Caroline Wilson has sent another barb the AFL’s way in providing more context to her bombshell report surrounding Patrick Dangerfield and the AFL commission.
Reporting in The Age on Monday night, Wilson revealed that the Geelong captain had been approached by AFL chairman Richard Goyder and CEO Gillon McLachlan about joining the commission while he is still playing.
It’s unknown what Dangerfield plans to do but if he says yes, it’d mark a distinct point in league history.
The story stretches back to 2021 when two commissioners, Jason Ball and Kim Williams, elected to retire from the commission. Ball was the only ex-player on the AFL board and given both positions are yet to be replaced, it’s the first time in the commission’s history there is no former footballer. No one on the commission has ever worked at a football club, aside from director roles.
Wilson told the Don’t Shoot The Messenger podcast that there were no commissioners at the recent Sydney Derby or Q-Clash a week earlier, suggesting the board has become “out of touch”.
“The AFL are so thin on the ground at the moment and their commissioners are not meeting with footy clubs the way they used to and frankly, I believe, they’re out of touch with the game… as a body,” she began.
“Gillon McLachlan has been very much an autocrat, he’s run the game in most areas brilliantly for some years now.
“We have no football expertise on a commission that runs football.
“Leigh Matthews has been mentioned and spoken to and rejected, I’m not sure why…
“Andrew Ireland… oversaw premierships both at Sydney and Brisbane, for some reason wasn’t invited on the commission when he retired as CEO at the Sydney Swans.”
Speaking to Monday’s report, Wilson explained her surprise at the league’s decision to go for Dangerfield over a decorated former player.
“Now, in a bizarre move, Gillon McLachlan has approached Patrick Dangerfield, a current player, to join the commission while still playing,” she added.
“It has to be an independent role. He is a brilliant wearer of many hats… but he is the chairman of the AFLPA and they’re trying to negotiate a pay deal.
“I just find it so extraordinary that the AFL has muddled and mumbled its way through nearly three full football seasons at a time where it doesn’t have a full-time footy boss at the moment and there is no former player deemed appropriate to join the commission.”
It's understood a executive GM of football could be appointed as soon as the coming weeks as CEO-elect Andrew Dillon begins to shape his AFL House.
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