VAFA Board Update

VAFA is pleased to announce the appointment of Adrian Raftery, Richard Smith and Sharon Read as Directors on the VAFA Board.

Sharon Read is known to the Clubs as she was in a VAFA Director appointed role in 2025 and as now been appointed to the causal vacancy left by the retirement of Mark Hibbins, who has returned to clubland duties at Collegians FC.

Richard Smith fills the Director appointed role that was endorsed by the Life Members Association.

Adrian Raftery fills the other Director appointed role by the Board. 

These three appointments now fill the full complement of 9 elected Directors and 2 Board appointed Directors on the 11 person VAFA Board. The remaining elected Directors are President Paul Newton, Vice Presidents Ivan Delac and Sarah Delbosc, Treasurer Matt Scholten, and Directors Joan Eddy, Nicole Hall, George Haros, and Martin Kelliher.

President Paul Newton stated “On behalf of the Directors, we are delighted to have 3 quality additions to our Board for 2026.

Sharon, Richard and Adrian will provide exceptional expertise in the areas of commercial dealings, finance, governance, and HR.

We are indeed fortunate. This will bring the Board to its full complement, enabling us to maintain our focus on the delivery Association’s strategic plan. I take this opportunity to congratulate Sharon, Richard and Adrian and look forward to their immediate input.”

The three Directors were presented to the Club representatives at the scheduled Members Meeting on Wednesday night.

Richard Smith is a past player and coach at Old Brighton Grammarians Football Club, who has previously served on the Board of Southern Football Netball League. He is a current Board Member with Reclink Australia and has had a corporate career that spans senior corporate and government advisory roles responsible for strategy development, complex project delivery, and high-level stakeholder engagement balancing commercial outcomes and community impact.

Adrian Raftery has had a professional career as an award-winning Chartered Accountant (30+ years) and senior academic. He spent a 4 year term as the National General Manager of AFL Masters. He is an Honorary Fellow within Business Administration at the University of Melbourne, has a PhD, MBA and an Executive Graduate Certificate of Sport Business from Deakin University,