Long-time North Melbourne powerbroker Ron Joseph says the AFL club needs a president that can bring unity as it is imploding under James Brayshaw.
Joseph’s criticism comes after chief executive Eugene Arocca shocked the club by quitting suddenly on Tuesday, amid allegations of a rift with Brayshaw.
Joseph, a key backroom figure in North’s most successful eras, said he quit the board in 2010 after becoming frustrated that Brayshaw was part of an exclusive cartel.
He said Brayshaw failed to embrace “North Melbourne people” or take football advice from those outside his select group.
Joseph said that was a particular problem at North Melbourne because the club’s small supporter base made it hard for the club to function unless they had everyone on-side.
“There’s so much work to be done that everybody has to be embraced,” Joseph told Melbourne’s SEN radio on Wednesday.
“I just don’t feel that the current board are doing enough to embrace the whole North Melbourne Football Club.”
Joseph said from his experience on Brayshaw’s board from 2007-10, some members were more interested in retaining power than actually helping the Kangaroos.
“People position themselves and structure cartels, so that when the vote gets taken it’s their best interests that are put before the development of the North Melbourne Football Club,” he said.
“That in a football club is very, very dangerous.
“That worried me in 2010 when I stepped aside and it still worries me today.”
Joseph said when media personality Brayshaw took control in 2007, to spearhead the resistance to relocating to Gold Coast, it had been expected that he would use his profile to garner support behind the scenes.
But that had not happened.
“I’ve been disappointed in James’ capacity to embrace North Melbourne people,” he said.
“He clearly does have difficulties … I just really think that North needs somebody now who’s got the capacity to bring all of the people together.”
Meanwhile, AFL boss Andrew Demetriou rubbished claims that the league had secretly sounded out Geelong chief executive Brian Cook about taking over North Melbourne.
Demetriou said the suggestion was made as a joke at a dinner at a Sydney restaurant the night before last year’s national draft.
“Then we moved on to the next topic of discussion, which was another joke, whatever it was. There was nothing secret about it,” Demetriou said.
He said the AFL has offered the Kangaroos help finding a new chief executive.