Crows considering ‘Midas touch’ administrator for board
A Crows legend could step away from the AFL club’s board in March – and his most likely replacement is a long-awaited arrival at the Adelaide Football Club.
Neil Balme is ready to join the Adelaide Football Club board, replacing – and taking the football director portfolio – from long-serving club great Mark Ricciuto.
Balme, 72, is finally answering the four calls to join Adelaide that began in 2020. He has had offers to be on its staff, first as a so-called “godfather” to impart his wisdom from six decades of senior football. There also is his noted “Midas touch” with AFL premierships in football administration at Collingwood, Geelong and Richmond.
The announcement could be formalised in the first week of March at the Adelaide Football Club annual meeting.
Richmond football manager Neil Balme speaking to media during the 2019 AFL Trade Period Photo: Michael Dodge/AAP
There is currently one board seat to fill with the recent resignation of former federal politician Kate Ellis – and a potential second with Ricciuto’s upcoming constitutionally forced exit.
Ricciuto’s current term expires in February. He can be co-opted for one more year on the board, but no more than one year given the 12-year term limit set out in the club constitution. He would be the first director compelled to stand aside by the term limits introduced by chairman John Olsen.
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InDaily today confirmed with a senior Crows official that “exploratory” talks have taken place between Crows Chairman John Olsen and Balme. But there are two other contenders for board seats with those discussions to continue through January – and so the Crows insist the Balme appointment is still unconfirmed at board level.
The club’s objective for a “smooth transition” in board roles might prompt Ricciuto and Balme to work together on the board this year with a handover of the football portfolio to Balme at season’s end before the critical draft and trade periods in October and November.
Balme, a West Australian, would return to South Australian football 40 years after he made his mark in the SANFL as a rookie senior coach at Norwood where he won two premierships (1982 and 1984) before taking charge of the newly amalgamated Woodville-West Torrens unit in 1991.
He then moved to the AFL – where he was a premiership player with Richmond during the 1970s – to coach Melbourne for five seasons (1993-1997) before turning with great success to administrative roles starting at Collingwood in 1998.
He is reputed for giving football programs a clearer focus on the real tasks that lead to premiership success.
His arrival at West Lakes would appease many Crows members who believe Balme would carry the same influence for change seen when Malcolm Blight arrived as the “Messiah” coach in 1997 to deliver the club’s only AFL flags in 1997 and 1998.
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Adelaide officially sought Balme in 2000 and 2021 when he was working at Richmond and thought he was secured as its new football boss in 2021. He also was chased in 2020 by Crows premiership ruckman David Pittman when he considered a return to the club as a chairman replacing Rob Chapman.
Balme would command a football department that has been strengthened during the off-season by the appointment of Murray Davis from Brisbane – the club’s second coaching director since John Worsfold stepped away in 2015.
Balme emerges as Ricciuto’s successor after Adelaide first tried to lure former Collingwood football boss Graham Wright to West Lakes and after Balme publicly opened the door to a new approach from the Crows in June.
Balme visited Adelaide in June for a Norwood Football Club event and in a television interview with Seven declared his willingness to “help” the Crows with his experience and knowledge.
“I need something to do,” Balme said in June while confirming his work at Richmond was coming to an end but not his desire to stay in the AFL system. This remains despite a serious health scare recently that put him in intensive care in a Melbourne hospital.
Balme pitched taking up a part-time role supporting senior coach Matthew Nicks. The football director role vacated by Brownlow Medallist Ricciuto certainly fits his needs.
“(Matthew) knows what he is doing; he needs the rest of us and the people to support him really,” said Balme, who did just this for Michael Malthouse at Collingwood, Mark Thompson at Geelong and Damien Hardwick at Richmond.
Ricciuto would leave the Crows board, as dictated by the new club constitution, after serving as a director since 2014 and putting a firm imprint on the football program that delivered a grand final appearance against Balme’s victorious Richmond team in 2017.
Crows football director Mark Ricciuto at a press conference in October 2019 where Matthew Nicks was unveiled as the club’s new coach. Photo: Kelly Barnes/AAP
For the first time in more than a decade, the Crows board could be without a former Adelaide AFL player.
The much-admired premiership captain Mark Bickley has declined to step into the board room arguing he cannot serve two masters while working in the media – a challenge that did not thwart Ricciuto who will continue his roles on television with Fox Footy and radio with TripleM.
An interesting future contender for the board is Crows premiership ruckman Shaun Rehn, who is planning a return to Adelaide after he sells his farming property in New South Wales. He could emerge as a willing future successor to Olsen as chairman.
