LOCAL FOOTY BOSS QUITS
DEPARTING AFL Barwon boss Lee Hartman is adamant the stalled restructure of regional football and netball had no bearing on his decision to quit local footy’s top job.
Hartman announced yesterday he would stand down as region manager at season’s end, exiting on September 30 after 11 years overseeing footy in the region.
The former Northern Football League boss leaves with local football’s controversial restructure in limbo, but he stressed it played no part in his shock resignation.
“Look, obviously I’m a big advocate for it and I still think it should happen,” he said of promotion-relegation for AFL Barwon’s three leagues.
“I’ve got real doubts on the sustainability of some of the clubs, but at the end of the day, we’re often criticised for not listening to the stakeholders, but I think we’ve proved throughout this process that we have been listening to them.
“It would’ve been nice for it to get up, but it hasn't influenced my decision either way. I was having discussions well before that decision was made.”
Hartman said talks about his resignation had been bubbling away for the best part of 12 months, with AFL Victoria aware of his likely departure.
“It’s been a discussion for quite a while, so the time was right to give AFL Barwon and AFL Victoria a couple of months notice to find someone else,” he said.
“Once I got to 10 years, it was time to weigh up my future and whether I sit here for another 10 years to seek other opportunities.
“So it’s come to a head in the last few months and I ramped up those discussions with AFL Victoria and came to the decision.”
Hartman said he had “irons in the fire”, but was yet to decide on his future.
However, a job in football remains at the forefront of his mind.
“There’s some opportunities I have, so I’ll weigh those up and see what’s best moving forward,” he said.
“I’ll probably take a bit of a break as well. Eleven years of seven days a week takes its toll after a while.”
One of the stresses has been the constant road-blocking of the restructure.
And Hartman concedes it will be hard to walk away without seeing it through.
“I would have liked for the restructure to kick off before I left — that would’ve been a good result — but it’s not to be,” he said.
“I guess the next person who sits in the chair will continue that strategy from the commission if they see fit.”
Stalled until at least 2020, Hartman remains confident the revamp will go ahead.
“It really needs the clubs and club members to weigh that all up,” he said.
“As we’ve seen since the announcement was made, we’re still having 30-goal results in football games and 80-goal results in netball games and it’s a real struggle for some of this clubs.
“The last thing we want to do is see clubs shut their doors or merge. I hope it happens and I know the commission still wants it to.”
Hartman took over the reins from Steve O’Dowd at the end of 2007 when AFL Barwon was known as Football Geelong.
With only the GFL and BFL under its umbrella, AFL Barwon has doubled in participants from 7200 to more than 20,000 and houses a host of regional football and netball bodies.
Hartman has welcomed women’s footy, adopted a salary cap and points system for senior football and netball, introduced the regional administrative centre and spearheaded dozens of projects under the G21 strategy.
The major developments include construction at Colac’s Central Reserve, Queen’s Park and Anakie, while builders are set to turn first sod at Winter Reserve.
The West Oval project remains in the works.
“We’ve been through the transition of Football Geelong and AFL Barwon, which was a bumpy road at times, and that took a while,” Hartman said.
“Our G21 strategy will deliver on $50 million worth of projects and three strategic plans to make sure the commission could deliver on goals.
“One of the big things has been working with local, state and federal governments on some of the projects we’ve been able to deliver.
“We’ve had support from both sides of politics, and local council has had its challenges over the years, but the councils we deal with been fantastic for sport in this region.
“Working with the clubs and volunteers has been great.
“Like I said, they don’t always like our decisions, but 99 per cent of people are great to deal with and they’re there for the right reasons.”
Often a thankless job, Hartman has worked seven days a week to service the community.
“You don’t do it for the thanks and I’m sure people think working in footy is all beer and skittles, but it’s far from it,” he said.
“But we do have a great relationship with our stakeholders and they’re thankful for the job we do. Obviously hard decisions have to be made from both my desk and the commission’s desk and sometimes not everyone likes that but at the end of the day we’re hear to grow the sport of football and netball in the region and sometimes those hard calls need to be made.”