What the AFL must do to win back fans on edge after a series of own goals in 2025
Severe backlash has hit AFL house in recent weeks, leaving Andrew Dillon shocked. The fans are on edge, clubs in revolt and the NRL is making its move. But it’s obvious what isn’t working.
AFL
Don't miss out on the headlines from AFL. Followed categories will be added to My News.
If you want to be popular, don’t work for the AFL.
Andrew Dillon has been shocked in recent weeks at the backlash towards the league given what he sees as solid numbers across the board.
Good-to-great footy, excellent ratings, record membership, record attendances and the game in rude financial health.
Yet a series of AFL own goals over the Lachie Schultz and Willie Rioli fiascos and genuine concerns over umpiring and rule changes has the fans on edge.
The AFL administration is desperately short on quality people and it is leading to poor decision making from AFL House given a personnel drain that has seen Gillon McLachlan, commercial boss Kylie Rogers and fixture and broadcast boss Travis Auld leave.
Some of those who have replaced them aren’t up to speed or at times have been moved sideways rather than out of the building.
The AFL’s leading Indigenous official is locked in a nasty battle over her potential exit at a time when indigenous numbers are at a 19-year low.
Clubs are in revolt over AFL chairman Richard Goyder’s determination to sign another three-year deal.
And the AFL is being compared unfavourably to a bold, brash NRL which has vast expansion plans, exceptional ratings (if not match-day attendances) and a TV rights deal which could leapfrog the AFL version when it expires at the end of 2027.
So what should the AFL do in areas small and mighty to win back the fans?
1. UMPIRE OPTICS
The AFL’s umpires not only need to be doing everything possible to get better, they need to be seen to be doing everything possible.
That means twice-a-week training instead of a single Tuesday session where often the league can’t guarantee them all of Marvel Stadium or shifts them to a remote outdoor footy oval.
As one former umpire said this week it would help develop the younger umpires, allow more coaching and feedback, allow a better culture and ensure a very old core of senior umpires passes on all the tricks and tips to the new breed.
2. LET’S HEAR FROM THE UMPS
‘Razor’ Ray Chamberlain shouldn’t be the only man who explains the incredibly complex world of AFL umpiring. He does it well, oozing personality and quirk. Umpires boss Steve McBurney did the rounds of the radio boxes once this year to offer an update.
We don’t need every contentious decision explained every week.
But if one of the half-dozen most senior umpires was available once a month on the TV shows to explain key decisions and complex rules it would further the public’s understanding of the actual rules they get so upset about.
3. FIX THE PUSH IN THE BACK RULE IN MARKING CONTESTS
McBurney told the Herald Sun this month the umpires liked the new interpretation which allows players to protect the drop zone with their hands but not use unreasonable force.
Even if that is true – and some umpires strongly disagree the rule is easier to enforce – allowing hands in the back means players don’t fly at the ball as much and cause dangerous accidents like Jeremy McGovern’s concussion by pushing opponents.
Go back to the old rule which was easier to umpire, safer for players, easy for fans to understand and better for the game.
Listen to chief lobbyist Gerard Healy, because he knows a thing or two about football and he is right on this one.
4. FIX THE NONSENSE INJURY LISTS
Consider the fans on issues like late changes and nonsense injury lists.
They are your constituents.
They put their tips in each week. They love the fantasy competitions the AFL spruiks on its website. They might have a same-game multi (which the AFL takes a cut from) even if betting should be the last priority.
The AFL has worked hard to make injury lists more legitimate and it should get the credit.
But clubs making a mockery of late changes and the league doing nothing about it is a sign to the fans that the league isn’t interested in them.
5. EXPLAIN THINGS
When there is an unusual occurrence, explain it well.
The AFL allowed the Pies to bring Oleg Markov into the Collingwood team from out of the emergencies because Bobby Hill had a personal issue.
We aren’t interested in prying into Hill’s circumstances but it was impossible to get a straight answer on Sunday about why Collingwood didn’t just bring in Charlie West or Harry DeMattia.
Markov wasn’t a like-for-like for Hill and West and DeMattia were just as well suited.
There may well be a very good explanation without going into Hill’s circumstances.
