said on Seven\u2019s The Agenda Setters<\/a>.<\/p>\n\u201cHe\u2019s away at the moment, celebrating his 60th birthday overseas, will miss the King\u2019s Birthday MND game. The plan is Kelly could be gone by the end of this season, certainly in a full time (capacity).<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are a lot of things he has run and overseen that I think he would like to remain charge of – they include a massive potential refurb(ishment) that\u2019s coming in the coming years of the MCG and how it\u2019s gonna involve the tenant clubs, and also a potential deal with Tennis Australia to take over parts of Collingwood\u2019s Olympic Park precinct for their fan zone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kelly\u2019s initial years in the role were \u201ctumultuous\u201d and according to Wilson, he has had to manage difficult relationships between list boss Justin Leppitsch – who ascended from the assistant coaching ranks to replace Graham Wright – and several of his colleagues.<\/p>\n
Graham Wright and Craig Kelly in early 2023. Picture: David CroslingSource: News Corp Australia<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s halfway through his fourth season, it\u2019s been a tumultuous time since he took over,\u201d Wilson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course, a premiership was a very big part of that regime. Then the famous fallout with his great mate and footy boss Graham Wright, who then went over to run Carlton. Early days it was tumultuous for him too – his style was not that of your new-age CEO, to put it mildly. That has changed in recent times.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve got a guy like list boss Justin Leppitsch who has turbulent relationships with a lot of people around the football club.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo a lot to manage, a relatively new president, a new footy boss in Charlie Gardiner who I think would be part of a group who might be ascending to take over that role (CEO), but a couple of big names outside the club that we\u2019re trying to find out about too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Justin Leppitsch, General Manager of List and Talent Strategy of Collingwood during the 2025 Continental Tyres AFL Trade Period at Marvel Stadium on October 6, 2025 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by James Wiltshire\/AFL Photos via Getty Images)Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
The decision to depart the club is Kelly\u2019s.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I don\u2019t think his relationship with Graham Wright was well-handled,\u201d Wilson added.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think the year that followed the premiership was well-handled either.\u201d<\/p>\n
‘Reap what you sow’ Pies Darcy dilemma | 05:05<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Collingwood CEO Craig Kelly is \u201cnegotiating his exit\u201d from the club, according to veteran journalist Caroline Wilson, with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":708231,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-708230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=708230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708230\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/708231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=708230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=708230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=708230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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