Goyder told the clubs this week that he and his CEO Dillon were currently negotiating financial terms with the headhunter.

Four presidents told this masthead that the majority view was not against elite corporate credentials but that a deeper knowledge and understanding of the clubs should remain a priority.

Over the past two years, a number of club presidents, including former Geelong and Collingwood presidents Craig Drummond and Jeff Browne along with David Koch (Port Adelaide) and Sydney’s Pridham, have been suggested as future AFL chairmen.

Goyder is entering his ninth AFL season as chairman and has served on the commission since 2011. He is up for re-election early next year but has indicated he wants to stay longer to oversee and work alongside his replacement for a period.

The view of the clubs is that the slow-moving nature of Goyder’s leadership style could see the appointment of the next commission chair drag on for at least another year and potentially longer.

Goyder took more than a year to appoint McLachlan’s replacement and the commission led the game for three years without anyone boasting football playing experience until Andrew Ireland and Matt de Boer came on board in 2024.

While club presidential pressure probably influenced those appointments, the clubs have not exerted true muscle over commission appointments since the start of this century when West Australian commissioner Terry O’Connor was ousted because of his perceived bias against Victorian clubs.

The presidents are expected to be met with resistance from Goyder and the commission, particularly over their wish for him to step down as head of the nominations committee. That proposed move would be a radical break from past practice, with the AFL Commission priding itself on its independence.

In recent years there has been growing frustration regarding the selection process of commissioners, with the view that the AFL was paying them lip service by placing presidents on a nominations committee in which they had little voice. That frustration came to a head in 2017 when the presidents said they were barely consulted over the appointment of Robin Bishop, a founding partner of BGH Capital.

In 2018, a group of Victorian club presidents – fearing their influence was waning – met away from AFL bosses in former Hawthorn president Jeff Kennett’s private corner store in Cremorne in a bid to force a cultural correction in the AFL’s pecking order.

Loading

And the presidents have held semi-regular meetings, shutting out the AFL since August 2023 when they met over concerns that they and their fellow directors could be exposed personally to concussion claims from players. The success of that push helped unite the club leaders.

Andrew Bassat told this masthead this week: “I think Richard is doing a good job. Richard is actively working on succession, and I think at the right time, that will happen.”