On who could eventually replace McLachlan, Demetriou named a few candidates that came to mind.
“There will be a field of names the AFL Commission will consider, I’m not privy to who they are, but certainly internally they’ll be looking at people like Travis Auld who’s been at Gold Coast and Essendon, they’ll be looking at Andrew Dillon who is probably a dark horse and certainly capable, but whether he wants to do it (I don’t know),” he said.
“At clubland you’ve got some talent, you’ve got Xavier Campbell at Essendon, Dave Matthews who has worked at the AFL and is at GWS, obviously Brian Cook if he wasn’t stepping down from Geelong and certainly Brendon (Gale), he’ll be in the mix.”
Former Collingwood president Eddie McGuire believes Richmond CEO Brendon Gale is a likely candidate and would like to see him given a big task at AFL House as a launching pad into the role.
“If I was doing it, I would get Brendon Gale and put him in charge of Tasmania and the northern exposure,” McGuire added.
“If he’s the bloke that can pull that together, then that’s going to be the legacy piece for the next 10 to 15 years.”
https://www.sen.com.au/news/2021/04/21/demetriou-names-potential-candidates-to-eventually-replace-mclachlan/