The AFL has announced the inclusion of Nick Carah as General Manager of Football Operations and the expansion of Geoff Walsh's expanding his role in the department.
These appointments complete EGM of Football Laura Kane's leadership team, including GM of Football Performance Josh Mahoney, General Manager AFLW, Emma Moore and Head of Mental Health and Wellbeing, Dr Kate Hall.
Carah joins the AFL after an extensive career in management and operations, including as the CEO of Bendigo Private Banking Services and more than 20 years working at Macquarie Bank in a series of leadership positions.
He was president of VAFA club University Blacks but has never worked at an AFL club.
Kane said she was pleased to have Carah bring his leadership expertise to the football department.
"Nick is a highly skilled operations manager who will bring extensive logistics experience to the role which will see him support clubs in competition management and lead the day-to-day running of AFL, AFLW, VFL and VFLW, working alongside Josh who will lead the performance arm of the department," Kane said.
"His recent work as an AFL and AFLW Match Manager means he has a strong understanding of AFL match day operations, rules, regulations and the required stakeholder management and logistical experience involved in running our competitions, which equates to more than 1000 matches each year.
"Nick has many years of engagement with community football and coupled with his extensive leadership experience, means he will be a great asset to our wider AFL Leadership team."
Reporting into Kane, Walsh will continue to work on the remaining aspects of the competitive balance review relating to talent, state leagues and the Tasmanian list build, as well as expand his work into a facilitator role for the GM Football program.
Walsh joined the AFL's football department ahead of the 2024 season in a part-time capacity, and boasts multiple decades of experience, spending time at Carlton, North Melbourne, Collingwood and St Kilda in leadership positions.
"Geoff is an experienced club administrator, having worked for more than four decades across multiple clubs, and his input has been an integral part of the outcomes to date on the competitive balance review," Kane added.
"He will continue work on the remaining aspects of the review and now look to increase his time in the football department to support the growth of our future GMs of Football in the industry as part of our new talent program.
"I worked closely with Geoff at the North Melbourne and his many years of experience in key administration roles will be a huge asset to this program as we look to bolster the pipeline of talent into this critical role in our AFL clubs."
