Warrnambool and District league executive searches for new leaders

The pair served two terms in their respective roles after Harrison took over midway through the 2018 season, when the league was recovering from a long-running governance crisis.

The executive's legal officer Carolyn Howe told The Standard the pair would vacate their positions at the AGM on November 25.

"Michael is standing down and won't be on the committee," she said.

"Billy has new business commitments and he really can't commit to us. We're hoping to get him back once he is settled into his new business commitments."

Howe, netball chair Kylie Murphy, umpires development manager Norm Gibson and finances officer Scott Coverdale have all committed to another season.

The executive is seeking expressions of interest for the roles of president, vice-president and media/marketing manager on the football committee.

The netball board is looking for a secretary, umpire co-ordinator and mentor, junior development officer, MyNetball manager and committee members.

Howe said the executive was eager to fill the available roles and alter the league's constitution.

"We're looking to increase our numbers to either nine or 11 depending on the expressions of interest," she said.

"We've sent them out to all clubs to have a really good think about who is sitting out there in clubland that would be a positive introduction to the board with the idea being that we get them back by November 10.

"We're hoping to have things well and truly organised so that we go into the AGM with a positive idea of where we are at, what our financial situation is, these are the people keen to come on board and let's move into 2020."

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Howe said the league had turned over a new leaf in 2019 and was hoping to take another step forward next year.

"At the start of 2019 we were financially strapped, we didn't have a positive relationship with the RAC (Regional Administration Centre - AFL Western District) and we didn't have a great deal of confidence in each other," she said.

"There also wasn't good communication between the executive and clubs, everybody was just getting frustrated.

"Coming into 2019 we told clubs 'this is what the budget is, these are our hopes for the season, this is what we want to achieve'. We were completely transparent and if they had concerns they could come and ask.

"Because we've been a united board this season, if clubs had questions they were able to come to any member and we all knew what was going on and were able to answer the question straight away."

Howe said the executive had already received four expressions of interest for both football and netball committees and expected more to follow in the coming weeks.

The long-serving board member said it was a positive time for any new members to join the executive.

"We are in a situation now where all that stress of 2018 has gone and it's now a really positive environment," she said.

"You can come onto the board and contribute to making really good improvements and we might get someone with a whole new set of ideas that we haven't considered that can improve our league.

"We don't want to be the second best to the Hampden league. We want to be an alternative and them be one to us. We want to build our league."

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