Hawthorn great Dermott Brereton is hoping for the best for Andy Gowers’ presidency, but fears it’s already off to a rough start.
Gowers won the two-horse battle when defeating club-elect Peter Nankivell earlier this week to the leadership, where he’ll now succeed Jeff Kennett at the Hawks.
Gowers is a famous name at Hawthorn, having played in the 1991 premiership as one of his 89 games for the club. He’s vowed to unify the club after the Kennett era and the mud-slinging presidency battle.
Brereton said he deliberately steered clear of declaring a preferred candidate but has question marks over the body ‘Hawks for Change’ and it’s purpose.
Gowers ran under the Hawks for Change mantle, while former Victorian MP James Merlino also won a spot on the board under that banner.
“I think all of us who sit in a similar seat to me and look at it from the outside, you could probably gather the way I had hoped it would have gone,” Brereton told SEN’s The Run Home on Thursday.
“I didn’t want to throw my hat in the ring and say, ‘I’m backing this person’. I had hoped for an outcome.
“Andy Gowers, who is a good mate, a lovely man, has the job and I wish him all the best and I sincerely hope he does incredibly well.
“He came into the competition for that presidency under the banner of Hawks for Change, and for me I couldn’t work out why you would want Hawks for Change when you had a football department that had clear and concise direction for the first time in four years… and you had an unbelievably brilliant financial position set up by the previous (administration).
“But that’s what the constituents have voted for, so I’m wishing Andy all the best and hope he does a brilliant job.”
The Hawks have seemingly committed to a full rebuild under new coach Sam Mitchell, who elected to cull even more experience from the list in the 2022 trade period. Mitchell released a statement soon after the trade period to club members, urging them to keep faith in the club’s mentality.
The Hawks also recorded record membership in 2022, while Nankivell told members in November: “We are in the strongest financial position the club has been in in its history”.
Shortly after Gowers’ appointment, football director and board member Richie Vandenberg resigned. It’s understood to be a direct result of the election.
Vandenberg is a former club captain and was a key figure in the Hawks’ strategy that saw Mitchell take the reigns from Alastair Clarkson at the end of 2021. He was also set to take on the vice presidency had Nankivell won.
Brereton holds Vandenberg in high regard, and says his departure is a big blow for Gowers early on.
“It’s not off to the best of starts because I think he’s already – in the space of 24 hours – lost his most valuable asset on the board in Richie Vandenberg,” the five-time premiership Hawk said.
“To find a true, astute businessman who was not only a former player but a former captain, they are as rare as hen's teeth. An astute, real businessman who is a former captain, and he’s a leader of men, Richie.
“I don’t know him incredibly well, I’ve spoken to him a few times. I had held hopes in recent years that Richie one day would become president himself, but the way this played out was a bit of playing the man by both sides, both sides did it, and Richie, true to the courage of his convictions, said, ‘I can’t work with them’.
“So I think they’ve lost their most valuable asset on the board on day one.”
Vandenberg captained the club from 2005-2007 and had been on the board since 2016.