Gil McLachlan reveals his dad wasn’t a ‘caring father’ and how childhood prepped him for AFL top job

He steered the AFL through its most troubled waters during the Covid pandemic and signed off on the richest television deal any Australian sporting code has ever seen.

Now, outgoing AFL boss Gillon McLachlan has opened up on his childhood and the yin and yang influence his parents had on him that made him such a success as an AFL administrator.

McLachlan didn’t grow up in the corporate world. Instead, he and his three brothers Hamish, Banjo and Will grew up on a sheep farm one hour outside Adelaide that was run by pastoralist dad Angus and mum Sylvia.

Speaking to The Insider magazine, McLachlan said the dynamic between his parents and their different methods of raising the four boys helped shape him into the man he is today. 

‘I had a mother who was a very emotive, caring woman. My father was not that, but he was tough and very clear about how much work rate went into getting things done,’ McLachlan said.

AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan and his family including children Sydney, Edie, Cleo, Luna and wife Laura

‘So between the two of them and my time there, I think I got a resilience and a work rate from my father, and empathy and a bit of a broader perspective on how you would like to treat people from my mother.

‘Everyone’s parents are important, but the whole background and the mix of those two, I think I was very lucky to have the parents I had.

‘I had a pretty lucky childhood. I lived with three mates, my brothers. And we were on a farm and either kicking a footy or bowling a cricket ball or working with the old man until we went off to boarding school. I am not sure you realise at the time [but] it was a pretty lucky existence.’

A life on the farm wasn’t for Gil, though. Instead he found his passion on the football fields of Adelaide, which took him achingly close to a first-grade debut as he featured on the supplementary list for Carlton in the 1990s. 

‘I played a lot of footy and spent most of my life around footy clubs,’ he says.

‘I think it was pretty helpful to me in doing this role.’

The AFL CEO (with Robbie Williams ahead of the AFL grand final in September last year) chose footy over farm life

McLachlan’s time running the game has seen him rub shoulders with some of the biggest names in the world, like US President Joe Biden (pictured) – but it’s relatively unknown people who have given him his biggest achievement in the sport

Now, as his time as AFL boss draws to a close, the administrator reflects on his greatest achievements in his time as chief executive. 

‘When I think about this, I always think about the people. The team I have,’ he said.

‘I look at the game now and am proud of the state that it’s in and I think the achievements are for other people to write about.

‘But I feel that when I leave the game we will have an incredible leadership. With the chairmen I have been lucky to have, the great set of people we have and we are looking forward to record crowds.

‘Whether it is crowds, money, participation, broader audience, it is looking pretty good.’