Essendon legend Matthew Lloyd admits the club made an “embarrassing” misstep in appointing Andrew Thorburn as CEO – a position Thorburn resigned from barely 24 hours into his tenure.
Thorburn resigned after being told he could not simultaneously hold the position while being the chairman of the controversial City on a Hill church, which holds anti-gay and anti-abortion stances.
Lloyd, speaking on AFL Trade Radio, agreed the series of events was a bad look for the Bombers as they try to recalibrate following a nightmarish season.
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“You used the word embarrassing, I agree with that with how it happened,” he said.
“I didn’t follow him too much, I’d heard the name Andrew Thorburn, didn’t know his background too well when he was part of the panel to select the CEO. I never like it when the person who is helping to find the CEO becomes it themselves, I don’t like that part of it too much.
“He got the job. I did get a few texts saying ‘what did you think of this appointment’ and then once I started reading a lot of the comments, there was a lot of people who were disappointed.
“It made me think to myself surely (president) David Barham, who I’m a big fan of, the club must have known the blowback they were going to get with this appointment, particularly having an AFLW side.
“Garry Lyon did ask (Thorburn) the question … I always thought his beliefs were never going to align, his beliefs with an AFL football club, so how you get to that point is pretty staggering to me and then the pressure comes on 24 hours later.
“Wouldn’t the club have known that earlier that this was going to come back to bite them? That’s the part of it that’s gobsmacked me to be honest and we sit here and it’s embarrassing. Another hit on the club that’s had a poor decade really.
While Barham insisted he had done a thorough reference-check on Thorburn before the board appointed him as CEO, fellow club great Tim Watson admitted the optics were horrid.
“You just look at it at face value and so many people have told me that all you had to do was Google him and you’d find out the church he represented and what their beliefs were and Essendon could have found that out easily,” he said on SEN Breakfast.
“They said they understood that he was the chairman of the church, but it wasn’t apparent to them about the sermon back in 2013 and that that was part of the church’s beliefs.
“Clearly the process wasn’t rigorous enough and it wasn’t robust enough and the due diligence that needed to be applied to it wasn’t there and that goes to the heart of the football club and other appointments you make.”
AFL Media journalist Damian Barrett said the bungled appointment left president David Barham in an unenviable position
“I feel he (Barham) has no choice but to stand down himself,” Barrett said.
“I don’t expect him to do that, but what I do expect to happen on the back of him putting the heels back in is that (questions over his position would be raised).
“I know there were meetings going on last night, multiple meetings from people who want change … none of it was favourable to David Barham.
“How that plays out, potentially as early as today, I’m really keen to see.”
