Port Adelaide list boss Chris Davies turns down AFL football boss role
The AFL is working to fill the breach ahead of a possible talent drain after its number one target declined the governing body’s advances.
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Port Adelaide football boss Chris Davies has declined the AFL’s overtures as its next football boss as the league searches for a replacement for new Essendon coach Brad Scott.
The league is working to fill the breach ahead of a possible talent drain that could see executive football boss Andrew Dillon become the new AFL CEO as Essendon considers Travis Auld as the man to run its club.
Davies was the preferred candidate as the league’s football boss last year when Steve Hocking resigned before the league ultimately split the role between ex-Roos coach Scott and Kangaroos official Laura Kane.
But Davies has made clear to the league he will remain at Port Adelaide for the foreseeable future as the Power prepare for a significant year on many fronts.
Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley enters the last year of his contract likely needing to win finals to extend his stay at the club as club favourite Josh Carr returns as a senior assistant.
The Power will be desperate to get off to a hot start to the season to allow Hinkley to control his own destiny and avoid the kind of mid-season move that saw Leon Cameron depart GWS.
So former first-class cricketer Davies will remain at Port Adelaide despite having the combination of man management, football nous and industry-wide consultation skills that are required in that position.
Sacked St Kilda coach Brett Ratten is seen across the industry as a figure who could easily fill that position after impressing in his time on the AFL’s Competition Committee.
He joined that committee in July last year and is seen to have strong views on the game’s trends, including his impassioned push for the league to continue its crackdown on umpire abuse given his experiences at local level.
He also has industry-wide respect but having been handed a six-month payout by St Kilda it is not known his level of interest in that kind of position.
Geelong football boss Simon Lloyd would have to be a contender following Steve Hocking’s path from Cats football boss to AFL football boss, while MRO boss Michael Christian also has the required skill set.
Club football bosses Peter Bell (Fremantle) and Alan Richardson (Melbourne) would also have to be considered.
The Herald Sun reported on Saturday the league is keen to bring in some young talent including Jordan Lewis and Jimmy Bartel given their football acumen.
But the league will be keen to ensure their new football boss has enough experience with leadership and management to allow them to run a department rather than just elite football nous.
HAWKS, ROOS REQUEST GAMES IN TASSIE
- Jay Clark
The AFL wants to schedule four home games each for Hawthorn and North Melbourne in Tasmania next year in-line with the two clubs’ fixture requests for 2023.
Tasmania has threatened to withdraw its support for AFL games in the state unless it is given its own team as part of an AFL licence from 2027.
Clubs widely expect the Tasmania team to receive the green light pending final details of the club’s finances and new stadium build.
With the 2023 fixture set to be released in the next four to six weeks, the league is again planning to play four Hawthorn games in Launceston and four North Melbourne matches in Hobart next season.
The two clubs on Thursday confirmed they had requested the clashes in the Apple Aisle as they work to renew agreements with the Tasmanian Government to play there next year.
It would be a win for both clubs, who have had strong commercial deals to play home games in Tasmania, with Hawthorn raking in as much as $4 million a year from the arrangement.
About half of that is made up of sponsorship money and the other half is made up from gate takings (about $500,000 per match) from playing at University of Tasmania Stadium in Launceston.
The Hawks have strong connections in Tasmania with about 9000 members from its 22-year association.
Hawthorn bosses have continued talks with the Tasmanian Government in recent months while the AFL has worked to secure league-wide support for a 19th licence in Tasmania.
An AFL spokesman said the league continued to hold productive discussions on the new team and new stadium.
“A potential 19th license for Tasmania is an important and major piece of work and requires consultation with many stakeholders,” the spokesman said.
“This work is a priority, and it continues.
“As we said post the commission meeting in September, the AFL and the Tasmanian Government agree that a new stadium is important to the success of a new club and the Tasmanian economy – and we agree that we will solve that together.”
North Melbourne is in the final stages of talks on a new deal with Spirit of Tasmania after clinching a new deal with major sponsor Mazda.
But the Kangaroos will be desperate to improve their on-field performances at Blundstone Arena after losing their four games there in 2022 by an average 48 points a match.
New coach Alastair Clarkson will return to the club on Tuesday after temporarily standing down due to the Hawthorn report and AFL investigation about treatment of Hawks’ players under his watch.
News Corp revealed last month clubs were supportive of the list build model for Tasmania which will see the new club forced to trade out a large chunk of its top draft picks for established talent.
It will ensure Tasmania receives a big injection of mature-age talent while the rest of the clubs across the competition will not be shut out from the first round of the drafts when Tasmania enters the competition in 2027.
Mature-age players could receive sign-on fees to make the move to Tasmania amid debate about whether the new club will be able to lure talent away from the mainland.
But Tasmanian supporters have scoffed at those claims and believe the state has shown a long history of developing its own top-end talent.
AFL’s plan to overhaul interchange
– Sam Landsberger
The AFL Commission has discussed increasing the interchange bench to five players as the league appears set to scrap the medi-sub to ease pressure placed on club doctors.
