Having started his long-overdue shake-up of the game’s head office – but certainly not ended it – Andrew Dillon’s next move must be to do everything in his power to convince Tom Harley to leave Sydney to serve as his wingman and unofficial successor.
Harley answers so many questions the clubs are asking of the AFL. They are bickering among themselves and behaving in some obvious cases like bad sports. But they are united in their call for some clear, decisive leadership and a better understanding of their woes from Dillon and his team.
The top Swan: Sydney CEO Tom Harley.Credit: James Brickwood
Harley is the person to further unite them and, should he perform as well as he has in all his previous football challenges, he would immediately create for AFL CEO Dillon a leadership succession plan for which headquarters is crying out.
Dillon and his just-demoted football boss Laura Kane, along with the spin team, continue to point to how good the game is and how big the crowds are. But the AFLW is bleeding and needs a major overhaul, and the game’s judiciary at every level, starting with umpiring, needs new and better leadership. And frankly it’s just insulting for Dillon to point to big profits and a record surplus when coaches feel so disrespected and their football department staff are so overworked.
This may not have affected the quality of the on-field game, but the football cost cuts have come at the expense of high-maintenance and troubled players and Indigenous footballers struggling to acclimatise away from home. The angst around the northern academies says many things about the competition, but most specifically it shows that when the clubs throw their weight and expertise around on game development, they do a far better job of it than the AFL.
Two weeks ago this columnist stated that Dillon must not waste the crisis he and his executive were facing. He should be applauded for taking charge and finally reaching a relatively painless settlement with Tanya Hosch, and recognising that Kane – as the game’s football boss – had taken on far too much responsibility.
Laura Kane with Geoff Walsh and Josh Mahoney.Credit: AFL Photos
Now he must move on to other departments, such as game development and human resources, that are crying out for an overhaul.
Removing key football responsibilities such as umpiring, player movement, the MRO and the game’s laws from Kane was always going to be highly sensitive given how strongly Dillon backed her in the face of some unconscious bias from the clubs. But Kane had become too remote with some key staff and alienated too many experienced football bosses who claimed she was difficult to communicate with at times.
Clearly over-stretched, she was given the chance to share the load with the experienced Geoff Walsh but rejected that solution and enraged the clubs by instead bringing in the inexperienced former real estate executive Nick Carah who had worked part-time as a match day manager.
That was followed by the bungled handling of Willie Rioli’s alleged threats, and the Lachie Schultz concussion saga exposed just how disconnected the game’s football operation and media department had become. Not to mention the game’s general counsel Stephen Meade, who lost the integrity portfolio from his remit. Co-existing with self-interested club presidents and CEOs is difficult enough but Meade’s predecessors – including Dillon back in the day – have all enjoyed congenial relationships with the clubs, even if punctuated by the odd stoush.
Significant penalties and sanctioning – such as the $20,000 fine handed to Ken Hinkley, which immediately followed a similar penalty handed to Jason McCartney for making body contact with a player during a quarter-time break – would fall to Harley, should he take on the job.
Judging by the media rounds he undertook on Friday, Dillon appears willing to turn over a new leaf in terms of communication, but lack of transparency remains a big problem for the AFL. It is one thing to defend your staff, quite another to not acknowledge the big problems facing head office.
Brian Walsh’s impending departure – which is his call after long and distinguished service – will hopefully lead to a reshaping of how the administrative game presents itself.
Now that Dillon has started his reforms, he has already made AFL House a more attractive proposition for the likes of Harley, whom to date has indicated a preference to remain in Sydney where his family is settled and where his wife Felicity is employed.
But should the league chief target him – and in a more meaningful manner than it did Brendon Gale or Graham Wright – there is a genuine chance Harley could depart the club he has driven so successfully since 2019 and before that as its effective football boss.
To draw a bow, the AFL’s challenge is not dissimilar to that faced by former Geelong boss Brian Cook in 2006. Cook knew he had the makings of a champion team among the Cats’ squabbling team of champions, and key among the 20 recommendations he put to his board after a lengthy review was to make the 28-year-old defender Harley captain.
Joel Selwood, Tom Harley, Steve Johnson and Cameron Ling in the rooms after Geelong’s 2007 qualifying final win.Credit: Sebastian Costanzo
Harley was nowhere near Geelong’s best player, but he led the club to a flag the following year and retired a two-time premiership captain who was named All-Australian vice captain in 2008 and the game’s best captain by his peers. Cook at the time singled out Harley’s leadership in the club’s handling of the errant Steve Johnson in early 2007. A five-week suspension enforced by the leadership group culminated in a Norm Smith Medal for Johnson. Harley’s captaincy was not the primary reason for the flag, but he played a key part.
With Tasmania looming and the game’s development in New South Wales still floundering, Harley’s pedigree is impeccable. He has experienced start-up clubs – he worked part-time at the fledgling GWS – and is steeped in the complexities and challenges the game faces in Sydney, its toughest market. A South Australian who became an inaugural Port Adelaide AFL player, he spent his early senior years predominantly at Norwood before moving to the Cats. Coincidentally, he is an old boy from St Peter’s in Adelaide – Gillon McLachlan’s old school.
And he doesn’t seem to have a detractor, let alone an enemy in the game; he enjoys a strong relationship with Giants boss Dave Matthews despite the two clubs’ dislike of each other. Matthews appointed Harley boss of AFL NSW after a short media career with the Seven Network.
Harley became the Swans’ football boss under Andrew Ireland almost 11 years ago before succeeding him in 2019. In that time, the Swans have missed the finals twice and reached three grand finals.
On each occasion Harley has picked up the pieces and late last year he led the shattered club in overseeing another seamless succession, which ended John Longmire’s 14-year coaching career with the dignity it deserved.
Given Ireland’s influential and long-overdue role on the commission, the fact that Harley’s chairman Andrew Pridham has strong support in the AFL’s search for a new commission chairman, and that Longmire is a popular choice to take on the newly created executive football role, the league suddenly seems overwhelmed with Sydney Swans candidates. All three would prove formidable and effective choices.
But they can’t all come on board – certainly not at the same time. This is nothing against Simon Garlick or Ameet Bains, nor any left-field candidates perhaps on Dillon’s radar, but Harley is the standout. The executive needs to create a more effective working relationship between head office and its disenchanted clubs. He looms as the unofficial No.2 to the CEO and long-term successor for which the game is crying out.
If Dillon reaches the same conclusion, he needs to launch a direct hit and bypass the procedures that let him down in the past.
