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Sport Nation
Gerard Healy: This black Swann event is exactly what the AFL needs
Gerard Healy • June 3rd, 2025 11:40 am
It was with great excitement that I heard news over the weekend of a black swan event that would have an enormous impact on the AFL.
Black swan events can be both good and bad, but this is a positive one and a much-needed one - the appointment of Brisbane Lions CEO Greg Swann to the head of football of the AFL.
This has been a move touted for a long period of time, in fact it should’ve happened last year when it became clear that he was available.
And it would’ve happened long go, if not I suspect, for the commission’s influence that apparently values virtue signalling as its number one priority. It’s been one of the great failings of the game’s governing body and it has to change with the new Chairman.
But it won’t under a couple of Richard Goyder’s potential replacements from the business council because they will essentially be Goyder reheated.
No, the message has clearly been: stuff the game, stuff the integrity of the rules and the umpiring, stuff the internal assault on efficient talent pathways so important to the game’s growth, and stuff the failings of the traditional ones so important to the entire future of the competition in the southern states.
Oh no, DEI principles are seemingly so paramount to this commission that all else falls into the secondary basket for next month or likely next year - even if changes are so obviously needed as this one.
The bureaucratic strategy of the head in the sand coupled with activism at all costs has prevailed, so finally with clubs’ frustrations at breaking point on many issues, and a near collapse of the good working relationship with the men and women who blow the whistle - Andrew Dillon, whose own future was on the line, has acted.
And he’s acted swiftly in the best possible way offering the job to the best person in the country for the position. That’s the policy that should prevail at AFL House from now on - the best person for the position. A move he should’ve done when he first took over.
It’s not a position for L plates, an observation only a blinded commission could ignore.
The game desperately needs an experienced hand on the football tiller and as a former CEO of Collingwood and Carlton, two of the biggest traditional clubs in the land, and currently CEO of the powerhouse Brisbane Lions - Greg Swann has a rounded experience few others in the game possess.
He will quickly become the face and voice of the game, something we desperately need. He will be making decisions and talking about the things that matter most to most of the people that make up the game - the supporters, the coaches and the players at all levels across the country.
Swann has seen it all from his early days as a player, administrator and his various CEO roles both in the heartland and the frontier markets.
No one will doubt his motivation or the balance in his decision-making.
In some respects the game could benefit from him being an AFL commissioner but right now his impact is most needed as the head of football where his influence will be immediate and his understanding of the broader issues will help resolve those the game’s presidents are squabbling over.
Hopefully it will lead to a better outcome than the narrow pathway some of them would have us take.
The AFL was hit by a black Swannie event, and it couldn’t come at a better time.
