, but the fact is too many pressing game-day issues were met with silence or inadequate explanations.
She takes the helm as a 33-year-old woman of a role most recently held by Dillon and over the past three decades by key figures in the game such as Ian Collins and Andrew Demetriou and more recently Adrian Anderson, Mark Evans and Steve Hocking.
“The players all respected her, but there was probably a bit of old-school male thinking within management of: ‘What’s this woman coming in and telling me what to do?’ She was astute enough to withstand that.” That Kane was not the first choice to assume the role is a situation she shares with her boss Dillon. Chairman Richard Goyder not only tried to convince McLachlan to stay but as has been reported also identified Bulldogs president Kylie Watson-Wheeler as his preferred candidate before being unofficially overruled.
The new football boss identified on day one in her new role that the game needed to speak more clearly and frequently to fans to explain umpiring decisions, rules, operational mishaps and procedures.