SEPTEMBER 12 2017 - 8:00PM Chris Barrett SMH
Parramatta's focus is on the immediate future of a premiership tilt but Eels chairman Max Donnelly will be pitted against figures from the club's past at an extraordinary general meeting at Rosehill Racecourse on Wednesday night.
At an event he has described as "one of the most important in the history of the Eels," Donnelly will try to secure the passing of strict new eligibility requirements to be a director of Parramatta Leagues Club, which owns the NRL team and is its major financial backer.
Crucial AGM: Eels chairman Max Donnelly is gearing up for Wednesday's meeting. Photo: Anna KuceraThe move comes after the sacking of the board by the state government's Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority last year over the club's rorting of the salary cap. However, it is understood to be facing pushback from some familiar quarters, with former Parramatta supremos Denis Fitzgerald and Roy Spagnolo among those who are said to oppose the constitutional changes.
The reforms would exclude anyone who was on a Parramatta board before July 16, 2016 from standing for future elections but they require 75 per cent of attending members to vote for them to pass.
"There is no doubt some of the former directors have indicated their disapproval to me through the whole consultation process," Donnelly said. "I respect their right to vote against it. I don't agree with it, but I respect it.
"[The constitutional reform] what I think is the model best corporate practice, which is in accordance with the instructions that I've had from ILGA and what I think is in the best interests of the club."
The EGM will be held with Parramatta supporters in a buoyant mood amid their first finals campaign since 2009. Yet that does not mean that Wednesday's gathering will be an entirely harmonious affair.
Under the proposed changes, not only would previous directors be shut out of running for the club's board, but also any person who has had a finding made against them by the Office of Liquor and Gaming or ILGA.
Opponents argue there are enough suitable board members among the 20,000 members of the leagues club, but the government-appointed Donnelly is adamant Parramatta has to "increase the talent pool that can be drawn from".
"It's a bit like putting the hook into the barrel ... and the fish swimming around are the same fish. We need to be able to get the best board members possible," he said.
"Don't get me wrong. Plenty of members who have got three years' membership would be fantastic on the board if they put their hand up and wanted to do it. But it's too small a pool."
He said that to protect club members they would still have to be paid up for three years to vote.
Donnelly is also proposing that individuals undergo police and bankruptcy checks and satisfy skills tests before being nominated for the board, and that they have no significant commercial deals with the leagues club or football club.
Replies
If you don't support the constitutional changes you simply need to fuck off and find another club! These changes will keep the cancer out of the club.
Eels members if you can get there tonight please do! It requires 75% of attending members voting for it to be passed. If Fitzgerald and co manage to get 100 people there on their side voting against that means 300 people would need to support it to get it over the line
Between this and director eligibility this is a massive vote!
It appears some of these clowns have learned not a thing!
Agreed. I know the players won't get involved, but it is still a distraction we don't need at the moment, especially if it gets voted down.
If the vote doesn't get up I've been told that the administrator will remain in charge of the club and will work on trying to have the changes pushed through again in the future.
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