AFL Media’s Damian Barrett has called for Essendon President David Barham to stand down after outgoing CEO Andrew Thorburn lasted just one day in the job.
Thorburn was announced as the Bombers’ next CEO on Monday but resigned on Tuesday after his position as Chair of a controversial Christian church came to light.
Barham’s addressed the media on Tuesday night after the embarrassing debacle, and Barrett says he heard “multiple meetings” have since occurred where the talk was not favourable to the current President.
“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.”
After taking over from Paul Brasher in mid-August, Barrett says the only “good thing” Barham has since done is appoint Brad Scott as coach.
While Barham got Scott across the line, Barrett believes that came partly due to assurances Thorburn would be his CEO.
“The situation last week was Brad Scott was wooed as coach, it happened really quickly once he took the call from Essendon,” Barrett said.
“Andrew Thorburn was part of that wooing process, and I believe that was done with Andrew Thorburn already privately determined as being the Chief Executive Officer.
“Brad Scott, he won’t back away from the commitment he made to Essendon, that’ll be the one good thing I think David Barham has done to this point, he’s got Brad Scott through.
“That’s not the scenario he accepted last week, he accepted the job with a CEO in place as far as I can tell.”
With Thorburn now out of the picture, Barrett says “extraordinary pressure” is on Barham with his presidency tenure being described as “an off-the-cuff takeover”.
“Now he’s got the potential of at the very least having an extraordinary amount of pressure being applied to the chair of the football club, the President of the football club,” Barrett said.
“That’s on the back of what I would say is a seven-and-a-half-week whirlwind, of just an off-the-cuff takeover of the football club from David Barham.
“Even the flippancy with which he responded yesterday, ‘We had a couple of missteps,’ and, ‘Oh well’, was another claim he made, ‘We needed a shakeup and a reset’, and, ‘We still value our own values’.
“There’s a lot of words being said by David Barham and I don’t think too many match up with proper action.”
Since taking over, Barham has overseen the departures of coach Ben Rutten and CEOs Xavier Campbell and Thorburn, plus considerable board change.