Kelty the AFL's silent powerbroker

Mark Robinson and Michael Warner debate the top 10 most powerful people in footy

Labor stalwart and AFL Commissioner Bill Kelty. Picture: Andrew Tauber Source: Herald Sun

BILL Kelty once described himself as "the back-pocket player" of the AFL Commission.

But the former union boss wields more power than he lets on.

"If he's playing in the back pocket he's the Gavin Wanganeen back pocket - the bloke who wins the Brownlow and is universally admired,'' Collingwood president Eddie McGuire told the Herald Sun.

"Bill's influence in football is profound ... but the great thing about him is his sense of complete fairness.

"Yes, he's a former leader of the ACTU and an ALP stalwart, but at the same time he was on the board of the Reserve Bank and has been a great confidante of Lindsay Fox over the years and so many other people and businesses.

"He may have the idiosyncratic scruffy-haired appearance, but you sit in a board room with Bill Kelty for five minutes and you just see an amazing intellect at play.

"And he is one of the few people in any business, certainly a high-powered business like football, without ego.''

Kelty, 65, is the longest serving member of the AFL commission, joining in 1998, and helped steer Andrew Demetriou into footy's top job a decade ago.

He has his fingerprints all over most of the game's biggest decisions from expansion to the negotiation of collective bargaining agreements with players.

Another senior club official said AFL chairman Mike Fitzpatrick listened to Kelty more than anyone else around the board table.

Gallery: The 10 most powerful people in football

But Kelty's reach extends far beyond AFL headquarters.

He is a director of the Linfox Group, the Bank of Queensland, McGuire's private company McGuire Media and chairman of Essendon president David Evans' investment firm Evans & Partners.

The former ACTU secretary - who was Paul Keating's witness to the Kirribilli pact when prime minister Bob Hawke promised to hand over power in 1988 - maintains strong links to the Australian Labor Party and Gillard Government.

He also mentors some of the game's up and coming administrators.

Former Kangaroos chief executive Eugene Arocca said Kelty had the perfect combination of networks, influence, logic and compassion.

"He was easy to engage with and his advice was always invaluable,'' Arocca said.

"I often thought that he would be the strongest voice around the commission table who would push to keep the 10 clubs in Victoria.

"He has a certain awareness about him - historical, political, economic and cultural - that should give every football follower in the land, whether they are nine or 90, great confidence.''

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