It's Miller's Richmond
By Stathi Paxinos
The Age
December 19, 2004
Richmond director of football Greg Miller yesterday emerged as the clear saviour of the incumbent Clinton Casey board, which was elected in a clean sweep over the rebel Macek ticket.
All nine members of the Casey ticket were elected, but Casey himself could run only third, nearly 1500 votes behind Miller, who topped the poll of Richmond members.
After the vote was declared yesterday, however, Miller hinted he may not continue to sit on the board, after his candidacy drew widespread criticism over its alleged conflict of interest, and Casey said he would step down in a year if Richmond's financial performance had not improved.
Casey said he took the result of the election, in which more than 13,000 members voted, as a second chance from the faithful to build on the momentum gained during the second half of the year.
Casey, who with 7549 votes ranked behind the popular Miller (8917) and Anthony Mithen (7641), promised a new management style to bridge differences with the Macek-led rebel ticket and disgruntled sections of the club.
None on the Macek ticket received enough votes to claim any of the nine vacant positions, despite the presidential hopeful's belief that the board would be split.
Macek yesterday conceded the result, where the best-performed of his ticket, former player Bryan Wood (6019), was almost 1000 votes behind Casey's ninth ticket member Maurice O'Shannassy (6988), could be described only as a "decisive" defeat.
He said the result confirmed the incredible support Miller was able to bring to the Casey ticket. However, he maintained his criticism of Miller's position of being on the board while also working as football director.
"It's just untenable," Macek said. "It just undermines the (chief executive) and just puts him in impossible conflict."
Miller yesterday said he was honoured to be voted onto the board and would hold both positions for the time being, but would review the situation in the coming months.
Casey said it would be "just terrific" to lead a united board. "It will be the last part of our club that . . . was fractured over the last six or eight months, (where) just about every section of the club has had something done to it - a new coach, CEO, football department, so many new young players, our list," he said.
"And now we have finally got a board that we can truly, hand on heart, say to our members is fully united, fully behind our vision and our plan and hopefully over the next years you are going to see a major difference, both in the finances of this footy club and with onfield success."
However, Casey said he was aware the vote had given him a "second chance" and he reiterated that he would step aside next year if the club's financial situation - it finished on the bottom of the AFL ladder this year for the first time since 1989 and lost $2.2 million - did not improve.
He said members of the rival ticket would be welcomed back at Tigerland. "The main thing is that they don't get disenchanted," he said. "What they did, they did in the best interest of the footy club."
http://www.realfooty.theage.com.au/realfooty/articles/2004/12/18/1103312785485.html
