Browne’s long stint as the AFL’s external legal adviser, coupled with his experience as managing director of Nine Network and later replacing Eddie McGuire as Collingwood president, was viewed as a favourable apprenticeship among some clubs.
Now in his early 70s, he’s taken this year off to concentrate on his health, but did not rule himself out of contention for the top job when asked by The Age in May, nor again at a Collingwood president’s dinner only a few weeks ago.
Richard Goyder at this year’s hall of fame function.Credit: Getty
Drummond, a former CEO of Goldman Sachs JB Were and Medibank Private, is now chairman of Transurban.
Goyder, the former Qantas chairman, had initially indicated he intended to seek another term before handing over to the next chair.
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The lack of succession planning at AFL headquarters has been a source of angst among critics, who point to Gillon McLachlan’s protracted farewell as league chief executive under Goyder’s tenure.
The AFL is governed by a commission of 10, which elects a chair from within its own ranks.
The commissioners are chosen by a nominations committee, but once Goyder confirmed his departure, it meant the nominations committee was, in effect, being asked to choose the chair.
To hear Age football writers Jake Niall, Caroline Wilson and Michael Gleeson detail the “backroom manoeuvres” in the search for the next AFL Commission chair, The Age Real Footy podcast.
