It would be an overstatement to describe the mood of the clubs towards the AFL Commission as one of outright rebellion, but the level of disquiet is at a level not seen for decades due to the time taken to appoint the CEO and fill the two vacancies on the commission with AFL playing experience.
Debating football topics such as tackling may have once seemed trivial to the corporate heavy AFL Commission, but with one club boss telling The Age that concussion is “a meteor coming at the game”, the hole dual-premiership player Jason Ball left when he departed the game’s governing body alongside media executive Kim Williams in 2021 is becoming a crater.
That’s not to mention all the other challenges surrounding the game including expansion, the northern states, racism, grassroots football, umpiring, and AFLW.
AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan and chairman Richard Goyder.Credit: Chris Hopkins
The clubs’ frustration has galvanised a group of several influential presidents who, according to multiple club and AFL sources, include Collingwood’s Jeff Browne, Sydney’s Andrew Pridham, West Coast’s Paul Fitzpatrick (the brother of former AFL chair Mike Fitzpatrick) and Port Adelaide’s forceful television personality David Koch to push for their preferred candidates to fill the vacant roles. Club sources said there were also others supporting their push. Brisbane Lions president Andrew Wellington has also discussed potential candidates with presidents as part of his roles on the AFL’s nominations committee. However, commission chair Richard Goyder is determined to keep the positions vacant until McLachlan’s successor is appointed.
Significantly, whereas past power plays by presidents and clubs have been centred in Victoria and often led by former Magpie president Eddie McGuire, this coalition comprises club bosses from each state.
The candidates directly sounded out include former player and highly respected and experienced former Brisbane Lions and Sydney CEO Andrew Ireland and recently retired Docker Matthew Pavlich to fill at least one, perhaps two, of the vacancies. The game’s most revered former player and coach, the clear thinking Leigh Matthews is also a candidate.
Contenders: Brendon Gale, Andrew Dillon and Travis Auld have been involved in a 12-month selection processCredit: The Age
Matthews has declared his interest while a well-placed industry figure confirmed Ireland is in the mix. Pavlich, who is well-known and admired by Goyder, is yet to declare his position, although taking a spot on the AFL Commission would likely mean giving up a media career.
The moves are being made by clubs who have belatedly recognised their power to influence the game’s direction lay in two areas: appointing commissioners and decisions to admit a new team.
The machinations also reveal the club’s frustration at Goyder’s delays, a feeling accentuated by the 12-month hunt to replace McLachlan as CEO with sources reluctant to go on the record out of respect for Goyder’s position in the game. One senior club figure told The Age the upshot would be that clubs will have a bigger say in the appointment of commissioners and more scrutiny of the commission in the future.
During COVID, the prevailing view is that the clubs were more supine in their dealings with the game’s hierarchy.
Much of the delay, according to club sources, has been caused by Goyder’s unwillingness to let McLachlan depart – the chairman viewing his presence as essential to completing five key strategic objectives.
McLachlan landed a $4.5 billion deal broadcast deal lasting until 2031 in September last year, but the two other objectives remain: finalising the player pay deal for men and women, and awarding Tasmania a licence to have a standalone team.
As with the appointments, both of these objectives have taken longer to achieve than anticipated when McLachlan resigned in April last year.
The players have been clear that there is a sizeable gap between them and the AFL on the CBA. The players, for example, want to strike a four-year deal and the League wanting the agreement to stretch until 2031.
The Tasmania decision is viewed as a fait accompli provided the Albanese government comes forth with enough funding to build the new stadium in Hobart that the presidents and the AFL have made mandatory.
While McLachlan’s delayed departure has created a messy process – and arguably embarrassed the commission and some candidates – one senior industry figure involved with a club defended McLachlan on the grounds clubs argued for him to stay on to for the duration of the independent enquiry into accusations of alleged mistreatment of players and their partners by senior Hawthorn people including senior coaches Alastair Clarkson and Chris Fagan. The pair have denied any wrongdoing.
A consensus has formed that the search for McLachlan’s successor has taken too long. As of Friday, candidates had not been told of the decision. The view of club bosses was that the race was down to the AFL head legal counsel and football supremo Andrew Dillon, McLachlan’s 2IC, and Western Bulldogs president and Disney Australia managing director Kylie Watson-Wheeler who took off overseas after her name came to the fore in Gather Round.
Kylie Watson-Wheeler, left, emerged as a candidate for the AFL job last week.Credit: AFL Photos
One club boss said Goyder was shocked when several members on the AFL Commission pushed back after he indicated his support for Watson-Wheeler as a progressive appointment ahead of Dillon, the internal candidate, causing further delays. Goyder had told the club bosses to be patient and to trust the process at their pre-season catch-up in March.
Multiple club bosses have now all but ruled out the chances of Richmond’s CEO Brendon Gale and AFL executives Travis Auld and Kylie Rogers, causing concern among at least one club boss of a potential brain drain at headquarters once the decision is made. The highly regarded David Stevenson is already moving to the NBL.
One senior figure in the game told The Age such is the uncertainty now, the decision might even come down to ‘Dillon or Gillon’ if Goyder somehow convinced McLachlan to reconsider his exit.
Several club officials and AFL staffers believe a decision is imminent. One club CEO confidently predicted it would happen on Monday when The Age spoke to him on Thursday, or within one or two weeks, as has been communicated to candidates.
The incumbent did not seem too concerned with the way it was all playing out when celebrating the 50th birthday of the AFL’s senior legal adviser Stephen Meade at a Richmond Hotel on Friday. McLachlan’s typically nonchalant demeanour continued, according to one source in the room, when there was no sense his never-ending farewell was causing such agitation.
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