- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
Sometimes sport can take you to unexpected places, and last week in the State Library of Victoria, AFL Chief Executive Andrew Demetriou delivered the annual Castan Centre for Human Rights Law Annual Lecture.
He opened by acknowledging how a parochial ball game and an academic think-tank make unlikely bedfellows before rattling off a series of succinct examples of how much they have in common.
In a wide-ranging speech, Demetriou discussed the impact of the AFL’s Multicultural Program, with specific reference to North Melbourne rookie Majak Daw. He trumpeted the power of Auskick to engage over 100,000 young people every week in team physical activity.
He took great pride in reporting the success of the racial and religious tolerance code and illustrated how far the game had moved on from Nicky Winmar’s arresting guernsey lift at Victoria Park. He also paid tribute to his organisation’s acknowledgment of the role of women, advertising the presence of female goal umpires, commentators and members of the AFL Executive.
If Demetriou was in an unfamiliar environment he was on familiar ground.
As the Chair of the Federal Government’s Australian Multicultural Advisory Council he is well credentialed to talk about the power of sport in social development.
Demetriou is also clearly no shrinking violet, so self-promotion was never going to be a challenge. What was noticeable though was how personally Demetriou sees his responsibilities as both leader of the AFL and leader within AFL communities.
Accountability, he said, is everything.
The paradox of this message was of course its context; delivered the afternoon following Ben Cousins announcing his retirement.
If ever an individual personified the culture of a sporting code it was he and more than once in his speech Demetirou name-checked the former West Coast and Richmond champion – as an example of footy’s redemptive capacity, not its ill-discipline.
The speech was instructive in its clear intent to position the AFL as a responsible corporate entity and its Chief Executive as a thoughtful, caring leader. To an audience predominately of lawyers and law students, used to analysing public oratory, this was warmly received although not without challenge.
One question in particular, on whether the elevation of Wayne Carey to Hall of Fame status undermined the sincerity of earlier proclamations of gender awareness, provoked a prickly, albeit composed response.
The AFL may not be all things to all men but it is the stand-out sporting administration in the country and the pugnacious Demetriou arguably Australian sport’s most vital boardroom presence. It was hard not to imagine what the speech would have sounded like delivered by David Gallop or James Sutherland, a comparison that flatters neither.
As Cousin’s announcement earlier in the day illustrated, the AFL still has some way to go but with Demetriou at the helm you would expect it to get there.
Who’s in your ultimate team? Pick the best team and compete with other fans for daily prizes on Draftstars. For the best odds on the game try out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Think. Is this a bet you really want to place? Set a deposit limit.