The news that the Richmond Football Club is facing a potentially serious board challenge has come at a time — in AFL terms — of unprecedented financial and political stability and relative, albeit frustratingly modest, on-field success for the club.
It hints at divisions across the current table of directors and is surely a threat to the authority of two-year president Peggy O'Neal.
In other words it should send a shiver of fear up the spine of every Richmond supporter who has watched the Tigers' rebuilding that began under Gary March. That O'Neal would be undermined so soon after taking charge when her alleged misdeeds amount to a lower profile than her predecessors, another elimination final defeat and the failure to secure Adam Treloar is laughable.
More concerning is the ongoing suggestion that the recalcitrant candidate Joseph Russo, a property developer, is being backed by sitting directors. For the Richmond board to be at internal odds with the coach Damien Hardwick coming out of contract should be a matter of grave concern.
Malcolm Speed, the former CEO of the International Cricket Council, has denied he is backing Russo. Disappointed at missing out on the presidency two years ago the suggestion however is that Speed is not against regeneration in the form of the property developer who has refused to be interviewed by the board's nominations committee. The implications are disturbing.
Russo's backers and spokesmen continually hint at a potential presidential change. He and Jason Dowd, a corporate recovery expert, are challenging Rex Chadwick and vice-president Maurice O'Shannassy. Russo has suggested the Richmond board lacks diversity — too many lawyers and accountants — despite proudly boasting the AFL's first woman club president.
Hinting at the Tigers' failure to secure Treloar, his policy statement includes the somewhat baffling pledge: "to expand on the board's ability to provide attractive incentives for current and future players alike." Surely he is not providing an extra incentive for Brett Clothier and his team to scrutinise the club's future salary cap details.
Russo continues: "We need to be able to offer players security for life after football through education and resources and this will add much needed depth to the club." Widespread disappointment followed Collingwood's luring of Treloar and more recently Richmond's relatively modest profit compared with the Magpies but that comparison is odious. It does not reflect the remarkable off-field achievements the club has made under Brendon Gale who has joined the board and would be aghast at any threat to his president. Gale, with O'Neal, Daniel Richardson and Hardwick now head a team of key Tiger individuals — a team united in an alignment now seen as mandatory for on-field success.
And Richmond supporters with long memories remain painfully aware of the dark places where Collingwood-envy can lead.
Richardson might not have secured Treloar but he has re-signed every franchise player on the club's list over the past two season — all of whom could have secured greater riches elsewhere. Surely Deledio, Reiwoldt, Cotchin and Rance believe in the direction the club has taken.
He also stood firm on Dustin Martin when the latter briefly walked out on the club and did not blink when Carlton demanded a first round pick for Chris Yarran. Is Russo hinting that the Magpies offered Treloar some post-football incentives not available at Tigerland?
Richmond supporters like Russo, who is also a sponsor, have every right to feel impatient and frustrated but challenging the board — at a cost of $100,000 — and undermining the authority of the president is pure folly. Those directors who did not support O'Neal's ascension to the presidency should have quit when that decision was made.
The Tigers must wait 10 months to show losing finals is no longer a part of their club culture. Disappointingly, what has for decades now been embedded in Richmond's culture is the crazy belief that to challenge the status quo at board level is a key ingredient for a premiership.
