In recent years keeping up with all the chess moves at Collingwood can be as challenging as the game plan Nathan Buckley himself has battled to put in place.
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Collingwood CEO resigns
Gary Pert resigns as Collingwood's chief executive, leaving as part of a wide-ranging review into the powerhouse club's underperformance.
But the game has been up for Gary Pert for some time, probably since the review into his administration was instigated back in May when business heavy hitter Peter Murphy was seconded to forensically analyse just why the club was struggling.
There is no doubt Pert fell on his sword late last week in the knowledge that his time had come at Collingwood. That knowledge has been seeping in for some time but crystallised when Murphy and Pert met last week and it became clear that Murphy's coming report to the board was punctuated by some significant staff disgruntlement and misgivings about the Magpies' off-field performance.
![Outgoing Collingwood Magpies AFL CEO Gary Pert (L) arrives to announce his resignation alongside President Eddie McGuire.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170726093355im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/x/h/u/r/o/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gxhunl.png/1500950675338.jpg)
The CEO was to shoulder some significant blame.Pert will not be the last to go but even if Nathan Buckley and his role in the Eddie McGuire grand plan is finished the president, with a renewed spring in his step, won't be among the casualties.
So Pert's preference for a dignified and - as as it turned out - somewhat grand and emotional exit suited everyone, certainly McGuire who invoked the 'Pollyanna' analogy to reiterate that he has never been more excited and invigorated as the self-dubbed AFL's "second youngest president" regarding Collingwood's future.
Pert, the former Fitzroy and Collingwood star defender was midway through a contract and his stated reasons for leaving were vague. The commitment was too great going forward and he wanted to spend more time with his family and travel and enjoy his holiday home.
Standing in the room was the football boss Geoff Walsh who had previously quit the Magpies invoking those same slightly political excuses. But he in fact was heading North Melbourne's football department within months. Walsh had clashed with Pert and several board members including Alisa Camplin who sat in the front row of Monday's Pert press conference.
![Gary Pert announces his resignation alongside President Eddie McGuire.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170726093355im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/x/h/u/r/p/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gxhunl.png/1500889968634.jpg)
Mark Korda, a Pert supporter, was not present.Buckley stood next to Walsh, who is conducting the football department review although clearly the call on the coach will rest solely with McGuire who proved once again at the send-off of his CEO that there are no better salesmen in football.
It was not a calculated chess move though when Buckley moved to sit alongside Pert's wife Andy when the outgoing chief became emotional.
![Nathan Buckley listens as Gary Pert announces his resignation.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170726093355im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/x/h/u/r/q/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gxhunl.png/1500889968634.jpg)
On those moves McGuire refused to confirm or deny on Monday whether Graeme Allan will return to the club once his suspension finishes come November but speculation continues that Allan has been told by McGuire there is a list management role for him.
So moving the pieces on that complex black-and-white board will continue to challenge but clearly not defeat McGuire. Last year the prevailing view at the club was that current list manager Derek Hine was looking shaky but then McGuire and Pert blindsided their football staff by demoting Neil Balme instead.
On Sunday the president sat alongside Mick Malthouse the 2010 premiership coach who refused to honour his contract and stay on to mentor Buckley, dropping some well-timed PR bombs - and worse - on the club instead. Pert was there also. Given the explosive nature of their falling out this buried hatchet has been a master stroke.
The unrest and disenchantment among so many Collingwood powerbrokers including some of Malthouse's key premiership players continues to play out behind the scenes so it is a good thing that McGuire appears back in the main game, plotting his next move as he leads the club into its next era.
Under the Pert regime, said the president, the Magpies had expanded and renovated their headquarters, won a flag, embraced not one but two women's sporting clubs, provided beds for the homeless and doubled their staff.McGuire said that the AFL's move to narrow the gap between the rich and poor clubs had blown up Collingwood's business plan and forced this current review which formalised Pert's downfall.
Head office, said McGuire "saw us as outliers and tried to drag us back in." Even the interchange bench reform had (deliberately or not) targeted the Magpies game plan.
Still, putting aside the spin, it should be said that 10 years as a club chief executive is an impressive innings in the gruelling AFL community and a premiership is a mighty achievement. And although the league bosses scoffed at the time Pert had the bravery to notify the game of the "volcanic" illicit drug activity among players knowing that it could harm his club's image.
This has been a tough year for him and some strange mistakes were made over the past year but Pert's departure will be remembered as a gracious one because both he and McGuire deemed it to be.
Pert himself said that running a football club was not like running a business and in the case of Collingwood on Monday all hands worked together to ensure the official version of his send-off became the accepted one.