Tigress steps in to calm the den Mark Hawthorne and Jon Pierik
The Age
October 5, 2013 Richmond was quick to trumpet news of Peggy O'Neal's ascendancy to the AFL club's presidency. ''Richmond will be the first club in AFL/VFL history to have a female president,'' its website declared.
But the fanfare did little to disguise internal rumblings that have threatened to divide the club as it emerges from three decades in football's wilderness.
The presidency had been coveted by two Richmond board members.
In one corner was prominent sports administrator Malcolm Speed, former head of Cricket Australia and the International Cricket Council.
In the other was Tigers vice-president Maurice O'Shannassy, a Collins Street fund manager who has run the Australian investment arms of US giants BlackRock and Merrill Lynch.
For months, the eight remaining Richmond club directors were split 4-4 over who should succeed long-serving Gary March as president.
Behind closed doors, the factional squabbling degenerated into guerilla war for the top job.
March had originally favoured O'Shannassy, his long-serving deputy, while the AFL privately made it known it preferred Speed.
Such was the stalemate, there were suggestions the AFL might intervene publicly and back Speed, believing he had the right pedigree to run a club rebuilt under March's tenure.
''It all got pretty nasty near the end,'' one former Tigers board member said.
Ultimately, it was March who acted, encouraging O'Neal to put her hand up for the job.
With neither O'Shannassy nor Speed able to capture a vote from the other side, the 4-4 divide became an 8-0 win to O'Neal.
An American who has lived here for 24 years, O'Neal is regarded as one of the country's best superannuation lawyers.
All three candidates presented their cases to the Richmond board over the past month.
O'Neal was grilled over her ability to deal with powerful AFL figures and be able to take a robust stand for the club. Those who know her have no doubts.
''Peggy is one of the most impressive people I have dealt with,'' March said yesterday. ''I don't think she will have any issues dealing with men in football. She has dealt with fairly smart men in the legal world for years.''
Jeremy Cooper, former deputy chairman of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, also has no doubts. ''Peggy is calm, methodical and has a great mind,'' he said. ''Most of all, I know she loves the game. In a male dominated world she won't have any issues.
''She's not the type of personality to get people offside. She's firm, but believes in collaborating.''
Speed has a year to run on his initial three-year tenure, and board sources suggest he will now weigh up whether to seek re-election.
O'Shannassy, who remains vice-president, seems to have had his long-term presidency ambitions quashed.
O'Neal is just the 19th president of the Tigers in more than a century, and has taken control of the club as it stands on the cusp of a long-awaited successful era.
She is expected to start her presidency by announcing a $1 million-plus profit at the annual meeting in December, and declaring the Tigers are, at long last, debt-free.
But tensions run deep. In a carefully worded statement, the Tigers tried to play down the divisions this week, with O'Neal saying: ''This is a strong, united board with great experience …''
That unity, it seems, is in the eye of the beholder.
''We are united, but just not over that big issue,'' a club insider said of the presidency decision.
And the ambitions of two Tigers, in Speed and O'Shannassy, burn bright.
http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/tigress-steps-in-to-calm-the-den-20131004-2uzya.html
