AFL boss Gillon McLachlan taking a leaf from the silver linings playbook

Next Saturday night, about an hour and a half after the final siren has sounded on the historic first AFL grand final in Perth, and the last guests have trickled out of Optus Stadium, Gillon McLachlan will allow himself a moment to exhale. Until then, he will continue to worry. About the weather, about the game being a blowout, about possible controversial umpiring decisions, about a power outage. And, of course, about a potential COVID-19 outbreak. There has been no shortage of things for the chief executive of the Australian Football League to worry about since March last year, as the pandemic brought the billion-dollar sporting behemoth he is in charge of close to financial disaster. But in a chat with STM via video call this week, on his 12th day of quarantine in Perth, McLachlan revealed it has also brought with it some clarity about what’s important, and some silver linings which will change the way he lives the rest of his life. The most significant of those is that the father of four has spent more time with his family over the past 18 months than ever before. While the 48-year-old was navigating the most challenging period in the game’s history, as the league fielded constant curve balls and executed weekly logistical miracles to keep the season on track, he did all that from home. And when last year’s COVID crisis in Melbourne forced the AFL to move to a hub on the Gold Coast, McLachlan’s family joined him. It meant nightly dinners as a family have become the norm, rather than the exception, for McLachlan, his wife Laura, their daughters Luna, 5, Edie, 13, and Cleo, 12, and son, Sidney, 10. “I guess I was a bit old school, I never really got home (in time) to have dinner with my family and now I can’t imagine not,” he admits. “There has been challenges for everyone during this ... I’m lucky I’ve got a great, supportive, strong wife and great kids and I feel we’ve navigated ok, like many have, and I reckon there have been silver linings ... I have spent more time with my kids then I have historically.” He missed Luna’s fifth birthday and Father’s Day while in two weeks of quarantine in Perth this month, but a care package from his family containing a few of his favourite things — shortbread, chocolate and whiskey — and regular video calls back home made up for it. “Hopefully, also, there is some resilience coming through (with the kids) that’s going to help them in the long run,” he says. “It’s been very difficult but we have to think about a lot of things differently now. If you accept the world we are in, everything is pretty easy after that.” It’s an approach he wants to take into a post-pandemic world, whatever that may look like. “I can only talk for myself but I think your priorities become clearer ... hopefully everyone has learnt you can work differently and be just as productive, or even more productive, and invest in family and in yourself in a way I’m not sure we all did historically,” he says. “I reckon we’re going to work differently. There are efficiencies in technology. We all need to get back into the office and get back together but it will be in a more balanced, flexible way, and you can make sure you’re also investing in other areas of your life, whether it’s health, or family.” But right now, McLachlan’s mind is firmly set on the next seven days, starting with the Brownlow Medal count at Optus Stadium tonight and finishing next Saturday night with a blockbuster grand final between the Melbourne Demons and the Western Bulldogs. It was, before COVID, inconceivable that AFL fixtures would be scheduled just days out, let alone that the sacred one day in September would be hosted anywhere else but its physical and spiritual home, the Melbourne Cricket Ground. After a precedent was set in the rugby State of Queensland last year, Victorians and the AFL desperately hoped normal programming would resume in 2021. And for a while, it seemed possible. Melbourne enjoyed several months without community transmission in the first half of the year, as Sydney became the crisis epicentre of the Delta variant. But on August 5 the city entered its sixth lockdown, and the writing was on the wall. McLachlan is cognisant of how much it hurts the Victorian supporters — particularly fans of the Demons, who are on the cusp of their first premiership since 1964 — that the grand final can’t be held in Melbourne. But he takes comfort in the knowledge that the AFL — which has managed to complete two seasons, albeit it with last-minute fixture changes, shortened games and in many cases no crowds — has helped many get through the pandemic. And, again finding those silver linings, he says Perth will produce “everything a grand final should be”. “(Optus) is one of the great stadiums of the world. Perth is a town that loves an event, and more importantly, they love their football,” McLachlan says. “(Victorian fans) acknowledge there’s no way the game could be played at the MCG, and that the game should be played in front of people. They want the best event and spectacle, and to have 60,000 people in one of the great stadiums, in what will be an incredible atmosphere, is the best they can hope for. “There are going to be a lot of people having a good time at the game, and a lot of Australians leaning in and thinking ‘God, I wish I was there’.” This year brought with it different challenges compared to last year, when the “extraordinary