, membership and interaction with the club, but the high profile also brings its challenges, particularly for some of the players where the 'fishbowl' is evident in their daily lives out and about in the community. That's a part of it, but it goes with the territory. 'I think it's really important to be as transparent and open as you can be. If you make a mistake, the best thing to do is to front up and explain it immediately, and cop it on the chin, certainly not to attempt to obfuscate.' Since 2020, Adelaide's efforts to recover from the own goals of 2017 and 2018 have been slow but steady. The club now has an enviable playing list, an improving industry reputation, and is back growing its membership and supporter base after several years of dwindling numbers. Olsen and his board have made a point of reconnecting with past players, supporters or the small and medium-sized businesses that have always been the lifeblood of SA. Counsel is sought from a clutch of former club decision-makers, including Chapman, his former deputy Jim Hazel, Hurley and also Bill Sanders, the club's avuncular first chief executive and later its third chairman. Sanders has spent long hours working to repair the relationship between the club and Andrew McLeod, one of their greatest players. McLeod was among the most outspoken critics in 2020, pointing particularly to a sense that Adelaide's history had been taken for granted. That is something Silvers and Olsen have worked to rectify, although the chairman says carefully that the Crows' relationship with McLeod is still 'a journey'. Another member of the premiership group is former ruckman Shaun Rehn, who spoke frequently and at length with Olsen in the early part of his time in the chair. But, adds Olsen, 'Not recently, because I presume that therefore we've done a journey and picked up on a number of aspects that guys were disappointed about.' Other past players spoken to by this masthead still believe the Crows can do more to connect with those who did not play in premierships or play 100 games or more. Sam Jacobs leads the past players' group, with premiership captain Bickley as his deputy. 'There's not that tribal connection you see at other clubs,' one player says. Nonetheless, Balme's appointment has offered cause for optimism. He is a figure synonymous with smart decisions, care for players and staff and premiership success. It has taken a long time to get there, however. 'If I gave advice to future chairs, avoid rebuilds,' says Olsen, who plans to retire from the board in 2027. 'They are long and they are painful and you've got to work your way through it. I remember Rob Chapman sending me a text when we had a really good win, he said 'enjoy the moment, because it will make up for all the others you'll go through'.' Ghosts of Football Park Max Basheer, the long-serving SANFL president, has penned a memoir of his decades in football that will only be published after he dies. One nugget Basheer has offered up already is how he effectively secured the creation of the Crows in September 1990 with cold, hard cash. He promised to hand the league's then-chief Ross Oakley $1 million in the AFL's bank account within days of a secret meeting at the Southern Cross Hotel in Melbourne. The speed and the secrecy were necessary because Adelaide's creation came as a result of Port Adelaide's own attempt to join the AFL by stealth a couple of months earlier – after years of talks about an SA-based VFL/AFL team had got nowhere. A court injunction by SANFL clubs succeeded in stalling Port's bid, but it was Basheer's speedy use of the league's bank account that truly kicked off the Crows. Loading That 1990 saga was the starting point for a rich rivalry between Adelaide and Port, but it also underscored how much the Crows were considered to be the SANFL's baby. Independence from the state league, a more focused club identity and even a base to truly call home were elusive for decades, largely because of those origins. It is also why when the AFL, the state government, Port Adelaide and the South Australian Cricket Association began scheming for a way to get football back to Adelaide Oval, the Crows were initially left out of the loop, and spoke for some time about not leaving Football Park until they got the best possible terms. All parties – even Basheer – now accept that the Adelaide Oval redevelopment was a multimillion-dollar revelation. Not only did it save Port from insolvency but helped the Crows to grow, also attracting previously unseen levels of interstate interest, personified by Gather Round. Even so, the move came with financial machinations that were added to the case, often made by Port supporters and others, that the Crows are not a 'real club'. In moving home games from West Lakes to Adelaide Oval, the SANFL handed over the licences for the two clubs to the AFL, which held them as security for the Crows and Power to pay a fee back to the state league. Loading Until that fee is paid off in 2028, the AFL owns the licence and theoretically has the right to veto club board appointments and other major decisions. That has led to claims that the Crows are the plaything of AFL House. But Olsen stresses work is under way to turn Adelaide into a more traditional, membership-based organisation when the final payment is made three years from now. 'At that point, the licence held by the AFL and their one voting member returns to us and we will then look at the constitution,' Olsen says. 'We're a club that's never reached out for mendicant funding from the AFL, always stood on our own two feet, and in this whole period the AFL has never rejected a board member or any decision the Adelaide Football Club has taken in regard to its governance structure.' The Crows' new home at Thebarton– a $100 million development partly funded by donors including the Thomas family in addition to $40 million in state and federal money – will mark the completion of a journey from SANFL invention to fully realised independence.