St Kilda withdrew Tim Membrey on the morning of the 2023 elimination final for mental health reasons and he was replaced from outside of the squad by key tall Anthony Caminiti.
That was a perfectly adequate decision and the Markov replacement might have made sense with a full explanation but it doesn’t on face value.
6. THINK BIG
Start a bidding war or national conversation on a 20th team.
Get Australia’s states considering what it would take to be handed the 20th licence.
It won’t be easy and there isn’t an obvious answer given the economy of scale means the NT might never have a full-time team.
But just as Gill McLachlan threw up an AFLW competition as an idea that seemed before its time, spark the imagination of those states.
The AFL will have to hand Tasmania $30 million a year as part of its annual distribution and will get no extra TV dollars for the extra 11 or 12 home games.
But adding a 20th team by the time bidding starts for the 2033 TV rights gives the league options to add another free-to-air bidder or a Netflix or Amazon.
Is it a joint NT-Cairns team playing six games in Darwin and five in the expanding market of Queensland?
Is it a third WA team that plays out of Optus Stadium to guarantee as many as 35 games in Perth each year?
Peter V’landys knows the power of expansion but also the hype train that comes from discussing it – showing the NRL has vast ambition and scope.
Andrew Dillon can sell that dream now even if that team is more than a decade away.
7. SELL YOUR SUCCESS
Speaking of selling the dream, why not sell your successes better?
The AFL committed to putting 10 per cent of all total assessable revenue into game development in 2022 with the goal of having one football in every household and one million participants by 2033.
Where are the stories about the success of that project?
They should be everywhere in the AFL grounds and goalposts erected or the vast junior numbers in Queensland or the winning incursions into western Sydney.
If you are going to spend hundreds of millions, why not get the good PR from it?
8. DO THE MEDIA ROUNDS
Time for Andrew Dillon to get back on 3AW radio or spend an hour a week with Gerard Whateley on SEN or whoever he is most comfortable with.
Control the narrative. Own your defeats.
Crow about your code’s achievements.
Getting more radio reps will make Dillon a better media performer for the years ahead.
Gillon McLachlan dodged the haymakers from Neil Mitchell but mostly answered the hard questions. He schmoozed Mitchell and his listeners and if they didn’t always like the answers at least they got one.
The small target approach hasn’t worked so far.
9. THINK BIG II
Not China or even New Zealand but get Kevin Sheedy over to Los Angeles to consider whether a pre-season game in Los Angeles in the year of the 2028 Olympics has merit.
Not because the NRL is in Las Vegas but because it expands our horizons and puts this quaint game on an international stage.
GWS and Essendon have often considered a pre-season match in America with the Giants connected to a group of American millionaires who help bankroll the club.
10. DON’T BE AFRAID TO MAKE TOUGH CALLS
Only Dillon knows how many of his staff are not up to standard.
But the perception is that instead of moving on AFL staff who have been deemed inadequate he moves them sideways where they have contributed to some of the AFL’s recent poor decisions.
But Dillon needs the best and the brightest making great decisions that he is responsible for.
If they stuff up it is on his head so it is up to him to make tough decisions. And now.
11. GIVE THE CLUBS THE WIN THEY NEED ON THE SOFT CAP
They aren’t wasting money.
They aren’t taking the mickey.
They just want to pay their staff fair rates so their football departments can be world’s best practice.
The senior coaches have complained the loudest and fair enough.
They feel the guilt about being paid fairly in footy’s highest-risk and shortest-tenured position because any extra dollars they earn limits what their assistants can receive.
12. EXPLAIN THINGS II
Explain to fans why Fox Footy’s exclusive Super Saturday deal is a win for the code.
Where does the money go? What are the ratings?
Does securing a million viewers every Thursday across 23 weeks offset the loss of a single free-to-air game on Saturday night for Channel 7?
Some fans aren’t thrilled so at least crunch the numbers to justify the decision given criticism in recent days.
13. MID-SEASON TRADE
Have another look at the mid-season trade period.
The kids these days are more obsessed with the bombshell NBA trades than the game of basketball itself so introduce it in a very limited form and expand it slowly.
Maybe only players under $500,000 can be traded in its first year and each club can only secure one player.
