AFL Executive General Manager of Football, Laura Kane is pleased to confirm team updates to the AFL Football Department with Nick Carah appointed as General Manager Football Operations and Geoff Walsh expanding his role in the department.

Additionally, the AFL is launching a General Manager of Football Program, a new initiative amongst the existing suite of AFL Industry Talent Programs, aimed at building the critical skills and capability of aspiring General Managers of Football to bolster the pipeline of talent into this critical role within AFL Clubs.

These updates complete Kane's leadership team, including GM of Football Performance Josh Mahoney, General Manager AFLW, Emma Moore and Head of Mental Health and Wellbeing, Dr Kate Hall.

Carah joins the AFL after an extensive career in management and operations, including as the CEO of Bendigo Private Banking Services and more than 20 years working at Macquarie Bank in a series of leadership positions. More recently, he worked as Group General Manager at the Jellis Craig Network where he oversaw day-to-day operations and logistics of the business that has more than 40 offices and 1000+ staff.

In addition to this work, Carah is an AFL and AFLW Match Manager and has held this position for a number of years.

Respected club administrator Walsh, who brings with him more than four decades of AFL club experience, will go from a two days per week role to four days a week for the remainder of the year.

Reporting into Kane, Walsh will continue to work on the remaining aspects of the competitive balance review relating to talent, state leagues and the Tasmanian list build, as well as expand his work into a facilitator role for the GM Football program.

Kane said she was pleased to have Carah bring his leadership expertise to the football department and Walsh to extend his remit to bring his years of experience to support and build the capability of the future GMs of Football across AFL and AFLW.

"Nick is a highly skilled operations manager who will bring extensive logistics experience to the role which will see him support clubs in competition management and lead the day-to-day running of AFL, AFLW, VFL and VFLW, working alongside Josh who will lead the performance arm of the department," said Kane.

"His recent work as an AFL and AFLW Match Manager means he has a strong understanding of AFL match day operations, rules, regulations and the required stakeholder management and logistical experience involved in running our competitions which equates to more than 1000 matches each year.

"Nick has many years of engagement with community football and coupled with his extensive leadership experience, means he will be a great asset to our wider AFL Leadership team.

"Geoff is an experienced club administrator having worked for more than four decades across multiple clubs and his input has been an integral part of the outcomes to date on the competitive balance review.

"He will continue work on the remaining aspects of the review and now look to increase his time in the football department to support the growth of our future GMs of Football in the industry as part of our new talent program.

"I worked closely with Geoff at the North Melbourne and his many years of experience in key administration roles will be a huge asset to this program as we look to bolster the pipeline of talent into this critical role in our AFL clubs."

As previously announced, former Port Adelaide Premiership player and club administrator, Mahoney will continue to lead Football Performance, overseeing umpiring, game analysis, player movement and engagement and talent, reporting directly into Kane.

The new GM Football Program adds to the suite of existing AFL Industry Talent Programs to support the growth and accelerated career progression of talented people within the industry.

It is an intensive eight-month long program and will be facilitated by highly esteemed industry figures including Walsh and Trevor Nisbett.
Other AFL Industry Talent Programs include:

• NEXT Emerging Leaders Program - targeting the rising stars of the industry
• Women in Leadership – building the pipeline of talented women to senior Executive Roles
• Senior Leadership Program – a new program designed to strengthen leadership capability and support executive readiness to AFL Club Executive roles
• Executive Leadership Program – building Executive leadership capability and CEO readiness. Past participants of the AFL program who have since become AFL Club CEOs include Tom Harley, Ameet Bains, Jen Watt and Ash Klein.

Additionally, the AFL will also be establishing the AFL Industry Talent Committee – consisting of a small group of AFL Club CEOs and AFL Executive who will be charged with identifying key talent outside of the AFL industry to transition to mid to senior leadership roles within Clubs and the AFL to grow the overall pool of talent within the industry.