Steve Hocking is the right man as he seeks to transform footy’s customs

STEVE Hocking cuts an unlikely figure as the AFL’s hired gunslinger from the west (of Melbourne). Yet Hocking andGillon McLachlan are prepared to tip everything we know about this game on its head.

STEVE Hocking cuts an unlikely figure as the AFL’s hired gunslinger from the west (of Melbourne).

The AFL’s procession of football managers usually take time to put their feet under their new desk and generally try not to rock the boat.

Yet what has become apparent is Hocking and AFL boss Gillon McLachlan are prepared to tip everything we know about this game on its head.

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Call it a football revolution or an appetite for change.

Having added a new women’s competition and an experimental AFLX game in the past 13 months, the last thing the AFL will do is rest on its laurels.

AFL calendar, length of the AFL season, mid-season trades, length of the AFLW season, live players swaps mid-draft, international AFLX tournaments, game length — all of it is suddenly on the table.

If you are one of those who wants the AFL to leave the game alone, you’d better look away now.

AFL football operations manager Steve Hocking with league boss Gillon McLachlan.

The AFL couldn’t have a picked a better change agent than Hocking, a former 199-game Geelong defender, local football coach, businessman, chairman of selectors and 14-year Cats club administrator.

As Geelong chief executive Brian Cook told the Herald Sun, if you want to get things done you hire the former Cobram back pocket.

“No, he has never been soft in making tough decisions and he does it with quite a deal of collaboration and respect,’’ Cook said.

“He tends to bring people with him, even if they might be on the wrong side of that decision.

“A key issue for managers is the pace of change they want. Steve tends to be in front of the game on this one.

“He tends to want a quicker pace than most, but he also realises you have to bring people with him.

“He probably has more experience from a footy ops area than anyone at AFL House and when you mix that with a cool head, business sense and a tendency to welcome and embrace change, it’s a pretty good package.”

Steve Hocking was a tough defender for 11 years at the Cats.

It is obvious that the AFL’s annual spitballing of a handful of potential changes is so much more than that.

We could soon see an entire recasting of the AFL calendar, in which there’s barely a break from the men’s season to AFLX tournaments to the women’s game.

The men’s season could include the 17-5 fixture model or even 17 rounds following a longer four or six-week AFLX tournament.

Having already revamped the umpiring department, a mid-season draft seems a certainty next year.

A natural extension is the live trading of established players during the November national draft, potentially against their will.

McLachlan, who told AFL captains that football is an entertainment brand as well as a sport, clearly won’t shy away from massive change.

“There is momentum now to say we will never mess with the core product, but what is possible beyond that,” McLachlan said as a kind of mission statement on Fox Footy’s AFL 360 on Monday night.

“We were a seasonal men’s product three years ago. Now there is momentum to continue to push. There is an appetite for progression while respecting football’s heritage.”

Gillon McLachlan launches AFLX in February.

Hocking is pushing a mandatory downtime for AFL clubs and administrators to prevent burnout, international AFLX tours and a super-committee to rubberstamp it all.

Also on his plate is the expanded 2019 AFLW season, including 10 teams and a likely two-week finals series. The season would have to start in mid-January or intersect with multiple AFL rounds.

Yet as Richmond premiership coach Damien Hardwick said on Fox Footy on Monday, Hocking will collaborate and listen to reason over issues such as his plan to reduce the role of runners.

“I have really enjoyed the short amount of time we have had with Steve,” Hardwick said. “He makes good decisions, he is straight to the point and he gets things done.”

If the AFL has its way, the core on-field game will remain similar — and yet everything about it could be vastly transformed a decade down the track.