Why Richard Goyder won’t be at the AFL Grand Final

The AFL chairman will remain in Perth and watch Saturday’s season decider on the TV, but he says the code as a business is in decent shape.

AFL chairman Richard Goyder at Optus Stadium Picture: Daniel Wilkins

AFL chairman Richard Goyder is likely to spend half of Saturday’s AFL grand final in a ­tuxedo, albeit in Perth rather than in Brisbane.

In what has been an unprecedented season in AFL history, Goyder says he is effectively stuck in Western Australia given its hard border and quarantine requirements should he leave his home state.

It hasn’t stopped some critics, though, who say Goyder should be at the season decider between Geelong and Richmond on Saturday evening at the Gabba given the importance of his position in the code.

The AFL won’t hold its usual gathering of the country’s biggest powerbrokers at the grand final given travel restrictions around the country.

Goyder, one of the best-connected boardroom figures in Australian business as chair of Qantas and Woodside, will watch from Perth while preparing for that evening’s Telethon — hence the tuxedo, which also got rolled out for last Sunday’s virtual Brownlow Medal presentation.

The Telethon is a major WA event, and Goyder is chair of the organisation that is hoping to break last year’s record $42m fundraising for health and community initiatives. He makes no apologies for attending it rather than the football.

“I literally can’t because we’ve got a hard border,” Goyder says. “I’ve had Woodside board meetings Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, the Qantas board meeting (Thursday) and an annual general meeting Friday.

“I’ve put a fair bit into the Tele­thon this year as it’s been a tougher year for the community.

“I will be watching the grand final with a group of people prior to going to the Telethon Ball.

“Though I’ll probably be ­better dressed than most of the people at the Gabba given I’ll be in black tie.”

Goyder attended the only AFL final to be played in Perth this season, Collingwood’s upset win over West Coast earlier this month, but has otherwise kept in constant contact with AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan, who has been based in Queensland since September 1.

Goyder says he was unwilling to apply for special treatment to make the same move.

“One of the things you try not to do is apply for the special exemptions for something like this,” he says. “I said to (WA Premier Mark McGowan) I can’t do it, I didn’t want to put anyone in a bad position.

“We’ve asked everyone in the AFL community to do the right thing. Tens of thousands of Geelong and Richmond fans would kill to be at the game so as the chairman I have got to do the right thing, too.”

Goyder says as a business the AFL will emerge in better shape than first feared when COVID-19 shut down the competition in March and the governing body and clubs feared financial losses running into the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Combined losses between $50m and $100m would therefore represent something of a silver lining, though hundreds of AFL and club employees have been made redundant and there are still questions over whether 2021 will see a return to normality in terms of crowds and other revenue-generating streams.

“We’ll wrap it all up after the finals financially, but as an industry we will do better than what we were staring at six months ago,” Goyder says.

“More importantly we’ve kept thousands of people employed and beyond that millions of Australians engaged in the game. The TV ratings have been good, we’ve got 1 million club members. Footy has been a bit of a godsend.”

Goyder says the AFL has been grateful for contributions from the Queensland government and partners like NAB — which with ANZ the AFL secured a line of credit of up to $600m in March — and its broadcasters.

He says planning for 2021, starting with AFLW, has already begun, though there is plenty of uncertainty and the AFL will need the gates to open at the Melbourne Cricket Ground and Marvel Stadium or it will be staring at big losses again.

“Who knows with 2021,” he says. “We are feeling a bit more positive about a vaccine, there’s a bit more to play out on that but it would help. We want crowds back, but we have to work with government on that.”

As for who wins on Saturday evening? “It would be nice to have extra time and huge ratings. I just hope it is a good game. It has been quite a year.”