Cook may have just one year left
THE legendary reign of Geelong chief executive Brian Cook could be about to enter its final year, as the man lauded for saving the club weighs up his future.
Cook will next season see out the final year of his contract but is already plotting a seamless exit from the highpowered role he has held for two decades.
The 61-year-old, who took over a debt-riddled basketcase club in 1999, is regarded as one of Australian sport’s great administrators and repeatedly knocked back lucrative offers from rival clubs, most famously Gold Coast and North Melbourne.
Legacies of his tenure include wiping close to $10 million of club debt he inherited, steering the $200 million rebuild of Simonds Stadium, three premierships and, more recently, helping to raise $16 million through the Our Ambition campaign.
But Cook admits “maybe it’s time for other people to have a crack” at his job in 2019, with chief financial officer Sue Clark and chief commercial officer Justin Reeves among possible internal candidates.
“It will be my 20th year next year — 20 years — that’s a long time, and 30 years as a CEO (having come from West Coast), it’s a long time,” he told the Geelong Advertiser.
“And maybe it’s time? Maybe it’s time for other people to have a crack.”
Cook hopes to make a decision by the middle of next year and said he would not look to negotiate a new contract any sooner.
His immediate focus is centred on Geelong’s looming finals campaign, co-piloting lobbying for stage-five funding at Simonds Stadium with the Kardinia Park Stadium Trust and finding a replacement for outgoing football boss Steve Hocking, who is off to work at the AFL.
“I think I’ll decide sometime next year in terms of what I want to do,” Cook said.
“And I would hope to be able to tell the board midyear what the plans are, which gives them enough time that, if I do decide to leave, that they can find a replacement.
“When I make the decision, or when the board and I make the decision to ease out of the CEO position, we want to make sure it’s not a surprise, that the club’s in a good position (to transition).”