Essendon chairman Ray Horsburgh, the man who will be forever remembered for ending Kevin Sheedy's record-breaking tenure as coach at Windy Hill, is set to stand down.
The Bombers announced on their website on Tuesday that Horsburgh will stand down at the club's upcoming annual general meeting.
Horsburgh, 65, joined the Essendon board in 2003 before becoming chairman of the club at the end of the 2006 season.
But during his short time as chairman he has overseen the most significant period of change at the club since the early 1980s after the decision to end Sheedy's 27-season reign at the end of 2007.
Sheedy was then replaced by Matthew Knights while Horsburgh also oversaw the recent transition in the all-important chief executive's position after he lured former Hawthorn chief executive Ian Robson to Windy Hill to replace the retiring Peter Jackson.
However Horsburgh will not be leaving Essendon immediately.
"We had a board meeting last Friday and I informed the board I would not be nominating for the position of chairman," he told the club's website on Tuesday.
"I do however plan to serve out the remaining two years of my elected term as a director."
Horsburgh said he would like his time as chairman to be remembered as having overseen the succession planning the club needed to remain one of the AFL's top clubs.
"It has been an honour to be chairman of this great club but succession planning is an important part of any business and the timing makes sense with Ian Robson having just joined the club and with a relatively new senior coach in place," he said.
"The recent changes have given the club a real energy and I am very excited about what lies ahead in the coming years. It is a new era and I think it is fitting that a new chairman leads us into that era."
Horsburgh will be replaced as chairman by David Evans, son of former club president and AFL chairman Ron Evans.
"I have the board's support for my endorsement of David Evans as the next chairman of the Essendon Football Club," Horsburgh said.
"I am of the view he can do the job very well and should lead this club into the future."
Evans will officially be appointed the new Essendon chairman at the club's AGM on December 21.
Meanwhile experienced Essendon defender Adam McPhee has confirmed he will be quitting the club in a bid to return to his original club Fremantle.
The Dockers are expected to offer the 27-year-old a three-year deal with McPhee's career set to turn full circle given he began his career with the Western Australian club where he played 25 games between 2001-02.
Essendon football manage Paul Hamilton said the club was disappointed by McPhee's decision.
"We could not reach an agreement with Adam. We offered him a very good two-year deal that we believe was more than fair," Hamilton said.
"We have an obligation to deliver our fans a period of sustained success and we were not prepared to compromise our strategy."
"Adam leaving opens the door for a young player like David Myers, Cale Hooker, Darcy Daniher or Michael Still to really grab their opportunity and cement a place in the senior team next year."
"We only want players here that want to play for this club and Adam has decided he doesn't want to be part of this emerging playing group."
McPhee, who won Essendon's best-and-fairest in 2004 and was named in the All-Australian team that same season, is believed to be desperate to continue his career at Fremantle under Mark Harvey, a former assistant coach at Essendon.
McPhee has not nominated for the upcoming national draft but has nominated for the pre-season draft where the Dockers have pick three.
But with Melbourne and Richmond, which have picks one and two, expected to look to younger players that would leave the Dockers free to claim McPhee for nothing at pick three as they look to complement their young playing list - which has undergone massive turnover in the last two years - with some much-needed experience.