Ex-Australian Super boss wants Hawthorn out of pokies
Hawthornâs expected new board member and ex-Australian Super boss Ian Silk has expressed a personal view that, as âa family club,â the Hawks should be severing ties with poker machines.
But Silk, who is set to join the club board as part of a push for change that will see Jeff Kennett step down as president ahead of schedule, said gaming was a significant revenue source and that the club had to have a phased transition out of pokies, or it risked âbeing on the bones of its arseâ for an extended period.
Ian Silk, who is set to join the Hawthorn board, wants the club to stop getting revenue from poker machines. Credit:James Alcock
âItâs not as simple as weâd all like it to be,â Silk told a Hawthorn membersâ forum, in his first public comments about his candidacy for Hawthornâs board. âFor the pretty obvious reason that the pokies present a very important source of revenue to the club.
âBut at some point weâre going to have to make a call on it...certainly my starting point is that the club shouldnât be involved in pokies. It is now. Itâs an important source of revenue so we canât turn it off immediately.
âI understand the clubâs moving to a position of removing pokies as a source of revenue, ceasing to have that arrangement and I think we would all welcome that.
âBut I think it is important to look at the commercial dimensions of that - what are the implications of it? Itâs an easy decision to make, but what then flows from it? If the club loses an important source of revenue, is on the bones of its arse for a considerable period of time, whatâs going to happen with that. So that revenue source needs to be replaced, in one form or another.
âIâm very much of the school that, particularly as a family club, we should be ceasing our connection with poker machines and poker machine revenue, but we need to do it in a timely fashion that doesnât cause the club very significant financial difficulties.â³â£
Silk and ex-premiership player Andrew Gowers were speaking on Tuesday night to the âHawks for changeâ rally together for the first time since the pair decided to be part of a challenge to the Kennett board. A peace deal has since been agreed upon that will see Kennett leave some time next year, with Silk joining the board - subject to the election by members - while incumbent director Tim Shearer will no longer be challenged.
Gowers, who also spoke to 230-plus members at the âHawks for Changeâ rally on Zoom, confirmed that he was now unlikely to pursue a board position and instead would be part of a committee that sourced and recommended Kennettâs replacement and future board members. He said Kennettâs successor should be decided by June 30.
Silk, whom many members would back as Kennett replacement, told the meeting that âfinancial stabilityâ and having âgood peopleâ in the key positions at Hawthorn were the two major challenges facing the club and that new coach Sam Mitchell needed âfull, unequivocal, universal support from everyoneâ as he took over the reins.
âYou canât have a successful organisation without financial stability,â said Silk, noting the financial issues facing Cricket Australia. He said that, having stepped down from his position as CEO of Australian Super - the largest superannuation fund in the country - he now had time to be involved on the Hawthorn board.
Gowers said he had been inspired to push for change at the club - where he had served on the board from 2013 until 2017 - by former teammate, triple premiership Hawk James Morrisey, who wrote an article in The Age criticising the clubâs direction under Kennett, including the exiting of four-time premiership coach Alastair Clarkson.
âThere just seems to me to be a little disenchantment amongst a lot of the people I talk to,â said former Hawthorn coach and triple premiership player Peter Schwab, who has backed Gowers and Silk and interviewed the pair as part of the online forum.
Schwab called Silk a âman of enormous abilities and integrityâ, adding âhow wouldnât you want a person like that on your board?â
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Jake Niall is a Walkley award-winning sports journalist and chief AFL writer for The Age.Connect via Twitter or email.
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