Kane’s role split, Hosch going in major AFL changes
Roger Vaughan |
Laura Kane’s AFL football operations role will be split and Tanya Hosch’s departure has been confirmed amid sweeping executive changes at league headquarters.
Hosch’s position of inclusion and social policy manager will also no longer exist as a separate role once the first Indigenous member of the AFL executive leaves on June 6.
Instead, the existing corporate affairs portfolio will include First Nations engagement and inclusion, as well as media, communications and sustainability.
There had been speculation this month Hosch was about to leave and she did not attend the Darwin launch of the league’s showcase Sir Doug Nicholls round.
Also this month, an AFL investigation first cleared Port Adelaide forward Willie Rioli for a threatening off-field message, then the league suspended him for a game once other on-field threats were made public.
That saga prompted the Power to renew concerns about ongoing racism in the game.
Kane has become a lightning rod for criticism this season over issues such as Rioli, the standard of umpiring and AFL miscommunication around what happened when Collingwood player Lachie Schultz was concussed in a game against Fremantle.
A separate role will be created – head of football performance.
Kane will continue to oversee the AFL and AFLW, plus the VFL and VFLW and a newly formed medical and healthcare team that will oversee areas including mental health and concussion.
The football performance manager’s portfolio will include areas including match review, umpiring, game analysis, laws of the game and club engagement.
Kane and the football performance boss will be on the AFL executive.
“The game is the reason we exist; it is as big and as good as it has ever been, and the AFL football department must continue to evolve,” CEO Andrew Dillon said.
“It must be structured, resourced and led in a way that can ensure everyone – the clubs, players, coaches, umpires and officials – can continue to perform at the highest possible level.
“Laura will continue to play a major leadership role within the AFL, but the overall responsibility has grown so much that the traditional leadership role for an individual executive in footy is no longer the best model.”
Hosch will leave after nearly nine years in her role. Apart from being the first Indigenous person on the league executive, she was also the second woman.
She has been at the forefront in areas such as Indigenous issues and gender diversity.
Outside of Dillon, who took over from Gillon McLachlan as chief executive 18 months ago, Hosch has been the longest-serving person on the AFL executive.
“Tanya has been tireless in her work to ensure that inclusion has been a part of everything we have done … as an industry we are indebted to Tanya for making us better,” Dillon said in a statement.
In the same release, Hosch said she was “extremely proud” of what she had achieved at the league.
“At the AFL, we say we are ‘a game for everyone’ and I always saw my role as part of that story,” she said
The AFL is on the hunt for a new corporate affairs manager and a chief operating officer.
Among other changes:
* AFL general counsel Stephen Meade will no longer be on the executive. The league’s integrity and security will also no longer be his responsibility and instead come under the new chief operating officer’s watch.
* Game development manager Rob Auld will take over AFL talent and talent pathways, which previously had been looked after by the league’s football department.
AAP
