From the west coast to the east, Chartered Accountants are playing essential roles in the Australian Rules football major league competition. 
 
Story Charles Beelaerts Photography Simon Casson  
 
Chartered Accountants are more highly represented in Australian Rules Football League (AFL) than in any other code of football in Australia and indeed, than in other sports. From chairmen, vice-chairmen, and directors of boards to chief financial officers, chief operating officers, finance managers and the general manager-finance of the AFL’s governing body itself, you’ll find a Chartered Accountant. 
 
According to Ian Anderson, general manager-finance at the AFL and also a Chartered Accountant, more spectators in Australia watch AFL than any other sport. It is also Australia’s third sport in terms of registered players (after basketball/netball and golf). 
 
During 2003, the last year for which figures have been compiled, the contribution of AFL to Australia’s economy exceeded $2.67b (see Table 1). This was an increase of 30 per cent over the same figure three years earlier in 2000. Anderson says that another report on the three years to 2006 (compiled by an outside firm) is due this year, but no information relating to it has yet been forthcoming. 
 
However, he notes that the figures three years ago were significant and also that there has been growth in all aspects of the industry since so he would be disappointed if there weren’t a sizeable increase in the contribution of AFL to the Australian economy in 2006. 
 
On The Field 
The 2006 Premiership was won by the West Coast Eagles (WCE). The season reached a climax in a one-point win over the Sydney Swans in the Grand Final at the Melbourne Cricket Ground last September. As the name suggests, the WCE are from WA as are the Fremantle Dockers who finished third in the competition, their best-ever result. As you will find out if you talk to WA AFL clubs, there are numerous Chartered Accountants in key positions For example, the chairman of the WCE Dalton Gooding is a Chartered Accountant; he will have been on the board for 10 years this year, the last five as chairman. The general manager – commercial operations (CFO) of the club, Richard Godfrey, is also a Chartered Accountant. He has been in this position since 1999 and prior to that he was accountant at the WCE. At the Fremantle Dockers, the vicechairman, Mel Ashton, is a Chartered Accountant, as is the chief operating officer, Gary Walton. 
 
Although the presence of Chartered Accountants in AFL clubs is strongest in WA, it exists in other States as well. For example, Greg Boulton, president of the Port Adelaide Football Club (Port Power) and David Bartlett, finance manager at the same club, are both Chartered Accountants as are Graeme Downie, a director and former chairman of the Brisbane Lions, and Andrew McMaster, a director of the Sydney Swans. While Anderson says “we Chartered Accountants stick together”, one of the things you find out when talking to some of the personalities involved is that they are not all totally aware of just how many Chartered Accountants there are in the game. Consequently an obvious question to ask is: What is the attraction? 
 
“I think that AFL clubs are now becoming serious businesses in their own right and they require far more detailed and timely financial management and financial reporting,” says Gooding. “The level of accounting and administration in AFL clubs has improved dramatically over the last 5-10 years. And as a result it has become very interesting for Chartered Accountants to look into that field. Because of its high profile I think there is a lot of emotion in AFL, or any sort of elite sport, which is also a great attraction. To be part of a successful AFL club is certainly very attractive, a lot of fun. A lot of AFL clubs have got some very high profile, very successful people of their boards. There is terrific interaction for Chartered Accountants who might be CFOs of AFL clubs in attending board meetings and being part of think tanks, strategic planning and mission statements, and it is a very exciting industry.” 
 
Commenting on the numbers of Chartered Accountants in the game, Brisbane Lions’ Downie says, “it is an interesting thought isn’t it? I don’t know whether it is because we are Chartered Accountants that we are attracted. I know that when I was approached to join the board of the Brisbane Bears back in 1991…the people forming the board felt that having a person with a strong financial background - and mine was in insolvency - would certainly be of benefit to the board. And when you consider the perilous financial position of the club back in those days I suppose I was sort of a backstop for the board in many ways…I think that was an element of it. But I am just a football lover like everybody else and the area of expertise I had came in useful for the club”. 
 
Fremantle Dockers’ Ashton throws in his opinion. “I think that the finance aspect of AFL and other high-profile-sports is very important. If a club is run well from an administrative and financial point of view, I think that helps it achieve its goals on and off the field. AFL is quite big business…and clubs have to operate in a very competitive environment. You need to be on the money in all aspects of the club, not just on the footy field, but also in what happens off the field in administration and all the other aspects of running the club. Clubs need to attract high-calibre financial people”. 
 
Anderson talks about the passion. “As with anything, the AFL is an industry which has some excitement and real public interest. If you have a choice between working in something that you have a passion for and a following for, it generally leads you to take more of an active interest in applying for jobs in that area than you would, say, in looking at something in the manufacturing industry that isn’t quite as attractive to you,” says Anderson. “The attractiveness of the sport, the excitement of the sport and all of the events that go along with it make for an interesting business. The other thing too is that it now is a really sizeable business and it has some fairly sizeable issues attached to it…that brings with it a number of complexities and challenges especially from a financial point of view.” Port Power’s Boulton refers to the game’s profile in explaining the prevalence of Chartered Accountants. 
 
“The AFL industry attracts competent and innovative people and therefore people with strong financial accounting backgrounds. Also there is a group of people who have financial backgrounds and who have had many years in senior management positions and hold directorships that are attracted to the industry because of its profile, the level of commitment required and the passion of the industry”. This view is echoed by WCE’s Godfrey. 
 
