Big year for Eagles, on and off field

Gooding Pervan partner Dalton Gooding and Azure Capital managing director Mark Barnaba are part of a team that last year enjoyed the highest revenue and profit derived from football earnings than any other club in the Australian Football League.

Mr Gooding is the Eagles’ chairman who is due to hand over the top job to his deputy, Mr Barnaba, at the end of the year.

Last year the Eagles won the premiership and this year the team’s on-field performance has put them in good stead to tackle another grand final.

But it has been the off-field problems, especially those created by the Eagles’ star footballer Ben Cousins, that have really thrown Mr Gooding into the public spotlight.

He has also had to weather the storm on a couple of companies where he holds a directorship - Clinical Cell Culture Ltd and Australian Wine Holdings Ltd.

Both companies have experienced trouble in the past year and have been forced to sell assets.

Mr Gooding, who established accounting firm Gooding Pervan in 1998 after a 14-year career as a partner at Ernst and Young, is also on the board of Visiomed and St John of God Healthcare.

The Fremantle Football Club has been keen to bolster its business acumen in recent years, with Wesfarmers chief Richard Goyder taking up a position on its board last December.

Mr Goyder joins president and veteran retailer Rick Hart, who has signalled his intention to step down from the top job when his term expires in 2009.

Empire Beer Group Ltd non-executive chairman Mel Ashton is also on the Dockers’ eight-member board. Mr Ashton is also the state chairman of the WA Branch of Institute of Chartered Accountant and chairman of Gryphon Minerals Ltd and Venture Minerals Ltd.