A long-time Collingwood member has explained why he’s planning to force an extraordinary general meeting at the club.
As reported in The Age on Wednesday, five per cent of signatures from the club’s voting members will force an EGM.
David Hatley, who has been a Collingwood member for four decades, is planning to collect signatures outside the MCG before the club’s game against Port Adelaide on Sunday.
He said Collingwood was currently an “abject failure” in on-field success and keeping their members happy, leading to him taking initiative to help force change.
“It’s been a terrible six months for Collingwood on the field and off the field,” he explained on Sportsday.
“What I’m looking forward to getting back for the members is accountability and democracy, I reckon there’s two things football clubs should be existing for is on-field success and serving its members and at the moment it’s an abject failure on both.
“I agree with Eddie McGuire and Mark Korda that EGM’s are really messy and destabilising, but it’s come to a point that I’ve been so inundated with messages and texts (saying) that they feel that something needs to change at board level.”
Collingwood vice-president Alex Waislitz quit the club’s board on Tuesday night, becoming the second director to leave within the last three months.
It was revealed later on Wednesday that Dr Bridie O’Donnell, who is now a club director, is ineligible for the position until the club’s Annual General Meeting later this year.
As a result, Dr O’Donnell has currently been stripped of her voting rights as a member of the board.