Essendon members make call on open board positions

Key points

  • Andrew Welsh and Andrew Muir will fill the open board spots at Essendon.
  • The Bombers have suffered through a year of significant turmoil.
  • Welsh wants to play a leading role in unifying the club after a period of upheaval.

Essendon members have prioritised stability over a fresh face in their board election after months of off-field tumult, voting in ex-Bombers defender Andrew Welsh and Andrew Muir to fill the two open positions.

Muir successfully sought re-election, while Welsh won the approval of members after being appointed three months ago to replace Simon Madden and will lead Essendon’s football subcommittee.

Unsuccessful candidates, including Ben Dunn, were informed on Tuesday before Essendon announced that Muir and Welsh would be formally declared for a three-year term at the club’s AGM on Thursday night.

Ex-Essendon defender Andrew Welsh (second from left) will fill one of two open board spots at the Bombers.Credit:Paul Rovere

The board decision comes at the end of a year of significant upheaval for the Bombers, who haven’t won a final since 2004 and missed out on September action altogether this year.

They sacked coach Ben Rutten after a botched pursuit of Alastair Clarkson, then hired ex-North Melbourne coach Brad Scott in late September, with chief executive Xavier Campbell and ex-president Paul Brasher also departing.

Brasher’s exit also resulted in Madden following suit immediately, while finance director Peter Allen and football director Sean Wellman left not long after.

David Barham took over from Brasher amid the turmoil around Rutten’s tenure and shortly after launched an external review. But Andrew Thorburn lasted just one day as Campbell’s replacement before resigning after backlash over his links to a controversial church.

Respected former West Coast football boss Craig Vozzo eventually scored the CEO job and will start in January.

Even Scott’s appointment was not without drama, with board member and legendary four-time premiership coach Kevin Sheedy breaking ranks to publicly state he wanted James Hird instead.

Craig Vozzo will be Essendon’s new chief executive.Credit:Getty Images

Former president Paul Little even hinted he might challenge Barham’s board after a dramatic period in the club’s history.

Muir first joined the Bombers’ board in 2015 and is a successful businessman and philanthropist with more than 25 years of retail, leadership, strategic and management experience.

Welsh played 162 games for Essendon between 2002 and 2011, including a period as vice-captain, before transitioning into the business world.

He said in October he was ready for the challenge of unifying a club that had lost its way “for a variety of different reasons”. “The club needs stability, the club needs unity,” Welsh said at the time. “We have got a great opportunity ahead of us and the board that I am sitting on is 100 per cent committed to seeing that change through.

“It is hard. These things aren’t easy and there are things that happen along the way that you wish didn’t and other things that work really well.

“But change of this size to set this football club up for the next era is not going to be easy. We just want everyone who wants the club to be great again to be unified and stable.”

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