Richmond President Peggy O’Neal and CEO Brendon Gale today met with representatives of the Focus on Footy group Martin Hiscock, Mag Kearney and the group’s public relations consultant Richard Amos.

The group put another proposal to the Club, requesting that four or five current Richmond Directors stand down and that the Focus on Footy group would decide which of their representatives would take the positions.

At a scheduled Board meeting this afternoon, the Richmond Football Club Board rejected this request in its entirety.

“Our members are perfectly entitled to run for the Board and we have processes in place to allow them to do just that,” Richmond President Peggy O’Neal said.

“We encourage any of our 70,000 members wishing to do so to engage in our nominations process or through our normal electoral process as part of the Annual General Meeting.

“The time leading up to the AFL Draft is really important for all clubs and our priority right now is running this Club, and providing a stable environment that allows our CEO Brendon Gale and our new General Manager of Football Neil Balme to build a stronger Richmond on and off the field.

“The Board and our administration – under the guidance of Brendon - is getting on with the really important business of attracting players, coaches and commercial partners to our Club, and planning for 2017.

“I’m sure all passionate Richmond members and supporters want Brendon and Neil focused on delivering the changes we have announced to strengthen our Football Department and not be distracted by other issues.

“As previously stated, we were bitterly disappointed with last season. We have conducted a thorough review, change has been implemented and more is on the way – we need our key people focussing on doing that effectively as we build towards the 2017 season.

“I want to take this opportunity to thank the members of our Club who have provided such great support in recent weeks for the work Brendon and his team are doing to drive a stronger team on and off the field."