5/21/2023 0 Comments Crunch wrapHis father-in-law is ex-Melbourne Cricket Club president and former Test opener Paul Sheahan. His father, John, a fellow lawyer, became the eighth president of the VAFA in 1984, and was the chairman of the Melbourne Racing Club. His wider household is intrinsically linked with Australian sport. Religion, connections and the world of sportĭillon isn't the first in his family to sit atop a sporting organisation tree. Someone who was good enough to get the job done and be consistently named in the best players, but wouldn't kick goal of the year or take a screamer.Īnd those are exactly the traits the AFL will want to see in Dillon as its new CEO. On the field, while Dillon never made it any higher than amateur leagues, he did play 290 games for the Old Xaverians in the VAFA, and was one of four players to play in six consecutive premierships from 1995 to 2000.Ī rebounding defender that always wore long sleeves, he was said to be solid rather than spectacular. If those words make you think of a clean-cut bloke in a suit with a private school background, you'd be right.ĭillon spent some time in the mid-90s at your standard "three-surname-titled law firm", Corrs Chambers Westgarth, before moving to Village Roadshow in 1997 as their in-house legal counsel, and joining the AFL in 2000 to do the same gig.įrom there, he rose through the ranks of the league in legal and development roles that saw him gain a wide range of experience as McLachlan's right-hand man, becoming a veritable jack of all trades and master of some. "Has a Bachelor of Commerce and a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Melbourne and a post-graduate diploma in Applied Finance and Investment from the Securities Institute of Australia." There are few paragraphs that sum up Dillon better than the opening lines of his profile on the AFL website. He has wandered the halls of AFL House for more than two decades and understands better than anyone else the pitfalls and booby traps of running the biggest sporting competition in the country.īut who is Andrew Dillon? And was he the right choice for the job? Law and order at the AFL More than a year after McLachlan announced he was standing aside after arguably the most successful stint a CEO has had sitting atop the red leather throne at Docklands, the AFL has finally settled on handing the job over to the league's executive general manager football operations, or in non-corporate speak, one of the other big dogs already on the chief executive committee. It was a long, exhaustive search that ended when Gillon McLachlan stepped into the office next to his at AFL headquarters and asked Andrew Dillon if he would do him the honour of being the next AFL boss.
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