New North Ballarat Football Club chairman John Nevett has thrown his board’s commitment behind the Roosters’ place in the VFL and hopes it can rebuild the relationship with members after a tumultuous year.
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Nevett’s appointment to the position on Wednesday raised eyebrows given he had not previously been a member of the club, but was ratified – along with hundreds of others – following the annual general meeting on Tuesday night.
This came after many of those members – some of which were set to stand for board positions under chairman aspirant Peter Wilson’s ticket – were blocked in late January because they were not paid up by an earlier deadline.
Nevett stepped out for his first official appearance as chairman on Thursday and spoke to members of the media about the key issues facing the club at the present time.
He said it is important the club is financially sound enough to look after all football and netball ventures.
“A big part of that is obviously the Roosters and the current board supports the fact that we must look after the Roosters and allow them to develop as a standalone team in the VFL,” Nevett said.
“And that doesn’t come without its difficulties. It’s an expensive operation to run them, so we have to manage everything to our best ability to allow the Roosters to continue in the VFL.”
Nevett admitted he would like to see the City of Ballarat’s decision to make compulsory acquisition of the sports club facility overturned.
“I would like to see it reversed, but I understand that if in reversing it we still have to be able to run this club and to run all those participants that are involved in the club,” he said.
Nevett said it is important the board builds faith and trust with the club’s members and hopes their confidence in those on the panel can grow quickly.
“That is one of the key priorities,” Nevett, a Ballarat solicitor and former Buninyong Football Club president, said.
“Anybody that wants to step into the shoes of a board of any club, first thing they’ve got to do is they’ve got to understand what the purposes of that club are.
“And you don’t want to ever lose track of those purposes because as soon as you start to do that, then you’re going to get fragmentation and you’re going to have difficulties dealing with your members, dealing with your players and dealing with the board.”
Nevett hopes that the new board can be given time from the members to prove itself.
“You would hope that that’s the case because it becomes very difficult if you’re trying to do the right thing by them and they’re not giving you that opportunity,” he said.
Nevett was appointed to the new board as a casual vacancy along with Kaye Hurley, David Cook, Michael Ryan, Noel Leonard and Leon Jones. These members joined those elected unopposed on Tuesday night – Richard Start, Mark McGrath, Terry Hay, Ken Shearer and Chris Rowan.