Former Swans and Lions chief Andrew Ireland favoured as next AFL Commission chair
Andrew Ireland has emerged as a key contender to replace AFL Commission chair Richard Goyder, as club presidents consider a succession plan for the league’s top job.
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Andrew Ireland has emerged as a key contender to replace AFL Commission chair Richard Goyder, as club presidents consider a succession plan for the league’s top job.
The former Collingwood star has impressed since joining the league’s governing body with his football knowledge and business acumen.
Mr Goyder’s future has been put into sharp focus by the debacle at Qantas in recent months and the term limits imposed by the National Rugby League.
He has been a board member through some of the greatest integrity issues in the game’s history, including the Essendon drugs’ saga and the Melbourne tanking affair.
Mr Goyder was also in charge during this year’s Hawthorn racism scandal, which he described as “the Hawthorn thing that was lobbed on us”.
Mr Ireland has raced to the head of the pack since he was appointed to the Commission in September, while there was also support at club level for Port Adelaide chair David Koch.
“Andrew would be a great candidate,” an industry source said.
“He’s deputy chair of the Australian Sports Commission. David Koch would be a wildcard, but Kochie has done a great job at Port Adelaide.”
Mr Ireland spent more than a decade in Brisbane, overseeing the Bears merger with Fitzroy and the Lions’ first flag in 2001.
He also spent more than 15 years at the Swans, including a decade as chief executive before stepping down in 2018.
Mr Ireland was seen as the perfect fit for the AFL Commission but did not get appointed until just before former chief executive Gillon McLachlan left.
The AFL did not respond to questions about whether Mr McLachlan blocked Mr Ireland from joining the board.
Decorated soldier Simone Wilkie and lawyer Gabrielle Trainor are also short odds to take a tilt at the chair’s role.
If either of the current commissioners were elevated it would mean the AFL had a female chair for the first time.
Private equity chief Robin Bishop and Seek co-founder Paul Bassat are considered outside chances, despite being seen as key allies of Mr Goyder.
However, former Richmond president Peggy O’Neal has come into contention after the Victorian Commonwealth Games were cancelled in an embarrassing Victorian Government backflip.
Ms O’Neal had been seen as an ideal candidate for the Commission but was surprisingly overlooked before accepting a role as chair of the Commonwealth Games organising committee.
Industry insiders have urged the AFL to consider if a role on the Commission became available but it was expected she would have to serve some time before taking on the chair’s role.
AFL Commissioners are paid $20,000 a year, but most donate the money to charity.
However, they are entitled to business class flights around Australia to games, receive grand final tickets for them and their family, and are guests of honour at top end of town functions.
Mr Goyder has been chair of the AFL Commission since 2017, and on the board since 2011. The NRL has a six-year term limit on its governing body, which NRL chair Peter V’landys described as “common sense governance” when that rule was introduced in 2021.
There have been questions about Mr Goyder’s leadership and whether his woes at Qantas had damaged the AFL’s brand.
Mr Goyder led a farcical year-long search for a chief executive to replace Mr McLachlan and ended up signing long-term lieutenant Andrew Dillon.
He made a joke about the delays when introducing South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas at a dinner during the Gather Round in April this year where Penfold’s Grange was served.
He reportedly described the SA Premier as “tall and good looking” and urged him to see him about a job later, in reference to the search for the replacement for Mr McLachlan.
New York-based recruitment company Spencer Stuart was paid $1 million for the search, partly because of the need to keep approaches to potential candidates confidential.
But details of an interview undertaken by Disney executive Kylie Watson-Wheeler did leak as she was seen attending AFL House.
Industry sources claim that Mr Goyder had wanted Ms Watson-Wheeler for the top job but was “rolled” by Ms Trainor, Prof Helen Milroy, Ms Wilkie and Andrew Newbold.
The AFL did not respond to questions about the voting process for the chief executive role.
However, a source close to the Commission say that the decision to appoint Mr Dillon was “unanimous”, while another source added that if Mr Goyder wanted a “captain’s pick” he would have been able to appoint Ms Watson-Wheeler.
Richmond chief executive Brendon Gale and AFL commercial manager Kylie Rogers were also interviewed.
Travis Auld was never seriously considered for the top job despite being the AFL’s chief financial officer.
He has since become the Australian Grand Prix Corporation chief executive officer, where he was being paid $600,000 a year, which had to be signed off by a government pay tribunal.
Mr Goyder has signalled that he will step down as chair of the Qantas board before its annual meeting in November next year.
However, he has made no succession plans public for his role at the AFL.
Club presidents asked him about his future at a meeting on the day of Lachie Neale’s Brownlow Medal win.
He told them that he needed to stay to “bed down the new CEO”, sources claim, echoing his statements about why he was hanging around at Qantas for an extra 12 months.
The future of Prof Milroy has been discussed among AFL industry sources, as she juggles her clinical work in Perth and her pioneering work in research and children’s mental health.
The AFL did not respond to questions about whether a replacement was being sought for Prof Milroy.
An industry source said any changes on the AFL Commission needed to bolster representation from club level and more transparency
“There’s an AFL Commission meeting coming up in a few weeks, term limits for board members and disclosing the CEO’s pay should be on the agenda,” the source said.
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