Presidents of Richmond, Melbourne, Western Bulldogs and North Melbourne speak out on equality in the AFL boardroom
Richmond president Peggy O’Neal has revealed why this will be her last season in the top job as the AFL welcomes its fourth woman as club president.
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Trailblazing Richmond president Peggy O’Neal will hand over the reins at the end of the 2022 season.
O’Neal, who became the league’s first female club president in 2013, has led a golden era at the Tigers, with the club re-emerging as an AFL powerhouse with its 37-year drought breaking premiership in 2017 followed by back-to-back flags in 2019 and 2020.
“When I started out that looked pretty unlikely but you do what you can to help out the organisation and you never know where it will take you,’’ O’Neal said.
“There’s been a great group of people who’ve been associated with the club and I’ve happened to be president during what’s ended up being a pretty golden period. The last five years have been wonderful.”
An American born lawyer, O’Neal, 69, moved to Australia more than 30 years ago and has been on the Tigers’ board for 17 seasons. She says the time is right to pass on the baton.
“We have term limits and I’m ready to let someone else have the fun,’’ she said.
“I’m looking forward to being a fan. After this season I’ll hand over and finish up at our AGM in December and that’s when our new president will officially take office and I’ll be sitting in the outer with a beanie and a beer next year.”
O’Neal says her tenure has been beyond “my wildest dreams” but also admits she worried about being judged as a female.
“I sometimes am concerned when people act like I did something special,’’ O’Neal said.
“It takes a whole club, when you see it come together and you realise you’re a part of what happens, but the gold dust isn’t because of you.
“I often wonder that if we hadn’t been successful, as a woman would I and other women have been judged as ‘they couldn’t do it’?
“Even though, as we know there’s only one winner every year, and can you be successful without winning a premiership? So the measure of success is a bit different. I was asked the other day to talk a bit about ‘what have you done?’ and I really do struggle.
“It’s not false modesty, but it’s all been a group effort and I was one piece of the puzzle and I was just fortunate to be there when we made a complete puzzle.”
O’Neal said her successor would be someone from the current board and those discussions have just begun to take place.
‘A lot more work to be done to say there’s equality’
As the AFL welcomes it’s fourth female club president this week — North Melbourne’s Dr Sonja Hood — Richmond’s pioneer leader Peggy O’Neal says there remains a long way to go to achieve equality at board level.
Tigers president O’Neal said it was pleasing that she, Hood, Melbourne’s Kate Roffey and Western Bulldogs’ Kylie Watson-Wheeler would now head four of the 10 Victorian AFL clubs. There are no female presidents at the eight interstate clubs.
But she added clubs should also look at opportunities for senior executives on staff.
“We can hope that we quit counting, that we don’t say there’s four or there’s six, there just is,’’ O’Neal said.
“There’s so many more women now on AFL boards that it becomes inevitable women will take on those kinds of roles. I think the real challenge is to get women into executive roles at clubs and slowly but surely that’s happening.
“Some clubs will take the step and find the right person to lead the club (as a coach) and then we’ll see more and more crossover in coaching between the men’s and the women’s sides.
“I think that’s ideal: we have men coaching women and women coaching men. There’s a way to go on that but I think the AFL has put in some good initiatives to bring women into it.”
The Demons’ Roffey says the female presidents catch up regularly. But rather than comparing club notes, the get-togethers are usually footy free zones.
Roffey says Hood will be a welcome addition to the table along with herself, O’Neal and Watson-Wheeler.
“We spend time having dinner and we don’t talk about football,’’ Roffey said.
“We don’t talk to Peggy about what Richmond did (to win premierships). We talk about other things because we share a common bond that is really unusual — being pioneers. I’m the first female president of the oldest professional sports club in the world.
“It’s an extraordinary thing historically that all of us will take first with us wherever we go. Being the first in these roles at our clubs is an incredible thing.”
