Chief executive Andrew Dillon says club tension was ‘not a gender thing’ after splitting Laura Kane’s role in executive restructure
“It’s a hyper-competitive competition. Just the smallest thing can make a difference. So, always, whether it was me in the role, Steve Hocking, Mark Evans before that, Adrian Anderson before him, then Andrew Demetriou, there has always been tension with the clubs. But, no, it’s not a gender thing.
“Laura has broken down a lot of barriers. She is an incredibly talented administrator, and she will continue to be incredibly successful and a great help for me and a great help for the team going forward.”
Under several changes announced by Dillon, Kane will oversee the delivery of the AFL, AFLW, VFL and VFLW seasons, and take charge of a newly formed health and medical team that will handle the AFL’s response to mental health and concussion issues. She will also be the executive leading the AFLW.
Dillon is hunting for a new EGM of football performance, who will be responsible for the match review office, umpiring, game analysis and player movement, laws of the game, innovation, and the AFL’s football engagement with its 18 clubs.
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Dillon conceded Kane may have been set up to fail because of the wide scope of her original remit.
“That’s a good question. But what I did, I have been in the role now for 18 months … having a look at how we are going, and just seeing the complexity now in the football operations department, I made the call, football is at the heart of everything we do,” Dillon said.
“You make your decisions around that. When I, after 18 months, looking at my team and how best we are to succeed, having two roles on the executive with a focus on football was really important to me. Footy is at the heart of everything we do. We also do a lot of other stuff but footy is at the heart of it. Laura is a member of the AFL executive, she has an incredibly important job.”
Executive general manager of inclusion and social policy Tanya Hosch will depart the AFL on June 6, while Stephen Meade will continue to be the league’s general counsel, but no longer sit on the executive team.
The integrity portfolio will no longer be the responsibility of the general counsel, and will move to the remit of the incoming chief operating officer. Western Bulldogs chief executive Ameet Bains, Fremantle counterpart Simon Garlick and Sydney chief Tom Harley are in contention for that new role.
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