Presidents were informed that the AFL Commission would sign off on McLachlan’s successor early in the new year with AFL executives Auld,Andrew Dillon and Kylie Rogers as well as club CEOs Brendon Gale (Richmond),Dave Matthews (GWS) and Tom Harley (Sydney) among the candidates who have been interviewed for the top job.

With the AFL making the granting of a 19th licence to Tasmania contingent on a new stadium being built at Macquarie Point in Hobart,the inclusion of a team remains dependent on federal government funding to complement the Tasmanian government’s pledge. There is no certainty as to when that funding will be secured with detail around how much revenue a new stadium would attract still to be addressed.

Negotiations around the CBA,which is expected to be a joint CBA involving AFL and AFLW players,are ongoing while the AFL investigation that followed the Hawthorn safety review is expected to end in December.

McLachlan announced in April he was standing down at the end of the year, but his tenure has stretched beyond 2022 as the search to identify a replacement,being run by an external firm,has taken longer than expected.

The chief executive won plaudits for the way he navigated the competition through the pandemic over two years making tough financial decisions and negotiating with governments,so the competition could continue to operate.

McLachlan is overseas next week as he takes a trip that had been delayed because of the pandemic with the league chairman to attend the AFLW grand final and Andrew Dillon expected to conduct the AFL national draft.