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AFL Ceo Gillon McLachlan has decided to stand down at the end of the season. He addressed the decision in a press conference alongside AFL Commission Chair Richard Goyder on Tuesday.
These, in his words, are the main points raised from his emotional news conference.
“Firstly, I want to say that as Richard discussed, you are all going to have to put up with me for the balance of the year.
“I’m not leaving today and I think Richard has been really clear about the agenda that is in front of the team this year but I think this timeline gives Richard and the commission the right runway to work through succession process and allows us, me and the team, to time to close out what we need to do to bring this thing to what we have been planning on.
“The reality is there are four or five huge things still to get done this year.
“I would like to reiterate what I said when I accept this had role – that it is an honour and privilege to serve this game. Best game in the world. That’s why I have loved it so much. The responsibility has never been lost on me.
“I feel good that the game is in better shape now than when I took over but the scoreboard will be for the others to judge. I’m leaving now because it feels right – right for the AFL, right for me, right for my family.
” It is clearly more complicated than that but actually in simple terms it is not.
“The AFL is in incredible shape. It is incredible shape on whatever metric you assess it. Football is back pumping with a clear plan for continued growth and I feel good about that.
“The reality is the AFL has been a huge part of my life. It is all about the people. I’m not going to individualise other than to say I could never have imagined when I started of the friendships I would take from the AFL would be by far the most significant thing I will take from my time here.
“And it is not just to the AFL, it is across the clubs and their commercial and broadcast partners. Greatest game in the world is so because there is a bloody lot of passionate and material people in and around it. I think football brings out the best in them. And this includes all of you, mostly.”
McLachlan paid tribute to his wife Laura and four children.
“Laura is a peerless mother and partner,” McLachlan said. “On every issue she has ridden every bump, and after such a long time I want to thank her and the kids for being so much a part of every bit of it an for making my life and my time here so much richer. So thank you all.”
Gillon McLachlan, Chief Executive Officer of the AFL poses for a photograph with children Sydney, Edie, Cleo, Luna and wife Laura after announcing he will step down from his role. (Photo by Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images)
“Yes, there is relief, there is regret, there is everything,” he said. “It is clearly an emotional day because I have spent 20 years of my life here. But I feel very good about where the league is and I feel good about the fact that it’s the right time and I have got to plan with Richard and the commission for this year.
“They can get done what they need to do. My team will do what we need to do and clearly then I feel good that my family are looking forward to a bit of a different world going forward as well and that’s clearly been part of the decision.”
McLachlan was later pushed on his “regrets” and backtracked on the usage of the term saying he meant to use the word “remorse”.
“It’s an emotional day. I think I was asked about how I’m feeling today. There is all range of emotions. I
don’t have any regrets so let’s just be clear about that,” said McLachlan.
“There is no regrets about any part of the role. There is a range of emotions today and sort of some regret about what I meant to say was that at some point you look back and go, ‘well, that was an amazing journey, it is all done.’
“That’s what I was talking about, not any aspect of the decision-making. As I said, I’m sure everyone would have things they do differently but I don’t have any part of this where I look back on it with regret. “
“Richard and I are in constant contact. I think if you have got a relationship like I do with Richard you are talking about the future all of the time,” McLachlan said.
“And coming out of COVID, we were talking about…I think Richard said he was looking at a more longer term view and I just felt as people come back to football, as we closed out the grand final for the AFLW, Richard and I flew to Adelaide and we had a chat and I said, ‘I think this feels right, I will come out now.’
“It just felt the right time – they could get done what they needed to this year because it might take six or seven months, whatever it is going to take, to find the right replacement and I can get that stuff done.
“Also I can have conversations with others and look ahead a bit with my family and with others. I said genuinely a month ago, one day and it just felt right on the weekend. We had that
conversation.
” We sat at the front of the plane and nutted it out and that was about it. So it wasn’t a phone call. It was seat 1A and 1C.”
“I don’t know. There are swings and roundabouts and highs and lows with this. What was clear, once that started I would never have felt comfortable leaving until everything I thought was in order.
“It was a tough couple of years. There was moments there that I probably could have…if it was an option, you would have. But it is a hypothetical one. I’m not avoiding it, I just don’t know.
“I just feel good that leaving this year we will do what we are going to do and where the game is, that it is the right time for the game and for me and I will feel good about where the game is.
“That’s been my primary focus. It has been my job and I have taken it very seriously. As I said, it has been a real privilege and honour. I’m aware of it every day. It feels like it is time to look forward.”
“My wife would support me whatever I did every day of the week. So she clearly has views but there is just no greater ally in the world than Laura. And so they are part of the decision-making, there is no doubt about that, but this is my call and it is clearly emotional because I’m leaving a big part of my life,” McLachlan said.
“But it is the right one that when I stop reflecting on what I am missing I will look forward and I know there will look forward and I know there will be another journey for us which will be amazing.
He said he has had some thoughts around what comes next but added: “It is a bit of a blank canvas and that is terrifying but exhilarating.”
“I have no idea what I’m going to do. Someone said to me, “You can’t sell a secret” and so I have had
obviously some thoughts but I haven’t had a conversation of substance with anyone, really. I had a couple of conversations.
“That is not a decision for me. I’m not trying to be churlish about it. Richard and the commission, it is their decision to make,” said McLachlan.
“What I do feel absolutely certain about, that whoever replaces me will be completely different. And they will have to bring their own style and be their own person, man or woman. That was the only bit of advice that whoever gets the role, just be your own self and be your own person and you will go OK. That was advice given to me by Andrew Demetriou and I have hopefully brought that to bear every day I have been here.”
“You are aware of the responsibility because it means a lot to so many people,” he said. “You are reminded of it every day. You can’t walk down the street or into a shop or you can’t cross the road.
“So I certainly have been aware of the weight of responsibility but also that’s a privilege that I felt that. And so it is not been a burden in the way that maybe it is [assumed].
“It has just been a special thing to have had and I’m eternally grateful to Mike and the commission that made the decision at the time and Richard and all those who supported me to do it. I have done the job I
have done and others can judge what they think of it but I feel that we are in good shape and I’m leaving hopefully with a thing better than when I started.”
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