Scotch College

Helping the grand old flag to fly proudly again

Two Old Scotch boys are bringing their diverse talents to the job of helping to make the Melbourne Football Club successful again.

Words: Mr David ASHTON  Photography: Mr Tim Shearer

Last June, when Jim Stynes became president of the ailing Melbourne Football Club, he included in his ticket two Scotch Old Boys he believed would help him restore the AFL’s oldest club to financial stability and to success on the field.

The club is without doubt one of the oldest sports clubs in the world, and has been part of the city of Melbourne’s heritage since 1858 when Melbourne was just 23 years old. Known as the ‘Invincible Whites’ in those gold rush days, the club took on its familiar red and blue in the 1870s and went on to win 12 VFL premierships. But the club’s last flag was in 1964 – long before many of its present-day supporters were born – and recently it has fallen on lean financial times. Debts have been huge.

Enter Jim Stynes. Last June, Stynes took over the Melbourne presidency, vowing to put the ‘Demon’ back into the grand old club. Among the people he approached to join the board were two Old Scotch boys – Russel Howcroft (’83) and Stuart Grimshaw (’77).

Jim was aware of the diverse talents Russel and Stuart could bring to his revamped board, as he strove to lift Melbourne from cellar-dweller status in the AFL. The task was, and is, certainly daunting: although the Demons played in the finals as recently as 2006 – and actually won a final that year – there have since been major changes in playing personnel, and managing the club’s finances has continued to pose serious problems.

Both Russel and Stuart have wide-ranging business experience in Australia and overseas.

Russel is chairman and managing director of advertising agency George Patterson Y&R. He was previously co-founder and CEO of The Furnace advertising agency, and he has also worked for McCann Erickson and Lowe Howard-Spink in London. Russel is a permanent panel member of Andrew Denton’s ABCTV show, ‘The Gruen Transfer’, and is a regular contributor to the Lindy Burns program on ABC radio. He is a board member of the Melbourne International Arts Festival and the Advertising Federation of Australia, and recently helped to create one of Australia’s first carbon-trading companies.

Stuart is group executive, premium business services at the Commonwealth Bank. After beginning his banking career at the ANZ, Stuart joined the NAB in 1991, where he held senior credit, relationship, commercial and corporate banking roles. This included becoming chief executive officer, Great Britain, for the NAB. In 2002, Stuart joined the Commonwealth Bank as chief financial officer, becoming group executive, wealth management, in 2003 and then group executive, premium business services.

How did Russel receive his invitation to join the Melbourne board? ‘Although I hadn’t met Jim Stynes, I naturally had huge admiration for him. I loved watching him play, and I was at Prince’s Park the day he set a new record of 244 consecutive AFL games.

‘Jim said to me: “Here’s the deal: if you don’t want to join the board, introduce me to someone better than you!” As an advertising man, that certainly struck a note with me, so how could I refuse? Jim has genuine passion for the club – it’s in his veins – and he has put together a board with a diverse set of skills. We’re all busy people with many and varied interests in our lives, but we are united in our passion for Melbourne.’

Stuart says Jim approached him ‘because he needed someone who understood the numbers’. Russel says ‘when Stuart talks about the finances, we all listen – he is the numbers man’.

And the numbers have started to look much better. In the Demons’ ‘Debt Demolition’ month last August, the club and its supporters managed to eliminate more than $3 million of the debt millstone hanging around Melbourne’s neck, and they are continuing to cut it back.

Getting the numbers right is one aspect of the rebuilding process; getting the supporters strongly committed to the club and its future is another. Stuart says Melbourne needs to ‘restore a sense of belonging’ to its members, and it has taken several steps to do this. ‘One was a youth forum to gauge the feelings of young supporters, and we also held a seminar late last year at which all supporters were invited to ask questions and give their views on where the club is going. It’s most important that everyone feels that they are part of the success when it happens,’ he says.

It was also important to bring the Melbourne Football Club and the Melbourne Cricket Club together, and Russel says there is now a good sense that the MCC is keen to see the Demons succeed.

The business expertise, senior management experience, financial nous and energy which Russel and Stuart bring to the board will be very positive factors in the Melbourne Football Club board’s drive to restore the 151-year-old club to prosperity.

‘There is excitement around the board table,’ Russel says. ‘It’s a journey, and everyone is getting on board.’ Russel saw Old Scotch Football Club win its most recent A grade VAFA premiership in 1978. ‘What a great double – an Old Scotch premiership and a Demons flag!’

The final word comes from AFL chief executive officer, Andrew Demetriou:

‘… Quite incredibly, he (Jim Stynes) has managed to harass, terrorise, persuade people, and has just formed a wonderful, wonderful board with some really talented board members. They said: “We’re going to make a difference.”’ GS