Melbourne board election: Eight candidates vying for three seats on Kate Roffey’s embattled board

Melbourne Football Club members are headed to the polls, with eight candidates vying for three seats on president Kate Roffey’s embattled board.

Melbourne president Kate Roffey. Picture: Getty Images

Melbourne Football Club members are headed to the polls.

After a turbulent season on and off the field, eight candidates are vying for three seats on president Kate Roffey’s embattled board.

Three current directors – Brad Green, Geoff Porz and Sarah Robinson – are contesting a group of five independent candidates; Peter Lawrence, Alison Anthony, Tori Williams, Barry McIlwaine and Paul Rushton.

Porz and Robinson filled two casual vacancies on the Demons’ board in late September, replacing retiring directors Mohan Jesudason and Steve Morris.

Voting is expected to open on November 30, with the winners to be unveiled at Melbourne’s annual general meeting on the eve of Christmas.

Lawrence, who forced the first Melbourne board election in almost two decades in 2021, has since formed the “Deemocracy” supporter group pushing for more open and transparent elections.

Melbourne CEO Gary Pert and club president Kate Roffey. Picture: Getty Images

“It is a closed shop board which chooses itself. Members are kept at arm’s length,” Lawrence said earlier this month.

While electioneering is heavily restricted at the Demons, Lawrence has questioned the club’s failure to deliver on a new training and administrative base and its handling of the bitter legal stoush with former president Glen Bartlett.

“I will pursue every last political and commercial avenue to determine whether our home base can be in the MCG precinct,” Lawrence said.

“We must have a clear financial strategy – not just the occasional ‘whip-round’. Our leaders say we are in great financial shape – true compared only to our own sorry past.

“As of 31 October 2022, we had net assets of $27.4m. Seven of the other 10 Victorian AFL clubs had net assets of $38.5m (St. Kilda) to $90m (Hawthorn). They all have homes or are building them.”

In relation to the ongoing Bartlett dispute, Lawrence said: “I would insist that all legal decisions are more carefully considered … discussion, negotiation and settlement beats litigation.”

Bartlett is suing Roffey, Morris and fellow Demons board members David Robb and David Rennick in the Federal Court, alleging misleading and deceptive conduct and defamation in relation to his sudden 2021 exit, claims which the club says are “baseless” and will be “vigorously” defended.