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How to tune into Sport Nation“Terrible look”: Cochrane unleashes on AFL Commission amid Browne reports
SEN • September 9th, 2025 1:46 pm
Gold Coast Chairman Tony Cochrane has unleashed on the AFL for their “fundamentally flawed” process of finding the league’s next Chairman of the Commission.
With current Chairman Richard Goyder to step down in March, the Commission has been undergoing a nominations process to find the next person for the top job.
SEN’s Sam Edmund confirmed that ex-Bulldogs Chairman Peter Gordon, ex-Geelong President Craig Drummond, former Collingwood President Jeff Browne and Chairman of Coles Group Peter Allen were the four in the running.
But with concerns over the nominations process, Edmund and his SEN Sportsday co-host Gerard Healy have stated that Browne has now pulled himself out of the running.
Browne’s decision to step away from the process angered Cochrane, who called out the AFL Commission for butchering the process so much that such a quality candidate no longer wants the job.
Speaking on SEN Whateley, Cochrane gave his insight into the Commission’s process while also calling out the lack of a succession plan for Goyder who has been in the role since 2017.
Read Cochrane’s thoughts below.
“I guess the part that is really disappointing to those that are close to the game at the moment, and this has been brewing in the background, going way back in February. So, it's not like it's something that's popped up in the last month,” Cochrane told SEN Whateley.
“The process seems to be fundamentally flawed. There are a number of people on that commission who would lecture you about good process and good corporate governance and all those wonderful buzzwords of business in this day and age. But that's not what's taking place here.
“What's taking place here is you've got a group of Presidents with a couple of nominations off the Commission who are charged with the job of going out there and seeking nominations for the role of President.
“Then interviewing those nominees, going through a process, and then recommending to the Commission the choice of Mr. X, Mrs. Y or whatever the case may be.
“Now, somehow, and I don't quite know why, Richard seems to have interfered in the last phase of that process and said, ‘No, we're going to put all four forward to the Commission, all four candidates.
“Well, my first comment is, how is that good corporate governance? Why do you have a nomination committee if you're just going to ignore them? The nomination committee didn't recommend putting all four up.
“I don't sort of join the dots there, and I'm very, very disappointed that that that's happened, because if you were a detective, you'd be saying, ‘Well, I'm now looking for scenes of manipulation at the scene of the crime because none of that sort of washes’.
“You’d have a hard job selling that to the most optimistic person. So, therefore, why are we in this position?
“If we were talking about seeking a new chairman for the North Balwyn Football Club, well, you know, that sort of stuff goes on all the time at that level.
“But this is Australia's number one sport. This is our biggest game, and this deserves the most accurate of attention.
“I think where it's really gone wrong is should have been a proper succession plan three or four years ago.
“The Commission should have been thinking and working up, who amongst them can sit here and get his training wheels or her training wheels on to be the new Chairman of the Commission.
“Now, that clearly didn't happen, and that is pretty average operation of a major corporation that we just didn't have a successor in the wings.
“So now we've got to this position where you don't have to be Einstein to work it out… all I'm doing here is vocalising what many people are thinking.
“But the truth is that this is going to end up in a bit of a bloody mess because there are now people disenfranchised with the process who do have big voices.
“I don't know this for a fact, but I am reliably told, for example, that Jeff Browne is so p--sed off with the process and what he's had to go through, only to be told he can just put himself forward as one of the four others, that he's going to step aside.
“Now that’s a terrible look and a terrible, terrible day for AFL footy.
“I say that because we're not so brilliant that we can't afford to put forward a candidate of his stature.
“Now, again, you know, people start to look into clubland, and he's from there and all the rest of it.
“I don't give a damn. I want the best person possible to be chairing our great indigenous game.
“Jeff comes with a truckload of intel, ability, background and careful, sound reasoning in everything he's touched over what must be 35 years now in the AFL landscape.
“He was originally involved as the head lawyer at the AFL going way back. He's been involved in media rights over the years. He's clearly been very much a club man. He was a successful President at Collingwood. He's got a hell of a pedigree.
“You might like him because he's from Collingwood, but that's got nothing to do with his job.
“This job is for somebody who can grab all the reins and run our country's biggest sport.
“The other candidates might be good candidates, or they might be bad, I don't care.
“But if we're at a point where somebody like Jeff Browne wants to step away from the process, then boy, something's wrong with the process. We need the very best people with their hands in the air.
“One or two of the other nominees… You don't have to do much detective work to see that they are somewhat coloured by being pushed by a very small segment of the Commission.
“This is not some, you know, really handy thing they get to play around with week in and week out, and get to go to the right dinners and all the rest of it. This is a really, really important decision.
“We need somebody who can step up into that role. Andrew Dillon is doing a great job at the CEO level, but ‘Dils’ is not a big outward facing guy. I think he'd admit that himself. He's not a big media performer.
“We had that with Gil, and how we have to cover that now, is we need a Chairman who can do that.
“We need a Chairman of the Commission who can stand up for our sport and correct some of the misnomers.
“In the media landscape, all these things matter. It's all a bit perplexing, and I'd rather not see our great game perplexed with what's going to occur over the next six months as we get to March next year.”
