AFL CEO Andrew Demetriou has laughed off a claim by Hawthorn president Jeff Kennett that he runs the league like a "benevolent dictator".

"I do know when Jeffery's being tongue-in-cheek, and I took it that way," Demetriou told Melbourne radio station 3AW on Friday morning, a day after Kennett fired his barb on the same station.

"I think Jeff was being quite cute to be honest, and I took no offence."

The AFL chief refuted Kennett's suggestion that club presidents don't get enough say in the running of the competition, and are "told what to do and say".

"That's just completely untrue," Demetriou said.

"We probably over-consult.

"Every committee that's set up, for example, looking at equalisation now, or doing the collective bargaining agreement [with players], has always got club representation on it."

Demetriou dismissed any notion that club presidents should be involved in the final stages of the League's decision-making process.

"I think what Jeffery was alluding to is that we have an independent commission that has served the game well over 25 years," he said.

"It is true that, despite all the consultation, the decisions are made by the independent commission.

"They're not made by the presidents of the football clubs as they were in the days of the VFL, when things were going terribly.

"I don't think we should ever apologise for the independence of the commission, because it's served the game extraordinarily well."

The AFL boss also clarified Kennett's statement that the AFL employs 400 staff, a figure the former Victorian premier described as "too big and too expensive".

Demetriou said the League actually employs around 180 people at AFL House, 65 of whom are shared services employees handling membership and payroll for clubs.

"[The 400 figure] is not right, but never let the truth get in the way of a good story," he said.

The views in this story are those of the author and not necessarily those of the clubs or the AFL