North Melbourne AFL chairman James Brayshaw said on Thursday he took great exception to accusations he was part of a boys’ club which ran the Kangaroos.
Newspaper reports have accused Brayshaw of being part of a cartel which includes his brother Mark – a club director – football manager Donald McDonald and assistant coach Darren Crocker.
North’s chief executive Eugene Arocca shocked the club by quitting suddenly on Tuesday, amid allegations of a rift with Brayshaw.
Arocca’s position had been under review, Brayshaw said.
Long-time North Melbourne powerbroker Ron Joseph said this week he had quit the board in 2010 after becoming frustrated that Brayshaw was part of a cartel.
Joseph accused Brayshaw of failing to embrace North Melbourne people or take football advice from those outside his select group.
“The reference to a boys’ club is disrespectful to the people who spend a lot of time helping us run the club, like the rest of the board for instance,” Brayshaw told Nine’s The Footy Show.
“It is absolutely not a boys’ club and that is a nonsense.”
Brayshaw said he was really disappointed to see Arocca’s concerns about how the club is being run featured in a report in Tuesday’s The Australian newspaper.
“Especially after a 115-point loss after the whole club is really hurting and at its most vulnerable,” Brayshaw said.
Brayshaw also rubbished reports McDonald had gained a new contract in the football department beyond the 2012 season because his son Luke was a potential draft pick for the Kangaroos.
“We’ve known that Luke is a highly talented footballer and likely to be a father-son issue,” Brayshaw said.
The Kangaroos were keeping the two issues very separate, Brayshaw said, although Arocca was reportedly concerned the two items were linked.
“They have to be separate. You can’t have them together, that’s actually illegal,” Brayshaw said.
“He has been the head of our footy department for six years. So we didn’t go away and invent a position for him and sign him up for multiple years so we can make sure his son’s position (is headed towards playing for North).
“Can we lure this bloke father-son to our club? The great hope is that we will.”
Joseph has joined the list of critics saying 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.
Brayshaw admitted it may have been a bad look to sit with North’s stats crew during last week’s Launceston game against Hawthorn.
“Time again, should I have sat somewhere else, maybe,” he said.
“But I don’t consider where a president sits during a 115-point loss to be a big enough focus to have had this two or three days’ worth.
“I just don’t understand why people are so consumed with what I do on game day.”
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