Football First

After last year’s very close vote between club legends Warren Tredrea and Bruce Abernethy went right down to the wire, this year’s PAFC AGM will be a very interesting watch. Rightly or wrongly the vote for Warren Tredrea was seen as a vote of no confidence for Chairman David Koch, coach Ken Hinkley, and the football committee that was seen to extend his contract prematurely.

This year there are three candidates on the ballot, however it looks from the outside that it is likely to once again be a battle of two. Many members will feel that whilst the low profile Christopher Fitridge has a strong CV (and no doubt a passion for the football club) his resume would be more suited to be cherry picked by Koch for one of the other seats on the board. The seats that Koch says should not be available to ex-footballers.

And so it looks to be a vote between the incumbent Snowden and the returning George Fiacchi. The membership appears restless with what has been a very stagnant board over the last decade, overseeing several frustrating finals performances. It has been a period of stability, internal promotions and seemingly a strong off field financial performance. Stability historically was always a strength of the PAFC, but it was stability built on success. Finding the right people, and rewarding them when they got the right results. What has been missing in this stable environment is accountability and this might count against the incumbent Snowden.

Members will be drawn to Fiacchi’s pledge to “focus on our primary objective of winning premierships” and “make football the core focus of the board”. Many have been frustrated with the statements of satisfaction from the club, despite going out in straight sets in 2023 and in 2024 losing two of three finals (and scraping over the line in the third by a post). On that front Snowden’s reference to the club being in “good shape on and off field” will be like a red rag to a bull to those restless for change.

Many feel that in hindsight George was unlucky to be removed from the board previously, given the amazing work he did in reuniting the club with the One Club initiative. Some will hope that he has similar ambitions when it comes to returning the club to member control.

For mine, I want a club focused on football, that relentlessly chases premierships and is willing to hold those who fall short accountable.

I’ll be voting for George and hoping he and Warren Tredrea can form a similar partnership to the one he built with Roger Delaney, and that the new Batman and Robin can bring with them a similar culture of success.