AFL 2023: Clubs hoping McLachlan replacement named before Round One

The race to replace Gillon McLachlan is heating up with candidates having their second interviews this week, and clubs are hoping the AFL will name their new CEO in the next month.

Clubs are hoping the league will name Gill McLachlan’s successor soon after the March 9 commission meeting as the search for the new AFL boss intensifies.

A series of AFL House and club executives have been handed second interviews in the past week, with McLachlan to officially depart on April 16 after the league’s new-look Gather Round.

The AFL commission met last week and will come together again on the day of the season launch and captain’s day – March 9.

Clubs are keen to know about the AFL’s successor with significant issues facing clubs still up in the air including an AFL pay deal, future funding models for the 18 teams and a potential new team for Tasmania.

If the league ratified McLachlan’s replacement at that March 9 meeting it would likely announce his replacement before the March 16 season opener between Carlton and Richmond.

AFL executive Andrew Dillon is seen as a strong favourite after his second interview last week, with Richmond’s Brendon Gale also securing a second interview.

Andrew Dillon is one of the favourites to take over from McLachlan. (Photo by Adam Trafford/AFL Media/Getty Images)

The league has been intent on timing the announcement of McLachlan’s replacement close to his departure to ensure he is not seen as a lame duck CEO while the heir apparent waits for him to move on.

McLachlan, in Phoenix on a private trip for the NFL Super Bowl this weekend, had agreed to stay on as AFL boss to help land a resolution to the Hawthorn independent investigation.

But it seems unlikely that issue or the potential Federal funding that would guarantee a 19th licence in Tasmania will be resolved by his April 16 departure.

The league is yet to hire a new football operations boss to replace Brad Scott, who would sit under Dillon as the executive general manager of football.

If legal and football boss Dillon is elevated to the league’s highest office it remains possible one of the applicants for the AFL CEO role could be offered the role as the league’s new football boss.

McLachlan will depart the role after the first ever Gather Round. NCA NewsWire / David Mariuz

If Dillon is overlooked the new AFL chief executive would then help replace Scott in the league’s second-most important football position.

AFL executives Kyle Rogers and Travis Auld as well as club chief executives Tom Harley (Sydney) and Simon Garlick (Fremantle) have been seen as contenders for the role.

Outgoing Australian Grand Prix Corporation boss Andrew Westacott said in December he would be willing to submit himself to an interview for McLachlan’s role if the league was interested.

AFL COMMISSIONER QUIETLY REINSTATED AMID RACISM PROBE

Michael Warner

Former Hawthorn president Andrew Newbold has been quietly reinstated to the powerful AFL commission as footy’s racism probe drags into a sixth month.

Newbold took a “leave of absence” in September but rejoined the league last week.

League commission chairman Richard Goyder had previously declared that Newbold had agreed to stand aside “while the independent investigation is undertaken”.

Newbold became implicated in the racism storm amid allegations he had ignored a plea for help in emails sent to him by the partner of an indigenous Hawks player in March 2013.

The three-time premiership president has engaged lawyers as part of the AFL’s independent investigation into claims made against Hawthorn officials, including former senior football figures Alastair Clarkson, Chris Fagan and Jason Burt.

Newbold was Hawthorn president from 2012 to February 2016 before shifting to the league commission.

Hawthorn Football Club President Andrew Newbold at Aurora Stadium

According to the Hawthorn-commissioned review of the club’s handling of Indigenous players and their families between 2010 and 2016, an email identified as being from Newbold responded to the partner that it was “not appropriate” that he become involved.

“Your issues are really beyond my scope of expertise and influence. I’m sorry but it is not really appropriate that I become involved,” the report detailed Newbold as writing on Monday, March 25, 2013.

But Newbold says he never saw the 2013 emails and definitely had not responded to them, though could not rule out someone else in the club having done so on his behalf.

“I did not author that email,” Newbold told the Herald Sun last year.

“I want to refute that absolutely. It’s not my language I would use.”

On the day Newbold stood down from the commission, AFL chairman Richard Goyder declared: “These are serious allegations, and it is important that we treat them appropriately while also ensuring the formal process provides support to those impacted and also natural justice to those people who are accused. Andrew wholeheartedly understands this, and I have accepted his offer to take a leave of absence away from the AFL Commission while the independent investigation is undertaken”.

Andrew Newbold was the Hawks’ president from 2012 to 2016.

An AFL spokesperson said on Tuesday: “After a taking a leave of absence in September 2022, AFL commissioner Andrew Newbold has now returned to the AFL commission attending his first meeting last week. As per proper corporate governance Mr Newbold will excuse himself in any commission conversation regarding the ongoing Hawthorn Football Club independent investigation. It is an important time for the AFL commission and Mr Newbold is an integral and invaluable member of the AFL Commission”.

But the league did not explain why Newbold had been allowed to return to the game while the investigation remained ongoing.

The commission has began re-interviewing candidates for Gillon McLachlan’s soon to be vacated role as AFL chief executive officer.

McLachlan will step down in April with league general counsel Andrew Dillon and Richmond boss Brendon Gale seen as the favourites to replace him.

A small contingent of AFL staff including McLachlan and commercial boss Kylie Rogers will attend Sunday’s Super Bowl in Arizona.