Ideas & Reflections

Colin Carter entered the VFL/AFL bubble in the mid-1980s, when requested by the Commission to assess the state of the game, then struggling with many clubs under financial stress, as the competition moved from amateur to semi-professional. His report changed the game, providing the League with the roadmap to the national competition that has now reached monolithic status. That report was seminal in so many ways, leading to the game’s policy of ‘equalisation’, encompassing the draft, salary cap, reduced list sizes, revenue sharing and ‘ground rationalisation’.

His job was not done then. In the late 1980s, he was instrumental in forging a deal between the VFL and the Melbourne Cricket Club which saw VFL members having access to the MCG. In 1993, he was appointed to the newly formed AFL Commission, a role he retained until 2008, when he rejoined the Geelong Football Club Committee, and was president of the Cats for ten seasons. In 2021, the AFL Commission sought his advice on the potential of a licence being provided to a team from Tasmania.

That career “inside the VFL/AFL bubble” has seen huge changes inside and outside the playing field, and Ideas & Reflections is Carter’s opportunity to look back and look forward: what has worked, what hasn’t and what can be done to maintain the AFL, and Australian Football, at the forefront of Australian Sport.