- Banned
- #1
Mr Unpopular: Adrian Anderson.
Photo: Justin Mcmanus
Anderson: The Fixer
Caroline Wilson | May 21, 2008
YOU'RE not in this job to be popular," the new AFL chief executive, Andrew Demetriou, told his new football boss Adrian Anderson in February 2004.
Eight months later, at the end of Anderson's first season in the job, Demetriou told him: "You've exceeded even my expectations."
Anderson laughs when he tells the story now in this, his first extensive interview with The Age after more than four years and four full and turbulent seasons in the job. Several times over the journey, however, the AFL's most demanding and integral position has been for him no laughing matter.
He was taken to task in the most vitriolic of terms by some senior commentators and accused of indecision, even internally, and then for being too decisive in his rule changes.
He was singled out and pilloried by this newspaper following the Fremantle-St Kilda "sirengate" two seasons ago, attacked by some frustrated coaches for his poor communication skills and even indirectly referred to as "stupid" by Collingwood coach Mick Malthouse during the ever-evolving interchange controversy earlier this season. Anderson, however, says all the pain was worthwhile.
More to the point, had this interview taken place inside the MCG or Telstra Dome and Anderson's style been more aggressive, he might well have pointed upwards and shouted: "Scoreboard!"
"By the end of 2005, the game was more stop-start than ever before and flooding had become prevalent," he said. "Since then, we have introduced six new rules and interpretations, including changing the kick-in rule, stopping the holding up of players after marks and free kicks and a stricter interpretation of holding the ball.
"We've made some changes to the game that have set the framework for some of the greatest games ever seen. I am not taking the credit for that and neither is the AFL. Players and clubs are responsible for the game.
"But we have put in place the framework for it. We have seen a 60% increase in the time the ball is in play. The game is more continuous and more free-flowing and the rule changes have made it harder to flood."
Although he admits his communication skills were not as strong as they could have been to clubs early in the job, and the recent controversy over experimental changes to interchange procedures for the NAB Cup should have been relayed to coaches earlier than late December, he credited his relationship with coaches such as Mark Williams as improving not only football but conditions for players.
"Mark, by eloquently putting forward his case in a very direct fashion, probably led to us correctly protecting players with their heads over the ball. That rule will prevent some player in the future from suffering serious head or neck injuries," he said.
"In 2005, we had one-quarter of the rucks in the competition sitting on the sidelines with PCL (posterior cruciate ligament) injuries. We changed the ruck rule and people complained, but now those injuries are no longer prevalent."
Several years ago, Anderson was moved to ask colleagues and even some journalists how they dealt with savage criticism that came their way. Even Demetriou took him to task — mildly publicly, less so privately — when he stumbled on radio over a question relating to total player payments.
These days, Anderson is significantly more prepared. "Andrew can be direct, but I think that's a good thing. He backs his staff but he expects results. You'd rather know where you stand."
Nowadays, too, Anderson said he is far better emotionally equipped to deal with public scrutiny. He has caught up with Malthouse privately following the Collingwood coach's most recent tongue-lashing, for which Malthouse later apologised.
"Kevin Sheedy told me when I took on this job: 'Just remember mate, controversy is your friend.' I didn't realise it at the time but that was a sage piece of advice… controversy and debate are part of the game.
"I do acknowledge that in some cases, there's a perception that they (AFL coaches) are not listened to enough." A perception or reality? "Do I think we could communicate better? Yes, I do. And I think we are getting better at it."
Anderson's profile in his early years was not helped by his background. Not only was he young at 31 when he took on the job and a successful lawyer, but unlike his two most immediate predecessors, Andrew Demetriou and Ian Collins, he had not played at league level.
Before Collins came popular, roguish and highly experienced club pioneer Alan Schwab and before Schwab, Jack Hamilton — a ruthless Collingwood full-back and a much-loved larger-than-life character.
Not all of those reached the top AFL job but all aspired to it and were all contenders.
Although the AFL was restructured during Wayne Jackson's reign to downgrade the football operations position — then held by Collins — to level with a number of other executive positions, Demetriou reshaped it to a position of influence that, in practical terms, had him virtually running the show alongside Jackson.
Anderson is not seen as an immediate successor to Demetriou, who raised eyebrows at the commission in 2006 when he promoted Gillon McLachlan (broadcasting and commercial operations manager) to the No. 2 post previously held by Football Federation Australia boss Ben Buckley. When Demetriou was in a helicopter in February with National Australia Bank boss Ahmed Fahour and others during a Dubai promotion, the AFL boss commented: "If this goes down, Gillon's in charge."
Demetriou told The Age recently that he deliberately promoted McLachlan over Anderson because of the latter's workload in reshaping the AFL's judicial system, draft and laws of the game in a bid to ease flooding and the growing number of stoppages. And AFL chairman Mike Fitzpatrick, when asked by The Age in February whether he was concerned by "cowboyish" behaviour among his executive, responded in the negative but then took the opportunity, unprompted, to praise the work Anderson had done in reforming the tribunal system, something even Demetriou himself admits he was unable to achieve.
"It was clear to me when I took on the job," Anderson said, "that the structure had already changed. And I had a lot to focus on. We had a judicial system that needed reform that had been running along pretty much the same lines for 100 years and now I think everyone would agree it's far more workable."
Anderson knows there will always be another issue around the corner. This week, it was the interchange fiasco, at the start of the season it was "tanking" and somewhere in between, his decision to spend four weeks overseas with the AFL's blessing to further his studies.
Regarding the priority pick system, which he has also changed, Anderson admits: "I'm not pretending that tanking or talk of tanking doesn't exist. I'm not avoiding the issue and I'm not denying it's an issue. It's a difficult balancing act and one of the fundamentals of our competition is that teams are trying when they go out on the park. But there is a genuine upside and the draft and the salary cap are two key planks to our competition and the draft creates a system where bottom teams get access to the best players."
Anderson said his two key mentors were his father Ken and his wife Fi — he has become both married and a father since joining the AFL.
His father's advice in the worst of times, he says, was simple: "Keep your eye on the ball and get on with it."
Still Think he Should be Sacked Long with his mates in the AFL
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