The Source: Hawthorn fails to snare AFL customer general manager Kylie Rogers for CEO job

AFL customer and commercial general manager Kylie Rogers won’t become Hawthorn’s next chief executive as she eyes a bigger prize.

Kylie Rogers was sounded out to become the next Hawthorn chief executive.

Putting the squeeze on Victoria’s movers, shakers and headline makers.

The Source understands that Hawthorn wants a female chief executive.

But it appears the footy club will not get its first choice, the AFL’s Kylie Rogers.

Rogers, the AFL’s Executive General Manager Customer and Commercial, wants to run the league one day.

Since missing out on the AFL chief executive role — which went to Andrew Dillon — she has been recently sounded out to run Hawthorn instead.

She is certainly well-credentialed. The AFL’s chief money maker, Rogers landed Robbie Williams to perform at last year’s grand final.

It would have stood as a coup for the Hawks, which lost Justin Reeves amid the fallout from an investigation into allegations of historical racism at the club.

Rogers persuaded Williams to perform at the grand final after meeting him backstage at a Melbourne concert. She told him that the greatest game, and the greatest performer, ought to be united.

You might recall the Hawks were the first club to have a female CEO — Tracey Gaudry, who was sacked just five months into the role in 2017.

Rogers made no secret of her desire to be a CEO when the search was on for Gillon McLachlan’s replacement.

“I have ambition one day to be CEO of the AFL,’’ she said in March.

“I am really looking forward to contributing more when I get the opportunity.”

Invites go out of Gill McLachlan’s exclusive Grand Final farewell shindig

If you haven’t yet received an invite, it appears you have been overlooked for the most exclusive event of Grand Final week.

The final stop on AFL chief executive Gill McLachlan’s farewell tour will be happening after dark on September 28, in Prahran, within walking distance of his home.

Goyder will be hold hand to send of McLachlan on September 28. Picture: Tracey Nearmy

It is not known if AFL chairman Richard Goyder will serenade the AFL head who has brokered the biggest sports TV rights deal in history.

Goyder, of course, is also the chairman of Qantas, at least for this week.

He last year celebrated Alan Joyce as the best chief executive in Australia — “by the length of a straight” — which seemed unlikely then, and seems downright unhinged now, given “underhanded” might soon be added to “untrustworthy”, “unreliable” and “s**t” in the cascade of adjectives which describe Qantas under Joyce.

McLachlan later told the chief executives at a 2022 grand final luncheon that “the world hasn’t ended because they are not as good as Alan Joyce by the length of a straight”.

In April, Goyder addressed the long wait for McLachlan’s replacement.

He joked that a new AFL CEO would be installed “by 2028”, but no one in the audience laughed.

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