AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan announces the appointment of Steven Hocking to the AFL executive as general manager football operations.

"Steven has been a successful senior off-field leader at the Geelong Cats - a club with a strong sustained record of excellence over the last decade - in addition to a fine career on-field with the Cats," McLachlan said.

"His experience at an AFL club will be invaluable to our organisation and his long history within the game is eminently qualified to guide the on-field progress of the AFL, further develop our umpires, harness elite talent into our game and broaden the knowledge base of our next generation of coaches."