The definitive footy power list has returned for 2022.
Ash Browne's Movers and Shapers outlines the top 50 powerful people in the AFL landscape.
The AFL Record's senior writer has gathered information from all around the industry to bring together this list of influential people.
We will be counting down from 50 to 1 in the lead up to the new season.
50. Dylan Buckley
Podcaster
Last year: –
The former 41-game Carlton and GWS player has unlocked one of the great secrets of AFL media – current players are more comfortable talking to their peers, or those straight out of the game, than they are journalists and broadcasters. “I like to think players have built relationships with me and that I have their best interests at heart,” he said. “I humanise them and make them relatable.” It’s the reason why his two podcasts, Dyl and Friends and List Cloggers (former Sun and Blue Daniel Gorringe co-hosts that one), have rocketed up the Australian podcast charts. Buckley has his own production company and will be looking to create more content that shakes up the staid old footy media landscape.
49. Callum Twomey
AFL Media journalist
Last year: –
There is no peer when it comes to reporting of the AFL’s pathway programs and especially the National Draft and lead-up events such as the AFL Academy, the under-18 championships and the combine – when they happen. He cultivates great relationships with the players as they prepare to enter the system (most of them hang on every word he writes) and that holds him in great stead after they get drafted and play out their careers. Managers and recruiters respect him greatly and are happy to trade information with him. His Phantom Draft is eagerly anticipated each November and in 2021 he correctly predicted the first 12 selections and 13 of the top 20.
48. Swamp
Stats guru, Channel Seven and AFL
Last year: –
The former computer programmer built a database, added some footy facts and figures and turned it into gold. His day job is to pump out statistical information, mainly historical, for Channel Seven and the AFL, which has smartly brought him into the fold. But he has a huge social media audience as well (@sirswampthing) and his more than 37,000 Twitter followers revel in several nuggets a day such as the last time three players with the same first name all received Brownlow votes in the same game. It was round 20, 1996 – Paul Salmon, Paul Roos and Paul Kelly – in case you were wondering.
47. Paul Bassat
AFL Commissioner, venture capitalist
Last year: 26
Entering his 11th year on the Commission, Bassat remains a key sounding board for Gillon McLachlan and Richard Goyder. The SEEK founder and now successful venture capitalist has deep connections in the tech space and is at the forefront of the League’s moves to innovate and diversify. His older brother Andrew is St Kilda president. Simone Wilkie is also prominent around the Commission table, especially with oversight for AFLW and all aspects of the women’s game.
46. Sam McClure
Journalist and broadcaster
Last year: –
Michael Warner
Journalist and author
Last year: –
Some big footy stories broke last year and this pair were responsible for most of them. McClure insisted and reported that Alastair Clarkson would step down at Hawthorn at the end of 2021 and not 2022 and was proven correct despite widespread doubts. He also reported Taylor Walker’s racial slur at a state league game that had huge ramifications. But in a puzzling backdown, The Age apologised for aspects of the reporting and retracted McClure’s 2018 Adelaide training camp story, which ended up costing him his prestigious Quill Award from the Melbourne Press Club. Warner’s book, The Boys’ Club, was released last year to much acclaim (perhaps not from inside the AFL), but it was his reporting of the Collingwood ‘Do Better’ report in the Herald Sun that triggered the events that led to Eddie McGuire’s stunning resignation as Magpies president. It earned him the prestigious Walkley Award for sports reporting.
45. Lance Franklin
Sydney forward
Last year: –
There will be no larger figure in the game, at least for the first few weeks of the season, than Franklin, who needs just five goals to become just the sixth player in League history to reach the magical 1000-mark. The Swans are building an impressive and exciting playing list, but it remains only the big ‘Bud’ who can turn heads walking down George St and he still puts bums on seats at the SCG. Cue the pandemonium when he reaches the milestone, but the question to follow is whether this will be his final season. His mammoth nine-year, $10m deal is up at the end of the year.
44. Erin Phillips
Adelaide AFLW star
Last year: 39
The greatest player in the AFLW’s relatively brief history is still an influential player and has demonstrated on several occasions this season that she can still play. She has been the key figure for AFLW in South Australia, but there was always the strong chance that she was only on loan to the Crows and that is likely to be the case. Port Adelaide makes its much-anticipated entry into the competition later this year and Phillips, whose father Greg is a Port legend, is all but certain to be involved, perhaps as a player for one last season but more than likely in a key off-field role, perhaps even as coach. Such is her magnetism that Port will be a powerful club from the start.
43. Peggy O’Neal
Richmond president
Last year: 21
Exhibit A in League footy for the benefits of calm, measured leadership, O’Neal has turned the Tigers into a powerhouse and has blazed a trail for women in senior leadership in footy. Kate Roffey (Melbourne), Kylie Watson-Wheeler (Western Bulldogs) and Sonja Hood (North Melbourne) are following in her footsteps as AFL club presidents. O’Neal is entering her final season, but as the incoming RMIT Chancellor, she still has plenty on her plate. She was also named Melburnian of the Year in 2021, but the hope is that the game finds a way to keep her involved. Surely the AFL Commission will find a place for her. She is too precious an asset.
42. Emma Race
Influencer
Last year: 47
The football media is becoming more diverse and the Race sisters – Emma and Lucy – deserve much of the credit. The ‘Making the Call’ program, part of the Victorian Government’s ‘Change the Game’ initiative, has introduced 40 graduates into the sports media industry and on a recent Friday night AFLW game, they featured on every platform that covered the game on TV and radio, print and online. Emma, in particular, is a leading commentator on major issues to do with AFLW and women’s sport in general, calling into Kane Cornes on SEN recently after he decried an apparent lack critical commentary about women’s sport. That’s not the case when it comes to the popular Outer Sanctum podcast of which she is a foundation host. Hawthorn’s No. 1 women’s ticketholder, she is also serving on the advisory committee for her beloved club as it prepares to enter the AFLW later this year.
41. Luke Sayers
Carlton president
Last year: –
Not even on the radar of many Carlton fans this time 12 months ago, the long-time board member has cut a swathe through Ikon Park since assuming the presidency from Mark LoGiudice at the end of last season. Senior coach David Teague? Replaced by Michael Voss. Chief executive Cain Liddell? Also gone, with legendary West Coast and Geelong boss Brian Cook delaying his retirement for at least a couple of years, intrigued by the challenge of reviving the fortunes of the AFL’s sleeping giant. Sayers has put everyone at the club on notice with his stated expectation that the Blues will play finals in 2022, but there is a sense of purpose and expectation at Carlton that hasn’t been felt for some time. There is an entire generation of football fans who have no recollection of Carlton as anything other than a doormat.