Power 20 list: South Australia’s top influential off-field players in sport ranked

The athletes may take the limelight but it is the players behind the scenes who have the real power to make it all possible. See the 2024 sport rankings.

Three of the most powerful off-field players in SA sport. Pictures: File

• Who are SA’s influential athletes?

It may be the athletes on the playing field that generate the emotion, the passion and the excitement that defines sport.

But it is the players behind the scenes that make it all possible.

Whether that be AFL club presidents such as John Olsen and David Koch who help keep operations running smoothly or a public servant such as Hitaf Rasheed whose job it is to bring new sporting events to South Australia.

It takes a lot of persuasion, and cold hard cash, to convince the AFL to bring Gather Round to SA or Saudi Arabia to play LIV Golf at Grange.

These are the names that don’t necessarily generate the publicity of athletes but without people such as SACA president Will Rayner Adelaide Oval may not be hosting a Test match around Christmas for the next seven years.

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David Koch. Picture: AAP Image/David Mariuz

Hitaf Rasheed. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Naomi Jellicoe

These rankings also include media figures who help shape how sport is seen not only in SA but across the country.

The doyen of broadcasters Bruce McAvaney is still one of the most-respected figures on Australian TV.

Then there is the new breed such former Power champion Kane Cornes who polarises audiences.

His father Graham is there as well, still stirring the pot after all these years.

There are also lawyers and administrators, agents and owners, all of whom helping make sure the sport universe keeps spinning.

This list is the eighth instalment in the countdown to The Advertiser’s annual power rankings with SA’s 100 most influential people of 2024 to be revealed later this month.

In the lead up, The Advertiser has rank the state’s most powerful people across different industries including sport’s on field heros.

See the top 20 off-field players rankings and have your say below.