Tanya Hosch, the AFL’s executive responsible for Indigenous affairs, is set to leave her position after nearly a decade at the league’s headquarters. Her departure comes amid reports of strained relationships within the executive team, raising concerns regarding the overall leadership and direction of the organization.
Hosch’s departure is especially sensitive given the fact that Mr. Both sides have signaled that negotiations between her and the AFL could quickly become acrimonious. Looking deeper, it seems like the case may not be so cut and dry though, as many elements would lead her to leave the role of Commissioner. Hosch has recently been on leave, as she herself stated in an email. She made it to her first match last week in Sydney, watching the Swans take on Carlton.
In his previous role, Hosch developed good connections and relationships with Australian football’s major stakeholders. Particularly telling, he’s tapped into the experience of Adam Goodes and Michael O’Loughlin. Just this last year, both Goodes and O’Loughlin put Hosch on their Go Foundation board. This collaboration demonstrates her desire to further the sport’s engagement with Indigenous issues and strengthen ties to community.
The way that Hosch left has generated a torrent of criticism aimed at the House Appropriations Chair Andrew Dillon. He has only been the AFL’s CEO a season and a half. In a column for The Age, Craig Wilson ripped Dillon’s top down leadership style. He pointed out that Dillon has failed to address critical matters like racism and sexism in the organization. Wilson countered by saying Dillon failed to make the hard choices necessary. He noted that the issues extend far beyond a single week.
“They’ve had a terrible fortnight, I mean they’d already had a terrible week, the week before with the handling of Willie Rioli,” – Caroline Wilson
The obstacles in front of the AFL are many and complex, and have been growing for years. The matters concerning Hosch are five years old. This in part describes a long-standing and innate tension on the executive level.
Craig Hutchison on the crazy week on the AFL on The Agenda Setters Podcast. He pointed out how politicized and controversial everything has become in this period of time. He acknowledged that these ranged from poor umpire management to fears about Hosch’s possible departure.
“A tumultuous week at the AFL last week, who had several issues, one of which began here on The Agenda Setters on Tuesday night with your (Caroline Wilson’s) story on umpire-gate, and other things including your Tanya Hosch column on Saturday about the AFL’s leader of Indigenous affairs and the potential exit of the building.” – Craig Hutchison
Talia Caroline Wilson described the special circumstances surrounding Hosch’s case. As for the talks about her leaving — her side allegedly wants a financial settlement, while she accuses her opponents of a smear campaign.
“But now, to know that, as we lead into the Dreamtime game, that the AFL and Tanya Hosch are negotiating an incredibly, highly sensitive departure, which threatens to get acrimonious from both sides. It involves potentially money, it involves accusations from both sides.” – Caroline Wilson
Wilson’s action underscored the profound lack of faith that players have in the AFL’s judicial system. He voiced concerns about its human capital.
“We’ve been open about the poor performance of the judicial system, of the human resources at the AFL, of their media management, which has just been dreadful, Laura Kane’s under the pump.” – Caroline Wilson
The chaos leaves a lot in question for the AFL as it deals with turmoil on the home front. At the same time, the organization continues to focus on diversity and inclusion within its ranks.
