Hawthorn presidential candidate and ex-premiership player Andy Gowers has backed the club’s contentious sell-out of key players Jaeger O’Meara and Tom Mitchell and strongly endorsed the position of senior coach Sam Mitchell.
Gowers said he supported Hawthorn’s bold trade period plan, in which O’Meara, Mitchell and free agent and star forward Jack Gunston all moved clubs, leaving the Hawks light-on for experience compared with nearly all their rivals.
“I support the strategy absolutely,” said Gowers, a 1991 premiership player who served on the board from 2014 to 2017.
Sam Mitchell.Credit:AFL Photos / Getty Images
“I completely support the strategy and there’s no doubt a lot of senior experience has gone out the door. At the moment, it’s youth policy and that may be topped up with experienced players down the track.”
Gowers backed the current football leadership, in both the men’s and women’s programs. “I want to make it really clear that I completely support Sam Mitchell, Rob McCartney, Bec Goddard and the football department and I’m right behind them … in running, I’m not saying the football department is in bad shape.
“Could it do with some changes? I guess I’ll find out once I’m in the tent.”
While Gowers backed the Hawthorn strategy on following a youth path, he was critical of the board-led process – in which he participated – that saw his rival for the presidency, Peter Nankivell, named as the successor after Nankivell chaired the six-member panel that was at first unable to come up with a suitable president.
In an interview with The Age, aimed at making his case to take over at the helm of the Hawks, Gowers also:
- Would not put a limit on what Hawthorn could achieve in the next year, noting that Collingwood had risen from 17th to nearly make a grand final, following a difficult 2021 off-field.
- Said that his football experience, as a former player and former football director on the board, was the key difference between his credentials and that of Nankivell, a lawyer.
- Supported the election of former deputy premier James Merlino to the club board in the upcoming election but declined to offer a position on the other four candidates, including club directors Katie Hudson and Anne-Marie Pellizzer.
- Vowed to bring unity to the Hawks, who have a board contest in which five people are contesting three positions.
- Said he had formally objected to the prospect of Nankivell, as the chair of the nomination panel, becoming president and then quit that panel.
“I understand, having been out on the ground and in the boardroom before, I understand that everybody pulling in the direction is the way you achieve on-field success,” Gowers said.
“Collingwood is a great recent example, where they had faced their off-field battles.”
- Offered no direct criticism of Jeff Kennett, whom he praised for his 11-year contribution to the club as president. Gowers briefly served under Kennett in 2017.
“I will certainly bring a different style of leadership,” Gowers said. “My nature, the way I always handle things, is a conciliatory and inclusive way.”
- Said he would retain current board member responsible for football (football director), ex-skipper Richie Vandenberg, if elected president. “If he’s up for it, I’m up for it.” Nankivell would make Vandenberg his vice-president.
- Vowed to make the Hawks “super member-centric” with more forums for members, “giving members a voice directly to the board.”
“I mean, if I’m elected, for example, I would be the only person on the board with any premiership experience,” Gowers said. “I’m a past player, I’m a past board member. I was lucky enough to play in a flag in 1991 and was involved from the end of the three-peat, 2014, 2015.
“So look, people have said to me you have premiership DNA. That’s something that does separate me from my opponent.”
Gowers said he had a business background in succession-planning and would make that a priority. “To make sure there’s an ongoing succession planning process and we don’t find ourselves in the position where we don’t know what’s happening.”
The ex-Hawks player revealed that he had objected to the process that led to Nankivell becoming the board’s nominated successor to Kennett, then quit the panel. “I’d already made my feelings clear that this was not an acceptable process.”
Gowers, who sold his wealth management business to Cranage Financial Group, called the “flawed” nominations process “one factor” that led him to seek the presidency.
“I think every single Hawthorn member and any footy supporter would look at any process where the chair or the head of any committee, became the candidate, is a flawed process.”
Gowers backed Merlino to be elected. “Given we have large matters like our Kennedy Community Centre and Tasmanian partnership to work through, James’ experience as a cabinet minister for 12 of the last 16 years, in senior portfolios and as acting premier in that time, gives him an ideal skill-set to be a fantastic director working with governments across the land, of all persuasions. I absolutely support his election and he’s supporting mine.”
