AFL Commission Chair Richard Goyder has today paid tribute to Dr Allen Aylett as one of the key figures in the successful growth of Australian football as the nation’s leading sport.
Aylett, 88, passed away this morning and Mr Goyder said he would be remembered both as a champion player for North Melbourne and an administrator with extraordinary vision that changed the game.
A member of the Australian Football Hall of Fame as a player, Aylett played 220 games for the Kangaroos between 1952-64, was a three-time club champion, dual All-Australian, Tassie Medallist at the 1958 National Carnival among his 15 state games and named in the club’s Team of the Century.
After his playing days, he took over as club President in 1971 through to 1976, engineering the first premiership in club history in 1975, and then leading the VFL as President from 1977-84.
In his time as VFL President, the competition began playing premiership matches outside of Victoria, primarily in New South Wales and leading to the move of South Melbourne to Sydney in the early 1980s, expanded television coverage of the game including the first live Grand Final broadcast, and made the competition’s first forays into playing on Sundays, among a raft of changes.
“Allen Aylett is a keystone of the national competition we have today,” Mr Goyder said.
“His drive and ambition for the game to be as great as it could be opened new boundaries for our sport, and started the difficult but important steps to build the national competition we see today.
“Allen was a player of the very highest level – twice being part of a national carnival for Victoria and winning a Tassie Medal – as well as guiding North Melbourne to its maiden VFL premiership in 1975 when he transformed the club by appointing Ron Barassi as coach.
“In many ways, he was the father of the national competition and a visionary who saw the game expanding across all parts of Australia. Throughout his time in football his wife Marj was by his side and the competition, and the code owe Allen, Marj and the Aylett family a great and enduring debt for the decades of service he gave the game.
“On behalf of both the AFL Commission, and the wider game of football, we send our sincere condolences to Marj and the Aylett family at this very sad time,” he said.
AFL Chief Executive Gillon McLachlan said Aylett’s contribution to the national growth of the game could never be understated in the game’s history.
“Allen Aylett was a giant of our game and had a vision that Australian Football should be played in every state and territory,” Mr McLachlan said.
“He was an innovator who continued to energetically drive change in our game and forge a path where so many Australians are today able to play and watch our game.
“He was not only one of the great ideas men in our game, but also a wonderful man whose passion for football and family knew no bounds.”
