AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan (Image: AAP/James Ross) We’ve had so many royal commissions of late — two into Crown Resorts, aged care, bushfires, veteran suicide, banking, mental health, family violence, pink batts, trade union governance, Lawyer X, etc — that it’s not such a great leap to call for a decent independent examination of one of Australia’s leading sporting institutions, the AFL. That was the conclusion I reached after reading Michael Warner’s stunning new book, The Boys’ Club, which was launched by Hawthorn president and former Victorian premier Jeff Kennett last week. Warner is the grandson of legendary war correspondent Denis Warner and his father is Nick Warner, one of Australia’s most decorated defence, intelligence and foreign affairs mandarins of the past 20 years.