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Collingwood football general manager Graham Wright will take a sabbatical during next football season but will return in time for the finals.<\/p>\n
The Magpies football boss has been a key player in assembling the club\u2019s latest premiership side, but he said on Friday he and his wife had planned to do a similar trip when he ended his long stint as Hawthorn\u2019s football director. Instead, he took on the Collingwood role and kept working.<\/p>\n
Wright, 55, said he would rather take the chance to enjoy an overseas break at this age than wait until he is 65 while he also backed the club\u2019s other executives and football staff to cover him in his absence.<\/p>\n
Wright said he didn\u2019t feel \u201cburnt out\u201d and would remain in his role until March next year with the first stop of his trip will be New York and is booked to fly home in the first week of September.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to. I\u2019m 55 and my wife is turning 50 – we\u2019ve talked about this for a long, long time and we are in a position to do it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt makes it easier to do it after winning a premiership but we were thinking about it either way.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Time out in 2024: Collingwood football and boss Graham Wright.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Getty Images<\/cite><\/p>\n The Magpies will announce how they will cover Wright\u2019s duties in the new year but he heads overseas with the support of chief executive Craig Kelly and president Jeff Browne.<\/p>\n \u201cGraham has been an instrumental part of our club over the last few years and when he approached Jeff and I about wanting to take leave in 2024, we supported that,\u201d Kelly said in a statement.<\/p>\n \u201cWrighty and I have been discussing this for some time now and while he will be away for a six-month period travelling overseas, he will continue to provide assistance to me and the club as a consultant where required.<\/p>\n \u201cHe has ensured the football program is well-placed during his time away \u2013 we have great leaders internally with the skills and capability to step up in Graham\u2019s absence and through this period, it will allow others inside our club to gain experience, broaden their skill set and develop further.<\/p>\n \u201cMore broadly, as a club, we want to ensure that there is opportunity for senior leaders at Collingwood to have a work-life balance and normalise this type of leave for our key people.\u201d<\/p>\n