After a tumultuous two years in which his club was embroiled in controversy, Greek Australian Nick Raptopoulos has put his hand up for a board position at the Essendon Football Club.

The 43-year-old national business manager at Willow Ware Australia has been involved in middle and senior management at a number of Australian manufacturers, responsible for fundraising, sponsorship, and team management.
Raptopoulos said after 35 years as a club member he feels disenchanted by the lack of communication between the club and members, and aims to rectify that at board level.

“I really want to convey and have a vehicle for the members to convey their thoughts. I haven’t had that avenue since I’ve been a member and I’ve been a member since I was eight or nine years old,” he said to Neos Kosmos.

“My concern has been for some time now that the board … I don’t know how to get through to the board. I don’t think they’re very reflective of the views of the greater Essendon supporter base, which is what pushed me to make a move and have a crack.”

The club’s heavily publicised controversial supplements program has caused frustration, but fair-weather supporting is not in his nature.

“This is when you need people, this is where you need people to stand up. There could be people that drop off because they’re not happy with reasons A, B or C, but really, if you’ve got something to add, this is when you do it, when your back’s down. It’s a marriage, right?

“This is a tough time for us, it’s very easy to be there patting ourselves on the back when we’re winning flags and playing in finals but this is what shows us our true mettle,” he said.

He believes poor internal decisions have hindered the club over the past decade, which have also spurred him to put his hand up.

“I wouldn’t have gotten rid of Kevin Sheedy just for change sake and I wouldn’t have appointed an untried Matthew Knights who wasn’t being chased by anyone.”

“Now everything that’s happened with James Hird, I’m not anti-James Hird, but I didn’t think that we needed to extend his contract when we did.

“It just became messy, so it’s been a lot of things like that. It sort of seems like we keep leading ourselves down a certain path, whether it’s just putting us in a corner or just poor decisions.”

He will rely on his skills as a “good communicator” to win over eligible voters within the club’s 60,000 strong membership pool.

Voting opens November 24 and closes December 8, and all eligible voters who are of age and financial members from June 30, 2014, are implored to vote.