uncertainty around captain Zach Merrett\u2019s playing future<\/a>.<\/p>\nBarham said he had given his all to Essendon and was confident the club was on the right track.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy love for the Essendon Football club is second only to the love I have for my family. In every decision and every action I have taken, my guiding principle has always been what is in the best interests of the club,\u201d Barham wrote.<\/p>\n
Outgoing Essendon president David Barham. Picture: James Wiltshire\/AFL Photos via Getty ImagesSource: Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is another. It is time for a new President. It is a voluntary role that requires someone with the time, drive and energy to take us forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have given my all over the past three and a half years and tackled every challenge with everything that I have. I took my responsibility to fight for and defend our club, our players, coaches and administrators extremely seriously. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m proud of what we have achieved in transforming the club and making the hard decisions to set it up for long-term, sustained success. I have no doubt we are now on the right track, and I leave excited about the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
Barham said the Bombers were in good hands with Welsh taking charge, adding the former Essendon player had \u201cdeveloped close working relationships\u201d with both coach Brad Scott and chief executive Craig Vozzo since taking on the role of director of football governance.<\/p>\n
\u201cAndrew, the Board and I have been working collaboratively to put a succession plan in place for some time, and I am delighted that Andrew is now able to take on the role, and he will take over responsibility from today. I have been thinking about this decision for a while, and feel the timing is right.<\/p>\n
Coaches reveal GF ‘cheat sheet’ | 04:23<\/p>\n
\u201cSince becoming President, I have repeatedly said that sustained, long-term success relies on unity, stability and alignment and this transition to Andrew Welsh ensures that is maintained.<\/p>\n
\u201cAndrew will be an outstanding President, and it has been a privilege to work with him. He is driven and will bring fresh energy to the role, an energy we need to continue to build and develop the club and achieve on-field success. As we all loved him as a player, Andrew\u2019s uncompromising but compassionate approach, football knowledge and strategic thinking have been brilliant to watch and are great assets to the club.\u201d<\/p>\n
Barham stressed he had \u201cenormous faith\u201d in both Scott and Vozzo\u2019s leadership.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are the future and will lead us to success. They are talented, committed professionals who have outstanding values, and it has been a pleasure to work with them. They both put the club first always,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u2014 NCA NewsWire<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The post-season implosion at Essendon has continued, with president David Barham stepping down effective immediately in the first…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":162263,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[107267,63,689,3423,107264,696,95498,11231,653,2105,43,647,107263,107265,44,16299,677,107262,107266,41,39,42,40,21843,660,25581],"class_list":["post-162262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-andrew-welsh","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-ben-waterworth","tag-boss-hands-reins","tag-brad-scott","tag-david-barham","tag-essendon-bombers","tag-fox-sports-news","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-headlines","tag-melbourne","tag-nec-corporation","tag-newly-appointed-senior-coach","tag-news","tag-newswire-photos","tag-oceania","tag-president-david","tag-right-track","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-vice-president","tag-victoria","tag-zach-merrett"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162262\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}