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AFL chief Andrew Dillon explains why he made significant changes
Andrew Slevison • May 30th, 2025 10:13 am
AFL CEO Andrew Dillon has explained the major shake-up to his executive team.
Dillon confirmed on Thursday that he had divided the league’s football department into multiple sectors while introducing a new Football Performance role.
That specific position, which is still be to be filled, will oversee MRO, umpiring, game analysis, player movement, laws of the game, innovation and club engagement within football.
As a result, Laura Kane’s role has been changed from Executive General Manager to Football Operations boss and she will now be responsible for concussion management, mental health response, and the delivery of the AFL, AFLW, VFL, VFLW and the Coates League seasons.
The chief executive joined Kane Cornes and David King on SEN’s Fireball to provide insight on the situation and why the major alterations have been made.
“I got appointed to the role a little over two years and I've been in the chair for a bit over 18 months. Nothing really prepares you for it until you're in it and just seeing the way the team operates and the responsibilities for the team (we needed change),” Dillon said.
“What I wanted was a setup that allows the AFL to have the best chance of success, and I think by having two football executives on my executive team is really important because ultimately footy is at the heart of every single thing we do
“We’ve seen clubs do that over the last couple of years. Richmond with Blair Hartley and Tim Livingstone on their executive, and for me, it just means we've now got the right setup and the right structures to allow us to be as successful as we can be.”
