Let the boardroom battle begin

Ding, ding, ding, ding

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And we’re off.

The battle for the boardroom at Waverley Park is underway with more details about the “Hawks for Change” group being unveiled in The Age on Thursday evening.

Jake Niall had previously reported that former Australian Super supremo Ian Silk and 1991 premiership wingman and former Hawk football director Andy Gowers would be standing for the board, seeking as he wrote, to “loosen (club president Jeff) Kennett’s grip on the board”.

Andy Gowers. Campaigning for more than the return of long sleeves with Hawks For Change.

They would be running not against Kennett as such – he has two more years remaining before his term is up – but incumbent board member Tim Shearer and former Hawk ruckman Simon Taylor, who is Kennett’s preferred nomination to fill Radek Sali’s now-vacant board position.

On Thursday evening we learned the identities of some of the backroom identities behind Hawks for Change.

They include:

• Three-time premiership star Jamie Morrissey, a longstanding outspoken critic of Kennett;

• Businessman and 1971 premiership player Bruce Stevenson;

• Advertising man Bill Shannon; and

• Lyn Sutton, the chair of the club’s women’s supporters group the Thornbirds.

Former Labor political operative Stephen Donnelly has been engaged and a GoFundMe page has already raised more than $10,000.

Their Hawks For Change website is a bit thin for information and at this stage is merely asking for names as it establishes a database but promises that more information will soon be forthcoming.

From the Hawks For Change website.

But Hawks Insiders understands it is positioning itself in the manner of a US-style PAC (political action committee). It will support Silk and Gowers this year and other board candidates in the future. It plans a sophisticated approach to the election with door-to-door campaigning and members forums.

Kennett responded on Thursday evening, telling the Herald Sun that that the sprinkling of ALP figures among the ranks of the Hawks for Change crew suggests this is a personal attack on him largely because of his regular and loud criticism of the Dan Andrews government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“So much of this campaign is in response to my public comments about the performance of the current government. What they are trying to do, many of them — not all — is to either silence me or to remove the platform that I have as a former premier and as an experienced individual in commerce, politics and not-for-profits.” - Jeff Kennett

But the shambolic handling of Alastair Clarkson’s departure as coach, as well as club’s continual reliance on gaming revenue also loom as battleground issues, as does the club’s complicated and often-strained relationships with the AFL and the Victorian government, largely due on both accounts, to Kennett’s brash public persona.

“This is not so much an attack on the running of the club or the position of the club, this is a very cleverly targeted attack on me, which I accept,” Kennett said.

‘The future of the club depends on it’

Given Kennett’s long-standing antipathy towards The Age and his history with the Herald Sun as a columnist, it might well be that the respective Melbourne dailies become the mouthpieces for each side. Certainly, Kennett is close to Herald Sun football writer Michael Warner, having launched Warner’s book, The Boys Club earlier this year. Warner reported Kennett’s remarks on Thursday evening.

As for the election itself, the choices are not so clear cut. Shearer is a leading networker and fundraiser – his day job is running the Scotch College foundation – and he is the board member with oversight for raising money for Dingley.

The future of the club depends on it. Taylor is being sought not for his football acumen - he played 85 games for the Hawks in the mid-2000s - but his business pedigree. Taylor is a member of the club’s young executive supporters group and Kennett is keen to demonstrate there is a pathway to the board for those who have served the club well in a voluntary capacity.

But the credentials of Silk and Gowers are outstanding as well, so members who are eligible to vote will have some thinking to do between now and December.

Is this a sign of more turmoil?

It hasn’t taken long for the Hawks to be painted as a club in crisis as a result of all this.

Contested elections at AFL clubs are so unusual they are instantly labelled as signs of instability and in Hawthorn’s case, the media needs little excuse to write inflammatory headlines.  

But really, this is just a long overdue instance of democracy finally at play at the Hawks. This is not Jeff Browne v Mark Korda duelling at 40 paces at Collingwood. This one won’t be going anywhere near the Supreme Court.

There is a sound argument for a change of outlook on the Hawthorn board, but at the same time, members and supporters eagerly await to learn about the vision Silk and Gowers, as well as those backing their bid, have for the club.

It is over to them.

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Note: Hawks Insiders will be covering the battle for the Hawthorn boardroom between now and December’s annual general meeting both here on Substack (subscribe now) and on our weekly Thursday night Twitter Spaces events.

We aim to be neutral but this will likely to be a referendum on Kennett’s performance as Hawthorn president. We welcome editorial submissions over the next few weeks stating the case both for and against him as well as the pros and cons of a shake-up of the board. Drop us a line (hawksinsiders @ gmail dot com) and we will be in touch.