The AFL Just Sacked Its Own People — Explain That

There’s a saying in football: you’re only as strong as the people beside you in the contest. Somebody should’ve told the AFL front office before they swung the axe on their own workforce without so much as a heads-up.

The news broke this week that the AFL had made a sudden round of job cuts, leaving staff blindsided and the broader footy community genuinely gobsmacked. No fanfare, no public warning — just gone. The kind of move that makes you scratch your head and wonder who’s actually running the show at Docklands.

What Actually Happened?

From what’s been reported, the cuts were swift and, by all accounts, cold. Staff who had dedicated years — in some cases careers — to the game were shown the door in a manner that left plenty of people inside and outside the building shaking their heads.

Now look, I get it. Every organisation has to make hard calls sometimes. Budgets tighten. Structures change. I’m not naive enough to think the AFL is immune to economic pressure. But how you do something matters just as much as what you do. And from where I’m sitting, this looked rough.

The AFL is not a struggling corner store. This is a multi-billion dollar industry. An organisation that pockets enormous broadcast rights deals, sponsorships, and gate revenue. So when you hear that employees were cut loose without what many would consider a fair and dignified process, you’ve got every right to ask: what gives?

The People Behind the Curtain

Here’s the thing teh wider footy public doesn’t always think about — and fair enough, because we’re all watching the ball — but there are hundreds of people working behind the scenes to make this game tick.

Media staff, community engagement coordinators, game development officers, administrative workers. These are the people who run the school clinics, coordinate the grassroots programs, keep the wheels turning while the blokes in suits are busy posing for photos at Gather Round.

These aren’t faceless line items on a spreadsheet. They’re footy people. Passionate, committed, probably not earning what they’re worth because — let’s be honest — nobody works in sports administration for the money. They do it because they love the game.

To have that pulled out from under you without warning? That stings. And it should sting us too.

The AFL Loves Telling Us About Its Values

Can I make a point here? Because this really gets me going.

Every second week the AFL is out there lecturing clubs, players and fans about values. Respect. Inclusion. Doing things the right way. They’ve got campaigns and slogans and press releases about being a community game that cares about people.

So how does that square with cutting staff in a manner that, by most reports, felt anything but respectful? You can’t peddle a message of community and care out one side of your mouth and then treat your own employees like a cost to be managed out the other side.

It’s the kind of hypocrisy that gets under my skin. And I reckon it’d get under yours too if you thought about it long enough.

Is This About the Money?

Let’s talk dollars, because it always comes back to dollars.

The AFL has been on a spending blitz for years — new venues, new events, expansion teams, Gather Round, a finals series that seems to grow by the year. All of it costs money. And somewhere along the line, someone in a very expensive chair decided that the workforce paying for all that ambition could take a hit.

Now, I’m not an economist. I’m a bloke from the outer who lives and dies with the Pies every single week. But even I can see the optics problem here. When you’re investing hundreds of millions into new markets and flashy events while the people doing the day-to-day grunt work are getting their passes revoked, something’s out of whack.

The AFL should definately be providing a clear and transparent explanation of why these cuts were necessary, what the plan is going forward, and what support is being offered to those affected. So far? Crickets. Or at best, the usual corporate non-speak that says everything and nothing at once.

What the Clubs Are Watching

You better believe every football club in the competition is keeping one eye on this. And not just from a sympathy standpoint.

The AFL sets the tone. It sets the standards. It tells clubs how to behave, how to manage their people, what a healthy football culture looks like. When the governing body itself stumbles on something as fundamental as how you treat your staff, it sends a message — and not a good one.

I’ve heard it said that the way you treat people on the way out says more about your character than how you treat them on the way in. If that’s true, then the AFL’s character just took a bit of a hit this week.

Carn the Pies — and yes, I’ll work Collingwood into this somehow — but even as a Magpies man who spends most of his time convinced the competition has it in for us, I’ll say this: the AFL treating its own staff poorly is bad for everyone. Every club. Every fan. Every kid at a school clinic being coached by someone whose job might not exist next year.

What Needs to Happen Now

The AFL owes the affected staff, and frankly the whole football public, a proper explanation. Not a press release full of buzzwords. A real, honest account of what happened, why it happened, and what’s being done to support the people who lost their jobs.

A few things that would go a long way:

• Transparency about the rationale. If cuts were necessary, say why — clearly and honestly.
• Genuine support packages for those who were let go, not just the bare legal minimum.
• An acknowledgment that the manner of the cuts fell short of the values the AFL publicly champions.
• A commitment that this kind of thing won’t happen again without proper process and communication.

Is that too much to ask? From an organisation that generates the kind of revenue the AFL does? I don’t think so.

The Game Is Bigger Than the Suits

Here’s what I come back to every time the AFL does something that leaves a bad taste: footy is bigger than the people running it. It always has been.

This game belongs to the supporters who pack the stands, the volunteers who run the local clubs, the kids who pull on a jumper for the first time on a freezing Saturday morning. And it belongs to the workers — the ones at AFL House and in the state bodies and in the community programs — who keep it all stitched together behind the scenes.

Those people deserved better this week. And the AFL knows it.

The competition is heading into one of the most exciting parts of the season. The footy is brilliant. The ladder is tight. There’s plenty to love about our game right now.

But the suits at AFL HQ have got some serious fence-mending to do — with their own staff, and with a footy public that’s watching very closely.

Fix it. Do right by the people you let go. And maybe — just maybe — take a long hard look at what your values are actually worth when the pressure is on.