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In 2023, the late Sam Landsberger wrote a piece in the Herald Sun recalling how Andrew Dillon came to work at the AFL. Dillon was driving down Punt Road in the early 2000s after playing a game for amateur club Old Xaverians. Senior AFL administrator Ben Buckley, who was recruiting for an in-house counsel, was in the next lane and spotted his former Xavs teammate. “Hey Dills,” he shouted across traffic, “you’re a lawyer, aren’t you?”
A quarter of a century later, a line from North Melbourne coach Alastair Clarkson in an interview with Jay Clark jumped off the page on Sunday. “I spoke to Gil [McLachlan] on Tuesday night and he says: ‘This will all be resolved by the end of next week,’” Clarkson said. “This was the grand final week of 2022. Just talk to ‘Dills’ and this will all be resolved.”