Tiger rebels reject Casey peace bid
24 July 2004
Herald Sun
Jon Pierik
REBEL Richmond member Michael Pahoff says president Clinton Casey's offer to put himself up for re-election 12 months early in a bid to bring peace to Punt Rd isn't good enough.
Casey said on Thursday he was prepared to put his fate in the hands of the members at the club's annual general meeting in January, 12 months before he is due to seek re-election.
But Pahoff said last night January was too late and he wanted a board spill in late September.
It also emerged last night that John Ilhan, the owner of the Crazy John's mobile phone empire, is keen to join the Tigers board, as long as Casey isn't in charge.
Pahoff maintained he would hand in his petition of more than 100 signatures and force an emergency general meeting unless the Tigers president agreed to his call by Tuesday.
"If Clinton Casey is prepared to announce a full board election to be held before the end of September, I will withdraw the petition," Pahoff said.
"That will give Greg Miller two months of quiet. He'll have the remainder of July, all of August and he'll have all of September . . . to make the decision he needs to make."
Miller is leading Richmond's search for a coach to replace Danny Frawley and is worried the off-field instability may hurt the club's chances of securing its No. 1 target.
Pahoff did say he was pleased to see Casey "starting to move" after giving him a seven-day deadline early last week to plan for change.
Casey said on Thursday the two people known to be calling for a spill – former board member Brendan Schwab and Pahoff – were driven by personal issues.
Pahoff said this was nonsense.
"I don't know Clinton Casey personally to be able to make a personal opinion of him," he said. "The only personal issue I have with him is he destroyed my football club."
Ilhan said last night he had the time to join the board of his beloved Tigers but was not interested in being president.
But bad business dealings with Casey in the past had soiled his relationship with the embattled leader.
"No one has actually asked me (to join). If they did it wouldn't be with the current board," Ilhan said.
"I have had a few bad business dealings with them.
"We tried a couple of sponsorship deals in the past, but they (the Tigers) weren't professional."
The Tigers this week met prospective coaches Terry Wallace and Rodney Eade.
Both are likely to be interviewed again by Miller next week.
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