David Parkin

And I must admit, having gone, you can imagine, Gerard going from what was the Hawthorne culture and being subjected to a couple of very interesting people who were the leaders at Carlton at that time to the Carlton culture, it was almost a shock to me that

Two organisations who are trying to compete in the same competition and deliver the same outcomes were so different in their make-up and the leadership styles that were there to try and achieve that end.

When I look back now, it was an amazing experience.

Well, I mean, that's a really difficult task to... I'm not sure even how in this time to answer that question.

I mean, you've got to go in on your own... What's the word?

On your own set of values and understandings and set the pattern in the first place.

This is what I stand for.

And you wouldn't be taking the job unless you were given that kind of...

and I think Carver at the stage where they're so, it's been, what, 20-odd years or whatever now, Gerard, that they've had little or no real success, that they are as anxious as any other organisation to get the job done.

But it won't be easy.

I can assure you, going into the job, you want to go in with your eyes wide open, your ears wide open, and learn as much as you can for...

for as long as you can, um, because it won't be an easy task.

Oh, no, no.

I think, no, I don't, I just, I'd hate to say it was a poison chalice job, but I think in any AFL club and game, the new one that's starting in Tasmania, it's, it's a, it's an unknown, Gerard.

And, uh,

You're going to something where you hope, like, hell, what you bring as a person and the values and behaviours of those that you appoint around you is going to achieve the job.

But hell, it's one, when you think of the competition and the opposition to what you want for you, it's the most demanding, I would have thought, sporting role without doubt, without fear or favour, and others will argue against that, but I would think it's the most difficult task

in Australian sport, and sometimes I think in world sport, is to get one of the AFL clubs in a position where you can strike out and have an opportunity to win a flag.

It's an enormous mountain to climb, and there are lots of multiple difficulties along the way that you've got to confront and get over.

It's, yeah, I don't...