Tigers to march on without top man Jake Niall
The Age
February 20, 2013 RICHMOND president Gary March has confirmed that he will be stepping down as head of the club at the end of the 2013 season.
March, who has been president of the Tigers since October 2005, said he had told his board and senior executives that he would not seek re-election when his term ends.
March's decision means the club will have several months in which to find a replacement as the next president of Richmond, either selecting a replacement from the board or by drafting in an outsider.
March said that with the club having worked itself into a better and more stable position, the time was right for a handover to another person later this year. He said his three-year term would end in October. ''I've advised the board and I've advised [chief executive] Brendon [Gale] and [head of football] Craig [Cameron] and those people that are execs at the club, that this will be my last year and I won't be seeking re-election for the board on my current term, which ends at the end of this season.''
March nominated his vice-president, Maurice O'Shannassy, as among a number of people on the board who would be capable presidents.
March said he was ready to stand down at season's end, given that many of the goals he had set had been reached by the club, which he hoped would be debt free by the end of this year and had returned ''to a club that people want to go to rather than escape from''. The Tigers were about $4 million in debt only a matter of a few years ago.
''It was the realisation for me that probably a lot of the goals that I've set for myself, about I suppose the regeneration of the club,'' March told Fairfax Media.
''Getting all the right people in Brendon, Craig, Damien [Hardwick], all those people to the club, getting the redevelopment done, getting the oval back to a football oval, finishing all those things, virtually, hopefully this year clearing our debt - I'm pretty sure we'll be out of debt.
''Most of the things that we wanted to achieve are in place, and I just think the timing's right for me to move on and someone else to move in … with the next strategic plan probably in the wings.'' March said he was proud that the Tigers were no longer under financial pressure and with the quality of the personnel working at the club, compared to 2005.
''I just feel like the quality of people we've got there now and the state that the club's in now … we're no longer in financial pressure any more, we're a fairly stable club, we've made seven consecutive profits, some of them quite significant in recent years, we should be out of debt this year.
''We've got close to some of the best facilities in the entire competition.
''Returning Richmond to a club that people want to go to rather than escape from is probably the thing I'm happiest about where we're at … it's not been me, it's the board and the other people that have helped in the journey.
''I'm pretty comfortable that the club's in pretty good hands.''
March said there were ''a number of good candidates'' on Richmond's current board. ''Certainly Maurice O'Shannassy, who's been vice-president for a number of years, knows our club, is a successful business person in his own right.
''I think there are other people who would be more than capable on the current board.
''I'm sure from our current board [we] would be able to find a good next president of Richmond Football Club and hopefully, you know, we've got some good candidates potentially to come on to the board in the next 12 months.''
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