WHO ARE the people who shape the modern AFL?

Over summer, senior writer Ashley Browne again extensively surveyed the football industry to find out who pulls the levers to make the game as strong and powerful as it is.

Once again, a wide spectrum of the industry was surveyed, including players and coaches, club and AFL management, journalists and broadcasters, player managers and other key stakeholders directly and indirectly involved in the game.

This is the second year of the survey and once again more than 100 names were thrown up altogether. This year, there are 15 new faces in the top 50, reflecting teams on the up and those whose influence has grown.

Please note that the survey was conducted over summer, before Mike Fitzpatrick retired as AFL Chairman and Mark Evans moved on from heading up the League's football operations to become chief executive of Gold Coast. There have subsequently a raft of changes at the executive level of the AFL.

Once again, some of those with a common interest and have been ranked together.

Movers and shapers: 50-31
Movers and shapers: 30-11

10. Gerard Whateley
ABC Broadcaster, AFL 360 co-host
Last year: 8

Whateley is not in your face talking footy every day of the year. In the finest ABC tradition he swings into other sports the day after the season ends, and in one 48-hour period last November he called the Melbourne Cup and the first ball of the first cricket Test against South Africa.

But from the opening bounce of the season through to the Grand Final, he dominates the landscape as the lead AFL broadcaster on ABC Grandstand and as host of Fox Footy's AFL 360, pretty much the must-see show on a day when any AFL news of consequence has broken.

Whateley's views are widely respected by AFL coaches – he has won their media award the last three years – and he has the ear of most football powerbrokers. He also remains a key advocate for the AFL in the increasingly Sydney-centric ABC and the depth and breadth of the national broadcaster's AFL coverage remains impressive despite various budget cuts.

9. Andrew Dillon
AFL General Counsel, General Manager Community and State Leagues
Last year: 12

The WADA appeal and its consequences, including Jobe Watson handing back the 2012 Brownlow Medal, the Lachie Whitfield affair, the purchase of Etihad Stadium, the new radio rights deal and various other legal and compliance issues made for busy year for Dillon. He is one of several with a direct line of reporting to Gillon McLachlan at the AFL, and might be the closest confidant of the League boss in addition to being one of his closest mates in football.

"Gill trusts him more than any other executive and doesn't make any key decisions without bouncing them off him first," said one AFL House observer.

Dillon was sounded out for the No.1 job at the Melbourne Cricket Club that ended up going to Hawk chief executive Stuart Fox, while Racing Victoria also went hard at him for its chief executive role. As part of the recent senior management reshuffle at the AFL, he was handed the state leagues portfolio as well.

8. Paul Marsh
AFLPA chief executive
Last year: 7

Having delivered Australia's cricketers hefty pay increases tied to the game's revenues, Marsh joined the AFLPA about 18 months ago charged with delivering a similar outcome.

Discussions with the AFL over the new Collective Bargaining Agreement have been protracted and a bit fraught, and Marsh certainly wasn't thrilled that Gillon McLachlan chose not to enter the negotiations until the 11th hour, but indications are that they are getting there.

"His ability to deliver the demands of the players and hold his nerve with the AFL will ultimately show how influential he is," said one media personality.

It will also determine his legacy, with no AFLPA boss ever having delivered more than one CBA.

Paul Marsh with former AFL football operations manager Mark Evans. Picture: AFL Photos

7. Kerry Stokes/Seven
Chairman, Seven West Holdings
Last year: 9

While it could be argued that for News boss Rupert Murdoch AFL football is a commodity, there is no doubt that when it comes to Seven, footy is in the DNA and it starts from the very top with Stokes, who loves the game deeply.

During a recent catch-up in the AFL board room, Gillon McLachlan handed West Australian Stokes a keepsake, the footy used in the 1991 West Coast-Hawthorn qualifying final, the first ever played outside Victoria.

Seven has broadcast footy in some shape or form every year since TV came to Australia in 1956, save for the "dark years" of 2002-2006, and Stokes is keen to ensure that continues, with executives such as managing director Tim Worner, head of sport Saul Shtein, Seven's Melbourne boss Lewis Martin and even lead producer Gary O'Keefe cited as key drivers of the network's partnership with the game.

Seven embarks on its latest AFL broadcasting agreement without the iconic Denis Cometti, who is now retired, and with no Saturday afternoon games until the finals. The flip-side is one AFLW game per week broadcast by the network, with ratings figures that reflect the huge interest in women's football.

6. Eddie McGuire
Collingwood president, Triple M breakfast host, Fox Footy host and commentator
Last year: 2

Last year was a big one for McGuire, with 'Icebathgate' dogging him for much of the season and again raising the questions about a) whether he spreads himself too thinly during the season and b) why does any mention of a succession plan for the Collingwood presidency so raise his hackles?

McGuire is starting out on a new three-year term as president, and if he can stick at it for three more terms he will pass Harry Curtis (27 years) as the club's longest-serving president, but he will face no more important decision than that of coach Nathan Buckley's future if the Pies miss the finals yet again this year.

The football department has been a revolving door, with Buckley having had six different heads of football in five years. Buckley will likely follow them out the door if Collingwood misses the eight, which will be a bitter pill for McGuire, who personally engineered his ascension to the job in the first place.

