On Friday, September 16, the Australian football world lost a giant with the passing of Allen Aylett OBE. 

His funeral and memorial service was held on Wednesday, September 28 at the North Melbourne Football Club facilities in Arden Street in North Melbourne.  A location that Allen had held dear for over 70 years since he started his senior career there as a 17-year-old schoolboy from University High.

It is fair to say it’s unusual for clubs to pay public homage to the passing of great players and administrators from other AFL clubs.

However, as a club that is such a passionate and powerful advocate for a truly national competition we think it is appropriate for the Sydney Swans to break with convention.

This tribute therefore is less about Allen’s extraordinary achievements as a player and the president to take North Melbourne to its first ever premiership, and more about his role as the Chairman of the VFL from 1977-1984 and the vision and energy he invested in convincing the Australian football system across the country of the need to form a national competition with the VFL as its cornerstone. He believed this was the greatest defence our sport would have from the many existing and emerging competitors and give it the greatest chance of becoming the dominant game in the country with a guaranteed future. As do we.

Allen was a champion player who was voted the 4^th greatest player in the history of a club that commenced in 1869.  He represented North Melbourne between 1952-64 and was the first North Melbourne player to reach 200 games. He won the Best & Fairest three times and was captain from 1961-64. He represented Victoria 18 times and was selected in the All Australian Teams post the 1958 and ’61 ANFC Carnivals, winning the Tassie Medal (awarded to the best player in the Carnival) in 1958.

In 1971 he was elected President of North Melbourne. Under his leadership the club became highly innovative at a time when clubs were run pretty much as they had been since the turn of the century. It was a golden era for the club playing in five consecutive grand finals and winning the premiership in 1975 and 1977.

In 1977 aged 44, Allen became President of the VFL. It’s fair to say that most VFL clubs were becoming increasingly “financially challenged” as was the case in most other clubs and competitions around the country. As an agent for change, including advocating the need for an independent governing body, he was confronted with hurdles that most people would find insurmountable. To progress his vision to reality it needed somebody with a high level of football credibility (he was a legendary player); an understanding of how clubs functioned (he was president of North and set them up to be arguably the most exciting club on and off the field); influence (Allen was a consummate networker at a political/commercial/football circles); vision(this was supported by a very clear and compelling way of articulating how the benefits greatly outweighed any disadvantages); energy and time (he was blessed with an extraordinary level of energy and enthusiasm and he simply made the time to spend seven years on this extraordinary project while running a full-time dental practice and being a very active and engaged husband and parent). 

For those who knew Allen well, he was at once charming and respectful while being driven and focused.

There is no doubt that along the way there were many people that played a role and translating his vision into reality. And while profoundly advanced from when he took the reins of the VFL, it still remains work-in-progress. 

Notwithstanding however, all the people that in varying ways have had and continue to make a contribution, Allen was unequivocally the catalyst for this massive change which not only saved the game from going backwards, but enabled it to build a foundation on which to look forward with optimism and positivity.

We as a club believe that Allen’s contribution to the game is such that he should be elevated to the status of AFL Legend. 

To that end with Tim Lane’s permission, we quote an extract from an article that Tim wrote for The Age in 2015:

If there is a compelling argument that the Legend category in the Australian Football Hall of Fame should be open to figures beyond players and coaches, it is that Allen Aylett should be there. For it was Aylett who had the national vision, drove the move, and endured terrible unpopularity for it.

It's fair to say the football public saw South Melbourne's relocation as primarily a move to save an ailing club. But Aylett's dream was bigger. He wrote in the introduction to his 1986 biography, ambiguously titled My Game, of his twin dreams. The first was the establishment of an independent controlling body, which he described as "football's salvation". The second was that "we would one day see a truly national competition and that football will become the nation's number one sport".

At the time, and even for the next decade and more as the national league gained traction, Victorians resisted the move away from localism. The VFL had been a superb sporting competition and many resented it being tinkered with. But it was unsustainable. Without optimising the value of its television rights, the code could not possibly fund the growth to professionalism. The only way to do it was via nationalisation. Furthermore, the VFL exploited, rather than included, the other football states.

We send our condolences to Marj (always describes as his rock), his children Tony, Rick, Julie and Sam, and their respective families.

Vale Allen Aylett. A great visionary and driving force for the good of our game.