The unspoken bias confronting Laura Kane as AFL football boss

Laura Kane knew what she was stepping into. If it didn’t go right, she would have to deal with an underlying current of old-school misogyny. But, SCOTT GULLAN asks, is the pile-on fair?

Gender should not come into the discussion about the state of the AFL’s football department. But even though this is 2025 and not 1985, there’s no escaping the fact that it does.

So let’s get it out of the way now.

If this was any of the most recent AFL football bosses – Brad Scott, Steve Hocking, Mark Evans – would they be getting attacked so personally, and frequently, by coaches, clubs and media commentators?”

Not a lot of think music is needed there. The answer is no.

Laura Kane knew what she was stepping into when she got the top gig and she also knew this moment would come.

If she didn’t perform as the first female to be the AFL’s executive general manager of football, the heat would be at her doorstep and she would have to deal with an underlying current of old-school misogyny.

Laura Kane, Geoff Walsh and Josh Mahoney at the MCG this year. Picture: Michael Klein

No matter how you package it up, the league’s football department has never been more under siege and most of it is of their own making.

And when you’re the boss, the buck stops with you as Kane admitted in one of the comical press releases about Umpire-Gate in the Lachie Schultz incident this week: “(The error) is on me. It’s the footy department that runs umpiring and that sits with me.”

But is it all her fault?

A woman getting the top AFL football job was a great story and one which was celebrated at the time. Kane was a former lawyer who’d come through the ranks with North Melbourne and quickly become a shining star inside AFL House.

Smart, capable and well-liked she was in the right place at the right time. The league was going through a vacuum of change with long-time CEO Gillon McLachlan leaving and being replaced by his right-hand man Andrew Dillon.

And when Essendon twisted Brad Scott’s arm to try coaching again, Kane, who was the general manager of competition management, was promoted into the role on an interim basis.

In August 2023, just a month shy of her 33rd birthday, Kane became the second most powerful person in the game.

The move raised eyebrows in some quarters, her lack of football experience was the obvious achilles heel given her predecessors had either worked in clubs or played for decades.

Andrew Demetriou broke the mould back in 2003 when he brought in young lawyer Adrian Anderson in so the clubs were willing to see how it worked out because they liked Kane and were desperate to help the popular Dillon make a smooth transition into the big job.

Kane with South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas before Gather Round in 2023. Picture: Michael Willson/AFL Photos

Getting the right support around Kane was going to be critical. That hasn’t happened.

There were reports of a “power struggle” between Kane and Dillon over the recent appointment of old-school footy head, Geoff Walsh, who recently beefed up his time at headquarters from two days to four.

She felt like he was there to “babysit” despite the pair having known each other for a long time and worked together at North Melbourne.

Josh Mahoney, who has run football departments at Melbourne and Essendon, has been her right-hand man from the start and was recently shuffled over to take care of the umpires which puts him in the firing line with the Schultz debacle.

And the clubs were also bemused with her latest appointment of Nick Carah, a former real estate and banking executive who had been president of VAFA club University Blacks, as the general manager of football operations.

They thought someone with significant club experience would have been more suited but Kane wanted Carah who’d she’d known from her own time in the VAFA.

Throw in part-time consultants, Geelong champion Joel Selwood and AFLW superstar Erin Phillips, and they’re the people whose job it is to support Kane in running the game.

Is the Andrew Dillon and Kane partnership working? Picture: Michael Willson/AFL Photos

There are some who question whether Kane would have been under as much pressure if McLachlan was still the boss. At the first sign of things unravelling, McLachlan would have been out the front of it, batting away critics and pacifying the angry mob.

Unfortunately Dillon is still very much on his L-plates in terms of media presence and it’s chocolates to boiled lollies when comparing him to how his ex-boss handled the spotlight.

When you’re a newbie in a big role, the key is to have a few wins early. Kane didn’t do that and in fact went against the clubs on several issues early in her tenure.

The soft cap, assistant coach wages, player sanctions, umpiring standards, interchange numbers and the match review matrix are all issues which have been thrown at Kane.

Consensus in clubland is that she has been slow to react and at times ignored their pleas which has elevated their level of frustration.

Over the past month Kane has come under fire from some of the biggest names in the game.

Kangaroos coach Alastair Clarkson was filthy that his forward Paul Curtis was suspended for three weeks for a contentious tackle with the league coming out and admitting they would look at the penalty system at the end of the season. He said the AFL lacked “really strong leadership”.

Premiership coach Chris Scott didn’t miss when he pointed out the AFL surely had a lot of issues to clean up rather than focus on continually fining Bailey Smith for giving the bird.

Then there was the Willie Rioli fiasco where Kane’s crew decided to not to fine or reprimand in any way the Port forward for sending a threatening message to an opposition player. If that wasn’t bad enough they were then embarrassed when it emerged Rioli was a repeat offender. A fact they didn’t know.

They eventually suspended him for one match but the whole thing was a mess.

But a week later they managed to even top that. Umpire-gate only became a thing when the AFL released a second statement from Kane which said the umpires didn’t see the Schultz incident in the middle of Perth Stadium.

Then a third statement was required the following day when it came to light that the umpires had said they saw Schultz in trouble but there had been miscommunication in that information going up the chain of command to Kane.

On the scale of balls ups, that’s 12 out of 10.

Unfortunately it has given her doubters more belief, poured more fuel on the fire that she is out of her depth.

“I really like Laura, I think she is being let down by her umpiring department and I don’t know what Josh Mahoney does,” one club executive said.

“Gee she is under pressure because the coaches are coming for her. I think she is highly intelligent, I think she presents really well but I think the depth isn’t there around her.

“I hope she survives all of this because I think she is a really good person but they’re coming for her.”

Originally published as The unspoken bias confronting Laura Kane as AFL football boss