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Live sport on SN this weekend2025 AFL Movers and Shapers: 20-1
Ashley Browne & Shannon Gill • February 14th, 2025 6:43 pm
The growing power of the football media is reflected more than ever in the AFL Record’s annual Movers and Shapers list, compiled by ASHLEY BROWNE and SHANNON GILL.
Nearly 18 months since finishing up as the AFL’s chief executive, Gillon McLachlan no longer qualifies as a mover and shaper. But his fingerprints are all over our annual AFL power list.
2025 marks the first year of the eye-popping seven-year, $2.5 billion media right deal he negotiated at the end of his tenure and while Seven and Foxtel/Kayo (now under new ownership) retained the rights, both broadcasters have spent big on talent and programming to support their massive investments.
This has led to all sorts of movement between networks and the big stars of the media game, as well as the executives making the big calls, have never commanded as much attention – and money – as they have this year.
This year’s list also reflects the growing importance of football in Queensland and especially Brisbane. The premiership-winning Lions are the hottest-ticket in the AFL and they need a new home ground.
See 50-41 here. 2025 AFL Movers and Shapers: 50-41.
See 40-31 here: 2025 AFL Movers and Shapers: 40-31.
See 30-21 here: 2025 AFL Movers and Shapers: 30-21.
See 20-1 below
20. LACHIE NEALE
Brisbane Lions premiership co-captain
Last year: 12
After adding premiership co-captain to his dual Brownlow Medal CV, Neale is officially football royalty and his career is among the very best of his generation. With Queensland looming as the biggest growth area for the code, the articulate and interesting Neale has taken the baton as the state’s biggest footy name.
19. GERARD WHATELEY
Commentator, broadcaster
Last year: 13
Together with great mate Anthony Hudson, has been handed the keys to Fox Footy’s shiny new toy – its own siren-to-siren production of Friday night footy - which might be all that’s missing from his CV. Has a new co-host for AFL 360, Garry Lyon, while he remains the lead caller (Thursdays and Saturdays) and morning host for SEN. Influential and has the ear of anyone who counts in footy.
18. SAM MITCHELL
Hawthorn coach
Last year: -
Mitchell turned a 0-5 start into a rollicking 14-4 finish for the Hawks, that ended just a goalpost away from a preliminary final spot. Just as stunning was the method. Mitchell, the no-nonsense-to-a-fault professional as a player, oversaw a team unashamedly bursting with Gen-Z flair and swagger. Mitchell not only tolerated ‘Hok Ball’, but he also wore it like a badge of honour and showed a new depth to his football character. He has even taken the very un-Hawthorn-like step of inviting Seven Network cameras in to produce a documentary on its pre-season.
17. CHRISTIAN PETRACCA
Returning Melbourne champion
Last year: 35
For a career that has avoided controversy, Petracca’s 2024 was a detour into tumult. Starting with the horror King’s Birthday injury and the months of fallout, it ended with the “will he or won’t he” trade speculation that rocked the game. Ultimately Petracca’s cry for greater standards was heard. His every move will be studied in 2025 to see whether the urge to move will be rekindled in the next trade period.
16. GREG SWANN
Brisbane Lions chief executive
Last year: 29
After 25 years in the game, Swann can now add a premiership to his resume, yet there will be no time to rest on those laurels. The next 12 months will be the off-field Grand Final for Swann and the Lions. Olympic stadium decisions will be made that determine the club’s long-term playing home and temporary home during building.
15. MICHAEL NEILL
Fox Footy head
Last year: 19
With the AFL’s new television rights deal kicking in for 2025, fans will have a choice of commentary for the very first time and while Neill has already started refreshing the channel’s weekday line up, Thursday and Friday nights will be the real battleground. His appointment of Anthony Hudson and Gerard Whateley to the blue-ribbon Friday night slot is big. Just how many decide to sign up to Kayo/Fox in 2025 may also help decide the value of future AFL rights deals.
