Do you need to be a sports industry insider to thrive in the business of sport? According to Marija Simich, the Head of Strategy at the Australian Football League (AFL), the answer is no.
In fact, she says since she joined the AFL administration a year and a half ago, she’s experienced a culture where diverse views and outside expertise are perceived as a positive.
“I’m not a sports industry insider. But it’s actually been something that people have been really welcoming of and encouraging about,” Simich told Women’s Agenda recently.
“There’s definitely a ‘no stupid questions policy’ but there’s also this idea that taking an outsider’s lens and asking probing questions- or challenging things that have gone untested- is really valuable. It’s genuine across the entire business.”
As a strategist and management consultant with a professional history across industries like financial services, transport, and telecommunications, Simich says she had never contemplated taking on a role in sport.
But now, a year and a half into her time as Head of Strategy at the AFL, Simich says she’d be hard pressed to find a better job as a strategist.
“Now that I’ve been doing it for a while, it’s difficult to imagine a better job if strategy is what you want to do,” she says.
“The breadth of things that you get to work on; there is just such an incredible range of areas. My team’s list of projects reads as a wish list of things you would want to work on in sport. So that’s inherently motivating.”
Simich describes her strategy team’s day-to-day as a “grab-bag of priorities” across the AFL, covering everything from the recent Tasmanian team proposition, negotiating a collective bargaining agreement, the timing of the grand final, or commercial opportunities.
“The thing that’s always constant is we do everything hand-in-glove with the business. So it’s a lot of collaboration across the entire AFL administration,” Simich says.
Simich is particularly proud to be part of a strategy team that is delivering some industry-leading achievements, noting the recent advances we have seen in the women’s game.
“What is distinctive about AFLW and what the fans love about it, is that it feels up close and personal. As a fan, you feel like you’re part of every moment. They are a part of its story and success,” Simich shares.
“One piece of work close to my heart is what we did on the gender equity strategy for the AFL. It’s our 2.0 version because there was already quite a successful one in place,” Simich explains.
“So much has come out of it. We equalised the talent pathway for female players on their way to becoming elite, the number of female coaches in that area increased fourfold, we saw a huge spike in the number of women umpiring at the AFLW level, there was a new program that was launched for women in football operations and we expanded one in coaching as well.”
Simich says seeing the AFL turn its executional power to develop the women’s game has been phenomenal.
“Reflecting at the end of last year, I was so impressed with how much this business can achieve when we focus on a goal.”
As a senior leader at the AFL, Simich said it has helped her to witness a whole host of women in leadership across the administration.
“There is good representation of women across virtually every area [of the AFL administration],” Simich says. “It’s certainly not an isolating experience in the sense that there aren’t women around.”
“We have a lot of really strong women in leadership and I don’t see any of them holding back. I don’t see any of them modifying the way that they are to fit into a traditionally male-dominated industry.
“We also have great male leadership…leaders that wholeheartedly embrace all of the women in our business. Because there’s certainly no single type of woman at the AFL.”
Feature Image by Michael Willson/AFL Photos.
Read our profile on the AFL’s Head of Data and Analytics, Elisa Koch, here.