AFL faces questions over key appointments, morale issues at league headquarters
AMID the hype of AFLW and AFLX, questions are being asked about key appointments and office morale at league headquarters. MICHAEL WARNER lifts the lid on the inner workings of head office.
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GILLON McLachlan gathered his troops in the finance kitchen of the AFL’s Docklands headquarters at 2pm on the Monday after the Australia Day long weekend.
He told them he was recharged and refreshed for another season in the hot seat of Australia’s biggest sport.
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It was a more upbeat McLachlan than the AFL chief executive who stood before them six months earlier and threatened to hunt down whistleblowers who had leaked to the media about the office romances of top executives Simon Lethlean and Richard Simkiss.
But amid the pre-season hype of AFLW and AFLX, industry insiders insist morale among the 350-plus staff at AFL House has never been lower.
A recent survey of AFL staff revealed an alarming number held a poor opinion of the performance of McLachlan’s 12-person executive.
Just days before Christmas, multiple staff members were left reeling after receiving worse than expected performance reviews.
One rank-and-file worker, banking on a modest end-of-year bonus to fund his family vacation, cancelled the trip.
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A memo sent by AFL executive Travis Auld on Tuesday revealed popular broadcasting staff member Thea Salter “felt the timing was right to finish up with us on Friday afternoon” after 11 years.
Salter, the latest disheartened woman to leave the organisation, signed a confidentiality agreement before abruptly departing.
Auld’s memo named Marcus King as the league’s new head of broadcasting and scheduling.
“Marcus’ appointment is another example this week of developing and promoting key talent from within our organisation,” Auld told staff.
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Williams is respected, but club bosses this week expressed concern that the job handed to Auld’s brother — who was chief executive of AFL Tasmania — was not advertised.
“Surely if you are going to appoint a bloke’s brother you’ve got to run a process,” one club chief said.
A front-page story in Wednesday’s Hobart Mercury screamed that Auld was leaving behind a football state in crisis.
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— Mercury (@themercurycomau) February 6, 2018
Twins peak as school returns https://t.co/2F2D8ImnAr
Tassie footy crisis https://t.co/fubPTWy9u0
Lambie wants her Senate seat back https://t.co/6Yam6ZqoC2 pic.twitter.com/OMlhqqFuLp
Most concerning to some staff has been the return to league headquarters of dumped AFL executive Andrew Catterall.
Catterall was forced out in 2012 amid allegations of repeated bullying.
One of his alleged victims pocketed a $200,000 AFL settlement, plus medical expenses.
Catterall denies any wrongdoing and says he was never notified of any complaints.
He has since been installed as chief executive of Racing.com, which recently leased prominent office space on the ground floor of AFL House.
Catterall is seen regularly in the coffee shop in the foyer of AFL House.
A person close to one of his alleged victims told the Herald Sun: “It’s extraordinary to think that an individual who has had allegations of bullying made against him — who left the workplace amid those allegations — is then allowed to return and rent an office at that workplace.
“How must (the victims) feel?”
Another senior industry figure questioned how many of McLachlan’s executive thought the deal to let Racing.com set up shop at AFL House would pass the sniff test or how many members of Richard Goyder’s AFL commission even know the back story?
AFL spin doctor Elizabeth Lukin declined to discuss the Catterall arrangement this week.
It was Lukin’s lieutenant, Patrick Keane, an AFL spinner for close to two decades, who was first contacted by a Sydney journalist in March last year about Lethlean’s affair with a young staffer from the league’s NSW office.
Neither Keane nor Lethlean responded to Danny Weidler’s questions and it wasn’t until four months later, when the Herald Sun broke the story, that Lethlean and Simkiss were forced to resign.
The league refuses to say what action, if any, was taken by Keane at the time or at what point McLachlan was made aware of the allegations.
One football figure said it was an example of how McLachlan’s administration “picks and chooses when it comes to integrity and accountability”.
The league also refuses to discuss a fresh sexual harassment investigation into a senior AFL club figure or suggestions a financial settlement has been reached to quietly resolve the matter.
A number across the industry are pinning their hopes for change on Lethlean’s replacement, the highly-respected and straight-talking Steve Hocking from Geelong, a man who did arrive through a transparent recruitment process.
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