“You get sex, scandals and Brendan Fevola,”

Guest speaker at the Peel 100 Club lunch held at the RAAFA Estate Meadow Springs last Friday, the AFL chief executive spoke candidly on the future of the Australian Rules game.

But before he talked about future of football he wanted to share a little about himself because “media had labelled” him.

The 48-year-old was the youngest of four boys and he grew up in the northern suburbs of Melbourne.

He played football in the 1980s at North Melbourne and Hawthorn and retired in 1989.

He did not become reinvolved in football until he was appointed the AFL Players Associations chief executive in 1998.

In 2003 he became the AFL chief executive.

Demetriou said he was privileged to be in the role and did not take the position for granted.

A big part of his job is to help develop the game and next season the Gold Coast will join the AFL followed by the Greater Western Sydney in 2012.

“The popularity of the game has grown beyond our expectations,” he said.

One in 39 Australians belongs to a football club.

“This speaks volumes about football and what football is doing for the community.

“It is the reason I got back into the game.”

Demetriou said even in the busy world we lived in people always found the time to meet for three to four hours at a football game.

“It’s safe, inclusive and reliever which is a wonderful thing about our game and why this club (Peel Thunder) and others exist,” he said.