In the Game with Damian Barrett - an AFL podcast

Brett Godfrey doesn't back losers in business. But with his latest pursuit, he's taken on a massive task, heading up the Tasmanian group that wants an AFL licence. The man who launched Virgin airlines into the Australian market, working closely with Sir Richard Branson, goes deep on the plans for footy in Tassie.

Daisy Pearce was a reluctant face of AFLW when it burst into the sporting landscape in 2017. Reluctant, because celebrity was something she never sought, but it sought her. Daisy has learnt to deal with celebrity, while still playing high-level football, giving birth to twins, embarking on a successful media career, and loving her original job as a midwife. She has packed a whole lot in and has helped change lives in the process.

Cain Liddle has once before helped awaken a sleeping giant of the AFL. Having been hands-on in the seemingly unstoppable rise of Richmond, he was appointed Carlton CEO in late 2017 with a charter of change. With a background that includes being a teammate of Gary Ablett Senior, and once upon a time being a coach of Marcus Bontempelli, Liddle goes behind the scenes of the rebuild of the once mighty Blues.

Gillon McLachlan is now into his sixth season in charge of the AFL, and every single night as his head hits the pillow there's plenty to ponder. In this episode of In the Game he discusses the balancing act required to run the game, and the stresses that come with it.

Sports broadcaster Corbin Middlemas describes himself as the big guy with the deep voice. A media talent on the rise, Middlemas in 2018 published an article on the ABC platforms wanting to tell young men who don't fit the norm that it's perfectly normal. As he says in this edition of In the Game, being gay doesn't make you less masculine.

Selling the merits of the Gold Coast Suns to a largely apathetic industry might be the toughest job in football. But as explained in this episode of In The Game, the club's chairman Tony Cochrane is up for the fight. The colourful and passionate Cochrane is seeking AFL assistance for the Suns, who are about to secure a second wooden spoon in their nine-season existence, which has never seen them placed higher than 12th. A highly successful businessman who never finished high school, Cochrane also reveals his dealings with music icons Frank Sinatra and Mick Jagger.

Kane Cornes made a huge impact on the AFL in winning two All-Australian jackets, four best-and-fairests, and a premiership for Port Adelaide. But in the short time since retiring he has made an even bigger mark on the football landscape with the strongest of opinions on his many media platforms. The power of that opinion regularly cuts through the general media noise, and it often annoys the game's biggest name players, coaches and media rivals. In this episode of In the Game Cornes takes us behind those opinions and let's us in on his life-shaping moments.

Being himself caused the odd problem for Campbell Brown in his 12 seasons in the AFL, but he says the alternative - being forced to be someone he wasn't - would have been unbearable, and unworkable. Brown found headlines, fun, and personal and team success in those 12 seasons. And he's always been one of the game's best storytellers.

The 'experiment' ended up as one of the great media careers. Football's first lady - Caroline Wilson - started as that experiment in 1982 and in the next 37 years dominated and conquered the world of football media. In this episode of In the Game she takes us through that journey .... which is far from finished.

We know the pranking, joking Danny Frawley but we don't often get to see the serious one. But in this week's episode of In the Game he's prepared to say that the footy industry has simply got it wrong in a few key areas, he reveals the hurt associated with Alastair Clarkson turning on him, as well as the subsequent learnings and appreciation of that period in his life. And he also couldn't help himself with a few jabs at some of his media mates.

You know where you stand with Dave Matthews, CEO of GWS Giants. His preparedness to call everything as he sees it is a good, refreshing quality and one that can create the occasional stoush. As you'll hear in this episode, he's happy to call out a big name player, as well as a couple of even bigger name officials.

Ross Stevenson is different - an all-time media superstar who runs away from publicity. The King of Breakfast Radio is a Hawthorn tragic, he writes an annual love letter to footy, and he's got sharp (at the coalface) views on the outrage that pervades every aspect of social media. He's even developed his own acronyms to describe that outrage - DORT and FOLFTH.

Sacrifice - it's a word that best sums up Shaun Grigg's time in football. From using his ruck rover frame to play second ruck, to retiring early so his club could recruit another player, Grigg has always been 'team first'... and he's great friends with all of those past teammates, particularly Dustin Martin, who - as you're about to hear - once asked him to bring something very strange to dinner.

Even after the introduction of free agency, AFL player movement is still a club-dominated business. That's the inside of view of leading player agent Marty Pask who in this episode of In the Game also calls for the scrapping of free agency compensation and expresses concern about the general media's handling of sensitive player issues. Also, he goes behind the scenes on how a trade is done, and discusses his worry for some players as they transition out of the game.

The saying goes that a picture can tell a thousand words. Well if it's a football picture taken by Michael Willson there are times that a photo can tell ten-thousand. The man responsible for some of the AFL's most iconic still images takes us behind the lens of snapping Tayla Harris in flight, Mitch Clark being consoled by his coach, and of an emotional moment he refused to photograph. And he also reveals a surprising name as his favourite player to snap.