The league wants to investigate whether a five-man bench would create an unfair advantage in the event one team lost a player to injury early in a match and had access to only four rotations.
The AFL is considering three options for 2023 – expanding the interchange bench to five players, replacing the medi-sub with a tactical sub or retaining the medi-sub in its current form.
The last of those options appears the least likely. Expanding the bench to five would be a boost for coaches who play two genuine ruckmen, which Melbourne is poised to do with All-Australians Brodie Grundy and Max Gawn.
Richmond, too, has Ivan Soldo and Toby Nankervis while Western Bulldogs recruited Rory Lobb to pinch-hit in support of Tim English.
“It got discussed at the commission meeting last week and we’d gone out to the clubs during the finals and asked them about their view on medical sub versus just a tactical sub versus five on the bench,” AFL general counsel Andrew Dillon said on Tuesday.
“There’s been some really interesting feedback on that.
“When we’re weighing it up we’d be looking at if you went to five on the bench, what does happen if you do lose a player and how does that affect you versus a team that’s got four players on the bench versus five?
“So, we’ve just got to look at the data that deals with that and we want to make it fair. There was a reason why we bought in the medi-sub, so we don’t want to undo the good work that we did.”
The AFL has canvassed the AFL Doctors’ Association as well as every club’s football boss, who have then consulted with their senior football figures.
Premiership coach Luke Beveridge has long pushed for five on the bench.
“I’m not going to circulate five players during the game. Four is almost one too many anyway,” Beveridge said.
“So you’re likely going to sit one down until you really need that player. All it does is it removes all the red tape. We don’t have to explain ourselves if you take a player out of the game (as a medi-sub) and it’s just so simple.
“But we don’t usually make simple, practical decisions, unfortunately.”
Dillon also said the league would run a process to find Brad Scott’s replacement as head of football at the AFL.
Scott joined the league after a decade as senior coach at North Melbourne, but resigned recently to accept Essendon‘s vacant coaching job.
“Brad brought a really unique skill set and one that I think is really difficult to emulate,” Dillon said.
“But that said I think some of the skill sets that he bought them may not have been traditional admin (and) I think that that added a lot to us at the AFL.
“It won‘t necessarily be a like for like replacement to us.”
Why Sydney says it should host first ‘Magic Round’
– Jon Ralph
Sydney believes the AFL launching its first “Magic Round” in New South Wales would be a perfect way to promote the game and hand one of footy’s growth states a valuable post-Covid boost.
Swans chief executive Tom Harley told the Herald Sun his club was keen for the league to capitalise on the late-season momentum in the state by fixturing the AFL’s version of the marquee weekend, in which every game of the round is played in one state, in NSW.
Sydney could host the nine AFL games across the mid-April round at the SCG and Accor Stadium (formerly the Olympic Stadium) even if Giants Stadium was out of action because of the Royal Easter Show.
While South Australian premier Peter Malinauskas has mocked the state’s capacity to draw a crowd, Harley said crowds for Sydney’s clashes against Collingwood in round 22 (44,659) and in the preliminary final (45,608) showed the game was on the march in the state.
“From our club’s point of view, we think it’s a great initiative,” he said.
“We have clearly seen the concept work well for the NRL up in Queensland, and my understanding is the AFL’s version would be different, held in the school holidays and targeted at families. It would be a great boost for the AFL in Sydney.
“Out of all the markets impacted by Covid, most have been given a shot in the arm since then. Obviously, there are significant growth opportunities in Sydney.
“We saw Sydney get behind the Swans the whole year, but with some fantastic games in the back end of the year particularly I just think it would be a fantastic spectacle if it was to be played here.
“We have got a captive market, the potential in Sydney is evident, so any opportunity to shine the competition light on the city is welcome. We also have the infrastructure with the SCG and Accor Stadium as two state-of-the-art facilities to house the event.”
Sydney chairman Andrew Pridham holds a strong view the AFL does not promote the game enough in NSW, so the league’s decision on staging the round in Adelaide or Sydney will come down to the wire.
Harley launched the latest version of Sydney’s Diversity Action Plan this week and is determined to build on initiatives including the annual Pride game and greater access to parental leave.
The four pillars of the plan are LGBTI pride, multicultural inclusion, the advancement of women and disability empowerment.
This week the club joined forces with Down syndrome NSW, Twenty10, the Addison Road Community Organisation and diversity and inclusion business Symmetra.
In a year when Joel Selwood’s care for the Cats’ water boy Sam Moorfoot gave him a critical role in the club’s premiership celebrations, the Swans will bring on a new staffer with Down syndrome this season.
“They are really tangible, actionable items we are looking forward to executing,” Harley said.
“We are looking forward to onboarding young Jake through Down syndrome NSW in November. His favourite player is Jake Lloyd. So to see his response and his parents’ response was amazing. Brett Kirk is doing some amazing work at Addi Road, which was the epicentre of Australian multiculturalism in the 1970s and we are proud of the work we have done through the Pride game, and to have been educated to the vulnerabilities of young LGBTI+ people so we understand the role we play in that is very important.”
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