Werribee’s Operations Manager Zach Thornton who has spent seven years with Werribee has left to pursue a new career in the music industry with Good Neighbour, part of the Mushroom Group.

A proud City of Wyndham local, Thornton’s association with Werribee Football Club began well before his full-time employment. As part of a university placement in 2015, he worked as an intern under Mark Penaluna. A few years later, a chance meeting with the Werribee CEO at Eagle Stadium, while Thornton was working for Western Leisure Services, led to his appointment as a casual Match Day Manager for the 2018 season.

In his first season in 2018, Thornton worked from portable offices located at the back of Avalon Airport Oval while the venue underwent extensive redevelopments. Returning in 2019, as the upgraded facilities opened, Thornton’s role also advanced as he secured a full-time position as Memberships & Match Day Manager.

Throughout the challenges to the competition posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw the cancellation of the entire 2020 season and the latter half of 2021, Thornton remained working with the club and emerged from the pandemic as Werribee’s Operations Manager following the 2022 season.

Looking back on his time at the club, Thornton said, “I'm incredibly proud to have been part of such an important institution in my hometown these past seven years.”

He added, “Pena and WFC have been very kind to me and if I can depart with the belief that I've left an imprint on the club for the better then I leave a happy man.”

Mark Penaluna, the man who brought Zach to the club in 2018, said, “Zach will leave a significant hole but a positive legacy with our club, possibly none more so than how he carried himself as a young man during the COVID pandemic. We wish him absolutely the best with his future endeavours.”

Replacing Thornton is Sam Wharton, who brings prior experience from fellow standalone VFL club Port Melbourne and most recently, the not-for-profit organisation Reclink. Wharton has already spent six weeks settling into his new role.