Geelong's Patrick Dangerfield has been confirmed as the new President of the AFL Players' Association at the 2018 AFLPA Annual General Meeting on Monday night.
Carlton's Sam Docherty was elevated to the position of vice-president at the event with Luke McPharlin, Rory Sloane and Phil Davis making up the remainder of a five-man board.
Dangerfield, who has been on the board for the past four seasons, said he was excited to pave his own way in the role.
โItโs an honour to be appointed as president and take the baton from Pav and all the incredible work heโs done in leading the players through the extensive and successful Collective Bargaining Agreement negotiations over the past few years,โ Dangerfield said.
โThis CBA has achieved some really strong results for players and Iโm looking forward to working closely with the board and our player delegates to implement these outcomes and continue to provide strong advocacy for all players.โ
Dangerfield replaces Matthew Pavlich, who stepped down from the role after three years, with the former Docker adding the timing was right to step aside.
"What we've found sometimes is a large majority of players can retire at once and therefore there can be a bit of a void," Pavlich said at Monday's AFLPA season launch in Melbourne.
"This allowed us to be a bit more planned.
"To have a really structured and thought-out process, we've got one of the best players in the game, (one of the) most influential people, both on and off the field, taking the role. It strongly advocates players do aspire to this role."
