Bendigo: Chairwoman Carol McKinstry wants to stay on board despite call from clubs to stand down
Seven votes stand between Bendigo league chairwoman Carol McKinstry and a forced exit, as clubs launch an extraordinary bid to reshape the competition's leadership.
The collision course Bendigo league chairwoman Carol McKinstry and a posse of cranky clubs have been on for months is coming to a head.
Professor McKinstry is prepared to step down from the top job she has held for a decade, but wants to remain on the board.
The clubs late last week gave her the chance to go out on her terms.
But in not taking up that opportunity, they’ve requested a special general meeting where they hope to vote her off.
A 75 per cent majority of the league’s nine clubs must vote in favour to achieve the result they want.
Professor McKinstry wants to follow through moves of bringing in new clubs to replace those gone — Kyneton and Maryborough — or that want to go — Gisborne — in the last three years.
The numbers are being counted and both sides are acutely aware the outcome can come down to one club flipping.
But the boardroom bunfight is not the only big issue facing the Bendigo league.
Twenty-four hours earlier, AFL Victoria called time on its remaining regional administration centres including one Bendigo is part of.
After more than a decade Bendigo has to appoint its own management team.
BENDIGO’S BURNING QUESTIONS
Where do the all important numbers sit for the special general meeting?
The magic number the clubs need for change is seven.
They’re confident South Bendigo, Eaglehawk, Castlemaine, Kangaroo Flat, Golden Square, Gisborne and Strathfieldsaye will be forthcoming when push comes to shove, but not Broadford and Sandhurst.
The present board has given Broadford a lifeline after two years in the wilderness and Sandhurst is a strong supporter of the Professor McKinstry-led board.
But if only one of the seven other clubs backflips between now and the vote, then it’s game over.
The incumbent survives because the 75 per cent majority needed won’t be attained.
Will Gisborne get to Ballarat with major changes at board level?
Gisborne has done its share of the heavy lifting in getting to this point, and if the desired outcome is achieved the trade-off will be the green light to join Ballarat.
But AFL Victoria is still expected to block the move again on the same grounds it was declined in the first instance — the disastrous impact it will have on Bendigo.
Ballarat also has an obligation to its clubs to get a 2026 fixture out shortly and time is fast becoming the enemy.
The favoured outcome is Gisborne staying put for 12 more months on the proviso it’s let go in 2027.
Who steps up and joins the board?
Not surprisingly there has been no one putting their hand up at this early stage, publicly at least.
But if the special general meeting goes the way of the majority of clubs, watch a few emerge soon.
The league’s annual meeting is held in mid-January and two other board members, Sam McGee and Andy Walker, who have been on the board a similar length of time to Professor McKinstry, are standing down, opening the door to a major reset with a host of fresh faces.
Will clubs that have been speaking about joining Bendigo be spooked by this week’s events?
Not really given the Bendigo league’s instability in recent years is hardly a state secret.
But if a new broom sweeps in, the calibre of club it is chasing to replace those gone in recent years will ratchet up a few notches.
Who runs the league post closure of the Central Vic RAC?
Good question, but the BFNL presently pays north of $140,000 for its administration to be done by AFLCV.
Better run major leagues in the state that are already self-administered have multiple staff members and Bendigo’s current outlay will be a good starting point to find the replacement personnel needed.
The bonus will be whatever management the BFNL adopts they will be working 100 per cent for the league, 100 per cent of the time, just like Ovens & Murray, Gippsland, Ballarat, Hampden and Sunraysia.
CLUBS CALL FOR CHANGE
Disgruntled Bendigo league clubs have taken the rare step of requesting a special meeting to remove long-serving chairwoman Carol McKinstry from the board.
The bombshell move follows an approach in recent days for her to step aside rather than face a vote of clubs.
A three-quarters majority of the league’s nine clubs is needed to vote in support of removing Professor McKinstry from the board at a special general meeting which could be held within a month.
She told The Weekly Times on Tuesday: “It is my intention to stand down as board chair at our annual meeting on January 14 and I have let my fellow board members know as well”.
Professor McKinstry wants to stay on the board and see through the potential addition of Loddon Valley club Maiden Gully-YCW into the competition in 2027.
But current board members Sam McGee and Andy Walker are stepping down, opening up the prospect of five new board faces next year.
Professor McKinstry joined the Bendigo board in 2010 and took over as chair from Paul Byrne in 2015.
The failed bid by Gisborne to leave the Bendigo league after 25 years was the tipping point in discontent from clubs towards Professor McKinstry and her board.
AFL Victoria came to the league’s rescue in preventing Gisborne being released to Ballarat because it was “strategically harmful” to Bendigo and also “threaten its standing and future strategic direction”.
Gisborne president Tony Brancatisano said: “The intention is to force change.
“Things can’t keep going the way they are and that message has been relayed to the chair and the board repeatedly over the last six months”.
In the previous two years, Kyneton quit the league to join the Riddell District league and Maryborough went into recess and will spend a second season in recess next year.
Angst also emerged on grand final day when Professor McKinstry rebuked Eaglehawk co-coach Clayton Holmes during the medal presentation.
Holmes was yellow-carded for a bump on Sandhurst player Dayten Uerata on the quarter time siren.
Holmes was handed a 10-match suspension for the incident after the Bendigo tribunal invoked the “grand final tax” on the initial five-match ban.
Since the end of the season, the Bendigo league has clinched a deal to play Ovens & Murray in representative football and netball matches for the next two years after netballers missed out the previous two years when football only was played against the Victorian Amateurs.
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