unknown” of the pandemic caused chaos for the league. “The implications financially for the league, our clubs, our players and frankly for community football and the game itself ... the most extreme prognosis was pretty stark for a period there and that was very difficult,” McLachlan says. “We’re on better financial footing now, we don’t have that pressure, but what’s been more difficult this year has been the logistical challenges.” Only four rounds of AFL this year have not been affected by border closures, yet there was only one moment when McLachlan thought games might need to be cancelled. It was July 31 and a snap lockdown for south-east Queensland was announced. It could not have been worse timing for the league. Three teams were in Queensland and a fourth, Melbourne, was mid-flight when the announcement was made. “We got really overcommitted in Queensland,” McLachlan recalls. “We had Melbourne in the air, we had Brisbane flying into Tasmania to play Hawthorn, two Sydney teams in Queensland and at 9.30am on Saturday, we got wind something was up. “That was the one time this year when I thought ‘maybe we’re not going to get this weekend away’. I thought ‘we’re in trouble here’.” “But Melbourne got rerouted from the Gold Coast to Brisbane, they refuelled, didn’t get off the plane and came back. We got that game rescheduled to Adelaide, the Tasmanian Government agreed to take Brisbane, and we got the Sydney teams out and all games scheduled to the Sunday. It was remarkable.” It is dizzying just to hear McLachlan recall that logistical nightmare, yet similar scenarios have played out across the past two seasons. He says he is immensely proud of the AFL, the clubs, players and their families for pulling it off. “We had clubs going away for weeks without any certainty or much notice ... you communicate the best you can and be really clear of how you appreciate what people are doing for the club, the game, their families,” he says. “Everyone went above and beyond and I think it’s something I will look back on, and be even more appreciative of.” McLachlan joined the AFL in 2000 and has worked his way up to the chief executive role, starting as strategic planner before moving on to general manager of commercial operations, chief operating officer and then deputy CEO before replacing Andrew Demetriou in 2014. His love of the game developed during his childhood on a farm outside Adelaide. As the eldest of four brothers, McLachlan’s earliest memories of football involve kicking the footy with brother Hamish, now a Channel 7 AFL commentator, through rose bushes, which served as makeshift goal posts. As a 10-year-old in 1983 for whom the SANFL was everything, he idolised AFL Hall of Fame recipient Rick Davies and he can still recall the heartbreak of his beloved local team, Sturt, losing the grand final to West Adelaide that year. Upon moving to Melbourne, McLachlan played almost 150 games as a ruckman, for the University Blues in the amateur league. Before the pandemic, when he wasn’t watching an AFL match he could be found with his family at Blues games on weekends, catching up with friends and old teammates on the sidelines, after watching his own kids play junior football. It is these weekend rituals he misses most while in lockdown. “I miss seeing family and friends, but in a more habitual way, it’s the kids not playing sport (that I miss) and what the family gets out of footy clubs, and netball clubs, and other sports. It’s that rhythm of the week. It’s a big loss,” he says. “So that’s something I am absolutely committed to supporting very hard when we come out of this.” McLachlan is also committed to growing the game, which is enjoying record popularity, and when he lets himself look ahead to 12 months from now, he hopes to be overseeing a grand final parade, match and Brownlow night in Melbourne, followed by the first 18-team season of the AFLW in the 2022-23 summer. “I feel confident that will be happening. We’ve got to find a way to make it happen. Our game has never been more important and we’ll continue to get it done,” he says. After emerging from quarantine on Thursday, McLachlan will tonight read the votes, as is tradition, at the Brownlow Medal ceremony before a huge week of grand final preparations and celebrations. Asked if he ever gets to stop and soak up the magic and theatre of grand final day, he says that moment doesn’t come until it’s all over. “I love watching our game. I still enjoy the day, but I’m worried about anything that could go wrong,” he says. “You start the year with 10,000 risks, and you relax about an hour and a half from the game, when the final guest has left and the game is run and done and won,” he says. True relaxation, though, takes place at the family’s rural property outside of Melbourne, where McLachlan escapes to whenever he can to ride horses and do some gardening. “I only need to do it for a few hours and it’s like a weekend away. I’m pretty happy doing that,” he says. But that trip to the farm will likely have to wait, as he will be flying back straight after the grand final to a locked down Melbourne, where COVID case numbers continue to rise. “When I can get there, there’s a bonfire waiting for me.” The Brownlow Medal airs tonight, 5pm-6pm, on Channel 7, before moving to 7mate, 6pm-7pm, and returning to Channel 7 from 7pm.

AFL boss Gillon McLachlan taking a leaf from the silver linings playbook

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