Who wants to rule AFL?
LIKE a Melbourne Cup field without a clear favourite, the race for the AFL’s top job is wide open.
Revelations former Federal treasurer Josh Frydenberg has been sounded out about replacing Gillon McLachlan suggests the league commission remains uncertain about who will fill the big swivel chair at AFL House.
AFL chairman (and Qantas and Woodside chairman) Richard Goyder is obviously keen to land a big fish and someone touted as a future prime minister would have been just that. The massive role of an AFL chief executive officer is part politician, part expert negotiator, part talking head, part footy know-how and part business nous.
Frydenberg ticks many of those boxes (and would leave most of the other known contenders in his wake) but it doesn’t appear that he wants it.
It leaves an intriguing field of applicants ahead of McLachlan’s departure in September.
Richmond’s Tasmanian CEO Brendon Gale (inset), the former players’ union boss who helped turn the Tigers from basketcase to triple premiers, should be the standout external candidate but bizarrely is not highly rated by the AFL commission.
It remains to be seen if he will even apply.
Melbourne Cricket Club chief Stuart Fox – a former CEO at Hawthorn – is the other outside contender but why would he want it? Running the MCG comes with its perks (and without daily scrutiny) and Fox will be a key player in the looming rebuilding of the Shane Warne Stand.
Sydney Swans CEO Tom Harley, Geelong’s 2007 premiership captain (who attended the same Adelaide private school as McLachlan), has the backing of several club bosses but is considered by others to be too inexperienced.
Ex-Australia Post chief and Collingwood director Christine Holgate, Foxtel CEO Patrick Delany and league commercial executive Kylie Rogers have also been linked to the job. Long-time AFL legal counsel and McLachlan’s right hand man Andrew Dillon is regarded as the best credentialed of the internal candidates ahead of broadcast boss and former Gold Coast Suns chief executive Travis Auld.
Dillon has helped defuse most of the game’s off-field scandals across the last decade, including the Essendon drugs saga, is well regarded across the industry and has strong relationships with clubs, sponsors and broadcasters.
But in truth, neither Dillon nor Auld have emerged from McLachlan’s shadow as he did during the reign of Andrew Demetriou. The best option for the AFL commission would be to look beyond the Melbourne boys’ club and appoint an outsider. But would they be brave enough to do it? It’s a big money job and right now there’s no standout contender.