37 years a Pies member but Barrie Cassidy still cant vote

Barrie Cassidy has been a Collingwood Football Club member for 37 consecutive years. During Collingwood’s tumultuous 2021, Cassidy, a renowned political journalist and current affairs host at the ABC, considered standing for election to the club board.

The problem for Cassidy was that he wasn’t eligible to either stand or vote at Collingwood’s upcoming election, the first held by the Magpies for more than two decades.

Barrie Cassidy has been a member at Collingwood for 37 years.Credit:Dominic Lorrimer

“Not only can I not stand [for election], I can’t vote,” said Cassidy, who checked with the club administration on his eligibility and found that, as feared, he wasn’t one of the estimated 12,000-13,000 members whom the club permitted to vote.

Cassidy had been a social club member with the Magpies for many years, before transferring across to be an AFL “club support” Collingwood member â€" a category that numbers many thousands at the Magpies and which the club relies upon as rusted-on members, yet have no democratic rights besides that of a consumer.

The upshot is that, as with the vast majority of Collingwood’s 82,000 members, Cassidy can’t participate, as voter or candidate, in Collingwood’s lamentably limited version of democracy.

So, Cassidy, whose public profile and media savvy would give him an excellent show at winning a board spot, didn’t put his hand up.

Theoretically, he could have stood for election, received sufficient votes to get on (11 candidates are seeking four spots) to the seven-member board and then relied upon the club passing a special resolution at the annual general meeting to allow him on.

VRC chairman Neil Wilson, whose membership status likewise renders him ineligible to vote under the rules, is seeking this route to renew and ratify his appointment to the Magpies board, which came under attack this year for installing Wilson and Dr Bridie O’Donnell when they, technically speaking, didn’t pass muster under the outmoded rules. O’Donnell subsequently quit.

Cassidy’s view, shared by many members and this column, is that Collingwood must change the club’s antiquated voting system, which is among the most restricted of the traditional clubs; Hawthorn, for instance, allow merely “ordinary members” to vote and have a much wider franchise, potentially including those under 18.

“Anyone with a full-season package ought to be allowed to be part of the democratic process,” said Cassidy. In his view, this would mean any ordinary adult 11-game season ticket-holder, AFL club support and MCC members with lower-fee Collingwood components, would get the right to vote, expanding the voting pool by many thousands.

Under the current rules â€" a legacy of the old Victoria Park social club that predates Eddie McGuire’s 23-year, largely election-free reign â€" only elite-membership categories of “Club 5”, “Legends” and social club members get the vote. AFL and MCC members can only vote if they take out the more expensive Collingwood social club option.

Collingwood’s voting system â€" comparable to 19th century Britain, when the vote was confined to men with property â€" contradicts the club’s own self-image as the club of the people.

Democracy hasn’t been an issue at Collingwood previously because elections simply didn’t happen in McGuire’s time, a measure of his popular appeal and grip on the membership base. If no one is willing to stand, voting rights are theoretical.

In 2021, as the Magpies struggled on-field and McGuire exited, his friend Jeff Browne, the former AFL lawyer and Channel Nine boss, launched what was initially a hostile challenge to the Mark Korda-led board and which has since turned, predictably, into a negotiated handover â€" subject to Browne and his three allies winning member support.

Critics of Korda and the incumbent board highlighted the ineligibility of O’Donnell and Wilson â€" a standard not applied to past board appointees (O’Donnell was hurt, too, by a past Bulldogs allegiance). But the archaic voting system also is a deterrent for those, such as Cassidy, who’ve been interested in running.

It was a complication for Browne, too. To win a board battle, he arguably couldn’t afford to have running mates who weren’t eligible. The new candidates he’s aligned himself with, venture capitalist Barry Carp and APRA executive Renee Roberts, have the required memberships.

Outgoing Cycling Australia chairman Duncan Murray was interviewed for board vacancies. Credit:Joe Armao

To confine the vote to 12,000-13,000 people, who must have been members for two years, means Collingwood either will draw their board from a very limited pool, or will have to continue the messy, questionable method of rubber-stamping appointed directors after the fact.

Duncan Murray, the outgoing chairman of Cycling Australia, was among the short list interviewed for two board vacancies, including Eddie’s, earlier this year. Murray’s resume is imposing â€" John Wylie, the ex-chairman of Sports Australia, credits Murray with successfully restructuring Australian cycling at Olympic and administrative level.

“What Duncan pulled off was the sports equivalent of a reverse 4 1/2 somersault dive in the pike position,” Wylie told The Age last week.

Murray is CEO of the Besen Family office, formerly ran the Cape York Partnership for Indigenous leader Noel Pearson, and chaired the Amy Gillett Foundation.

Collingwood’s board, which assessed candidates based on skill sets, opted for Wilson rather than Murray. Yet Murray wouldn’t have been eligible in any case because his MCC-Collingwood membership isn’t sufficient for voting rights. He would face the same risky scenario as Wilson.

Collingwood’s board has been talking about expanding the voting franchise for next year, as Carlton finally have.

After a year in which democracy â€" as in the lack of it â€" became an issue at various clubs, the Magpies must prioritise becoming what they’ve falsely purported to be: a club of, by and for the members.

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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