By Jake Niall
Don Scott, the two-time premiership captain who helped save Hawthorn from a merger with Melbourne, has nominated to run for the Hawks’ board.
The Hawks confirmed on Thursday that Scott, 76, had nominated for a board position and would be running against incumbent board members Ian Silk and Tim Shearer.
Hawthorn legend Don Scott.Credit: Scott Barbour
But club president Andy Gowers told members that Scott had declined to go through the club’s nomination committee process. In effect, Scott is defying the board’s current vetting process, in the knowledge that he would not be endorsed against sitting directors.
Asked why he had skipped the nominations process, Scott told this masthead: “I’ll be judged by the members”.
In his official pitch to members, given to this masthead, Scott said he would bring “a direct, practical and assertive view to the board” but did not criticise the club, saying he found “the current direction and on field success exciting, with the future looking prosperous”.
Silk, the former head of Australian Super, was elected to a board position at the end of 2021 and has been a key figure on the board. Shearer, who headed up fundraising for the Kennedy Centre at Dingley, was re-elected that year in a contested ballot. They are the candidates endorsed by the board and through the nominations committee, headed by four-time premiership player Chris Langford.
Members of Hawthorn’s nominations commitee
- Chris Langford – (Former Hawthorn captain, former AFL commissioner and current managing director of Newmark Capital)
- Geoff Harris – (Former Hawthorn vice president, co-founder of Flight Centre Travel Group and Harris Capital)
- Katie Hudson – (current Hawthorn vice president and director of Yarra Capital Management)
- Owen Wilson – (current Hawthorn director and CEO of REA Group)
- Lucinda Nolan – (Former Hawthorn director, former deputy commissioner of Victoria Police, former CEO of the Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation)
- Merryl Dooley – (Chief people and culture officer at ASX-listed organisation Bapcor Limited)
“As a club, we welcome any member who is prepared to put their hand up to serve the club. When a club legend such as Don is prepared to, naturally we are interested in his views,” Gowers wrote in a letter to members.
“I have had some brief discussions with Don, but he has not accepted my offer of an in-person meeting to discuss any issues he has with the club.
“It is of course Don’s right to nominate but, based on the outcome of the formal nominations committee process that has been followed, which Don declined to participate in, the board strongly endorses Tim Shearer and Ian Silk for the two director positions.
“With a third nominee for the appointment of two vacant positions, the club has engaged an external company to undertake an election. We will be in touch with more details on this process.
“I want to take the opportunity to thank each of the nominees. They all want to make our club better and are prepared to serve to do so.”
Scott previously served on the board after the merger with the Demons was averted but quit and later launched a prospective challenge to then president Ian Dicker’s board in the 2000s that was eventually abandoned.
Scott has been an occasional critic of the Hawks and questioned the club’s handling of matters – including finances – at last year’s annual general meeting.
A member of Hawthorn’s 1971 premiership and skipper of their 1976 and 1978 flags, Scott famously led the public charge against Hawthorn’s proposed merger with the Demons in 1996, tearing off the small velcro Hawk that was on the front of a hypothetical Melbourne Hawks jumper at a heated members meeting to vote on the merger.
The anti-merger forces carried the day comfortably and the “Operation Payback” campaign, piloted by Dicker, succeeded in raising funds to put the Hawks back on the road to financial and football health.
In his statement to members for the election, Scott outlined his reasons for seeking a board position:
“My reason for nominating for the board is that I have had a near 60-year involvement with Hawthorn Football Club, which I am incredibly passionate about. I wish to see sustained success for the now, and the future, with a focus on an accountable, open and transparent governance across the whole football club to all members.
“As a Hawthorn person, I find the current direction and on field success exciting, with the future looking prosperous.
“The upcoming Dingley development is the single largest project undertaken by the football club, and I have the skills that could assist, this come to fruition.
“I believe with my football and business experiences I can bring a direct, practical and assertive view to the board.”
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