MARK LoGiudice is a good man, one determined to fix Carlton Football Club through a combination of business nous, process-driven planning and new age transparency.
But he is a naive one, too, when it comes to being the president of a struggling AFL club which has as its coach a highly successful, combative and ageing warrior who has a degree in street smarts as well as an inability to concede failure in any aspect of his life.
In trying to be everything for everyone as he set out to recalibrate for the future and attempt to safeguard Carlton and its coach Mick Malthouse from a catastrophic 2015, LoGiudice has actually propelled club and individual to such a fate.
His latest miss came on Monday afternoon when he sent a message to members which revealed Malthouse's future would be determined in two weeks' time.
Why two weeks more, asks Malthouse
Why he felt the need to tell members, and by extension the public, that Malthouse's fate now had a very definite timeframe is anyone's guess.
LoGiudice doesn't want to be old school, John Elliott-style. But he would have been better saying nothing publicly on Monday, and instead waiting until he actually had something to say.
Sometimes, rightly or wrongly, the problem for an AFL club president who wants to be transparent is that you can see right through what he's trying to do.
LoGiudice's Monday missive to members contradicted his first misfire of the season when, after losses in the first two rounds of the season, he opted to forcefully declare Malthouse was safe for 2015.
"Let me end the speculation once and for all – Mick Malthouse will coach the remainder of the season," LoGiudice said in mid-April.
"Full stop. I will say it again. Mick Malthouse will coach the remainder of the season."
It was a sentiment he delivered publicly on two more occasions.
Back in the week after round two, LoGiudice also publicly declared the Blues were in "rebuild" mode and that no player was safe from trade talk.
"Rebuild" may be a mere word, and a state in which the Blues most certainly are engulfed.
But being in a rebuild and stating two games into a new season that you are in a rebuild are different matters.
A public declaration of a rebuild so early into a season is a declaration of surrender on that season, and it creates doubt and fear in the playing list.
At least three players sought counsel on how best to deal with the meaning behind LoGiudice's words, and captain Marc Murphy and Bryce Gibbs admitted on the weekend that officials had since sought them to assure them they were, indeed, required.
Even on Sunday morning, after being asked why he had met with fellow Blues director Marcus Clarke, the club's legal brains, at his family residence, LoGiudice said the two had caught up as mates only, and that Carlton's issues were "business as usual".
But it wasn't business as usual the next day when he and Carlton chief executive Steven Trigg met Malthouse at the club's headquarters to tell him directors would determine his fate after two more matches.
While it is not yet board-endorsed, Carlton has made its decision on Malthouse, and he won't be there in 2016.
Carlton president Mark LoGiudice. Picture: Getty Images
He has told those nearest that he knows that, and one would think he would have preferred to have been told of that in the LoGiudice-Trigg meeting than to be forced to endure another two matches before being told it.
Malthouse spoke on Melbourne radio on Tuesday, questioning the point of the two-week timeline and acknowledging that his Carlton career was all but over.
As he has regularly stated, it is not in his DNA to walk away from a fight. There will be 12 matches remaining of the 2015 season when the Blues board votes on his future. Which will make the next serious conversation between LoGiudice and Malthouse very interesting.
Malthouse is not blameless for how 2015 has unfolded. His decision last Thursday to publicly refer back to LoGiudice's "rebuild" word angered LoGiudice, Trigg and Blues directors. And those people were already pretty angry anyway.
Injuries have cruelled Malthouse in 2015. Use his backline options for last Friday's match against Geelong as Exhibit A in that argument. Simon White finding himself in contests against Tom Hawkins and Mitch Clark had only one outcome.
But for the first time in his 31 years as a coach at the highest level, three of the past four matches have seen him unable to present a team that will fight to the death.
LoGiudice does not want to pre-empt his board's decision after round 10 and wants to adhere to process, and make "an informed and rational decision to take Carlton forward". He wants the decision to be "methodical and considered".
But now that he has decided to shift his timeframe for deliberation on Malthouse's future, he should immediately get to the end-game.
It doesn't matter that some directors are overseas. Organise phone hook-ups, call the meeting for today and reach a decision that brings the real future right into the now.
Malthouse is not naive to what lies ahead. He is as mentally tough as anyone who has played or coached at the highest level. He's ready to deal with it right now, the old-fashioned Carlton way.
