They talked briefly about Harley's appointment on AFL360 last night. Whately commented that he doesn't believe the Swans' CEO job is the top position Harley will occupy within the football industry. He think's Harley is earmarked to take over from McLachlan. I am sure he'd have been in the AFL's sights now as a possible to take over the vacant role of Football Operations Manager.
In terms of Ireland first "only" being appointed as Football Manager when he first arrived at Sydney, that was for a couple of reasons:
- the Swans already had a CEO, who was performing reasonably well at the time
- Ireland had recently departed the Lions as CEO, where he felt he was "burned out". He actually was a consultant to the club for a year or so, before joining as Football Manager, and that role possibly gave him a bit of respite from the pressures of being a CEO for a few years, until he had the appetite to step up to the top job at a club again.
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