Australian Football League CEO Gillon McLachlan has intervened in the proposed A$500,000 ($381,300) agreement between the AFL coaches and Fox Footy to "stage joint post-game press conferences after every exclusive pay-TV game during the 2015 season," according to Caroline Wilson of the SYDNEY MORNING HERALD. Reportedly "taken aback at the advanced stage of the controversial plan," McLachlan is understood to have raised a "number of reservations over the proposal in a heated conversation" with AFL Coaches Association CEO Mark Brayshaw. Not only have senior coaches Mick Malthouse and Phil Walsh expressed "major issues with the plan, several clubs have communicated their displeasure to head office at the precedent being set by the revamped coaches' body selling off a portion of potential AFL broadcast revenue." Collingwood President Eddie McGuire said, "There's enough fragmentation of the footy income without the coaches' union jumping in and getting involved. Those reservations have prompted Brayshaw to write to all 18 clubs seeking their support for the Fox Footy deal." While talks between Fox Footy and the AFL coaches began last year, the AFL "is understood to have become aware of the negotiations only over the past 10 days" (SMH, 3/10).
