AFL Commission

He'll be running the country soon.

He's, he's on the AFL Commission.

He's one of the greatest...

On the AFL Commission, um, founder of Athletic Ventures, which is a, you know, venture capital, uh, firm where they look after, you know, big, big dough, and they, uh, get a lot of athletes to invest in.

I've got a bit of money, uh, sort of all my money with him, and I just don't even care-

Yeah

You're a player manager now.

All you need to do is get on that AFL commission, Rodie.

We need some clear thinkers on that.

I've had a couple of those things suggested to me over time, but I'm not sure I'd wish it on my worst enemies.

Head on with its ridiculous-

And you and the chairman, the last chairman of the AFL Commission were as tight as a drum.

Well, the new chairman was my, um, was my neighbor.

You know that, don't you?

Well, that's interesting

... that was the lineup.

So given that, so Drummo is now the chairman of the AFL Commission.

Yep.

He's gonna come back to Melbourne.

I reckon they should put him on the AFL Commission and make him the State of Origin, Victorian State of Origin coach.

Oh, well, they don't know about...

They, they could make it the Victorian State of Origin coach.

Yeah, so that was that September 2023.

I was at the grand final as I had been every year for many years in the Olympic room at the AFL Commission luncheon.

And Alan Joyce had just resigned.

Richard Goita was the chairman of Qantas.

So there's been perennial debate, particularly now that the AFL has become a national competition, about whether the grand final should be rotated around other states.

But the AFL Commission, I think, has been pretty staunch on this, that it's going to stay in Melbourne.

And that's even, you know, we've just had a Perth-based chairman of the AFL Commission in Richard Goida, And he stuck to the party line.

He always said, no, no, this is going to be at the MCG.

So I guess for fans, that's the reality we're going to have to deal with.

Absolutely.

So we, from our board, which is the AFL Commission, enshrine 10% of industry revenues into the development of the game.

Now the game development department will then make strategic decisions on where to invest that and the lion's share of that investment has been very much in the development of youth skills football as it I guess builds the foundation for AFLW and it's been the fastest growing segment of the game from a participation point of view into community football through youth skills so absolutely and it's only It's only 11 years ago that the elite AFLW competition started and that's going from strength to strength and we're seeing some really great talent now coming through and the most recent round of draftees into AFLW were probably the first if not the second cohort to come through the same pathways as their male counterparts and we're seeing the benefits of that.

You're listening to Radio National Breakfast and head of the AFL Grand Final tomorrow.

that there would be additional First Nations list spots introduced in 2027 for both AFL and AFLW.

It comes with the endorsement of the AFL Commission and the AFL Players Association.

Executive General Manager of Football Performance.

They always have these bloody long titles, don't they? That's Greg Swan.