Q&A: Newly-elected GNFL president Grant Russell shares his vision for the league’s future in 2026 and beyond

With the announcement of Grant Russell taking the reins of the Great Northern Football League, James Gardiner sat down with the new president to discuss his priorities, the key issues and the new direction of the GNFL into 2026 and beyond. James Gardiner: Why have you gone again as president of the GNFL? Grant Russell: To be honest, I was approached by a few people from clubland to bring back a bit of corporate governance and reopen the lines of communication. They said to me, ‘You’d be the person for the job,’ so I reflected on it, and while I’m not saying I am, I’d like to think that I have the skills to enable those communication lines, and I can certainly bring corporate governance with both my professional background and also other boards I have been on. JG: So, would you be open to or look at going back to a club delegate-style board? GR: Categorically no. JG: Could we see a change in the game schedules and times during the home and away season? GR: From a league perspective, I’m going to ask our clubs and see what they’ve got to say about it. Whether the women go first or another grade, that’s yet to be seen, but I’d like to highlight our colts. I think they’re the future of our competition, and it’s something we don’t seem to pay enough attention to. I generally think they provide the best game of the day. JG: On country week, it was a disappointing turnout by the GNFL this season. How are you trying to get more support from the clubs for country week? GR: I think we need to ask the question straight out: do people want to go? What was the reason people didn’t want to go to country week? Do they still want to go to country week? And as a league, do we want to spend $30,000 on playing B-grade? Because if we’re not going to send our best side, that’s as far as we’re going to go with our commitment, and that’s a lot of money to go and play B-grade in my opinion; however, if the clubs think that’s a valuable use of GNFL resources, then we will support it. Personally, I’m concerned country week is dead. JG: Probably the biggest issue is umpires. Can you give us an update on that and what you will do around it? GR: That’s my second priority on the agenda, umpires and umpire recruitment. I’ll be honest, I haven’t reached out to (umpires adviser) Paul Luxton to meet and find out where we’re at and what we can do, but my understanding is that there are senior umpires who are not going to umpire again in 2026. JG: How concerning is that for the GNFL? GR: I think it’s a paramount problem to tell you the truth. I think it’s got to be a number one priority for our major stakeholders, and our umpires are a stakeholder, but from what I’ve seen, there has not been a great relationship between the board and the umpires for some time. JG: How will you mark your presidency as a success? When you look back, what will be a pass mark for yourself? GR: This will sound very colloquial, but you’ll never keep seven clubs completely happy on any decision, but I’d like to think that the unrest that seems to be prevailing at the moment is eliminated. That we have a strong football operations manager who is in their role and able to do their role moving forward. We have got a good, strong junior competition feeding into our colts, and one of the things I’d like to see is closing the gap between youth girls’ and women’s football. Maybe not through a full-blown colts competition per se to start with but some sort of competition that gives those girls in that colts category age a bit of a taste that they can go and play and say, ‘Well I can play, I’m more confident now and I’d like to play women’s football.’ JG: Grant, thanks for your time. All the best for the year ahead and beyond.