Before he was Gillon McLachlan’s senior in-house legal counsel, Andrew Dillon was the rebound defender who won more premierships than Gillon had polo horses.
Dillon, who will take over from McLachlan as AFL chief executive at the end of the season, was one of four players to play in Old Xaverians’ six consecutive A-grade amateurs premierships from 1995 to 2000. When Old Xavs lost in 2001 and won again in 2002, they had caps made declaring the drought was over.
Always in a long sleeve jumper, Dillon wore the white ankle strapping of a trotter, which accentuated his long stride for relatively short legs. He was said to seldom be best on ground, but seldom was he not included among the best players across his 290 games.
He is a life member at Old Xavs. So, too, is the AFL’s head of umpiring Dan Richardson. Ditto Simon Lethlean, former AFL executive and now CEO at St Kilda who played in four of those Old Xavs flags. Managing the team was now player agent Paul Connors, a Xavier old boy and friend.
This is the world that informs who Dillon is as much as his 20-plus years as a lawyer and in-house legal counsel at the AFL.
To know Andrew Dillon, who joined the AFL in 2000, you need to know his family, starting with parents John and Alison. John, was a lawyer and founding partner of a law firm. He later became chairman of the Melbourne Racing Club.
Dillon was at the footy with McLachlan on Friday night.Credit: Getty Images
Andrew is the third of six children in a Catholic family. Marion and Chrissie were first, then Andrew, Michael, Robert and John. Sadly, last year Robert, with whom Andrew was very close, died from cancer. He, too, was an intelligent man and a good footballer who played in two of those Old Xavs flags with his big brother.
Andrew’s wife, Amanda, is the daughter of former Australian Test cricketer, Melbourne Grammar headmaster and ex-president of the Melbourne Cricket Club, Paul Sheahan.
Andrew’s uncle, his father’s brother, is Father Kevin Dillon, a Catholic priest and one of the church’s more outspoken critics. He was one of the principal dissenters over the church’s handling of child sex abuse cases and one of the most outspoken of the clergy in challenging Cardinal George Pell to return to Australia to face the Royal Commission into child abuse.
Andrew’s other uncle – John’s other brother – Brendan, was also a priest and is well known in Melbourne as the chaplain to the racing fraternity. Annually, Father Brendan Dillon would bless racetracks and jockeys and preside at the spring carnival mass at St Francis’ church in Melbourne on the Sunday before the Melbourne Cup.
And his dad’s late sister, Geraldine, was one of the first TV chefs in Australia. She trained at Le Cordon Bleu in London before returning to Australia and hitting the TV screens in the 1960s and 70s with weekly ABC TV cooking spots and recipes for Australian Women’s Weekly.
Andrew’s closest friends remain those from his time at Xavier and then at the old boys’ football club. Arriving at the AFL in the same year as former CEO Andrew Demetriou, several of those friendships became entwined with his professional life.
Inevitably, Dillon’s CV and pedigree for the job will draw criticism that he perpetuates the image of the AFL as a boys’ club. He represents the nexus of Melbourne’s elite private schools and old boys football with the management of the game.
St Kilda CEO Lethlean says this should not be held against him, as the job was awarded based on ability, not a school tie.
“What he should represent is the best person got the job,” Lethlean said.
“I don’t think the best person should miss out on the job because of a perception of his network and background. If they brought in an outsider, the criticism would be they have no connections and contacts, so it’s not really a fair criticism.
“He is an incredibly smart person and unbelievably rounded operator in the industry. There is nothing he has not been involved in. He is a family man. He is the most liked guy in any room he is in. He is extremely well regarded by everyone who deals with him.”
The most remarkable thing about Dillon’s more than two decades at the AFL is not that he has been involved in managing every significant issue that has confronted the game – which he has – or that he has been asked to cover managerial gaps and emergencies when they have arisen – which he has – it is that after more than 20 years of dealing with clubs, presidents, CEOs, player agents and players, people still like him.
He is respected because he is smart, but he is liked because he is decent.
“He won’t be me, he won’t be Gill, but he is a safe pair of hands,” Demetriou said.
“We started together in 2000. I always regarded him as an outstanding person of the highest integrity. Absolutely as honest as they come. Hard-working, diligent, knows his football, spent a lot of time in the amateurs very successfully.
“He has always been a go-to person in an hour of need. When we had to fill gaps we went to Andrew and even when I left Gill has gone to Andrew to fill some positions. He is just very reliable.
“He is the most reliable, safest pair of hands in the place, he knows every stakeholder, every club, every deal, every broadcast partner, every corporate partner, and he is the only person I know in the industry who hasn’t got an enemy.”
The public knowledge of Dillon is as a slightly nervous figure reading names on Brownlow night. He is not a natural in front of the camera like McLachlan, or as confident as Demetriou was, but the league is also hiring a chief executive, not a night show host.
He could do as McLachlan did early on, and hire comedians to rework his speeches for him, but it risks coming across as forced.
Those within the AFL, and those who have worked closely with the league, say that Dillon has a thorough understanding of issues and detail.
Some close to Dillon likened him to Collingwood coach Craig McRae, saying the Magpie mentor’s low profile before he got a senior job made people doubt he could be the public face of such a big organisation. Quickly, people realised the person becomes the position, and those doubts evaporated. Dillon will hope the same can be said for him as he takes over Australia’s biggest sporting organisation.
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