Richie Vandenberg (third from left) at the Hawthorn AGM on Tuesday night. Vandenberg is quitting the board.Credit:AAP
Kennett’s favoured candidate,board member and lawyer Peter Nankivell,was defeated by Gowers in a direct vote for the presidency,while incumbent women directors 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.
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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.