New AFL CEO Andrew Dillon: ‘Mr Footy’ is ready to kick some goals

The new AFL CEO has been the classic employee who has kept getting promoted, handled increased responsibilities, and ultimately ended up in the top job on merit.

Newly appointed AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon with daughters Chloe, Pippa and Lucy and wife Amanda at Marvel Stadium in Melbourne. Picture: Getty Images

The most powerful role in Australian sport will be taken by a popular, scandal-free and experienced candidate who could have been the second or perhaps even the third choice of his chairman.

But there are few complaints within the AFL, or across most of the league’s 18 clubs, about the ­appointment on Monday of Andrew Dillon as chief executive.

The league was at pains to deny Dillon was ever anything other than favourite for the job since flamboyant chief Gillon McLachlan first announced in April last year that he was stepping down.

Dillon, who has quietly worked his way up the ranks of the AFL over more than two decades to ­become its executive general manager of football operations and general counsel, is considered a safe pair of hands to take over from McLachlan – who is staying in the job until early October.

Befitting his reputation as a low-key but effective operator, Dillon marked his ascension to the top job with a quiet dinner with his family on Monday evening, although the meal was more about celebrating the birthday of one of his three daughters.

Tuesday will be, one insider said, “business as usual” before Dillon likely joins McLachlan in a flight from Melbourne to Tasmania on Wednesday for meetings about the recently ann­ounced new team that is set to join the AFL by 2029.

Universally respected within the AFL, Dillon survived a drawn-out process during which AFL chairman Richard Goyder was denied his first-choice, Disney’s local boss Kylie Watson-Wheeler, by the AFL Commission in April.

(There have been rumours that Goyder was outvoted 4-3 by the seven-person AFL Commission. AFL sources deny the commission votes on any matters.)

Goyder is also said to have also preferred another internal AFL candidate, chief financial officer and general manager of broadcasting and clubs, Travis Auld, as a potential CEO before settling on Dillon in recent days after a pitch to McLachlan to stay in the job permanently failed.

Dillon also beat the highly regarded Richmond CEO Brendon Gale, who finished runner-up to McLachlan in 2014 and then built the Tigers into a powerhouse on and off the field, to a job that comes with a $1m annual salary, plus bonus, and plenty of scrutiny and publicity.

There is not an aspect of Australian rules football that Dillon is not across, though, having played 290 games in the Victorian amateur leagues for Old Xaverians, including six consecutive grand final wins, and also coached and ran junior Auskick clinics and coached his three daughters Lucy, Pippa and Chloe.

Dillon is also said to have been an early advocate for the growing AFLW competition and is one of the few AFL executives to regularly visit AFL Cape York House in Queensland, the league’s Indigenous boarding house, and the Michael Long Learning and Leadership Centre in Darwin.

“He knows football, he knows the football community, he knows our supporters, our volunteers and participants and he has a clear vision of taking our game to more and more people,” Goyder said.

Former AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou said Dillon was an “outstanding person of the highest integrity who is strongly deserving of being appointed as CEO of the AFL”.

One source said Dillon had long been considered the “swing vote” inside the AFL. An idea or strategy would need his approval, and his opinion was respected as it usually came with regard for the sport rather than being tainted by emotion or opinion.

While Dillon’s appointment ensures a degree of continuity at the AFL’s headquarters, and he continues what is an increasingly long line of AFL CEOs who are keen horse racing punters, the CEO-elect bristled at suggestions he was part of a “boys club” that runs the country’s biggest and most popular sport.

“We’ve got a talented diverse workforce and everyone’s opinions are listened to and acted on. The more diverse the talent, the better the decisions you get. So I don’t buy that (‘boys club’ accusation) one bit.”

AFL insiders expect him to put his mark on the job once he takes over officially on October 2 and there could be a shake-up of the executive ranks, and relationships with the clubs should also improve.

Dillon earned commerce and law degrees from the University of Melbourne, and after stints as a solicitor and other corporate roles, he joined the AFL in August 2000 as legal counsel.

He would later oversee business and legal affairs, national and international development, integrity and compliance, community and state football, and more lately was the executive general manager of football operations.

In short, Dillon has been the classic employee who has kept getting promoted, handled increased responsibilities and ultimately ended up in the top job on merit. But on Monday, in typical fashion, Dillon was playing down his acumen and the difficulty of his job while also reinforcing his family man reputation.

“In my 23 years at the AFL, there has been no tougher job than trying to run a training session on a Friday afternoon for an under-13 girls team,” he said.