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"All went to water": Wilson unloads on dummy-spitting presidents
SEN • October 30th, 2025 1:19 pm
Craig Drummond has officially been announced as the AFL’s newest Commissioner, taking over from the departing Richard Goyder ahead of the 2026 AFL season.
An experienced businessman and former Geelong president, Drummond is expected to walk into the Chairman role at AFL house, beating out the likes of former Western Bulldogs president Peter Gordon, former AFLPA CEP Peter Allen and former Collingwood president Jeff Browne.
Amongst the politics surrounding the handing down of the Commissioner’s role, Caroline Wilson has explored the ins and outs of the ongoing process.
Goyder, who held the role as chair for nine years, was permitted a recommendation for the candidate he believes would best suit the gig, and while many believed that Jeff Browne would have been the best fit, Goyder went in a different direction.
“There was a view that Richard Goyder had gone off (Jeff Browne) a bit, and why it’s Richard Goyder’s choice in the first place – I can’t explain that to you,” Wilson told SEN’s Don’t Shoot the Messenger podcast.
“What Richard Goyder did, which is bizarrely what he also did when he took so long to decide who was going to replace Gillon McLachlan, is he threw in a red herring at the end, and the red herring was Peter Gordon.
“In the case of Gillon McLachlan’s replacement - that eventually went to Andrew Dillon - he threw in Kylie Watson-Wheeler. Ironically, here’s another Bulldogs president.
“I think he embarrassed both of those potential candidates by doing that, because the backlash against Peter Gordon from some presidents was so vigorous, that there is now a cynical view that maybe Richard Goyder only threw up Peter Gordon to ensure that Craig Drummond got it.”
Drummond, the former CEO of Medibank, enters the role without a significant footballing background despite his four years at the head of Geelong – contrasting that of Jeff Browne.
“He is a corporate employment. He doesn’t have a football background like Jeff Browne. He has been president of a club, but Jeff Browne had worked for years for the AFL – he was their general council, he wrote a lot of the current rules, helped invent the draft, really shaped the modern game in terms of the rules etc. at head office.
“Jeff Browne, whether he was seen as divisive – there was a very clever campaign to place him in the Andrew Pridham camp. Andrew Pridham is chairman of Sydney, and he had people who were not fans of him, largely St Kilda’s chairman Andrew Bassat.
“There was this block that was against Jeff Browne. He did get support, but Richard Goyder didn’t want him. Why? Because Jeff Browne stood up to Goyder and said, ‘I won’t come in unless I can come in straight away’.
“Ironically, Jeff Browne has done his work, as they forced Richard Goyder’s hand. He has been forced to stand down at the next AGM, which is late February to early March in 2026, just a few months away. Craig Drummond will come in with a clean slate.”
Given the result, Wilson has slammed the nature of club presidents for their inability to force the hand of Goyder.
“There needs to be more change on the commission. It is still a very ordinary commission. One word on those presidents, who did a lot of politicking, a lot of murmuring and there was a lot of threats of mutiny… they all went to water at the end.
“Not all of them, but most of them went to water. When they all got together on Brownlow day last month to meet, not one of them made a peep, and Andrew Pridham, who was so angry about the way he had been treated and marginalised, didn’t even turn up!
“How on earth are you going to make change if you spit the dummy and don’t turn up? How on earth are you going to have any credibility? The presidents, by nature, are divided because of the various constituencies that they run, but to not be strong enough to get together and form some sort of block against Richard Goyder…
“They did it strongly enough for him to stand down, but they needed to make a case for him not nominating his successor. That didn’t work.
“Having said all of that, a safe pair of hands in name only. We will see how Craig Drummond works. There was a few that because Andrew Dillon is not the most dynamic CEO, whereas Gillon McLachlan was more dynamic, maybe someone like Jeff Browne or Peter Gordon would have been (better), but we will see.”
