Richmond president to play on CAROLINE WILSON
June 10, 2010 RICHMOND president Gary March has declared his intention to remain at the helm beyond 2010, stating he has found a renewed enthusiasm at Tigerland and had not yet charted a definite succession plan.
March, whose term expires at the end of the season and who has been targeted by some outspoken former players, told The Age yesterday: ''Don't write my obituary just yet.''
''I have always said that if a suitable candidate came along I would happily step aside,'' added March, who took over from Clinton Casey at the end of 2005. He will have completed eight years as a club director at the end of the year.
''I'm constantly on the lookout for new talent and I always said that I would leave the club with a suitable succession. The fact that we haven't been spending too much time on that should tell you something.''
March is one of three board members completing their terms at the end of 2010. He hinted late last year he would consider stepping down, having secured Brendon Gale as chief executive and a new coach in Damien Hardwick along with the funding for the Punt Road redevelopment.
Both he and former club president Leon Daphne have sounded out top-level coterie supporter Mark Smith, a director of Toll Holdings and former chief executive of Cadbury-Schweppes, as a potential successor.
The search for a high profile, suitable candidate has proved a massive task in recent years.
Smith is understood to have indicated an interest in the top job but would not challenge for a board position later this season, rather hope to fill a casual vacancy which in March's view would see him spend some time first as a board member.
March has also been keen to promote the former owner of the South Dragons basketball team, branding and marketing executive Mark Cowan, to the club's board. March said any disenchantment with his position, which saw him consider quitting as president at the end of 2008, had dissipated.
March is no longer the club's key off-field spokesman as he was when Steven Wright was CEO. He has remained relatively silent despite some harsh criticism of the club from Kevin Sheedy, who has taken aim at the Richmond administration in his new role as coach of Greater Western Sydney.
At Neil Balme's charity tribute last month several former players, notably master of ceremonies Bartlett, went over the top - in the view of some in the audience - with their lambasting of the Tigers administration in recent years with March in the room. Bartlett though has remained strongly supportive of the team and coach.
Although he has been at the helm during a spectacularly unsuccessful era at the club, March remains confident the rebuilding of the football department with Hardwick and Craig Cameron at the helm has given Richmond a new sense of purpose.
''We'll make a profit this year,'' said March. ''We've spent $2.5 million in boosting our staff in a pure operational sense and we have some room in our salary cap which means we can be a bit aggressive in the market at the end of the season.
''To be honest I love working with this group. In the long term Mark [Smith] could succeed me and I think both he and Mark Cowan offer a lot to our board.''
http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/richmond-president-to-play-on-20100609-xwte.html
