Schwab survived longer than most

Melbourne FC has confirmed the resignation of chief executive Cameron Schwab after a disastrous start to the season

Cameron Schwab with Melbourne president Don McClardy after announcing his resignation. Picture: Michael Klein Source: Herald Sun

CAMERON Schwab is football administration's great survivor.

He has withstood salary cap fines, an AFL tanking investigation, an enduring cold war with Kevin Bartlett and hired - then sacked - more coaches than most. 

He was sacked, then reinstated on the weekend of that 186-point defeat in 2011, but few remember that he was re-hired against the express wishes of president Jim Stynes.

Now the football world is baying for his blood, demanding his head as a ritual sacrifice to sate anger about Melbourne's on-field fortunes.

Certainly Stynes shared that view in his biography, believing before the July loss that "some of his behaviour was proving destructive, and it was clear he had lost the faith of the coach and the playing group".

Yet according to Demons president Don McLardy, Schwab is no longer the serial football department meddler he was once accused of being.

"Cameron has improved in a lot of aspects," McLardy told the Herald Sun.

"Cameron loves the footy side of the business, but he has spent so little time in the footy department recently.

"One criticism is that he spends too much time over there. That is disrespectful to Mark Neeld and Neil Craig, to think they would let Cameron take a dominant position over there, and that they are not strong enough to do it themselves.

"They are very strong men, and they say they would actually like to see Cameron over there more."

In a football club filled with factions and splinter groups, it is amazing to think Schwab survived that coach-killing weekend at all.

After the Simonds Stadium loss as the Demons surveyed the wreckage of their club, it was decided they should consider reinstating Schwab to limit the damage.

Yet Stynes was adamant he had to go even considering the 30-goal loss.

"The majority of the board agreed with the view that removing two key personnel was an over-reaction," Stynes wrote.

"I believed that we should make both changes, take our medicine, and move on. Eventually we proposed a deal that we should give Cameron his three months notice, but simultaneously offer him a one-year deal.

"But first he would need to hear some home truths about aspects of his job that he needed to improve on."

Now after making those changes to his approach, Schwab has a new three-year deal worth over $500,000 a season signed last August but with a six-month payout clause.

The irony is the same Fairfax columnist calling for his head this week said of Schwab in a glowing 2010 tribute: "The Demons' board now marvels at his football brain as it does at his work ethic and will to succeed".

McLardy is staying the course.

"The business side (of Melbourne) is being well run and that's his focus," he said.

He says Schwab has been heroic in helping a perennial struggler declare four consecutive profits in the toughest times imaginable, despite poor stadium economics and poor crowds.

Just as he did as the Fremantle chief executive, where he arrived in in 2001 to a debt of $8 million and 24,000 members and left with the club declaring five consecutive $1 million profits and boasting 43,000 members.

Schwab has been a survivor since he began at Richmond at 24 as the youngest CEO in AFL history.

He will need all his nous and wiles this time to survive those who want his head.

LIFE AND CAREER OF CAMERON SCHWAB

THE BEGINNING
The son of VFL commissioner and former Richmond player Alan Schwab, Cameron joined joined Melbourne Football Club as a junior administrator in 1981, aged 19.

YOUNGEST CEO
He was made the youngest chief executive in VFL history when Richmond appointed him CEO in 1988 (aged 24). After an underwhelming start to the 1994 season, Schwab resigned from the Tigers' post.

HELPING FREMANTLE
The following year, Schwab consulted with Fremantle on its entry into the AFL.

BACK TO MELBOURNE
He accepted a position in the Demons' recruiting department but quickly rose up the club's ranks. By 1997, he replaced Hassa Mann as CEO, but his stay was short-lived. The club was hit with a then AFL record $600,000 league fine for salary cap breaches totalling $810,00. He departed the club in 1999.

RETURN TO FREMANTLE
Fremantle was in crisis when Schwab became CEO in 2001. That year the Dockers won only two games for the season and sacked their second coach, Damien Drum, mid-season. Schwab headed up the Dockers for seven years, helping rebuild the club's finances. He played a key role in some of the club's failed trades and was involved in the decision to appoint Chris Connolly as senior coach and sack him in 2007.

THIRD MELBOURNE STINT
With Melbourne in financial peril, late Melbourne president Jim Stynes persuaded Schwab to return to the Dees. While the pair helped steer the club out of financial trouble, clearing a $5 million debt, the Dees' on-field performances remained poor. Under his leadership, Melbourne was accused of tanking in 2009. The AFL fined the club $500,000 and suspended former coach Dean Bailey and football manager Connolly, but Schwab escaped sanction. In 2011, Schwab was unofficially sacked the night before Geelong thrashed the Dees by 186 points. The board reversed its decision to dump Schwab and instead let go coach Dean Bailey. Last year Schwab's contract was extended for three more years.

PUSHED
After two horrendous losses to start this season, Schwab yesterday resigned from the Dees' post at the behest of the club. His position became untenable after continued criticism from media commentators and Melbourne fans about the team's performance.

STATS
CEO: 451 games
WINS: 164
WIN PERCENTAGE: 37%
FINALS SERIES: 3
WOODEN SPOONS: 3
COACHES SACKED: 4 (Kevin Bartlett, Neil Balme, Chris Connolly, Dean Bailey)

AT THE HELM
RICHMOND
BEST FINISH: 10th in 1988
WORST: wooden spoon 1989

MELBOURNE (FIRST STINT)
BEST: 4th 1998
WORST: wooden spoon 1997

FREMANTLE
BEST: Third 2006
WORST: 14th 2008

MELBOURNE (SECOND STINT)
BEST: 12th 2010
WORST: 16th 2012

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