The AFL is reportedly closing in on naming their replacement for AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan.
After announcing in April last year that he was leaving the job, the AFL are narrowing down their list of candidates to take over from McLachlan with The Age’s Peter Ryan reporting that the race is down to three.
According to Ryan, those remaining in the CEO search process are internal options Andrew Dillon and Travis Auld as well as Richmond CEO Brendan Gale.
While Ryan isn’t ruling out a left-field candidate emerging, he believes they’re currently the three options being assessed by the competition.
“It’s as far as I could actually ascertain there’s definitely three,” Ryan said on SEN Sportsday.
“Those three are Andrew Dillon, Travis Auld and Richmond CEO Brendan Gale.
“They’ll be interviewed next week as part of the process to find a replacement for Gill.
“There could be a left-field candidate that I haven’t heard or been made aware of, but at the moment that’s a good boxed trifecta to have.”
While Sydney CEO Tom Harley and GWS CEO Dave Matthews were reportedly interviewed in the early stages, Ryan believes they’re now no longer part of the process.
“I contacted them and they’re staying out of it,” Ryan said.
“But the information I’ve got is that they’re no longer part of the process.”
While further interviews are taking place next week and a decision is nearing, Ryan says clubs are growing frustrated at how long the process is taking.
“A lot of clubs and club Presidents are really frustrated that it’s taken so long to get to this point,” Ryan said.
“Gill made the announcement in April that he was departing and then he extended in December to around Round 5, but at that stage, the Presidents thought, ‘Maybe the AFL have someone up their sleeve who is a really strong candidate that they’re waiting for that person to be available’.
“They accepted that on good faith, but now it’s gotten to this stage of the year, nearly Round 1 and basically the same names that were in the race when Gill made the announcement still remain candidates and we’re not necessarily fixed on having that replacement.
“That’s causing dramas for clubs in terms of planning and progressing some of these issues and they’re just frustrated with the governance and the amount of time it’s taken for the AFL to find a replacement for Gill.”
At this stage, McLachlan is set to leave his post following the end of April when Gather Round takes place in Adelaide.