8th Annual Business Breakfast

The Foundation’s annual breakfast has established an outstanding reputation for its calibre of speakers and for this year’s event, the Foundation was delighted to have the CEOs of both the Australian Football League (AFL) and the National Rugby League (NRL) being interviewed by prominent media presenter and broadcaster, Elaine Canty AM. Gillon McLachlan (AFL) and Dave Smith (NRL) discussed a broad range of topical issues relating to their codes including television ratings, crowd numbers, dealing with misbehaving players, issues relating to drugs and how each code has dealt with them and the challenges faced by the popularity of soccer, especially at a junior level, and others.

They then took a number of questions from the floor which provided a lively interactive discussion, especially on the topic of gambling and alcohol advertising.

We were also very pleased to be joined by the Chairman of the NRL, John Grant, the Chairman of Melbourne Storm, Bart Campbell, the CEO of Rugby Union Victoria, Ross Oakley OAM (OW1961), legendary NRL coach, Roy Masters AM, and AFL Commissioner, former Wesley parent and the next Governor of Victoria, Linda Dessau AM. The Foundation gratefully acknowledges the generous and ongoing support of our corporate sponsors Pacific Search Partners, RT Edgar Real Estate, Prime Group, Barry Plant Monash, Total Facilities Maintenance and Virgin Australia. Finally, our special thanks to Wesley parent, Graeme Samuel AC (OW1963), for his continued support in securing such outstanding speakers for our event.