Analysis: Andrew Dillon demotes Laura Kane, eyes talent from clubs to bolster AFL executive

Amid mounting pressure from clubs, Andrew Dillon has overhauled his executive team and demoted Laura Kane. But his next job might be his toughest yet.

Andrew Dillon has finally acted before the growing chorus of club criticism about his ineffective executive team began to define his legacy.

Laura Kane given a clear demotion with many of football’s big ticket items — MRO, umpiring, rules, player movement, laws of the game — handed to a new football boss.

Indigenous leader Tanya Hosch cut free of her role amid widespread club and player discontent about her performance.

Laura Kane and Andrew Dillon.

And responsibility for the punishments and fines that so enraged clubs taken from legal counsel Stephen Meade to a new chief operating officer who will come straight from clubland.

The clubs would say the shake-up is not before time given their faith in the AFL’s decision-making body was already rocked well before the league’s Willie Rioli and Lachie Schultz own goals.

Stephen Meade.

Tanya Hosch. Picture: Michael Klein

Yet those clubs will hold off the applause until Dillon can answer one big question.

Does anyone want to work for the AFL any more given elite club executives Brendon Gale and Graham Wright ran for the hills when offered plum AFL gigs?

Dillon would answer that he has remodelled the AFL to give elite club staff the best chance to thrive if they take on those new roles.

The biggest takeout of the shake-up is the clear demotion for 34-year-old former prodigy Laura Kane.

Kane will deliver the operations of the AFL, AFLW, VFL and VFLW, and be responsible for a newly formed AFL healthcare and medical team instructing the league’s response to concussion and mental health management.

Geoff Walsh and Laura Kane. Picture: Michael Klein

Dillon said with the AFL now a 12-month-a-year operation with huge responsibilities it was appropriate to split Kane’s role into two.

But the new football performance boss has most of the meaty stuff that requires an AFL official to variously use the art of subtlety and sometimes the old-fashioned sledgehammer.

Not only does the new football boss take care of game analysis, player movement, laws of the game and the MRO, their remit involves “club engagement within football”.

In other words that person controls all the portfolios that have minefields and potholes for the AFL in any given week of the season.

And yet for Kane there is hope.

Laura Kane at the MCG. Picture: David Crosling

She has thrived in the last 12 months working with some of the seriously troubled AFL players and the new mental health role now takes in that portfolio.

Dillon could have sacked her, but instead he moved her into a role that suits her strengths.

Dillon will likely appoint the new COO and football performance boss at the same time, with the latter likely to be one of the game’s heavyweights.

In recent years Richmond CEO Gale was offered the AFL second-in-charge role that is still up for grabs and Wright went to Carlton instead of working under Kane in a secondary football role.

Dillon, AFL chief executive since October 2023, has now created significant roles that will give applicants for those titles the belief they can make meaningful change if they move from clubland.

The suspicion is that Dillon has cleared the decks and is about to get serious with multiple quality acquisitions from within his 18 clubs.

Andrew Dillon is expected to pillage clubland to bolster his team. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

The new chief commercial officer will take over integrity operations from Meade, which is meaningful because some clubs weren’t happy working with Meade as their headmaster handing out fines and suspensions for integrity matters.

Fremantle CEO Simon Garlick, Sydney CEO Tom Harley and Western Bulldogs CEO Ameet Bains all remain in the running for that million-dollar job.

Any of that trio would be well placed to negotiate with clubs when it came time to punish them for integrity matters.

Dillon sounded confident that big appointments were only weeks away at an AFL briefing for the new hardship fund earlier this week.

Is there a chance he could land two of his preferred trio of Bains, Harley and Garlick – one in the 2IC role and another in the football performance role?

That would be utopia for Dillon and give clubs the confidence that the adults are finally back in the room at AFL House.

So Dillon’s moves are a qualified success that show he has listened to clubs and acted on their needs.

All of Harley, Garlick and Bains are keen so the task now is to find one of clubland’s big boppers to run football in a way that Steve Hocking did.

Originally published as Analysis: Andrew Dillon demotes Laura Kane, eyes talent from clubs to bolster AFL executive