Gillon McLachlan is ruling via consensus rather than using a ‘my way or the highway’ style

EVERY leader has his or her own style and it’s clear Gillon McLachlan likes to be liked. But is the decision to have three journalists on the AFL’s rules of the game committee the right one? JON ANDERSON investigates.

Waleed Aly has been sounded out by the AFL for his opinion on the state of the game. Picture: Channel 10

EVERY leader has his or her own style as current AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan and the previous holder of that post in Andrew Demetriou regularly highlight.

Or by comparison with long-term Australian Prime Ministers, Demetriou was the John Howard-style of “my way or the highway” while McLachlan leans strongly to “Consensus” Bob Hawke where contentious matters were often put up for public debate.

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McLachlan, like Hawke before him, likes to be liked whereas Demetriou and Howard gave the impression they couldn’t give a stuff about popularity polls.

The McLachlan style is highlighted in the AFL consulting three journalists and up to 70 others for their opinions on revamping AFL rules in an attempt to ease congestion and make the game more aesthetically pleasing.

I know two of them in former colleagues Mike Sheahan and Gerard Whateley, but have never met Gold Logie winner Waleed Aly, and as such have no reason to doubt his offerings on the game. He may well be a modern-day Tom Wills, the man who invented our code 160 years ago. And he might also be the person with the best suggestion of the 70-odd people consulted by the AFL.

Waleed Aly was briefed by the AFL on rules. Picture: Jason Edwards

As for Sheahan and Whateley, both are reasoned persons who have the best interests of the game at heart and as such their opinions should be valued in the one-off conversations they had regarding changes to our rules, which will take place.

It just comes down to Consensus Gill and his power-brokers consuming the feedback and making the correct call, because if they get it right then it will be a significant moment in our game’s history.

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