Ex-Manly CEO signs with new AFL team
AFL chief Andrew Demetriou initially thought Grant Mayer was Jennifer Aniston's boyfriend, or maybe the host of a dancing show on TV.
Demetriou soon discovered Mayer was the highly respected rugby league administrator who left his post as NRL club Manly's chief executive in July following a board-room battle.
And the AFL chief is convinced that Mayer is the perfect candidate to sell the AFL brand to the rugby league heartland of western Sydney.
Blacktown-based Team GWS, who will join the AFL as the 18th team for the 2012 season, named Mayer on Tuesday as their general manager of corporate partnerships.
"When I heard his name I thought they were talking about the guy that went out with Jennifer Aniston, then I thought it was the guy that hosted Dancing With the Stars on Channel Seven," Demetriou told reporters in Melbourne on Tuesday.
"Grant Mayer is a person with a great background in sport ... and brings to us a knowledge of greater western Sydney that we don't have.
"We've been consistent in saying that it doesn't seem appropriate for us being based in Melbourne to be telling locals how to operate in their market.
"He will bring a degree of expertise that would have taken us years and years to acquire, so that sort of quality person is really important.
"Stay tuned, because he won't be the (last)."
Asked to confirm a News Limited report that he had turned down A-League and Super 14 offers in Queensland, Mayer said he took the AFL role because "I believe in it".
He said his initial brief, starting on November 2, would be to build a strong financial base for Team GWS.
"(That's) to ensure that when we go back to the AFL in the middle of next year and we're ready to be officially approved, we can show that we have a commitment from the commercial community," Mayer told AAP on Tuesday.
Mayer said he couldn't rule out another raid by an AFL team on the NRL after the Gold Coast team announced Brisbane Broncos star Karmichael Hunt would join them for their debut in the AFL in 2011.
"It showed everybody in Queensland or probably the sporting world in Australia that they are serious about making it succeed," Mayer said.
"They tell me Karmichael was a talented player as a kid so you've got to suggest as an athlete he'll fit in very well there.
"The (Team GWS) football department will look at athletes and if there's athletes they believe can make it in the game of AFL they'll certainly look at it."
Mayer added at a press conference in Sydney: "I'm not sure how many Karmichael Hunts there are but we'll see."
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