AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan has announced he is stepping down as league boss at the end of the 2022 season.
McLachlan spoke to the media with chairman Richard Goyder this morning. You can watch the press conference replay here.
McLachlan has been in the top job for eight years after taking over from Andrew Demetriou in 2014.
"There is relief, there is regret, there is everything," McLachlan said as he fought back tears.
"It is clearly an emotional day because I have spent 20 years of my life here. But I feel very good about where the league is and I feel good about the fact that it's the right time.
"I make tens of thousands of decisions. They are not all right and there is always things you would do differently but substantively, I feel OK where we are at.
"You make a number of different decisions but the big ones, I feel good. That was a tough period these last couple of years. There were some big moments and some big calls we had to make. We have come through that pretty well and that's where we are today."
McLachlan said he made the call to stand down on the weekend as he travelled to Adelaide for the AFLW grand final.
Richmond chief Brendon Gale is reportedly in the running to be McLachlan's successor after missing out on the job in 2014, while football boss Andrew Dillon, executive Travis Auld, and Western Bulldogs president Kylie Watson-Wheeler are also in the discussion.
Asked about his thoughts on who should replace him, McLachlan said the new boss would be "completely different".
"That is not a decision for me. I'm not trying to be churlish about it. Richard [Goyder] and the commission, it is their decision to make," he said.
"What I do feel absolutely certain about, that whoever replaces me will be completely different. They will have to bring their own style and be their own person, man or woman.
"That [is my] only bit of advice — that whoever gets the role, just be your own self and be your own person and you will go OK.
"That was the advice given to me by Andrew Demetriou and I have hopefully brought that to bear every day I have been here."
There had been speculation that McLachlan would stand down during the past couple of years, but he resolved to stay on as the sport negotiated the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The 49-year-old is the son of Angus McLachlan, a former first-class cricketer and South Australian pastoralist, and the older brother of Channel 7 commentator Hamish McLachlan.
