Roger Thomas, Imelda Lynch, Shouwn Oosting and Angela McCabe standing for Adelaide Crows board election

One of the four people vying for a spot on the Crows’ board says the club could have easily avoided all the turmoil from the infamous 2018 pre-season camp.

The Adelaide Football Club needs to improve its Indigenous representation, boost country membership and focus on delivering its new Thebarton headquarters, according to those vying to join its board.

Candidates Roger Thomas, Imelda Lynch, Shouwn Oosting and Angela McCabe are standing for election to replace former Crows player Rod Jameson on the club’s board.

Roger Thomas is a candidate for the Adelaide Crows board. Picture: Keryn Stevens

Dr Thomas was the first chairman of the club’s Aboriginal Advisory Committee in 2013 and has helped advise the club on racism incidents on and off the field since then.

“For me, it’s about the agenda of Aboriginal business in the Adelaide Football Club,” Dr Thomas said.

“When you look at the Crows board over the years, there’s not been an Aboriginal person sitting at that table.

“There were decisions made (at the 2018 pre-season camp) without the highest level of regard for the voice of Aboriginal people in that situation, which could well have been avoided.

“It is about ensuring that the reconciliation agenda is continued at the highest level, and that’s what I’ll continue to do.”

Crows board candidate Imelda Lynch. Picture: Supplied

Ms Lynch is the chairwoman of Glenelg Golf Club and has more than 30 years’ experience as an executive and director in the sporting, public, private and not-for-profit sectors.

She said she would do more to grow membership numbers in regional areas and encourage the board to extend the club’s football programs across the state.

“What they need to have at a grassroots level is to have players front and centre and visiting their communities,” she said.

“The Crows did a fabulous thing up in the Riverland two weeks ago, I think they had 800 kids present.

“Footy is important to our regions, players are the draw card, and we’ve got to find mechanisms that we can use to have those players front and centre in the regional and remote areas.”

Crows board candidate Shouwn Oosting. Picture: Supplied

Shouwn Oosting, a board member of the South Australian Film Corporation, said the club had faced some “challenging times” with issues of racism in the past.

“I hate to harp on the negative, but we’re all very aware of what happened at the infamous pre-season camp back in 2018,” he said.

“I’d like to think that with a really strong First Nations lens on (the board), and putting things in place for the club to be able to develop cultural understanding and cultural capability, then those things won’t happen.”

Crows board candidate Angela McCabe. Picture: Supplied

Angela McCabe, a former general manager of Flinders Private Hospital, said she had developed skills in human resources, work health and safety, legal governance and property leasing management over the past 15 years.

“For me, it’s about change, and the biggest change for the Crows is obviously the move to Thebarton and moving their headquarters there,” she said.

“I suppose my skills are in managing multiple projects at once and managing business and building projects.”

Members-only voting ends on February 27.