New AFL tsar has many loose ends to tie up

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Andrew Dillon, announced on Monday as successor to AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan, will no doubt be hoping to start his tenure with as clean a sheet as possible when he takes over at the end of the men’s 2023 season following a transition period.

On the whole, McLachlan has done a good job for the game. Crowds are large and growing, TV ratings are high and there is significant participation at the grassroots across men’s, women’s and junior competitions. Many sports would look on with some envy at the AFL juggernaut’s rude health on the ride out of COVID-19 lockdowns.

As Greg Baum wrote on Monday, McLachlan was a powerful force at AFL House due to his personality and grasp of detail. Baum rightly pointed to the establishment of the AFLW as McLachlan’s greatest success, while most would agree his handling of the Adam Goodes racism storm was his lowest point.

Even as McLachlan ticked off a number of career highlights, he will leave several thorny matters for his successor, among them the handling of Tasmania’s entry into the AFL competition, players’ pay deals, the ongoing inquiry into alleged racism at Hawthorn football club and the increasing complexities around the risks of concussion, subject now to a parliamentary inquiry and pending legal action.

McLachlan announced his impending resignation all the way back in April 2022 but said he would stay on to manage several issues including the completion of the league’s $4.5 billion, seven-year broadcast deal with Seven and Foxtel. His swansong turned out to be a lot longer than anyone had expected and the clubs themselves became increasingly bewildered.

The AFL’s new chief executive, Andrew Dillon, during a press conference in Melbourne on Monday.Credit: Luis Ascui

“It was a total embarrassment,” one club chief executive told The Australian Financial Review. The Age’s Caroline Wilson described McLachlan’s lingering as a “lavish and lengthy farewell tour” that had imposed a bureaucratic stalemate. “It is hard,” Wilson wrote in March, “to imagine any other major sporting code or big business around the globe tolerating such administrative inertia.”

In the end, the league went with McLachlan’s second in command, AFL general counsel and executive general manager of football operations Andrew Dillon. The reasoning, we can only imagine, would have been that while he may not have had the presence or on-screen charisma of his boss, or his boss’s predecessor, Andrew Demetriou, he was at least qualified, having worked in the organisation for 23 years, knew what he was getting into and was up for the challenge.

Said Demetriou, in the very definition of faint praise: “He won’t be me, he won’t be Gill [McLachlan], but he is a safe pair of hands.”

Dillon certainly played it safe at Monday’s press conference, reading out a speech heavy on platitudes and light on vision. But perhaps that is what the AFL needs right now: a reliable operator to tie up McLachlan’s loose ends. And there are a few.

The Hawthorn probe is unlikely to be complete come September. Any action required will probably fall due on Dillon’s watch. AFLW, the women’s league that McLachlan deserves much of the credit for backing, still probably requires decades of work to become a financial success story on par with the men’s competition.

The concussion issue may play out for years, depending on legal precedents and recommendations from the parliamentary inquiry. Tasmania’s expansion, $240 million Hobart stadium deal now done, will nevertheless require diplomatic and deal-making skills to milk the best return for the league.

Then there’s gambling, which The Age has long identified as a reputational risk for the AFL, particularly sponsorships, on-ground advertisements and, more insidiously, the bloated broadcast rights that are shored up by profligate spending by betting companies. Fans don’t like it. That the AFL presents as family-friendly, community-minded and accessible to all is not a good fit with the well-chronicled ills of betting addiction.

So welcome to the top job, Andrew Dillon. There’s still much to be done.

Patrick Elligett sends an exclusive newsletter to subscribers each week. Sign up to receive his Note from the Editor.

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