Hawthorn board election: Richie Vandenberg quits after Andy Gowers elected president
Hawthorn faces a gulf in leadership at the top, with two key departures following a bitter presidential election. And insiders have revealed the key reason for the vote.
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Hawthorn has lost its three most senior board members after the shock departure of director Richie Vandenberg stripped the club of valuable football and legal experience.
Failed challenger Peter Nankivell told the Herald Sun on Wednesday he would immediately move on from the club, leaving Hawthorn’s new president Andy Gowers seeking to unite a board that by Wednesday morning had also lost its football director and former club captain in Vandenberg as well as departing president Jeff Kennett.
Vandenberg had aligned himself with presidential contender Nankivell and was his vice-president elect.
Nankivell instead lost comprehensively to premiership player Gowers in a vote of members.
Club insiders believe Hawthorn has lost critical expertise in the areas of football and legal matters, with Nankivell also integral in the club’s expansion to the new Dingley headquarters.
Vandenberg is understood to have spearheaded the board’s decision to move on Alastair Clarkson and replace him with Sam Mitchell, with the businessman and former Hawk a close confidante of the new senior coach.
But Gowers has also backed in Mitchell’s tenure and decision to embark upon a comprehensive rebuild.
Nankivell told the Herald Sun he wished Gowers the best, but conceded there would have been some members voting for a change in direction after Kennett’s leadership.
The Gowers camp believed the election turned on Kennett’s increased involvement in the campaign, which meant Nankivell could not distance himself from the previous regimen.
The club will set up a nominations committee that will attempt to secure another elite football expert to help support Sam Mitchell’s long-term rebuild.
But of the recently retired camp club, hero Jordan Lewis publicly backed Nankivell, Luke Hodge works for Channel 7 and is based in Brisbane, and Jarryd Roughead works at St Kilda.
Former Hawthorn captain Vandenberg was ashen-faced at the club’s AGM on Tuesday and informed Gowers that night he would quit despite being awarded a new term.
Gowers would have happily worked with Vandenberg given he and Nankivell had identical platforms of stability, support for Sam Mitchell and care for the victims of the First Nations allegations.
Nankivell’s departure will create a casual vacancy that the club will be able to fill without going to another election.
It means the club might need to pay for legal advice on how to chart the course forward as it considers mediation with the First Nations families and likely compensation for the club’s actions.
“I was asked by the board to put my hand up and take on the job. I didn’t seek it and I am glad the board has faith in me. There were some headwinds in so far as Jeff’s legacy. I would say I was not a past player and there was a far more effective and co-ordinated campaign run against me. That is the reality. I believe I maintained my dignity at all times,” Nankivell said.
“I think that in my experience in leadership in other areas of my life, in my professional life and not-for-profits, you are best to step away for a time and let the new administration carry on and make their way.”
“Andy will have some challenges with some of the priorities he talked about. He will very much have his hands full working through those.”
Vandenberg quits amid board election fallout
Hawthorn football director Richie Vandenberg has quit the club’s board in the wake of former player Andy Gowers’ appointment as the club’s new president.
Premiership player Gowers was appointed by the members over acting president Peter Nankivell, who as part of the club’s constitution will no longer be part of the board.
Vandenberg was a key driver of the club’s entire strategy as football director, including the decisions to move on from Alastair Clarkson and replace him with Sam Mitchell while embarking upon a full-blown rebuild.
Vandenberg was a strong supporter of Nankivell, who had been on the club’s board for eight years and had been a key player in legal advice over the club’s First Nations review and the Dingley expansion.
Former Hawthorn captain Vandenberg told the club’s board last night he would quit and is understood to have passed on that news to new president Gowers on Tuesday night.
It will create a casual vacancy that the club will be able to fill without going to another election.
The club will now lose its three most senior board members in Kennett, on the board for 11 years in total, along with Vandenberg and Nankivell.
Nankivell led the club’s legal response to the First Nations review but told the Herald Sun on Wednesday he would step away from Hawthorn entirely.
It means the club will need more legal advice on how to chart the course forward as it considers mediation with the First Nations families and likely compensation for the club’s actions.
Nankivell told the Herald Sun he wished Gowers the best but admitted there would have been some members voting for a change in direction after Jeff Kennett’s leadership.
“I was asked by the board to put my hand up and take on the job. I didn’t seek it and I am glad the board has faith in me. There were some headwinds in so far as Jeff’s legacy. I would say I was not a past player and there was a far more effective and coordinated campaign run against me. That is the reality. I believe I maintained my dignity at all times,” he said.
“I think that in my experience in leadership in other areas of my life, in my professional life and not-for-profits, you are best to step away for a time and let the new administration carry on and make their way.”
“Andy will have some challenges with some of the priorities he talked about. He will very much have his hands full working through those.”
Gowers calls for unity as Kennett reign ends
– Scott Gullan
New Hawthorn president Andy Gowers has called for unity at the fractured club after ending Jeff Kennett’s controversial reign.
Gowers and his “Hawks For Change” movement were overwhelmingly voted into office, toppling Kennett and his anointed successor Peter Nankivell, for control of the club after a messy election campaign battle.
Former Victorian deputy premier James Merlino was also voted on to the board at the club’s annual general meeting at Hawthorn Town Hall while two incumbents, Katie Hudson and Anne-Marie Pellizzer, were re-elected.
Gowers, who played 140 games for the Hawks including the 1991 premiership, said he planned to hold a summit to bring together every section of the club.
“My first point of a three-point plan is unity,” he said. “I’ve called for a summit and we want to give the opportunity for as many people as possible to attend.
“I want to get the club back in one piece, the family club united and moving ahead with a common purpose and we do that by being united.
“It will be a new era and I want to bring it back to the family club values, putting members back into the middle of the club and then ultimately success. In that order, unity, family club and success.”
Kennett, who oversaw the Hawks 2008 premiership win during his first stint as president from 2005 to 2011 before being invited to return to the board in 2017, couldn’t help but fire off a few barbs to Gowers and Merlino on the way out.
He told the 300 members at the meeting that he’d taught Merlino everything he knew about politics.
“With James coming on board, the $15m that the government’s been holding back from us, I expect to be delivered tomorrow, James,” Kennett said.
“And Andy said when fighting for the election that he knew (of) another $10m. So Andy put up or shut up - we want that other $10m quickly.”
Gowers said he hoped the former Premier would go quietly despite a heated election campaign.
“The members have spoken, he (Kennett) said in there that he does accept the result so we move on,” he said.
The presidential battle divided the club with legends Don Scott and Peter Hudson endorsing Nankivell, as did generous club benefactor and Flight Centre founder Geoff Harris.
Gowers, 53, was backed by a number of distinguished ex-teammates and Hawk heroes including Chris Langford, Gary Ayres and Peter Schwab.
Momentum for change at Hawthorn came to a tipping point off the back of the AFL investigation into Hawthorn’s cultural safety review and allegations by First Nation players and their families against former coach Alastair Clarkson and his former lieutenants Chris Fagan and Jason Burt.
The mishandling of the review on top of premiership hero Cyril Rioli’s fallout with Kennett hurt the club’s reputation.
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