Media Statement | AFL Victoria has confirmed it will continue its reform of regional football administration across the state.

 Following the recent announcement by AFL Barwon of its transition away from a Regional Administrative Centre (RAC), AFL Victoria has confirmed it will continue its reform of regional football administration across the state.

The reform project, titled the RAC Directional Strategies Project, will see Victorian community football bodies transition out of centralised league administration or RACs and into a new localised operations and administration structure that meets the needs of each football body.

Regional Administrative Centres in Victorian community football were established over 10 years ago following the 2011 Peter Jackson Report of Country Football in Victoria.

Whilst the philosophy of a RAC had broad support at the time, many RAC models have experienced financial and functional challenges in recent years, resulting in the dissolution of six RACs; AFL Sunraysia, AFL Gippsland, AFL Goldfields, AFL Western District, AFL Central Murray and AFL Wimmera Mallee, with leagues under those six RACs returning to self-management.

In 2025, AFL South East, AFL North East Border, AFL Barwon, AFL Central Victoria and AFL Goulburn Murray continue to offer RAC services.

As the role of AFL Victoria has evolved with a focus on game development and participation outcomes rather than administration, the role of a Region Manager has diversified, and the effectiveness of RAC models have been closely monitored.

Through the RAC Directional Strategies Project, strategies to guide individual regions’ RAC direction will be explored in collaboration with the relevant leagues to ensure a seamless transition, a task already completed in the six regions mentioned above.

These changes in direction are an acknowledgement by AFL Victoria that the concept of RACs as initially proposed in 2011 has not been fully realised based on an inability to consolidate football management, finances and governance in some regions.

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