AFTER a record-breaking round one of the 2025 Toyota AFL Premiership Season, AFL.com.au's chief football correspondent Damian Barrett sits down for an in-depth interview with AFL CEO Andrew Dillon.
In a wide-ranging discussion, Barrett and Dillon go head-to-head on all the game's biggest issues – Tasmania, the Tribunal, the Illicit Drugs Policy, the Grand Final start time and more. Watch the full interview HERE and read on for Damo's take on why the AFL's boss is open-minded on many of footy's hottest talking points.
AFL boss Andrew Dillon is open to change.
Two rounds into his second season in charge of the AFL, he's overseeing deep analysis into the Tribunal system, Opening Round, the Illicit Drugs Policy, and International Rules and representative matches.
All are currently being pulled apart with internal analysis.
Then there is the Tasmanian licence. He is not deviating there. It will enter, as he mooted a year ago and despite very little progress, the national competition in 2028, with a playing list designed to be competitive immediately.
And if Dillon's opinion has sway, Brendon Gale, the CEO of the Devils, will definitely be employing an inaugural senior coach who has already been in the AFL system.
"Mine is a view, and a view only – I think for a club coming into the competition, it is an incredibly even competition, incredibly tough, so I think you would want a coach with experience," Dillon said.
As in someone who has already coached AFL matches? "Absolutely."
Dillon committed to informing clubs by mid-year of Tasmania's list concessions. "So the clubs can have time to plan for that 2025 exchange period," he said.
"What we really want and what the Tasmanians want, and I think what the competition wants, is a team which can come in and be competitive from day one.
"So loading up with a whole raft of high draft picks, while it may be great for the medium and long-term, what we will want is more immediate access and more immediate competitiveness. Access to draft picks is important because it is a great currency, but I think there would be mechanisms where they will need to be traded."
Dillon and his executive team have pushed hard for a strengthening of the game's Illicit Drugs Policy, with a recent smoothing of negotiations with the AFL Players Association bringing a joint announcement closer.
"We want to review and refine the policy, and strengthen it in some areas and we are having some really constructive discussions with the AFLPA … it is a tripartite policy and we want everyone to be comfortable with that, and if that takes a bit longer, the robust discussions actually help you get to the right place," Dillon said.
Asked how punitive the new framework would be, Dillon said: "Punitive is not necessarily quite the right word, but having a strengthened form of deterrence is something that we want to talk to the Players Association about.
"It is absolutely a health and wellbeing model. It is about education. About treatment and rehabilitation. But a stronger form of deterrence is the pointy end of the discussion at the moment."
The AFL has begun the past two seasons with matches exclusively scheduled in NSW and Queensland. All major metrics attached to the project have been positive in the growth states, but the exclusion of 10 teams from the new season's first fixtures has generated now-widespread annoyance.
Dillon conceded Opening Round was being reviewed.
"It has been ticking all the boxes for us so far but we will have a look at Opening Round, and how we start the season, it will be part of the fixture process review," Dillon said.
"That (the exclusion of 10 clubs from Opening Round fixturing) is the conversation we have been having, and we are really cognisant of that, but it is really important to get the AFL conversation going early in NSW and Queensland."
Would there even be the possibility of a change to the phrase 'Opening Round'? "All of that is still up for conversation, because ultimately what we want is something for the fans to buy into and what they understand, and I think we can do a bit more work on that," Dillon said.
Since the 2023 season, the AFL has added two weekends to its season, via Gather Round, which produced an extra game for each club, and Opening Round.
As such, mid-February has emerged as a new space for representative football. This year, the Indigenous All Stars played Fremantle in a game which was embraced by players, clubs and fans.
"It gave it an authenticity that our fans want, and so any representative football, we need to have the players absolutely engaged and the clubs supportive of that," Dillon said.
"Whether that is an All Stars game every year, whether it is an All Stars game with a gap in between to make sure that engagement stays high, that is what we are working through with the players and AFLPA and clubs.
"But what that game showed in the middle of February is that there is a window for a form of representative football and it might look different year on year, but it is something we want to really explore.
"Because what we are seeing is our fans wanting to see footy earlier and earlier every year. We have to manage that with what we are asking our players and our clubs."
Dillon confirmed that Gaelic Athletic Association officials were in Melbourne for Grand Final week last year, and that conversations had since continued with the view to re-introducing an International Rules series.
"There is absolutely a will and a want from both sides to explore whether we can revive that," Dillon said.
The AFL's Match Review and Tribunal systems are also being reviewed, Dillon revealed.
While endeavours to recently expedite a part of the judiciary process saw the Match Review Office make findings within 24 hours of matches, Tribunal hearings have not been brought forward from Tuesday nights, and Appeal Board hearings from Wednesday or Thursday nights.
Asked if the entire system was convoluted and could be dramatically tightened, Dillon said: "It is a very good question and I think it is something that we will continue to look at … that is absolutely something we should continue to look at, particularly with the advent of more Thursday night matches, and the timings around that."
There was one issue Dillon refused to openly engage in – the start-time of the Grand Final. The annual debate on that is clearly a free media hit every year for the AFL and will continue under his watch.
"It is a decision for the AFL Commission, and it will be made by the middle of the year."
