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Fresh Fagan ready to make tough Crow calls

Sep 16, 2014
Fagan at the Brumbies

Fagan at the Brumbies

Former rugby union boss Andrew Fagan has been appointed the new chief executive of AFL club Adelaide, promising a “fresh set of eyes” and a few “tough calls”.

Fagan was chief of Super Rugby franchise the ACT Brumbies from 2005-2013 before joining the Australian Rugby Union in March this year.

The 43-year-old, born in Adelaide and raised in Sydney before moving to Canberra to complete university, believes his rugby experience will be a help, rather than a hindrance, in the AFL industry.

Fagan said the prospect of new challenges attracted him to the job.

“I’d like to think I bring a fresh set of eyes and a new set of experiences to the club,” Fagan said.

“There’s obviously a wealth of AFL knowledge and experience within the footy club … I’ll immerse myself in that business and I think in a short time I’ll be an AFL man through and through.

“But I think that I really do bring a fresh set of eyes and a fresh perspective … which I think will compliment those that already exist in the club.”

Fagan is a rugby blue-blood as is his partner Alana Smith, daughter of legendary Wallabies coach Greg Smith, who guided the Australian team into the professional era in 1996.

Smith, a Fox News sports presenter, was brought up in the atmosphere of the rugby sides her Dad coached – Eastern Suburbs, NSW Waratahs and the Wallabies.

Fagan beat a large field of applicants for the job including club senior management David Noble and Nigel Smart and former Port Adelaide chief executive Mark Haysman.

Crows chairman Rob Chapman told media yesterday that Fagan’s honesty had impressed the selection panel.

“Andrew has an extensive background in sports administration, and is the ideal person to take our club forward,” Chapman said.

“He has been a senior executive at a governing body and also led a successful elite sporting club.

“Andrew has done in recent times, much of what our club needs to achieve in the next few years.”

Fagan said Adelaide’s recent lean run needed to be turned around to meet supporter expectations.

“The club has not met the expectations of their supporter base … it’s 16 years since the last flag – [that’s] too many,” he said this morning on FIVEaa as he did the rounds of local radio stations.

“It was clear to me that the board shared my thoughts about expectations; they were prepared to make the tough calls that will bring success.

“I think we can get the right people in the right seats.

“I know there are a bunch of key appointments to be made.”

“We’ve got to look at the football program and ensure that we’ve got the best football program in the AFL – that’s a controllable for me.

“In my time in rugby, in my time at the AIS, that is a controllable – you can’t always control injuries, you can’t control the decisions of officials but what you can control is putting the right people in the right seats.

“From that success will come.”

Fagan said the job was above and beyond the last two decades he experienced in rugby.

“It’s a dream job,” he said.

“I’ve been involved in professional sport for 20 years but I’ve never been as excited as I am about starting this job.”

In other local sporting appointments, former Australian coach Tim Nielsen will replace the sacked Jamie Cox as high performance manager of South Australian cricket.

Cox was axed in May for canvassing prospective recruits for the state’s Big Bash League franchise, the Adelaide Strikers, during the league’s recruiting embargo period.

Nielsen was Australian coach for four years from 2007 and most recently worked with the Redbacks’ emerging talent program.

The former wicketkeeper played 99 first-class games for SA, including the 1995/96 Sheffield Shield final win – the state’s last triumph in the four-day competition.

Nielsen said SA had the talent to end their Shield drought.

“I believe that we can achieve the ultimate goal with this group,” he said in a statement on Monday.

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