Ritchie Hinton has been appointed the Western Region Football League’s new chief executive.
The league announced on Thursday that Hinton had been appointed to the role and would start next week.
Originally a qualified lawyer in the United Kingdom, Hinton has spent the last 16 years working in the Victorian and wider Australian and international sports industries.
He was previously head of soccer with Elite Sports Properties/TLA Worldwide, national field manager with Cricket Australia, and a lecturer at Masters’ level on ‘sport, law and regulation’ at Victoria University.
He has also served as chief executive at Table Tennis Victoria and Baseball Victoria and is an elected board member of VicSport.
“Ritchie has a passion for using sport as a tool for social cohesion and improving physical and mental health outcomes for its participants,” the league said in the announcement.
“Ritchie is a western suburbs local, having lived in the area since arriving from the UK and has been involved at a grassroots level with his local football and cricket clubs as a coach and parent volunteer.
“Ritchie brings significant management experience and leadership skills to the role, as well as a deep understanding of the opportunities and challenges of grassroots sports participation across a range of sports.”
League president Meredith Angwin said Hinton was chosen after a comprehensive recruitment process, citing his strategic and commercial development experience as a key factor in his selection.
She said he brings expertise and demonstrated capability to develop grassroot sports organisations and work with clubs, participants, commercial and government stakeholders to grow deep partnerships.
“Ritchie’s experience will complement our high performing WRFL HQ team who run our football and netball league operations, work with our clubs to grow participation and manage our digital and social media presence with extensive reach across the west.
“The WRFL board is delighted to welcome Ritchie as the new CEO of our league. We look forward to introducing him to our community and sponsors,” she said.
Hinton said he was keen to get started in the new role and work closely with the WRFL community.
“Our focus will be to provide as many opportunities as possible for people to play football and netball in the Western Suburbs and help our clubs be the best they can be.”
Hinton replaces Matthew Duck, who had been in the role since late 2017.
