New Western Bulldogs president Peter Gordon. As a lawyer, he has taken on BHP and won. Picture: Stuart Walmsley. Source: Herald Sun
PETER Gordon looks like everyone's idea of a warm, cuddly, long-lost uncle.
But the portly man with the cheeky smile is a street fighter.
In his day job, spearheading class actions, Gordon has taken on and beaten BHP and international medical giants.
The heavies at German company Grunenthal have not unsettled him in a fight for justice on the notorious drug thalidomide, so Andrew Demetriou and Co. at AFL House will hold no fears.
You could argue the Dogs have been too obedient in recent years - solid, but almost silent on big-picture league issues.
That almost certainly will change when Gordon officially takes over from the respected David Smorgon.
He is a man of colourful quotes and opinions. For an everyday-looking guy, he talks with pizzazz - and right now the Bulldogs need it.
They need more headlines. They need to get back on the agenda. They need a fresh voice. Gordon, the famous lawyer of the downtrodden, is the ideal man for the job.
Through his past presidency from 1990-96, Gordon regularly attacked the AFL as the club fought for survival.
While a juicy TV-rights deal, and a need for 18 clubs, has lessened the need to go to war, Gordon will not step away from a battle either.
Gordon said yesterday he had mellowed, but you could see the fire in his eyes. Smorgon, who sat beside him, looked relieved and relaxed - as if the flames had gone out.
Gordon addressed the Dogs board on Tuesday and they were blown away by a bushfire of ideas.
There were visionary ideas for the future, including sponsorship and wiping off the club's debt, Westpac and AFL combined.
Gordon's tin-rattling saved the club in 1989, yet he will be more sophisticated this time, with the help of powerful friends.
The club will turn over $33 million this year and is well placed under chief executive Simon Garlick, but freshness is overdue after a year spent almost in a holding pattern.
Smorgon became more low-key publicly, the club became more insular than usual as the losses mounted and next season loomed as a tough sell on the membership front.
As one Dogs insider said yesterday, Gordon is a "call-to-arms" type of person. No doubt he will rally the supporter group and there will be a spike in membership.
He also has the dollars, and just as importantly, the time, to roll up his sleeves.
"I'm now in a position where over the next six to nine months I've got some significant commitments in the resolution of the rest of the thalidomide cases which I took on - but I'm really not planning on taking on any more class actions after that. I had promised my wife I would not take on any more global class actions," Gordon said.
"And whilst the term divorce had not been put expressly on the table, that was very, very clear.
"After that at the denouement of the thalidomide cases, I imagine if you talk to Simon Garlick, he'll be saying: 'If only I can find a way to get this guy outta here'."
That final quote will please every Dogs fan, for there is much work for the street fighter to do.
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