New faces on AFLPA committee

18 Mar 2004 - Jane Woolard

Sydney's Adam Goodes and Melbourne's Alistair Nicholson have joined the AFLPA committee, replacing James Hird who did not stand for re-election, and Andrew Leoncelli, who resigned from the vice presidency and the committee in December 2003.

Peter Bell was re-elected as AFLPA president.  He welcomed the election of Goodes and Nicholson to the committee.

"It's terrific to have two young players expressing an interest in being involved at this level in the AFL Players' Association," he said.

"Both will bring different attributes. In particular, having a Sydney representative in Adam Goodes on the committee is important and of course it's fantastic to have another Brownlow Medallist as an AFLPA committee member.

"Both Alistair and Adam have been involved in the AFLPA as delegates at their respective clubs.  Alistair is also a member of the AFLPA's Education and Training Working Party and his input will be valuable," Peter said.

Adam Goodes said: "We all get to perform on the weekend on the field and I'd like to think this role shows that I'm just as keen to help off the field.   I'm a big believer that the game's given me great opportunities and it's good to be able to give something back to the game."

Alistair Nicholson said: "I'm pleased to be able to follow (former AFLPA committee members and past teammates) Glenn Lovett and Andrew Leoncelli and hopefully make a contribution to the player group as a whole.   I'm hoping to apply what I've learned through my commerce and arts studies to my own workplace and it'll be great to learn from some of the great players and important participants in player welfare such as Nathan Buckley and Peter Bell."

Richard Champion was re-elected as the past player representative on the AFLPA committee.

The position of vice president will be decided at the next committee meeting.

The AFLPA thanks James Hird and Andrew Leoncelli for their strong contribution to the association.

The AFLPA committee now has representatives in every football state as follows:

Peter Bell - Fremantle (President)
Michael Voss - Brisbane
Darryl Wakelin - Port Adelaide
Nathan Buckley - Collingwood
Nigel Smart - Adelaide
Glenn Archer - Kangaroos
Adam Goodes - Sydney
Alistair Nicholson - Melbourne
Simon Garlick - Western Bulldogs
Richard Champion - Past Player Representative