West Adelaide board agrees to stand down as club prepares for restructure

It was neither a bloodless coup nor a mass sacking — but all of West Adelaide’s board has agreed to vacate their positions as the club moves into the modern era.

David Shipway chaired a review committee that has proposed changes to the club’s constitution. Picture: Keryn Stevens

The entire board of SANFL club West Adelaide has decided to stand down as the club prepares for a restructure to move into a new era.

It comes after the board brought in consultants KPMG earlier this year to assess the club’s performances on and off the field and later appointed a review committee to come up with a better structure.

The review committee was chaired by long-serving clubman David Shipway and included club great John Kantilaftas and Deloitte’s Adrian O’Day.

Its recommendations will now go to a special general meeting, which will be held on December 17, where members will have to approve of changes to the constitution so that a new board can be formed.

It is hoped the new board will be presented to the annual general meeting in February.

The central tenet of the proposed changes to the constitution is how the board is appointed.

The review committee has recommended that the size of the board is reduced from 10 to seven and that five of the members are appointed rather than elected.

It would allow the club to appoint members who are specialists in their given field while two of the board members would be elected by the members’ vote.

Shipway stressed that the existing board members had not been “sacked” but had agreed to stand down if, as expected, these changes are approved by the members.

Some of them may return either on the board or in other capacities at the club.

“The board unanimously took it on board and unanimously accepted the recommendations,” Shipway told The Advertiser.

“The board has agreed that all of the positions on the board will become vacant.

“They can then reapply or seek re-election (from the members’ vote) once the new structure is put in place.

“So nobody’s actually been sacked and there’s no upheaval.

“It was what needed to go forward.

“A footy club is not just about playing on a Saturday afternoon.

“You’ve got a business to run, a licensed premise to run and the skill sets needed of people to run a football club are probably different to what they were many years ago.

“You need the right expertise to handle all of the club’s business.”