The 1991 premiership player joined Hawthorn's football sub-committee earlier this year as part of a succession plan to take over from the long-term football director,

Professor Linda Kristjanson, a vice chancellor of Swinburne University, will also replace long-term board member Geoff Harris. Both positions were unopposed and will be ratified at the club's annual general meeting Monday night.

Dunstall joined the board in 2004 as football director and was viewed as an important presence in offering stability and unity behind the coaching team.

A sign of the significance of Dunstall's role and the football department's appreciation of how influential he was, on the night of the 2008 grand final victory, Alastair Clarkson and key personnel detoured past Dunstall's house with the premiership cup after leaving the MCG on the way to the victory dinner.

And this year in his speech at the victory dinner Alastair Clarkson was effusive in his praise for his long term staunch backer on the board.

''Tonight probably marks the full-stop to a guy who has had an enormous contribution at our footy club, and that's Jason Dunstall,'' Clarkson said.

''He's obviously been a very, very influential person around our club in terms of what he's done on-field.

''But for those who have been fortunate enough to have been in his presence over the last nine years, there would be so many, particularly at board level and [in] administration and coaching, who would acknowledge the contribution he's made off the field.

''He helped shape so many of the decisions in that period ... which were so crucial to us being able to get ourselves back to being premiership threats.''

Gowers, a wingman, played 89 games with the Hawks between 1988 and 1994 before moving to the Brisbane Bears in 1995. He played 51 games for Brisbane.

The AGM will also confirm the club's previously declared profit for the year of $3.118 million.