If there was one thing the current general manager of football at the AFL Laura Kane has always had a love for, it’s footy.

When she was little her typical week was primary school of course, Greek school on Wednesday nights at Omiros College and Auskick on Saturdays.

She played Aussie rules through primary with the junior boys (back then there wasn’t many girls playing as today) but could no longer play around high school age.

Years later youth girls footy was established and she went on at Melbourne University Women’s Football Club to play senior women’s footy and coach, eventually becoming president at the club.

But it was always a hobby while she studied then worked as a qualified junior solicitor at Waller Legal. At one point she represented victims in the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

When AFLW was established, because she had connections with North Melbourne Football Club through her uni club, she joined the football operations team at North.

She then moved to the AFL in 2021 and is now the executive GM of football at the biggest sport league in Australia.

Never in a million years did she think she would be working in footy she told Neos Kosmos, but she is glad to be where is.

As the first woman to ever hold her position, she is very proud.

“I’m really proud of it. I’m really proud across our industry though in terms of the really strong numbers we have in terms of female representation,” she said.

“We have an executive team that’s 40 per cent women. We’ve got female presidents who are some of our most successful club presidents, Peggy O’Neil (Richmond Tigers) springs to mind in terms of on field success and club success. We’re growing representation of females in our football department.

“I’m really proud of it, but I also know that there’s a huge number of women that work in our industry and AFLW’s been so great for the fast tracking of female talent in our game.”

A footy loving family

As mentioned, Kane has always loved footy, and it goes back to her family.

He father is from Belfast, Ireland, hence the surname but her mum’s parents came from Kastoria, Greece.

Her papou and yiayia moved to Melbourne in 1958, first settling in Brunswick then Altona, and their three children grew up here.

Kane was a passionate Collingwood supporter growing up, but her papou barracked for Geelong because they had the colours of the Greek flag.

“He thought it looked like the Greek flag if you turned it sideways, which was quite funny,” she said.

“I don’t know who I go for anymore, so I might have to stick with the colours of the Greek flag and go for North Melbourne or Geelong.”

The AFL executive is very proud of her heritage and well connected to it as a Greek Orthodox and the whole family speaking Greek.

A fun fact that her family are quite proud of is her yiayia’s dad was the mayor of Kastoria.

“I’ve got half of my family that are really strongly connected to our Greek culture and they absolutely love the footy and it doesn’t matter what their background is or where they came from, it doesn’t matter what they did for jobs, it just mattered who they supported.”

“I love it. I love that it connects people so strongly.”

Running a tight ship

Kane has a lot to do in her role and is responsible for a wide range of operations including umpiring, the laws of the game, the AFL Tribunal, and the AFLW.

Last year she had to deal with the lights at the Gabba switching off mid-game and a botched goal review that ultimately cost Adelaide a finals berth. That was while she was temporary footy boss.

This year hasn’t been without some issues too that have left many fans not happy, so Kane’s role comes with a lot of pressure where she can be scrutinised by some fans and media.

“I mean people absolutely love the game and they are members of their club and they pay their ticket to come into the ground so they feel some ownership over what happens to their club,” she said.

“When they feel ownership, they give you feedback and they tell you what they think and I love it.

“I love that they are so passionate about the game that they want to talk about it and tell us about it and tell their friends and talk at work and at their local footy club.”

She said at the end of the day, AFL exists for the fans and to have their teams make them happier than they knew they could be.

“Yes there’s a lot of scrutiny and interest and pressure, but I have really good support and I love that they love it so much that they want to tell us what to think.”

That support comes from her team and the likes of AFL CEO Andrew Dillion. Kane is also finding the value in talking those who held the role before her, and former AFL CEO Andrew Demetriou.

At the moment her and her team are focusing on continuing to improve the women’s game, bring in new technology and innovations such as ball tracking, that they’ve been working on for two years, and player movement and drafting with changes to academy and father son bidding being flagged.

There’s always something keeping her busy with the 1000+ games a year across men’s, women’s, state and talent programs.