McGuire's vision for Victoria Stadium, nestled across the railway line from the MCG as a replacement for Etihad Stadium appears to have fizzled, but if you doubt his ability to get things done, who else could have engineered Collingwood landing both a Super Netball and an AFLW team at a time when both sports are locked in a fierce battle for talent, fans and sponsors.

5. Caroline Wilson
Journalist, broadcaster
Last year: 5

No journalist has a better line of communication to the heavy hitters at the AFL and the clubs, and she remains the No.1 agenda setter in the game through her various outlets – primarily The Age, 3AW, Footy Classified and Offsiders.

"If Caro writes something and the Commission reads it, it can force change," noted one rival senior journalist.

She carried herself with grace through the unseemly "ice bath" episode from last year, when the temptation must have been to go hard at the various protagonists. Few would have blamed her had she done so.

But she remained fearless as ever. Earlier this year, when the travails of Seven managing director Tim Worner became public, she called for him to be stood down from the Swans board. Never mind that Worner and Gillon McLachlan are close friends and that her husband, Brendan Donohue is the Victorian state government reporter for Seven News.

4. Alastair Clarkson
Hawthorn coach
Last year: 4

The appointment of Chris Fagan to the Brisbane Lions at the end of last season meant there are now six former Hawthorn assistant coaches or key football operatives – Damien Hardwick, Leon Cameron, Adam Simpson, Luke Beveridge and Brendon Bolton are the others – serving as senior coaches in the AFL. That's one third of the competition.

Headstrong and combative, Clarkson will this year move past John Kennedy Snr as Hawthorn's longest-serving coach. He remains one of football's most fascinating figures and Hawthorn's great success under his tutelage – four flags in the last decade – means his every move is heavily scrutinised.

In 2017 it will be trading out Hawk champions Sam Mitchell and Jordan Lewis – first and second in last year's best and fairest – to rejuvenate a midfield that was well beaten during last year's straight sets finals elimination. It was a move drawn straight out of the playbook of New England Patriots (NFL) coaching legend Bill Belichick, a firm believer in the "better to move them on a year early than a year late" school.

Clarkson is a regular visitor to Harvard University for various leadership courses – most recently as this month – and it is this thirst for knowledge and flair for thinking outside the box that makes him the game's best coach and greatest innovator, and someone who has the ear of the AFL whenever he needs it.

Alastair Clarkson is the game's best coach and greatest innovator. Picture: AFL Photos

3. Mark Evans
Gold Coast CEO, AFL general manager, football operations
Last year: 5

Yes, this survey was completed before Evans moved from his position as the AFL's footy czar to the job at the helm of the Suns.

In his recently vacated role he was regarded as a standout performer given his flair for widespread consultation and transparency. He streamlined the processes around the Match Review Panel and dealt with some grey areas with regards to the laws of the game. And areas of concern such as concussion were treated with the utmost care.

When was the last time you hard any bleating from the clubs about any big decisions coming out of the AFL footy operations department?

But Evans was always headed back to club land, with the surprise being he took the job with Gold Coast rather than his former club Hawthorn. And while that position alone does not necessarily demand such a high ranking on a list such as this, the Suns are in dire need of the Evans touch, what with a combustible president, an exodus of playing talent, a homesick Gary Ablett, a coach coming into the final year of his contract and a general expectation that it is time for the Suns to deliver on their promise. He has much to do.

2. Mike Fitzpatrick
Outgoing AFL commission chairman
Last year: 3

The Fitzpatrick Era comes to an end in a fortnight when he hands the Commission chairman's position to Richard Goyder, and when the football historians do their work they will give Fitzpatrick a comfortable passing grade for his 10 years in charge.

Expansion and infrastructure were his big-ticket items and he was quite hands-on when the mega $2.5 billion media rights deal was negotiated late in 2015. And observers believe he bought into the AFLW concept in September 2016 after the successful Melbourne-Western Bulldogs exhibition game held during the bye weekend ahead of the start of the finals.

The Essendon supplements scandal also unfolded under his watch and as he declared in his retirement media conference, he remains steadfast in his belief that the AFL handled the entire episode as best it could. Regrets? He has none.

"Anyone who didn't think he had his hand on the rudder doesn't actually know what went on behind the scenes," said one close observer. "In a way, his cautionary approach kept the game from getting too far ahead of itself."

1. Gillon McLachlan
AFL chief executive
Last year: 1

His stamp is now all over the AFL and in many respects he shapes as the sort of CEO any major Australian entity would want. "He's young, modern, capable and charismatic," said one observer.

Both corporate Australia and various arms of government like McLachlan, and why the public has likely warmed to him more than some of his predecessors could be because he comes across as a genuine fan of the game.

And it is no act. One AFL executive tells the story of a meeting between McLachlan and St Kilda that ended up including an impromptu and comprehensive examination of the playing list. McLachlan is an unabashed Saints fan and knew about pretty much every player on the list from one through 40.

"I don't think any sporting CEO would be as big a fan of a team as Gill is of the Saints," he said.

McLachlan's last 12 months have been highlighted by the purchase of Etihad Stadium and the creation of AFLW. The flow-on effects of the former will take some time to crystalise, but he correctly sniffed the wind when it came to women's football and brought forward by three years a project that had been slated for a 2020 commencement. It has been such a raging success that as he recently told the Melbourne Press Club, it will now be around for the next 100 years.

The imminent signing of the Collective Bargaining Agreement and the completion of the AFL's investment plan to follow, will cap off an impressive and jam-packed off-season.