Steven Trigg's emergence as the new boss of one of Australian football's most famous clubs will be seen by less generous AFL observers as yet another victory for the boys' club.
More generously, Trigg's appointment as Carlton's chief executive is a victory for second chances. This, along with forgiveness, is something the AFL is famous for and that is not a bad thing.
Those who have pointedly observed that the long-time Adelaide boss and the once salary-cap cheating Blues will be perfect for each other are not being fair on Trigg.
Adelaide under Trigg's watch hid third-party payments to Kurt Tippett in a manner both clumsy and irresponsible, but ultimately unnecessary given the club could have paid Tippett above board and still not exceeded its total player payments.
It was sloppy and underhand and a sign of how internally troubled that club had become. It is also something for which both Trigg and the club paid dearly.
Trigg took his time to truly explain himself, but apologise he did. The AFL suspended him for six months and the Crows insist he was not paid for that period.
His penance seemed lenient at the time compared with that suffered by Tippett and more so Tippett's manager, Peter Blucher, but in the context of the Essendon example now appears harsh.
And it is also worth pointing out that no one at Carlton - although John Elliott's name was removed from a stand - was personally fined or suspended for the club's years of systematic cheating.
Trigg's other uncomfortable skeleton is Matt Rendell, but the industry welcomed Rendell back too after what must have been the toughest time of the recruiter's professional life, which also took a personal toll.
The AFL should remain most uncomfortable about its handling of Rendell and the league's outgoing CEO Andrew Demetriou - in a rare media misstep - struggled with that very question in one of his last interviews, conducted on Channel Nine's Footy Classified.
This is where any attempt to objectively judge Trigg's performance becomes clouded. To what extent did he feel pressured by head office in its bid to point the finger at recruiters for dwindling indigenous numbers in his handling of Rendell.
And further, to what extent was the Adelaide board responsible for the Tippett affair. The club's chairman, Rob Chapman, has vehemently denied any knowledge of those dodgy contracts but the question has lingered. Trigg deserved his punishment, but to what extent did he take a hit for others?
The harsh reality of Trigg's situation at any rate was that he had to leave Adelaide - the club - by the end of this season and the impression was that both the AFL and the Crows believed he deserved another job and another chance. Both, however, deny they were driven by troubled consciences where Trigg was concerned.
Since his return from suspension, Trigg has overseen three historic achievements for a club that has had only two chief executives in its quarter century existence. Within a short period he achieved the Adelaide Oval agreement - albeit still a bone of contention that will outlive his tenure but one that has reinvigorated the Crows.
Trigg has also seen the club achieve independence from the SANFL and the establishment of the Crows team in the state league.
Despite this he was still booed by some angry Adelaide fans when the team lost. This made the board increasingly uncomfortable because - in truth - some of them were being booed also.
Now both parties can start afresh, with Trigg's new task including the problematic question of Mick Malthouse's future beyond 2015 and the internal creation of a new culture at Carlton.
He comes into the job with the strong support of his former St Peter's College student Andrew McKay - Carlton's football boss who was reportedly so concerned that the club would appoint the wrong candidate that he put up his hand for the top job.
Trigg also attended St Peter's - the Adelaide private school with strong sporting links to Melbourne Grammar but now emerging as the Xavier College of South Australia given the growing number of AFL identities among its alumni. AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan is an old boy also, along with former Port Adelaide boss Mark Haysman.
In the past, Adelaide has favoured internal appointments, both in terms of coaching and senior administrative roles. Brenton Sanderson was not the only coaching outsider the Crows have embraced, but his appointment was seen as a significant departure from tradition.
And Adelaide has not ruled out following suit in appointing an outsider to the chief executive role. The club has shown some interest in interviewing Greg Swann. This would prove an intriguing straight swap of genuinely well-regarded club chiefs who both were seen to have outlived their usefulness at their old clubs.
Given that Carlton employed corporate headhunters Egon Zehnder and came up with a well-known AFL figure in the game's own backyard, it is worth noting that the Crows have had the good sense to avoid paying out a six-figure sum to embark on an executive search it can handle on its own.
The same could not be said of the AFL, which outlayed several hundred thousand dollars in a supposed world-wide search for a new CEO. In the end it appointed Demetriou's highly favoured deputy, whom the league tested against two other candidates - AFL stalwarts Brian Cook and Brendon Gale.
We would suggest the commission could have saved its money.