Trailblazing president O’Neal will step down at the end of the 2022 season. She
became the league’s first female club president in 2013, and has led a golden era at the Tigers, with the club re-emerging as an AFL powerhouse with its 37-year drought breaking premiership in 2017 followed by back-to-back flags in 2019 and 2020.
“It’s come a long way since 2005 when I went on the board,’’ she says, “And it’s come a little bit further since 2013 when I became president.
“There’s still a lot more work to be done to say there’s equality because it isn’t equal, but I think the momentum is starting to build and people are starting to look for who can do the job. And those skills may not necessarily be what we thought was needed in the past.
She said triple premiership success looked “pretty unlikely” when she started at the club but “you do what you can to help out the organisation and you never know where it will take you”.
“There’s been a great group of people who’ve been associated with the club and I’ve happened to be president during what’s ended up being a pretty golden period. The last five years have been wonderful.”
Richmond president Peggy O’Neal has some sage words of wisdom for Hood, who will officially take the reins at North Melbourne this week.
“Try to enjoy it as much as you can,’’ she said.
“There’ll be times that test you and things will drive you crazy but overall it’s a tremendous opportunity to serve the community and I think with all of these roles in football clubs we’re all volunteers and we’re there to really serve something that we love.
“Meet as many people as you can, use your good judgment and you’ll have a great time no matter what the result is. It’s the actual act of serving that brings a lot of personal satisfaction.”
Hood is preparing for a footy rollercoaster but she’s also ready for the challenge.
She established and was CEO of the club’s not-for-profit community arm, The Huddle, for five years, and is now CEO of Community Hubs Australia.
“Girls can’t aspire to be it if they can’t see it,’’ Hood said.
“I was reflecting on that because I did aspire to be on the board, I didn’t aspire to be a president, they saw that in me, I didn’t.
“I’m not frightened of leading. We’re on a journey and we’re heading in the right direction.
“If you think about it, next year we’ll have 18 senior male coaches and 18 senior coaches of AFLW and that’s 18 heads of football and that’s now a two person role. There’s only ever been one female CEO, there’s lots of opportunities for improvement.”
Bulldogs president Kylie Watson-Wheeler was elevated last year to succeed Peter Gordon. The senior vice-president and managing director of Walt Disney Company Australia and New Zealand had been on the board for the past eight years.
“The juggle is real but that’s OK,’’ she said.
“I love it, I love this club.
“It was very organic my pathway to becoming president, being vice president to Peter, and he wanted me to take the reins from him.
“When it did happen I certainly recognised the importance of that in extending from having only one (female president) to then being two and then very quickly being three and then very quickly being four, so it feels like I was part of that momentum and that’s really special.”
Watson-Wheeler said the Bulldogs had led the way with their AFLW side and she can see a clearer pathway for women to lead and succeed.
“We were the first club to field a women’s team and when we look at the young women who are coming through the draft now, they’re someone who has played continuously through their youth,’’ she said.
“They haven’t had to leave the sport and you can see that in the skills. What will come with that is a continuity of experience in coaches and umpires, we’ll start to see that coming through and there’s enormous opportunity.”
Roffey was elevated to president of Melbourne last year in April and the season couldn’t have gone better after breaking the club’s 57 year premiership drought.
With a strong background in professional sport and business, Roffey joined the board in 2013.
“We always say we’re not presidents of our club because we’re female, we’re presidents of our clubs because we’re good at leadership and governance and those things,’’ she said.
“But being a female in these roles is a bonus. There’s only 18 presidents and they can’t all be female, it does come down to who can and who has time to do the job.
“One of the most rewarding things that ever happens in these roles is when a Dad walks up with his 11 year-old daughter and says, ‘my daughter wants to have a selfie with you and you’ve really motivated her and inspired her to do whatever she wants to do’.
“Not necessarily be president of an AFL club, but young girls can say I can. Someone has to be it, why can’t it be me?”
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