AFL taking action on rising levels of frustration among clubs as Chris Fagan airs grievances
Tension between the 18 clubs and AFL House was sky high at the end of last season. Now, after premiership Chris Fagan delivered a scathing assessment, the league is changing.
The escalating levels of tension and murmurs of discontent between the 18 clubs and AFL House had become a primal scream by the end of last season.
League headquarters had never won a popularity award and yet this time it seemed like clubs had legitimate complaints with the new-look administration.
As Andrew Dillon completed his first season in charge, even his popularity couldn’t stop the rumblings becoming something more meaningful. The list of objections was long and diverse.
Port Adelaide was screaming blue murder over a $20,000 fine for Ken Hinkley’s “conduct unbecoming” after he mocked Jack Ginnivan following the Power’s semi-final victory over the Hawks.
Carlton and Richmond were in riot over sudden changes to the AFL draft bidding system – and ultimately successful in watering down alterations that would have stripped valuable draft capital from their 2024 national draft hands.
Gold Coast felt the AFL was paying lip service over competitive balance as Fremantle and West Coast excoriated the league over their own inequitable travel burden.
Even the appointment of former Eagles CEO Trevor Nisbett to headquarters to help manage relationships did not stop headlines about clubs who were “absolutely seething”.
As reigning premiership coach Chris Fagan told the Herald Sun on Friday of the prevailing view from clubs about AFL House: “I suppose my view is that we are all in it together. It has felt like for a little while they have not listened to clubs as well as they could. They haven’t listened to coaches. It has felt like they have viewed us with suspicion, like we don’t have the game’s best interests at heart. And I think the coaches do more than anyone.”
There is much more work for the AFL to do to soothe clubs and repair relationships and yet you cannot accuse the league of ignoring club concerns.
Fagan met the AFL Commission in December and felt a change in the mood at AFL House about how receptive the league was to listening to concerns.
On Tuesday, the Commission met and invited Essendon chief executive Craig Vozzo and president David Barham to present in its latest initiative to hear more club voices.
The Herald Sun understands Dillon has committed to the AFL Commission getting on the road, holding six meetings a year at AFL clubs in an initiative that will see it roll through all 18 clubs in a three-year cycle.
The league has also committed to moving the AFL executive’s weekly meeting to different clubs regularly so every club will host that meeting within a two-year rolling cycle.
Dillon’s message is clear – to build stronger, more substantial relationships with clubs.
Already the AFL Commission has met with North Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs and hosted presentations from Fremantle (Simon Garlick) and West Coast (Don Pyke), which paved the way for the Kangaroos to sell two games into Western Australia next year.
Fagan delivered an impassioned plea for the AFL to deliver greater respect to club football departments.
The Commission was reportedly blown away by Fagan’s presentation about how the things he and the club stood for when he arrived at the Lions in 2017 – culture, leadership, respect, trust, honesty – had remained critical when Brisbane won last year’s premiership.
Fagan told the Herald Sun on Friday the league was listening, having given the Lions more cash to bring family and stakeholders to Melbourne for the Grand Final as the players arrived a day earlier than their 2023 trip.
And yet you can hear the level of frustration in his voice when he says there is more work to do.
Clubs continue to lobby the AFL after it increased the contentious football soft cap only $400,000 this year to $7.675m ahead of further increases of $250,000 in the next two seasons.
“My message was ‘we are all in it together’,” Fagan said.
“We want the game to be as healthy as it can be. The AFL should listen to the perspective of clubs. We are at the coalface, we know what it’s like every day. It is hard for the people in head office to know. With all due respect, many haven’t worked at clubland. I wasn’t critical of the AFL, it’s more about how can they help?
“It’s ultimately about football departments. There is a lot of talk about who is responsible for the on-field product. There has been some increase (in the soft cap), but it feels so slow and incremental.”
Dillon’s key task in the next 18 months will be to find a lieutenant who might or might not be his official second-in-charge – and a potential replacement when he moves on.
Gillon McLachlan had Dillon, with huge depth in Travis Auld and Kyle Rogers, but Laura Kane is only two years into her new role with Matthew Chun (finance, clubs, infrastructure) also only 18 months into his new portfolio.
The hugely respected Graham Wright spoke with the AFL about a key football role under Kane, but instead chose a succession plan as Carlton’s chief executive under Brian Cook.
Brendon Gale ultimately declined the AFL’s overtures amid quibbling over whether he would have the actual title of second-in-charge. It was a blow for the AFL, but the new Devils chief executive will execute the AFL’s biggest challenge in nailing a Tasmanian stadium deal.
Gale is already lobbying for greater list allowances in his first days in charge.
There is likely to be a rancorous debate ahead between clubs and the AFL about Tasmanian list allowances, but for his part Fagan – like Gale, a proud Tasmanian – has no issue with a generous package.
“We have got to accept if a new team comes in we have got to help them,” Fagan said.
“Don’t set them up to fail. So we all have to take our medicine on that one. I am not sure if everyone will have the same view. The clubs down the bottom won’t be able to get the same access to talent, but I am sure there is a fair way that it can be worked out.”
As the year unfolds and the league again takes up its usual role as gatekeeper, the quibbles will start as part the annual tradition. The league’s view is that this season it will come from a place of better understanding as Dillon begins to build the kind of elite team that McLachlan had, providing cover for him across his hugely successful tenure.
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