When you’re busting to go to the toilet, you simply have to go.
AFL boss Gillon McLachlan found that out the awkward way last week following a day in the birdcage at the Melbourne Cup.
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As McLachlan and the other 100,000 punters departed the famous Flemington racecourse, the urge to go struck the outgoing AFL chief.
Outside the Flemington gates and on the streets McLachlan took matters into his own hands and approached a nearby house.
The homeowners wouldn’t have expected to see the towering 49-year-old standing on their doorstep, asking if he could pop in and use the toilet.
In a weird turn of events, the homeowners just happened to be the parents of Fremantle Dockers star, Luke Ryan.
Ryan detailed the AFL boss’s venture into his parents home on radio, stating that due to the location of the house random knocks on the door asking for the toilet aren’t uncommon.
“Dad works at Flemington and he had seen Gill at the birdcage, they had a quick chat talking about the footy,” Ryan told 6pr.
“He was walking home, walking to get a cab, we pretty much live right on the racecourse.
“He saw mum and dad and asked if he could use the toilet, he went inside and mum has one of my jumpers on the wall, they had a good chat and mum told him I’m her son and yeah, it was pretty weird. Mum said he was a really nice guy.
“Mum took a photo, she couldn’t believe it, she was so happy. It’s unbelievable how these things happen.
“It’s not the first time that’s happened, he [Gill] wasn’t blind drunk but we’ve had a few who have asked to use the toilet. It’s pretty funny.”
McLachlan’s time as the man in charge of the AFL is set to end after he announced he’d be stepping down at the end of 2022 back in April.
His remaining months in charge have been shrouded in controversy with the ongoing probe into damning accusations levelled at the Hawthorn Football Club.
With no successor named to take over the role, some have speculated if McLachlan will remain in charge until things have cleared up.
Veteran journalist Caroline Wilson however believes the outgoing chief should call time sooner rather than later.
“He should go and he should go fairly soon,” she told the Don’t Shoot the Messenger Podcast.
“This notion from Richard Goyder that only Gillon McLachlan can solve the current problem is crazy.
“Now I understand in most ways he has been a brilliant CEO of the AFL, but he announced his retirement from the game in March and we’re now in November and the suggestion is and even Gillon is saying to people ‘I’m being told I have to stay to get all of this solved and I’ve got to get Tasmania sorted’.
“I understand that he did say he would stay until Tasmania was done and dusted. He would stay until the collective bargaining agreement for the next five years was done, but this is crazy.”
