Gillon McLachlan concerned that youth turning away from playing AFL

AFL Chief Executive Gillon McLachlan has expressed his concern that youth between the ages of 10 and 14 years have dropped off in significant numbers from playing the game at a community level due to the Coronavirus pandemic.

McLachlan told The Age that getting this age group back to playing locally - in Victoria and across the nation - represented the AFL’s biggest challenge at community level.

Apart from that young age group - which parents found difficult to persuade to go to training - participation in the grassroots game was back to the previous levels for other demographics, McLachlan stated “our biggest challenge in that is sort of the 10 to 14-year cohort … data (suggests) a lot of areas are back at 100 or 110%, greater than pre-COVID levels (but) the vulnerability in Victoria, in fact, nationally... participating (in) community football is the 10 to 14-year cohort, and we’re going to make some announcements.”

Asked to explain the participation decline, McLachlan suggested “we’re all speculating there, but I’ve believe, you know, I’ve got a 14-year-old, and I think it’s that age group that are teenagers, socialisation is important, and they’ve leant into their phones, and digitally and sort of started living in their screens.

“That’s what I believe and there’s, at that age, they’re starting to live independently and broader. It’s harder for parents to say, ‘Cmon, we’re getting out of the house and we’re going to training’.

“At community level, it’s getting our clubs, our programs, our volunteer networks supporting and get you know, our participation base back and firing.”

Apart from the decline in youth participation, McLachlan said the greatest challenge heading into 2022 was people returning to AFL games, adding “getting everyone back to the football at the elite level, getting that confidence and that rhythm of our game back.”

In comments posted yesterday on the AFL.com.au website, McLachlan stated that the addition of a Tasmanian team to the competition would be decided in August, with the AFL Commission to formally put forward a proposal relating to the bid to club presidents.

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