Magpies appoint ex-champion female cyclist and doctor to board

Collingwood have appointed a former international cyclist and senior state government official, Dr Bridie O’Donnell, to the club board, replacing the wealthy businessman Alex Waislitz, the only board member who served longer than departed president Eddie McGuire.

O’Donnell, a trained medical practitioner, represented Australia in the 2008, 2009 and 2010 road world cycling championships and commentated on the Tour de France for SBS last year. She was the inaugural director of Victoria’s Office for Women in Sport and Recreation between 2017 and 2020. She is executive director of the Victorian government’s public events team.

Bridie O’Donnell.Credit:The Age

Waislitz, who started on the Collingwood board when McGuire took over the club at the end of 1998, has stepped down effective immediately.

The appointment of O’Donnell means the Collingwood board – which is facing a prospective challenge from influential ex-AFL lawyer, Channel Nine boss and mover and shaker Jeff Browne – has three women on their seven-member board, Dr O’Donnell joining Jodie Sizer and ex-Australia Post boss Christine Holgate, having replaced McGuire with VRC boss Neil Wilson.

The Magpies also announced that decorated ex-player Paul Licuria and Sizer, a driver of the consequential Do Better report on racism, had been elevated to vice-presidents.

Waislitz, a billionaire and former son-in-law of the late cardboard magnate Richard Pratt, has agreed to leave immediately, rather than staying on, as the board of new president Mark Korda prepares for a potential challenge from Browne, a close friend of the man Korda replaced, McGuire with connections to the AFL and public backing from some renowned Collingwood figures, including ex-captain Peter Moore and 1990 premiership defender and Nathan Buckley’s manager Craig Kelly.

Browne is looking to assemble his own ticket, with the hope of having a peaceful transfer of power. His camp have the option of resorting to an extraordinary general meeting and spilling the board, which requires the signatures of five percent of Collingwood’s voting members, a step McGuire has said should be avoided, but is open to any challenger.

In a statement announcing the change, Collingwood said that six of the seven board members had been appointed within the last five years – a comment that can be read as an attempt to sell the notion of board renewal, in response to the Browne push. Korda has been on the board since 2007.

“With a medical, public health and elite sporting background, Bridie offers expertise across a range of fields that are of importance to Collingwood,” said Korda, who thanked Waislitz – who backed Korda in the battle for the presidency with Peter Murphy – for his role in “the modernisation of Collingwood.″⁣

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