Movers and Shapers is back for 2021.
Following an unprecedented 2020 AFL season, the AFL Record's senior writer Ash Browne has put together his definitive footy power list.
We will be counting down from 50 to 1 in the lead up to the new season.
50. Nicole Livingstone
Head of AFLW
Last year: –
It was a tough year for everyone in football, but AFLW had it particularly tough, with the 2020 season abruptly brought to an end a fortnight before the Grand Final. One of Gillon McLachlan’s few regrets last year was not to somehow find a way for there to be an AFLW flag decider. But AFLW has responded and is enjoying a great season under Livingstone’s watch despite the massive challenges of a rapidly changing fixture and the move to ticketing. She has also overseen changes to the talent pathways, which now go from Auskick through to AFL level in the same way as the men. AFLW is undeniably a better spectacle now than last year and the seasons that preceded it, to the absolute credit of Livingstone and her team.
49. Peter Gordon
Former president, Western Bulldogs FC
Last year: 20
His second stint as Bulldogs president finished at the end of last year and included the drought-breaking 2016 premiership and a leadership role from the very beginning in women’s football. Kylie Watson-Wheeler takes over and will be the first Bulldogs president since 1989 who is not Gordon or David Smorgon. Gordon, with his close ties to the Victorian Government, was a key ‘corona cabinet’ advisor to the AFL and now undertakes some legal work for the League. It is hard to imagine that his considerable knowledge, experience and contacts won’t be utilised by the club and the game for some time yet.
48. Kane Cornes
Broadcaster, commentator, SEN, Nine, AFL.com.au
Last year: –
At a time when many in the AFL media industry can be locked into groupthink, Cornes sticks out like a beacon, happy to take a counterview and to use facts and logic to argue his points. It’s a family trait; his legendary father Graham has never been one to back away from a sharply-held opinion. Kane, who has been likened to ESPN star Stephen A. Smith when it comes to hot takes that instantly go viral, works a punishing schedule in season, with breakfast radio five days a week and weekend travel from Adelaide to Melbourne to watch games and make various TV appearances.
47. Emma Race
Writer, podcaster, agent for change
Last year: 49
The all-female, always entertaining and regularly thought-provoking Outer Sanctum podcast remains mandatory listening for any footy fan who wants to be truly informed about the game and Race continues to be an influencer when it comes to much of AFLW, except, sadly, for helping her beloved Hawthorn obtain an AFLW licence. But her latest venture, together with her sister Lucy, is a partnership with the Victorian Office for Women in Sport and Recreation to create Making the Call, a talent pathway for women in football media and, in particular, broadcasting.
46. Nathan Buckley
Senior coach, Collingwood FC
Last year: 23
The Pies ran the Total Player Payments gauntlet for as long as they could, but it all came crashing down at the end of October and it resulted in three members of Buckley’s best 22 – Adam Treloar (Western Bulldogs), Jaidyn Stephenson (North Melbourne) and Tom Phillips (Hawthorn) – all departing. If he’d had his time again, Buckley, like a few at the Pies, might have liked to have framed the messaging a bit differently. It’s a huge year for Buckley who comes out of contract at the end of this season, his 10th as senior coach. Eddie McGuire, his No. 1 supporter, is out as president, while incoming footy boss Graham Wright might be a former teammate, but will be more calculated and objective when it comes to assessing whether Buckley is the right man for the job going forward. How the Pies continue to deal with the contentious ‘Do Better’ report will be watched by the entire football industry and many others as well. Buckley has made a good start in that regard, but wins and losses will likely determine once and for all whether he continues as coach.
45. Marcus King
Fixturing Manager, AFL
Jude Donnelly
Head of Government Relationships, AFL
Simon Clarke
Head of Compliance and Risk, AFL
David Stevenson
General manager of operations, AFL
Last year: –
It was all hands on deck at the AFL last year with what was pretty much a skeleton staff and some of those just below executive level carried out a mountain of work. This group did much of the heavy lifting. King worked through the night to produce version after version of the fixture, which was sometimes drip fed one round at a time, that suited all key stakeholders, especially venues and broadcasters. Donnelly made sure there was government and health department signoff before the fixture release and made sure the AFL was across what the respective governments were thinking in terms of border control. Clarke then made sure that whatever needed to happen did happen, while ticking every regulatory box and not cutting corners. “No one worked harder to get the season going,” said one AFL senior staffer. Stevenson was one of the first to be across the coronavirus and was instrumental in some of the early decisions made by the AFL, while this year he is overseeing the return of crowds to the footy. A special mention here also to Pat Clifton, the architect of the AFL’s Return to Play protocols, who did such an outstanding job in that role that he was poached by the NBA to fill a similar role at the end of last year.
44. Mark McGowan
West Australian Premier
Last year: –
Football was played in Western Australia last year despite McGowan instituting the toughest border restrictions in Australia. But the mood from the locals was one more of tolerance than open embrace and the restrictions on what the travelling parties could do while in Perth were more stringent than in Queensland. McGowan was openly critical of the AFL and at times his comments truly rankled some at the League. Who knows whether he played some part in the AFL awarding the Grand Final to the Gabba, but the day after that was announced, the West Australian reported he had an approval rating of 92 per cent. His hard stance on border controls will have the AFL, and especially West Coast and Fremantle, quite anxious on the eve of the new season and means the AFL might have to redo the fixture on the fly for the second straight year.
43. Brad Scott
Chief Executive, AFL Victoria
Last year: –
The former dual Brisbane premiership player and coach of North Melbourne for almost 10 years barely got his feet wet at the AFL in a game analysis role before he was seconded to an operations role as the game moved to a COVID-induced war-time footing. Now he takes charge of the game in its Victorian heartland. People there will be itching to get back to playing and watching footy at all levels, but the economy supporting the game in Victoria will be fragile for some time yet.
42. Dr Karl Jackson
Head of Data & Analytics at Champion Data
Last year: –
The creator of the Official AFL Player Ratings and one of the sharpest analytical minds in the game, but one who remarkably knew little about when he first came to work at Champion Data. He is at the forefront of the numbers-based, data-driven approach to the game and the theory that it’s not just kicks, marks and handballs that matter, but field position and the impact of particular field positions close to goal. Together with David Rath at St Kilda, Glenn Luff at North Melbourne and Michael Regan at Port Adelaide, among others, the data specialists have carved themselves an important role in the game.
41. Mark Robinson
Chief football writer, Herald Sun; co-host, AFL 360
Last year: 42
It was a tough year to write footy. Access to players, coaches and others in the game was forbidden, meaning Zoom and FaceTime and old-fashioned phone calls was the way to go. Almost nobody outside the Fox Footy family was able to access the AFL 360 studio. But Robinson remained across everything in the game and one of the best interviews anywhere last year was his Q&A with Gillon McLachlan in the Herald Sun during the shutdown in which the AFL boss bared his soul a bit and spoke of how difficult his job had been and the personal toll it was taking. With Michael Warner breaking plenty of big stories, including the Collingwood ‘Do Better’ story that precipitated Eddie McGuire’s downfall as Pies president, the Herald Sun’s credentials as the footy paper are as strong as ever.
See the rest this week:
Monday, March 15 - Movers and Shapers 40-31
Tuesday, March 16 - Movers and Shapers 30-21
Wednesday, March 17 - Movers and Shapers 20-11
Thursday, March 18 - Movers and Shapers 10-1