It would help ease concerns from non-Victorian clubs that they would be disadvantaged by its introduction.
Imagine the drama if Essendon was considering ready-made replacements considering its injury toll rather than just state league players.
Would it be trying to secure Richmond’s Jacob Blight or Brisbane’s Darcy Gardiner or Hawthorn’s Jai Serong as low-risk, high-upside replacements that didn’t break the bank?
14. LOCK IN A 2IC
Pay what it costs to get a second in command.
If it is Sydney’s Tom Harley, then make him an offer he cannot refuse to relocate his family to become the league’s chief operating officer.
The league needs an elite strategist and quality communicator like Harley in that position to lend heft and be a consigliore for Dillon, who must be second-guessing the league’s moves.
If it costs $1.2 million to secure a club CEO already earning $800,000 plus then so be it.
15. NO MORE DUCKERS
Crack down on the duckers once more.
If only to save them from themselves.
Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell said on Friday ducking to win free kicks was just another way to kick goals.
But Jack Ginnivan turned from side on to front on and bent at the waist to ensure he won a high free kick in the loss to Brisbane as his opponent bowled him over.
That is the fast track to a broken neck.
The league cracked down in 2022 when it made clear players who ducked or shrugged in tackles would not be rewarded but as with all crackdowns it didn’t last.
Ben Long ducked into a tackle and was pinned by Rowan Marshall on Sunday night and was correctly penalised in an excellent bit of umpiring. More please.
16. LET US HEAR FROM THE MRO
Get Michael Christian back on the media rounds as the match review officer semi-regularly.
He will never have consensus on his decision-making because there will always be Paul Curtis-style suspensions that even the AFL admits are unfair on the individual player.
But an official who used to give weekly explanations is rarely heard from in public.
Some fans want to be outraged and don’t want to understand the table of offences but others are genuinely confused by the process and would learn from Christian’s explanations.
17. THE OPENING ROUND CHANGE
Opening Round is a rip-roaring success for the northern states even if Cyclone Alfred took a chunk out of it this year.
But for the league to kickstart its season with so many states feeling shut out is wrong.
A Sunday night Victorian blockbuster in that same weekend does nothing to take away from the record memberships and sold out crowds.
It does everything to make the fans of those Victorian clubs feel included.
18. BRING BACK ORIGIN
Back in the State of Origin concept early for a February carnival in Perth.
Build the hype. Pay the players enough so that the first iteration is a rip-roaring success with stacked sides. Don’t wait until November to announce it, get the fans on board now.
19. CHANGES TO THE ILLICIT DRUGS CODE
Bring back some transparency with the illicit drugs code. The policy might be the best fit for players right now given its medical model and educational bent.
Even just telling the fans how many players are subjected to an illicit drugs test each year would help regain some trust.
The AFLPA will never scrap the IDP despite its threats because it would lead to an increased number of Joel Smiths – taking drugs mid-week then getting caught in match-day tests.
The policy does a heck of a lot of good. The ratbags still play the system.
So keep going hard on changes to that code – which include some increased transparency to bring the fans back on side.
20. GRAND FINAL WATCH
Stop using the Grand Final start time as a plaything.
Lock it in by round 1 each season instead of using it as an annual guessing game.
Seven continues to lobby hard for a twilight contest and fair enough given the extra viewers it would attract.
This year’s game seems destined to be a 2.30pm start again but last year’s time was only locked in on August 1.
Why doesn’t the AFL Commission lock in this year’s time at 2.30pm but also confirm next year’s start time as 4pm so the league can play a twilight grand final at the MCG.
It would give the league more than a year to secure 2026 entertainment that might do the later start time and potential half time entertainment justice.
Originally published as What the AFL must do to win back fans on edge after a series of own goals in 2025
AFL buzz: Doch’s big 2026 call, Saints’ draft shake-up, Roo intel
Sam Docherty has made a call on his future, St Kilda hold the keys to shaping this year’s national draft, details on George Wardlaw’s extension and more in Moneyball.
The six-lamb-chops-a-day diet turning ‘skinny’ kid into cult hero
Growing up on a dairy farm in regional South Australia, Angus Clarke always understood the sacrifice and hard work it would take to make the AFL – and it shaped his journey to the MCG.