Paul Guerra drove into the MCG’s underground car park at 7.30am on Tuesday. Everything about the day was normal – until it wasn’t.
He walked into a regularly scheduled meeting with Melbourne’s president Steven Smith that morning as the club’s CEO, and walked out shortly after as the former CEO.
After seven months he had lost his job, but gained a place as a trivia question: which CEO of an AFL club lasted longest? A) Andrew Thorburn B) Paul McNamee C) Tracey Gaudry or D) Paul Guerra? (It was Guerra.)
Across the railway tracks, Dees coach Steven King held a press conference at 9.15am. The first question was about Kozzy Pickett, as it should have been. There was no hint of how the day was about to suddenly change and that what happens on the field would once more become secondary at Melbourne to what happens off it.
Guerra was appointed a year ago, in April 2025. It did not take long for Melbourne board members to have buyer’s remorse. Though lingering commitments prevented him starting in the job until September last year, the board was already uneasy about Guerra’s enthusiasm for talking about the club in the media before he’d even started in the job.
Coming out of VECCI and a high-profile role during the COVID-19 crisis, Guerra was accustomed to being a loud advocate for the industry lobby. It suited his personality and leadership style, but it was also what the position demanded. The Demons wanted understatement.
During the trade period, rival clubs were surprised at the level of involvement in trade discussions the new CEO, who had not worked inside an AFL club before, was having in negotiations. It was surprising that highly respected list manager Tim Lamb was not given freedom to run the trades, given Guerra had not worked in a club before. But the Demons had significant players in Clayton Oliver and Christian Petracca being traded out, so it was also not unreasonable the CEO should be across the detail of discussions.
The clearest early signs of second-guessing by the Melbourne board about their CEO hire was when they took on freshly retired Carlton (and Geelong and West Coast) CEO Brian Cook as a part-time mentor to Guerra. As revealed by this masthead in November last year, Smith, an old teammate of Cook’s, hired the veteran administrator in October just a month into Guerra’s tenure so that he could fill in the blanks in industry knowledge in Guerra’s resume.
Guerra would say it was his idea to bring Cook in. The club would say not. Regardless of whose idea it was, it was agreed he needed help. After what has transpired in the last two days and the comments from the board about losing faith in Guerra as a leader, the hiring of Cook indicates the board had early doubts about Guerra’s lack of experience, knowledge and contacts in the industry.
Before the board decided to make such a significant decision as to sack Guerra, it can be assumed Cook was asked for feedback from the six months they worked together and Guerra’s suitability for the role beyond his industry knowledge.
The messy phone hook-up with the partners of Demons players, held by Guerra, King and football boss Alan Richardson and which ventured into private issues that alarmed people on the call and forced a public apology from the club, was not helpful to the club boss.
Guerra said he was blindsided by his sacking, which is not hard to believe; no one expects to be dumped so early in their tenure.
Typically, you would assume malfeasance or misconduct of some sort must be behind the decision to move on someone so quickly. It wasn’t; the board insists it just knew it had made an error. He was the wrong man for them.
That reflects badly on the board, after supposedly running an exhaustive search.
It could also be seen as a measure of how convinced it was of how wrong Guerra was for the Demons, that it took this decision anyway.
With the team fourth on the ladder with five wins and two losses after a summer of change and upheaval, the idea of inviting more change and upheaval during the season is the most surprising part of the sacking.
Even if the club knew Guerra was the wrong person, given the fear of what such significant change in leadership does to a team, it might have been assumed they would ride the season out. Evidently, the club concluded there was a greater risk of doing nothing.
Convinced he was the wrong person they acted swiftly, as Hawthorn did on Gaudry.
How did the board get it so thunderously wrong they had to sack him after seven months in the job? Did they completely underestimate the importance of football, or was it more than that? With legal action likely, the club is reluctant to go into further detail.
Interestingly, Dan Taylor, who steps off the board and quits his executive director role at Stan (owned by Nine, which also owns this masthead) to replace Guerra, has no football club experience outside of his time on the Demons board.
Some comfort to members will be that even if the board got the initial Guerra decision badly wrong, the other decisions taken at the club in the last year and a half have been right. King can coach. (Yes Guerra was on that selection panel, but the board made the decision.) The board, having blocked the first attempts by Petracca and Oliver to leave the club, decided to bite the bullet second time around and let them go. It has so far been a win-win for players and club.
Clearly there was a personality clash or misalignment with president Steven Smith, but the issues with Guerra had to be broader than that; the board, which still includes Brad Green, who was president when Guerra was appointed, was unanimous in its decision to sack him.
Guerra’s surname is Spanish for war. Sitting in his lawyer’s offices on Tuesday afternoon, contemplating legal action, there might be something in nominative determinism about what happens next. Hopefully for the Melbourne players, coaches and fans, it does not lead to that.
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Michael Gleeson is an award-winning senior sports writer specialising in AFL and athletics.Connect via X or email.