Andrew Dillon’s first move as CEO should be to strip AFL HQ of those who have revelled in the game’s brutal justice system

Brand protection trumps the truth in AFL integrity investigations. Andrew Dillon knows where most of footy’s bodies are buried. Is he the man to change the league’s compromised justice system?

Andrew Dillon will step in as AFL CEO at the end of the 2023 season. Picture: Michael Klein

Andrew Dillon knows where most of footy’s bodies are buried.

He’s helped bury a few himself as the game’s long-time general counsel.

The incoming AFL chief executive has been an important figure in the league’s compromised justice system for almost two decades under the rule of Andrew Demetriou and Gillon McLachlan.

He knows as well as anyone how brand protection trumps the truth in AFL integrity investigations.

But Dillon is also a decent man and it’s hard to imagine when the handover from McLachlan eventually comes in October that it will be business as usual when the next major football scandal rears its ugly head.

For far too long, the AFL commission (of which the chief executive is a member) has accepted the manipulation of off-field integrity investigations – often involving backroom deal making and horse trading rather than transparent hearings - to achieve a preferred outcome.

Andrew Dillon will step in as AFL CEO at the end of the 2023 season. Picture: Getty Images

It’s a running joke that the rug at AFL House in the Docklands is the lumpiest in Australian sport, but there’s nothing funny about the human toll some of those contrived integrity probes have taken.

Hopefully, one day Alastair Clarkson will reveal the behind-the-scenes pressure he endured as the AFL set out to find a resolution to the Hawthorn racism investigation.

The experiences of the late Dean Bailey, Craig Lambert, James (and Tania) Hird, Mark Thompson, Richard Colless, Luke Beveridge, Tim Lane and many others across the past two decades serve as sad reminders of a questionable - and brutal - system.

But in an era in which mediocrity has become the norm, and the game’s clubs and participants have simply learned to accept it, Dillon shapes as the man who can lead the long-overdue journey to reform.

His first move should be to strip AFL HQ of the enablers, apparatchiks and head kickers who have long revelled in the culture. He knows who they are.

The best opportunity for change came and went when commission chairman Richard Goyder and his crew opted not to look outside the Melbourne boys’ club in identifying McLachlan’s successor.

But at least Dillon is different to those who came before him.

McLachlan is lauded by a sycophantic football commentariat as the “master dealmaker” of his generation and in terms of commercial success in stadia, sponsorship and mega TV rights deals it’s hard to disagree.

But when it comes to doing deals involving people, both he and Demetriou have failed repeatedly and often with devastating consequences.

Gillon McLachlan oversaw many controversies while in his position. Picture: Getty Images

Sometimes the football public deserves a proper finding (without a scapegoat), no matter how uncomfortable the verdict.

Did Melbourne deliberately lose matches in 2009 to obtain priority draft picks? Yes.

Did the drug-addled West Coast Eagles teams of 2006-07 bring the game into disrepute? Yes.

Was the 2015 Western Bulldogs-Adelaide elimination final compromised by the leaking of game-sensitive information? Yes.

Did Essendon self-report to the AFL and ASADA in February 2013 after a tip off phone call? Yes.

Was this year’s “independent” Hawthorn racism panel wound up after eight months because it couldn’t get to the AFL’s preferred conclusion of a nil-all draw? Yes.

Of course, in each of those instances the AFL cried ‘No’ in the face of overwhelming evidence and admissions, aided and abetted by sections of a compliant (and sometimes complicit) football media.

It was retired Supreme Court Judge Willam Gillard who first warned the AFL of the need for a separate body, independent of the AFL commission, to deal with serious matters of misconduct when examining the Eagles crisis 16 years ago.

Ex-league commissioner Bill Kelty regularly cautioned his fellow members about the “very good case for the separation of powers”, yet the AFL remains, by design, its own ultimate authority: investigator, prosecutor, judge, jury and executioner.

Dillon has had a front-row seat to it all and must surely know the national tolerance for sports integrity fiascos is waning.

Andrew Dillon shapes as the man who can lead change at the AFL. Picture: Getty Images

Perhaps it’s the AFL’s contentious tax-free status - a supposed not-for-profit organisation that pays its chief executive four times more than the best player - that looms as the biggest stick.

A federal government worth its salt would compel the AFL to surrender its ability to investigate the game’s biggest scandals to Sports Integrity Australia (with its own ­powers to compel athletes and officials to give evidence - without threats or interference) in exchange for remaining tax-exempt.

But those who know Dillon are sure he won’t be as combative - or secretive - as his predecessors.

The failed push for respected Richmond boss Brendon Gale to join him in a senior operations role was another sign of what could be a softer, more collaborative approach.

Just last month, McLachlan - who announced his resignation almost 17 months ago - was true to form when he suggested on 3AW radio that the Gold Coast Suns’ botched sacking of coach Stuart Dew showed that the club had “grown up”.

Since when was duplicity a sign of a club’s maturity?

In truth, McLachlan should have left the stage many months ago.

Fingers crossed, the coming of Andrew Dillon might mean football’s ruthless era of self-interest is coming to an end.