AFL Barwon closes in on new chief

AN announcement on AFL Barwon’s new Regional General Manager could be made by the end of the month.

From up to 40 applicants for the position made vacant by Will McGregor’s departure before Christmas, AFL Barwon commission chair Craig Keating says they’ve narrowed the list of contenders down to “five or six”.

“We’ve done five or six shorter interviews … three or four is as many you’d like to do a full interview with,” Keating told krockfootball.com.au.

“We’re at the point now where AFL Vic get involved, and they will be involved in the next step; that’ll be conducting interviews. We hope to have those completed by next week.

“Ideally, we’d like to sit down and make an informed decision on Australia Day. Then there’ll be some reference checks to follow.

“Then the process will be to make an appointment, so the end of January’s probably a good goal.”

Keating said there was some “high-quality” among the applicants, including a number with AFL experience.

“There’s been some interest from people from the AFL sphere,” he said.

“But, just generally, there was good interest from people interested in sports administration generally – so, other sports as well.

“It was a pretty broad field.”

Twitter: @tom_king79