Mark Robinson: Why Brendon Gale has been overlooked for AFL CEO position
Brendon Gale posseses a track record few others can get close to in the AFL. So why is he not the AFL’s next CEO? Mark Robinson investigates the AFL’s ‘mafia’ family.
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Brendon Gale is football’s elephant in the room.
Why wasn’t he appointed the next chief executive officer of the AFL?
No slight on the respected Andrew Dillon, who is expected to replace Gillon McLachlan in what would be yet another in-house selection.
It’s a curious situation when the $1 million worldwide search found Dillon one office away from McLachlan in the game’s Docklands headquarters, just as McLachlan was an office away from Andrew Demetriou, who was an office away from Wayne Jackson, and Jackson himself was a commissioner during the Ross Oakley era.
It’s like a mafia family and only “made men’’ reap the rewards.
Clubs wanted to break this cycle, because they felt a person was needed from outside the institution, and one with expansive club knowledge.
It’s why every senior figure at club level contacted by the Herald Sun finds it “bizarre’’ and “bewildering’’ that Gale has not already been appointed McLachlan’s successor – or should be.
Why not, they ask.
What has the AFL got against Richmond’s chief executive, they ask.
Because the AFL Commission often presents like a secret society, chaired by Richard Goyder, those same club figures are left to only surmise why Gale has seemingly been death-ridden by people within the AFL.
He might not even run second, or perhaps even third, in the race for McLachlan’s job, when he was second to McLachlan last time around.
It’s mind-boggling.
Gale’s CV is a rip snorter: 244-game player, lawyer, Players’ Association boss, Tigers CEO, helped save a crumbling football club, three flags, 100,000 members, league-leading Indigenous programs, bundles of generated cash, well liked, well respected, loves the game and respects the fans.
But apparently not that rip snorting enough.
Former Richmond president Peggy O’Neal is a fan of Dillon’s but is mystified by the potential Gale snub.
“Decisions are made which I just don’t understand and haven’t for a while,’’ O’Neal said.
“I can’t imagine anyone doing a better job than Brendon, so I don’t know what the dilemma is, really.
“Maybe he sees major changes are needed and others don’t want that to happen, I don’t know ... it’s a mystery.
“I do wonder what else they want when you consider all he has done in his career, the commercial side of things, he’s a lawyer, players’ association, and then coming to Richmond when we were down on our luck ... and to be so determined for the turnaround, and it happened, and way, way the large part goes to Brendon.
“He’s a very intellectually curious person who has a lot of skills beyond what you see on game day.
“I’m not sure what criteria the AFL is looking for, and sometimes when you’re interviewing you think, and not just for AFL jobs, sometimes people go with someone they know rather than take a chance.’’
She argued the AFL had to look outside, an opinion shared by most of her former counterpart presidents.
“We’re at a point where I think (we need) someone outside AFL (headquarters) and someone who knows club land because the clubs really need to have a say of what happens, and I’ve thought that for a long time,’’ she said.
“We put on the show. TV rights and all those kinds of things are going well because the show is pretty good and that’s because we put a team out every week, and we bring the fans, and I just think we’ve lost sight somewhere along the way about where the control really lies and the ability to exercise it.
“The commission was set up to avoid club bias, but I think we need someone who understands the stress of club land.’’
Like many, O’Neal is flabbergasted that the search took so long.
“I think most people who have been in this mix for a while have had to put their lives on hold, and that’s not fair,’’ she said. “We change governments faster than this. BHP change CEOs faster than this.’’
The year-long fiasco to find the replacement for McLachlan – and the machinations of recent weeks in particular – could prompt a severe shake-up of the commission.
It is said Goyder wanted Western Bulldogs president Kylie Watson-Wheeler in McLachlan’s chair, but clubs didn’t like that idea, nor did some members of the commission, who allegedly voted down Goyder’s left-field idea.
That’s not good news for Goyder. Put it this way, if the coach declares who he wants as captain and the support staff say no, the coach clearly has lost authority.
Senior club figures have suggested Goyder will be gone within 12 months. Some of those senior figures say it can’t come quick enough because, in their time, they have never seen a more dysfunctional and vanilla commission table, and one bereft of football IQ.
Certainly, club presidents are headed for a showdown with Goyder and, as a group, they will likely soon call for an urgent meeting with him and the commission.
The presidents have no say about who will be the league’s next CEO, but they are all over the two vacant spots on the commission and possibly one or two more.
The clubs want former player and administrator Andrew Ireland and Ireland wants in. Leigh Matthews is also warming to the idea of being a commissioner. And Matthew Pavlich is seemingly the No.1 draft pick on that front.
Another name to emerge in recent days is Collingwood director Jodie Sizer, who has done a power of work in the wake of the Magpies’ Do Better Report.
One of Australia’s foremost Indigenous leaders, Sizer could be a contender for the position held by Helen Milroy, who is expected to depart the commission.
It’s possible the club presidents could push for all four to join the commission in what would be a major overhaul.
Even Goyder’s potential successor as chairman, Robin Bishop, an investment banker who has been on the commission since 2017, might not have the support from the presidents that he’d hope to have.
McLachlan has been the ultimate poker player throughout, holding his cards close about when he’s departing and even closer about who should replace him.
He says he’s had nothing to do with it, but that can’t be true. Goyder won’t open an envelope without McLachlan’s blessing, so it’s incongruous to believe Goyder hasn’t asked McLachlan for his input, or more to the point, McLachlan hasn’t offered it.
And so he should as the incumbent.
But it’s fair to say if McLachlan believed Gale was his appropriate replacement, it would’ve happened.
It’s also fair to say Richmond has had, at times, a combative relationship with headquarters in recent years and popular opinion has it that the AFL frowns upon unruly clubs.
Like the time in May, 2021, Gale, and coach Damien Hardwick, were loath to play a home game at Marvel Stadium.
“To have the MCG – one of the world’s great sporting stadiums – empty this weekend just makes no sense. We should be playing at the MCG,” Gale said.
“Playing at Marvel this weekend will minimise crowds and that goes against everything the industry wants to deliver. We want fans at games.”
Hardwick added post game: “Mate, I hate coming here. I probably shouldn’t say that.’’
There was also Richmond’s frustration at the hubs set up, and the late-night punch up at the kebab caravan, and the breaking of curfew, one of them being by the wife of then Tigers captain Trent Cotchin.
In searching for reasons as to why Gale has seemingly been overlooked for the role, there’s a suggestion that some at the AFL have a set against Gale’s wife, Jane.
It sounds crazy, but club bosses have heard the scuttlebutt and so, too, have some in the media.
Jane Gale is a warm, engaging and enthusiastic person who speaks her mind and – if the suggestion is true – maybe that’s too much of a handful for the AFL.
If she has played any part in her husband being overlooked for the job, it says more about the AFL than it does Jane.
At the start of the 2022 season, and in an interview with this newspaper, McLachlan was bemused by questions about his relationship with Gale, and whether he had any issues with the Tigers, as was suggested through the club’s tumultuous 2021 season.
“Zero issues,’’ McLachlan said.
On Gale, he said: “From my perspective, he’s an excellent chief executive and he and I have a great relationship and we’re friends. I think we’re friends.’’
Could he do your job? “Yes. Clearly it has to be the best person, but I think being a club chief executive means you’re more qualified than less qualified.’’
But not qualified enough, apparently.
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