The corporatization of sport and the AFL in particular lead to an increasing use of corporate management processes and the time seems appropriate to introduce a focus on governance. The excesses of corporate Australia in the 1980s have been paralleled in the VFL/AFL with hyperinflation in the costs for football clubs to the extent that the viability of several clubs was threatened (Linnell 1995). The reaction from the corporate regulator (Victorian Corporate Affairs Commission (VCAC)) and the governing body was to restructure the competition by replacing the board consisting of all clubs delegates with an independent Commission. Part of the re-structure was the introduction of financial criteria for continued participation in the competition. This was agreed by the clubs to prevent the VCAC taking action to wind up five insolvent clubs.