Page 13: Senior manager at AFL resigns after affair exposed

The furious partner of an AFL employee involved in a sex scandal took an extreme measure to ensure his colleagues knew what he’d been up to between the sheets.

A female manager resigned after an affair with a younger staff member was exposed. Picture: Stock image

The AFL is embroiled in (yet another) sex scandal, which led to a senior manager leaving abruptly earlier this month.

This time the genders are reversed, with a long time female manager resigning after an affair with a younger male staff member, who directly reported to her, was exposed.

Hmmm, not sure if this is what human resources means by collaborative management style.

It’s understood the affair had been going on for some time, with the older female manager married and her younger employee in a committed relationship.

How it was discovered is becoming the tried and tested modern day method for catching out such entanglements … the mobile phone.

But it’s what the jilted partner did next that set tongues wagging at AFL HQ.

After saucy messages between the two were discovered on his phone, the younger male employee spilt the beans and admitted to the affair.

A long-time AFL manager has stood down over the affair. Picture: AAP

The understandably angry partner did a ring-around to all the middle management team’s employees, current and former, to tell them what their team leader and her staff member had been up to, er between the sheets.

Suffice to say the senior manager took accountability, promptly calling up to resign. It is understood she left immediately and has not come into league headquarters to say goodbye to colleagues, or collect any belongings.

Lips were pursed when a short but saccharine email seen by Page 13 was sent to AFL employees earlier this month announcing the resignation and thanking the long time manager for her “significant and valued contribution” and wishing her the best for “future endeavours.”

The team leader, who is part of a prominent Melbourne family, has since dropped her social media profiles.

It’s certainly not the first time a sex scandal has kicked off inside AFL House.

In 2017 senior male executives Simon Lethlean and Richard Simkiss resigned over “inappropriate relationships” after the Herald Sun revealed they were in relationships with younger female staff.

Lethlean, who was the head of football operations and is now the St Kilda Football Club CEO, apologised following his resignation, saying he was “truly sorry for the hurt I have caused. The relationship should never have happened.

“As a husband and a leader of this organisation it is up to me to set the example. What I did was wrong.”

No such apologies have been heard from this most recent example, with the AFL not keen to expand on the latest shenanigans on Friday.