AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon has dramatically restructured his executive team in the middle of the season, which will see its football operations split into two parts.
This masthead can reveal that on top of hiring a new chief operating officer, the AFL is on the lookout for a second football boss to sit alongside Laura Kane.
Andrew Dillon has defended his leadership team at the AFL.Credit: Getty Images
Under the restructure, Kane will head up football operations, which will include a newly formed health and medical team.
But the league will also hire a football boss in charge of performance. That position will also sit on the executive.
The AFL confirmed clubs were due to be told about the changes on Thursday. Executive general manager of inclusion and social policy Tanya Hosch will depart from the AFL on June 6, with the league confirming her exit on Thursday in a media release.
Hosch has been part of the league’s executive team for nine years. As part of the restructure, First Nations engagement and inclusion will fall into the corporate affairs portfolio at AFL House.
“Tanya has been tireless in her work to ensure that inclusion has been a part of everything we have done, from encouraging more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples into the AFL industry, to supporting clubs at all levels of our game to navigate complex social issues and create policies to reduce vilification,” Dillon said.
“As an industry we are indebted to Tanya for making us better.”
Her work included oversight of the respect and responsibility policy, the league’s first gender diversity policy, anti-vilification directives, and advocating for social inclusion in broadcasts.
“At the AFL, we say we are ‘a game for everyone’ and I always saw my role as part of that story,” she said in the statement.
“The game belongs to all of us that love it and serve it, and I have been humbled to have had the opportunity to be a steward for a time.”
The position of general counsel will no longer be part of the executive team but Stephen Meade will continue in that role.
The integrity portfolio will be split from the general counsel position, and will move to the remit of the incoming COO. Fremantle chief executive Simon Garlick and Sydney CEO Tom Harley are in contention for the COO role.
More to come
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