14. CRAIG HUTCHISON
SEN chief executive, Channel Seven TV host
Last year: 24
A longstanding friendship with Chris Jones has been rewarded with his Rainmaker TV production business set to produce much of Seven’s non-match AFL programming in 2025. He has cut ties with Nine and will appear on at least one of these newly-created shows. Add the footy-dominated SEN and its digital arm, AFL Nation match broadcasts and the AFL Record, and Hutchison sits atop an AFL content-generating powerhouse.
13. EMMA MOORE
AFLW general manager
Last year: -
That Moore only took over as AFLW boss in July has contributed to her being a largely anonymous face in a season that has seen the AFL take criticism from players, clubs and media - chiefly about season scheduling. With six months under her belt to better understand the inner workings of the League, the onus will now be on Moore to provide a vision for the next decade.
12. NICK DAICOS
Collingwood superstar
Last year: 30
Collingwood may not have avoided the premiership hangover, however Daicos indisputably did. For the second year running he was desperately unlucky not to take the Brownlow. As the best player at the biggest club, Daicos seems to be fitting comfortably into the role of face of the AFL. At 22, it could well be Daicos’ league for the next decade.
11. KANE CORNES
Pundit
Last year: 20
His defection from Nine to Seven was front page news and he will be the figurehead for the network’s footy coverage across several talk shows and Thursday night match broadcasts. Also remains a prominent SEN personality and an All-Australian selector. Hasn’t gotten to where is just by wearing the ‘Port Adelaide premiership player’ hat. His sharp opinions are shaped by a ferocious work ethic – he watches and reads everything.
10. RICHARD GOYDER
AFL Commission Chair
Last year: 6
Goyder’s critics say he’s the invisible Commission chair, comfortable to let the League executive run both policy and delivery of the game. Perversely this makes 2025, the year Goyder is supposed to be vacating the role, perhaps the most important since he took over in 2017. Whether Goyder recommends more of the same, or someone with a more hands-on approach to a less experienced AFL executive could be a seismic change for the future of the code.
9. BRENDON GALE
Tasmania Devils chief executive
Last year: 38
Ultimately, he was the only choice to spearhead Tasmania’s AFL arrival. The man many thought should have taken the top League job has the ultimate CEO resume, bringing Richmond from wilderness to winning, and is universally respected. The romanticism of the local hero returning home will buy further goodwill, yet Gale will need all his skills for the toughest job in football starting this month.
8. PATRICK DANGERFIELD
AFLPA president/Geelong captain
Last year: 5
Thankfully, the silly idea to have Dangerfield join the AFL commission while still playing has been nipped in the bud, but he doesn’t really need a seat around a mahogany table to wield major influence.
He has been AFLPA president since 2019 and has delivered all sorts of riches to the players. He has the ear of anyone who matters at the AFL, is a media superstar in waiting, all while still getting a kick for the Cats.
7. CHRIS JONES
Channel Seven head of sport
Last year: -
The footy media landscape was upended when Chris Jones replaced Lewis Martin as Seven’s sport boss. With Fox Footy broadcasting all games with its own commentary teams in 2025, Jones has been given an open chequebook to build a big and bold seven-day-a-week AFL TV programming bloc, headlined by recruits Kane Cornes, Nick Riewoldt, Craig Hutchison and Caroline Wilson.
The success of Jones’ vision, or otherwise, will not only help determine Seven’s immediate future, but it could also help restore the value of an AFL rights market that was starting to look shaky.
6. PAUL MARSH
AFLPA chief executive
Last year: 2
Marsh is so highly-regarded that amid clear signs of burnout, he was ordered by association president Patrick Dangerfield to take a sabbatical.
So for a chunk of last season, Marsh did just that and he returned refreshed and ready to deal with matters such as the probe into Petracca’s injury treatment and the sanctions handed down the GWS Giants players after their tasteless ‘Wacky Wednesday’ celebrations. The future shape of the AFLW season is another weighty consideration.
