Andrew Dillon has revealed he spent his first day as the AFL’s CEO-elect in a meeting with some of the AFLW captains as he plans a brand refresh of the league.
Dillon was on Monday morning unveiled as Gillon McLachlan’s successor, with the two to complete a transition period in the coming months and formalize the move in early October.
McLachlan’s long-time righthand, Dillon now has the reigns of the league and spoke to SEN’s Sportsday about his priorities.
Among the first was a “brand refresh” of AFLW, of which season eight kicks off on the first weekend of September.
“Footy is pumping at the moment with great attendances and great membership,” Dillon began.
“But one of the things I want to do is continue to keep the game affordable and accessible and welcoming for everyone.
“It’s really important, we can’t ever lose sight of that.
“Once we’ve passed the transition areas, and I’ll start on it now, I want to really focus on our AFLW competition.
“We're looking at a brand refresh at the moment, we actually met with half of the AFLW captains today which was a really good discussion.”
The length of this year’s season is still yet to be announced, with players reportedly pushing for a 12-game season, up from 10 in season seven.
The AFLW is also still without CBA for the upcoming season.
Dillon also raised growing the game in New South Wales as a priority, suggesting there’s money in the budget for further investment.
“NSW is an important growth market for us,” he added.
“I’m not sure whether it’s a review, but what I am going to do is go up to Sydney and sit down with (Sydney president) Andrew Pridham and (Sydney CEO) Tom Harley and (GWS CEO) Dave Matthew and (GWS president) Tony Shepherd and also our team at AFL NSW and just make sure that the investment that we’re putting in there now is doing the best it can.
“In October last year, the commission resolved at least 10 per cent of the industry revenue would be going to community football, so if there’s cases for more investment in NSW, I think we’re in the position to do that.”
Dillon also raised a likely Tasmania team, further game analysis of trends and community footy as other aspects set to take key parts of his focus in the job.
He officially steps into the role on October 2, 2023.