“I feel really good about the quality of people we have got in the AFL system in terms of AFL House and in the clubs. I feel we have got in that group people who are more than capable of taking over from Gill,and we’ll go through a process and there may well be others that come to hand that we have a look at,” Goyder said.
The leading internal candidates are the AFL’s legal counsel and general manager of football operations Andrew Dillon and the head of finance,clubs and broadcasting Travis Auld,while Richmond CEO Brendon Gale leads the set of club-based candidates.
Here are the main candidates at this stage:
Andrew Dillon (AFL general counsel and football operations executive)
A mild-mannered operator within AFL House who has been McLachlan’s right-hand man throughout his time as CEO. Widely respected throughout the industry because of his calm professionalism,he is not a person who seeks a public profile,but he could handle the technical aspects of the job and as the senior legal counsel has been involved in almost every key area of the game. A six-time premiership player with Old Xaverians,he has a strong affinity with amateur and school football. There have been doubts on whether he wants the job but if he puts his hand up he will be a strong candidate.