Collingwood presidential candidate Barry Carp is determined to maintain the Magpies’ position as the league’s “No.1 club”, as the Pies eye potentially taking over Melbourne’s AAMI Park facilities in future and reviving their spiritual home at Victoria Park.
Board member Barry Carp said the Magpies were in robust health, and were poised to confirm a significant profit this year despite missing finals after winning the flag in 2023, and that if and when the Demons leave AAMI Park for a new home, the Pies would look at expansion.
Collingwood board member Barry Carp is up for re-election and hopes to become the club’s next president.Credit: Eddie Jim
“We are in the best sporting precinct in the world. We’re in such an enviable position in terms of where we live and train and work. So any opportunity to shore that up, to expand that, we’d obviously have to have a look at. And, yeah that [taking over Melbourne’s space at AAMI Park] would be part of that,” said Carp, a former lawyer turned financier who runs River Capital, and joined the board three years ago on a ticket with president Jeff Browne.
“The other thing is that we’ve got an amazing opportunity with our spiritual home at Victoria Park. There’s lots of work that can be done there to improve those facilities. And hopefully that’s an opportunity for us to make sure that we keep improving those facilities. To have them in the absolute best shape and best condition to host AFLW games or whatever it might be. There’s lots more that we can do at Victoria Park.”
Carp is on a ticket to fill four spots on the board that has six candidates nominated, with election voting opening on Friday. Carp, if elected and the new board agrees, wants to be the next president of Collingwood.
“If I’m asked at that subsequent meeting to take on the role of president, it would obviously be an honour,” he said, stressing that there was a process to be respected before that occurred.
“We’re all different, and we’ve got to be true to our authentic self, and I’m not going to be Jeff Browne, nor could I wish to be, but I stood with Jeff and Renee [Roberts] in 2021 and under Jeff’s leadership we achieved everything, pretty much, that we asked our members to support us for back then: bring the club back to its rightful position as No.1 off the field and on the field.
“We achieved those things with 112,000 members [and winning the flag] and I see the next stages as continual.
“We did come in in 2022 and we did see that significant improvement. I’m not in any way putting that [winning the premiership] down to our board roles – we have the best coach in the AFL, we’ve got the best people around the club, and we’ll continue to focus on that. Boards need to be unified.
“The board has some clear objectives. And first and foremost is sustained success on the field. I think we’ve participated in 45 grand finals in 132 years, so from our perspective as passionate Collingwood fans and members we have an expectation of sustained success.
Collingwood aim to improve the facilities at their spiritual home, Victoria Park.Credit: AFL Photos
“In terms of priorities, I want to make sure that Collingwood remain a destination club, the No.1 club for people and their life’s journey.”
Collingwood are in strong financial health with $100 million in assets ($60m net assets) and liquid assets now of $50m largely through significant growth in a fund established to manage profits from the sale of gaming venues.
After winning the 2023 premiership the club endured a difficult year, missing the finals after managing the season without a permanent football manager during Graham Wright’s season-long sabbatical. The search for his replacement, which has taken several months, has narrowed to two experienced football managers, one of whom is likely to be appointed within weeks.
“You prefer to go through a really comprehensive process to get the right person and a person that’s going to make our club continue to be great and have sustained success, rather than just satisfy the desire to hire someone quickly,” Carp said.
Browne and the board had worked hard to persuade Wright to resume his role at Collingwood, but the experienced football head felt tensions with CEO Craig Kelly made it untenable for him to return. He has taken a job at Carlton as the successor to Brian Cook as CEO.
Losing Wright meant the club also needed a new list boss, with assistant coach Justin Leppitsch moved into the role.
Carp felt Collingwood were unlucky to narrowly miss the finals this year and remained in strong contention for the flag next year.
“You have a bit of bad luck, which we did, and some games that perhaps we could have won, that ended up tied in the case of the Fremantle one over there. These things, in an even competition, it doesn’t take much to be the difference. We don’t want to use excuses, we don’t do that at Collingwood, but we didn’t have a great run with injuries last year either,” Carp said.
Collingwood will have 12 players aged over 30 on their list next year, and traded out of the early rounds of this year’s draft. They gave up their first-round pick next year to bring in talented defender Dan Houston while Harry Perryman arrived as a free agent.
“I’ve read the commentary around our list. I look at business and the world generally, and think, ’How good is it for the development of young players to sit at the feet of champions, players like [Scott] Pendlebury and [Steele] Sidebottom and [Jeremy] Howe? So I look at it positively. I say this is going to fast track the development of our younger players,” Carp said.
