In doing so, he has seriously rattled his old enemy Geelong. Justin Reeves had long been considered the natural successor to Brian Cook, the game's second longest serving CEO, except that unlike the situation unfolding at Sydney with Andrew Ireland and Tom Harley there was no written assurance in place.

So now the Cats have lost Steve Hocking, another contender for Cook's job down the track, to the AFL and Reeves to the club's now traditional rival. Perhaps Cook will be wondering whether he should have made a move sooner and planned a handover at the end of 2018 when his current contract runs out.

Cook has reportedly been sounded out by at least two of the three Victorian clubs (Collingwood, Carlton and the Bulldogs) still searching for new bosses and refused to entertain those entreaties, but he would probably be feeling a little uncomfortable today.

Geelong can rightly pride itself on its staff culture and succession planning. When Cook spent time studying at Harvard in 2014, executive Rosie King stood in as acting CEO - the first woman in the AFL to do that job. She is now the chief executive at Netball Victoria.

Kennett's last CEO when he presided over Hawthorn was another former Cook deputy in Stuart Fox, who oversaw the club's three successive premierships and now runs the MCG. Hocking must now at least be considered a heir apparent to the top job at the AFL despite being in his first week overseeing football in the game's second most important role under Gillon McLachlan.

Now Reeves, after just three years with the Cats and seven at Collingwood, has been snapped up by Hawthorn after the club took more than four months to find its last CEO.

This is not suggesting Cook has stayed too long in the job. And succession planning is not his call alone, with Cats president Colin Carter having stated publicly in recent years that the club has enjoyed the richness of its executive team and the choice of successors.

Only last month Cook - one of the most respected figures in the game, who has not only rebuilt but successfully re-imagined Geelong - opined in an interview that perhaps the 2018 season would see him out and suggested it might be time for someone else to "have a crack". The two names mentioned then were Reeves, his commercial boss, and his CFO Sue Clark.

But that is no certainty to happen. Whether or not Cook is tempted to stick around and further nurture his new football structure, embed his club's new AFLW team, oversee the final stage of the Kardinia Park redevelopment while chairing Barwon Health and enjoying his life on the Surf Coast remains to be seen. He is not yet 62, after all.

Either way Carter and his board, however proud they are of Geelong's culture and executive, must be wondering whether they should have made stronger assurances to Reeves. Unless they looked at a world without Cook and weren't quite yet prepared to face that.