“I think everyone likes to work for an interesting business. An interest in football is one of the main attractions,” he says. “The industry has also been a big growth industry over the past few years and that creates opportunity as well; this includes growth in people watching the games, people attending, growth of TV rights and growth of merchandise sales. These areas have been strong at the West Coast Eagles. We all like to be in growing businesses and something that creates more interest and diversity for us. Also there is an opportunity to be integrally involved in areas of the business which you may not be in a straight accounting role. That’s by virtue of being involved in a small to medium business as well.” 
 
Sporting Parallels  
Discipline and focus are two traits that are common to both successful sportsmen and successful Chartered Accountants. “I think to be a top accountant you have to be very disciplined, you have to be very focused and I think you have to be able to develop a good team under you to do allthe work that is required,” says Gooding. “And I think elite sport is all about discipline, focus and being part of a team. It’s a great attraction from that perspective because both chartered accounting and elite sport has all those core values”. 
 
The need for measurement is also a parallel. “Accounting needs to measure results and to assist businesses to grow and it provides discipline in managing a business,” says Boulton. “These days 
AFL sport relies on the one hand on the entertainers, being the players, and on the other hand on good strategy and good business sense both with a significant amount of measurement. The measurement involved can be both financial key performance indicators and the key performance indicators on players’ physical and mental states. The analogy is that you need to measure to manage and in sport you need to manage the sportsmen and the results”. 
 
Godfrey, meanwhile, sees the common characteristics as precision and accuracy. “Everyone is trying to be as professional as they possibly can be…In both accounting and sport you need a lot of precision and accuracy. There isn’t much room for error,” says Godfrey. “At the West Coast Eagles the business is run as professionally as the club can do it. When you take out the playing side of things it’s not a lot different from most other businesses. The club is a public company and has the same sort of reporting requirements. There are business plans; every individual and department has key performance indicators. There is the same set of values as other businesses and it applies to players as well.” 
 
Meanwhile, Anderson places emphasis on the right people and the right resources. “You can tackle this issue from a number of levels. Successful sport requires good leadership as in business; it requires good planning and the right resources and the right players on the field,” he says. “This is the same as business where you require the right people and the right resources. Both require an all-up team effort and everybody working together and understanding what they are working to and for and having the right goals in place. Team effort is important in sport as in business”. For Downie, emotion is what separates football and business.  
 
“The only real difference between football and business, I suppose, is the emotional aspect. The board not only has the governance of the club and the setting of direction of policy as responsibilities, but it really has a role in terms of the emotional welfare of the club,” says Downie. “We are representatives of the members and sometimes the full-time staff of the club aren’t totally connected with members, how they feel, what guides membership, what keeps members happy and I think that the board can play a very important role in football clubs in providing that link. And that is probably one area which is certainly different from business. I don’t think too many directors spend too much time worrying about the emotional needs of shareholders.” At the end of the day both AFL clubs and the Institute are member organisations. “I am also involved with the Institute, formerly as chairman of the Regional Council in Western Australia…and I am still a member of the Council…I can definitely see some parallels because [the Institute and the Fremantle Dockers] areboth membership-based organisations. Fremantle’s members are those who choose to pay and support the club. Institute members need to make sure that they go for their qualification period, but they also pay fees and that sort of thing. There are similarities between membershipbased organisations in terms of the expectations of members and I think I’ve noticed that a fair bit in my experience with the Institute and with my involvement with an AFL club.” 
 
The 2007 Premiership 
There is a good deal of respect for each other among the AFL teams - and at the same time a strong rivalry. The West Coast Eagles are generally considered to be the favourites to take out the Premiership again in 2007. Gooding, chairman of the club, is not so sure they are favourites, but says they are certainly in the top four. 
 
“Just the sheer rivalry between us and the Sydney Swans is extraordinary,” says Gooding. “How close have the last five games been? And it is just quite unparalleled really at that sort of level. Just 12 points aggregate have separated the last five games that we played in winning and losing. Amazing.” 
 
Ashton says that the Fremantle Dockers are looking to play finals football again this year. “That’s what the club’s plans are and that’s what it hopes to achieve,” says Ashton. Anderson at the AFL says he is passionate about Essendon. Last year the team had a lot of injuries but he believes they have a good chance of improving and making the finals this year adding that “anything can happen in the finals”. 
 
Port Power’s Boulton says that the club has a very young squad and he hopes they will develop in 2007. The team didn’t make the final eight last year, but with a bit of luck with injuries they “hope to be knocking on the door of the final eight this year”. Chairman of the Brisbane Lions from 2000-2005 and currently a director, Downie says his club played in four consecutive grand finals, winning three of them. The club had a tough year in 2006 finishing in the bottom four. 
 
“The team that played in four consecutive grand finals was in our view one of the greatest teams ever. Unfortunately age caught up with the majority of those players and the last three years has seen a succession of retirements of great players. We are hopeful we will start to move up the ladder in 2007.” 
 
The West Coast Eagles and the BrisbaneLions are equal as the most successful of the non-Victorian AFL clubs since the game went national in 1987, with three Premierships each. While Downie was chairman for all three of the Brisbane Lions victories, Gooding was chairman of the West Coast Eagles for just one of their wins. 
 
In the best of spirits, Downie concludes: “They are a very good club, West Coast, and they have been a good strong club from the start…Just remind (Gooding) that he has two cups to go before he can pick up the phone and treat me as an equal.” That sums up Chartered Accountants and the AFL.