World Footy News

Collo was one of a kind: he could, and often would, create AFL policy on the run, and many times he did just that in that room of true football people—Life members, Hall of Fame inductees, Administrators, umpires, tribunal members, and the media. 

Policy at a podium was never me, and in that first speech, before the Essendon—Melbourne game, I set out my personal agenda for my job, little knowing that it would morph into the CEO's role, three years later.  

Reading it back, it resonates not just with me, but with so much of what happened in 2013, and so much about personal responsibility.  I hope, all these years later, I can be judged by my own criteria. This is what I said: 

I feel fortunate to be able to follow Ian Collins into this job, which in many ways, is the best job in football. Although, I suspect Kevin Sheedy , Essendon's legendary coach, might dispute—reasonably—that assertion. 

There are comparisons though. Sheedy's job is to create a culture of expectation and achievement not just in one group of players, but in a generation, maintaining and linking with past, present, and future assets, human assets. 

My job is the one job in the AFL system which impacts directly on the only asset the AFL owns – not a human asset, but the game itself.  

It may be an involving and fulfilling job, but those of us who have had this job understand absolutely the responsibility that comes with it.  

Rest assured I feel keenly my responsibility to not only preserve that asset, to link to the culture and the people that made it so valuable to all of us, but, when decisions are made, I know that poor decisions can have enormous impact on the game, on all of us.  

What I was expressing on that day had been drilled into me by the late Ron Evans, and Bill Kelty, earlier that year, when they convinced me to join the AFL, after a short time as CEO of the Players Association.  

All of us, Ron said, are merely custodians of the game. Our job is to nurture what we are given, and, when the time comes for us to depart, to believe that we have passed on something better than we received. 

That same point was stressed to me so many times by our beloved friend, Jill Lindsay, sadly taken from us three years ago. 

At my last visit with Jill, as she was fading away, she made the most memorable comment, her last words to me.  

“Look after the game” she said. “It means so much to so many people.” 

She had re-asserted what Ron and Bill had thrust down my throat.  

It's what all of us in this room should never forget. It's what must drive us all: at the AFL, at club level, our coaches, our players, politicians, our junior administrators, at Auskick , as parents nurturing the next generation.  

It's what I hope I can pass on to my successor: the game means so much to so many people." 

As I said in that initial speech, "poor decisions can have enormous impact on the game, on all of us" and that was surely true in 2013. 

I'm not about to brush that under the carpet: many people made poor decisions, and the game was surely impacted, but I know that many people have also made great decisions—through 2013, since 2013—to make sure that the game will win out, and it will be celebrated by its fans, without sense of misgiving, or delusion, or distrust. 

I am not denying the role of the CEO in any organisation is an important one, but CEOs come and go—great institutions remain forever, and the AFL is a great institution, getting better all the time. 

We cannot amend the past, but we can surely shape the future, and that has always been the approach of the AFL Commission, and the Executive. 

I am sure the new Commission, and new Executive will not be changing that agenda one iota. 

Tonight is about the future. It's about AFL policy in action. It's about the rebuilding of this wonderful ground, and the gathering together of the entire South Australian community into one vision, and one outcome. 

I am proud the AFL has been involved in this project, and grateful to people like Ian McLachlan and Rod Payze  and all their colleagues in the SACA, to John Olsen and Leigh Whicker  and Max Basheer  representing South Australian football, and to former premier Mike Rann , his then treasurer Kevin Foley and his successor Jay Wetherall  for not just living up to the promises made by the South Australian Government, but delivering so much more. 

We have all achieved what Mike Rann  said would be impossible, and I will look back on what has been achieved here with great pride. 

The rebuilding of the Adelaide Oval represents so much of what has happened in my time at the AFL: it's about a vision, it's about teamwork, it's about overcoming adversity, it's about community, it's about not giving up no matter the stresses and strains and history fighting back against you. 

The AFL will always be like this: think of the past years, and spread that into the future. 

I don't intend to dwell on the past. (Continued in Part 2)