Richie Vandenberg quits Hawks board

Hawthorn’s influential former captain Richie Vandenberg has quit the Hawks board as the fallout continues from the club’s election, in which Andy Gowers became the new president.

Club sources confirmed that Vandenberg informed Gowers and the board of his decision to quit as the club’s football director, in a further shake-up to the board that had been led by former Victorian premier Jeff Kennett until Tuesday night’s annual general meeting.

Richie Vandenberg farewells fans at the MCG in 2007.Credit:Sebastian Costanzo

Kennett’s favoured candidate, board member and lawyer Peter Nankivell, was defeated by Gowers in a direct vote for the presidency, while incumbent women directories Katie Hudson and Anne-Marie Pellizzer were re-elected with what sources said was strong backing from the female membership.

Vandenberg, who was instrumental in the club’s contentious decision to expedite the handover from former coach Alastair Clarkson to current coach Sam Mitchell, had been slated to take on the vice-presidency had Nankivell won the election.

Vandenberg joined the board in 2016 and served briefly alongside Gowers until the 1991 premiership player resigned following Kennett’s return as president in late 2017.

Last month, as part of the contentious and hard-fought election campaign, Gowers accused the club’s board of throwing “the women to the wolves” in deciding to make Hudson and Pellizzer stand at the election while extending Vandenberg’s tenure by one year.

All three board members were elected for three-year terms in 2019, but under league rules clubs are allowed to extend the tenure of a board member in certain circumstances to ensure more than 40 per cent of the board was not up for election at one time.

Vandenberg had been a strong supporter of coach Mitchell, and of the overhaul of the football department in the transition of coach from Clarkson to the former Hawks skipper.

A former Uni Blues player and friend of outgoing AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan, Vandenberg captained the Hawks from 2005-07.

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