Joss steps down as Bendigo Football Club chairman

By Luke West
Updated November 7 2012 - 6:53am, first published January 6 2012 - 11:10am

DAVID Joss will stand down as chairman of the Bendigo Football Club at the end of this month.Joss will vacate the position at the BFC’s annual general meeting, but remain a board member of Bendigo’s VFL club. Joss has held the chairman’s position since August 2008 when he took over from Ian Dyett and has overseen a number of key decisions at the club, but believes the time is now right for a fresh person to take the reins.“The club is going into its third phase, having been the Bendigo Diggers, then Bombers and now the Bendigo Football Club,” Joss said yesterday.“It seems that if I can’t commit myself fully for the next three years then it’s time for the next person to come through and take the leadership role.“I’m still committed to the club and will stay on the board, but I feel the time is now right for someone else to take the chairman’s role.”Joss has been at the helm of the club at a time when several key decisions have been made, such as the scrapping of the reserves team at the end of 2009; striking a new alignment deal with Essendon for the 2010-11 seasons after the club had been at its lowest ebb in 2009; the appointment of Shannon Grant as coach in October 2009; and overseeing the transformation of the Bendigo Bombers into the Bendigo Football Club from this season; while also pushing strongly for the Queen Elizabeth Oval surface upgrade.“When I came in, effectively we were losing money, but we’re now profitable and we’ve done it the hard way through sponsorship only... we haven’t got any other revenue streams.“So I’m proud of the fact that we’ve started to produce surpluses. That’s a healthy thing for a footy club, especially in the VFL with the challenges that are faced.“Don’t get me wrong, there’s still a long way to go, but I always saw myself as a guy who might be able to come in and rejuvenate a board and put some governance practice in place, which we’ve done.“It has been all about trying to set the club on the right pathway towards greater success, so in terms of what I set out to achieve, I feel I’ve accomplished that.“We’ve got a great group of people involved in running the club now, so it seems to me that if I’m going to move on, now is the time to do it.”This year shapes as a season of transition for Bendigo’s VFL club, which has played finals for the past two years under Grant, but has a new coach in Hayden Skipworth.While it’s now known as the Bendigo Football Club and will wear a traditional Bendigo blue and gold jumper in most of its matches, the alignment with Essendon remains for 2012.However, at the end of this season the alignment – which has been in place since 2003 – will end and Bendigo and Essendon will both field stand-alone VFL sides next year.“The No.1 objective of our footy club is to get players to the highest possible level,” Joss said.“Really, what we want to do is maximise local talent as much as we possibly can, so if we can create more opportunities for regional guys by not being aligned from next year, that’s what we’re all about.“That’s why I believe that going stand-alone from next year and this next phase that we’re going into is not only the right thing to do, but an essential thing to do for a regional VFL footy club.“We’ve always said we’re about development and we’ve meant that, and I think the fact we had four players (Tory Dickson, Shane Biggs, Tom Campbell and Sam Dunnell) either drafted or rookie-listed last year speaks for itself.”

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