5. PAUL CONNORS
Connors Sports managing director
Last year: 9
Robbie D’Orazio and Nick Gieschen also play huge roles in driving this player management behemoth, which has just come through its most challenging trade period with Dan Houston’s move from Port Adelaide to Collingwood one of the toughest to get over the line. Bailey Smith and Jake Stringer also changed clubs and he had a busy draft with seven first-rounders selected.
But Connors biggest show of strength might have been at Christian Petracca’s side as he implemented regime change at Melbourne in the wake of his post-injury treatment by the club. Had president Kate Roffey and CEO Gary Pert not moved on, then Petracca would have, irrespective of the years remaining on his contract.
4. DAVID KOCH
Port Adelaide chairman
Last year: -
He and Port have been fantastic together for the last 13 years, but with his morning TV hosting days behind him, he is perfectly placed, at the very least for a place on the shortlist to be the next chair of the AFL. Would bring business savvy, deep club experience and a touch of showmanship to the role. A South Australian, but a long-time Sydney resident, it’s a great starting point to head a national competition and with the coaching handover from Ken Hinkley to Josh Carr now set in stone, his work at Alberton might be done.
3. PATRICK DELANY & SHAY SEGEV
Chief executives of Foxtel and its new owner, DAZN
Last year: -
Can a relationship place this high on the list? It can when it may determine the financial health of the game for the next few decades.
Unlike the Israeli-born, US-resident Segev, Delany knows the AFL intimately and has made it a bedrock of his career at Foxtel, but after Foxtel was sold to international streaming company DAZN, both Delany and the AFL will need to show Segev why the game matters.
How the AFL manage the new media paradigm will determine how much bargaining power it has in a media rights landscape that is trending south.
Being integral to the Delany-Segev chain of command will be the League’s greatest strategic challenge over the next five years.
Unlike the Israeli-born, US-resident Segev, Delany knows the AFL intimately and has made it a bedrock of his career at Foxtel, but after Foxtel was sold to international streaming company DAZN, both Delany and the AFL will need to show Segev why the game matters.
How the AFL manage the new media paradigm will determine how much bargaining power it has in a media rights landscape that is trending south.
Being integral to the Delany-Segev chain of command will be the League’s greatest strategic challenge over the next five years.
2. LAURA KANE
AFL Executive General Manager of Football
Last year: 3
In her first official full season as head of football, Kane quickly graduated to the position that is most scrutinised by media and talkback callers alike.
And while Kane may be young and mild-mannered publicly, she will not shrink when it comes to what she sees as important for the game.
Her public disappointment at the Appeals Board’s overturning of the Charlie Cameron and Toby Bedford dangerous tackles suspensions suggest that Kane is determined to do what is right (in her mind) than what is popular. Her reported edict on female involvement on Draft night is another example.
It may earn her enemies, but it’s also earned her respect.
Player safety, sorting out an increasingly convoluted, criticised and compromised draft system for father-son and academy prospects, and providing leadership on resolving messy AFLW scheduling will be her key goals for 2025.
1. ANDREW DILLON
AFL chief executive
Last year: 1
The huge commercial deals that underpin the AFL were signed and sealed by McLachlan, so the focus for Dillon as he enters his second year in charge is to take care of the myriad of issues that have landed on his desk.
How does AFLW alleviate its significant growing pains? What can be done to arrest what some are calling an “alarming” drop in the number of Indigenous players in the talent pathways? Is the health of the game in large parts of New South Wales as poor as its critics claim?
Dillon will tackle this and other areas of concern with a new-look and relatively inexperienced executive team. Trusted lieutenants Travis Auld and Kylie Rogers have moved on, while so far, he has yet to bring into AFL House a senior figure with extensive club experience.
At the same time, there are few fears that Dillon is not the right person for the job. The grades for his first year in charge were generally excellent. But Year Two will have its challenges.
