Almanac Footy: Melbourne, Mayhem, Merger, and Madness

 

MELBOURNE, MAYHEM, MERGER, AND MADNESS

 

Nineteen hundred and ninety-six was for most Victorians, particularly sports lovers a tremendously exciting year. The Australian Formula One Grand Prix was finally staged in its rightful place – Melbourne, the Atlanta Olympic Games provided all the drama and record breaking feats associated with the Olympiad; and the AFL Centenary Season celebrated 100 years of what most parochial lovers of the code regard as the greatest game on earth.

 

For the Melbourne Football Club (one of the foundation clubs of the competition) 1996 was to be a pivotal year coming off relative success during the previous two seasons highlighted by a Preliminary Final appearance in 1994. The club just missed out on the finals in 1995 having gone down to Brisbane in the final game of the year.

 

The pre-season period in 1996 was a turbulent and uncertain time with Kevin Dyson defecting to Sydney, Todd Viney departing the game to take up a fitness role with rising tennis star Mark Phillipousis and young gun forward the 23 year old David Schwarz going down yet again with another ACL knee injury in a practice match in Lavington against Collingwood. The club failed to secure Sydney’s Darren Gaspar who was to land at Richmond via the pre-season draft but was delighted to secure the services of former Richmond star and teammate of coach Neil Balme in Barry Richardson as Chairman of Selectors.

 

And by mid-March the club’s injury list peaked at fifteen with long term injuries to Stephen Tingay, Garry Lyon, Andrew Obst, David Schwarz, Steven Febey, Andrew Leoncelli and Sean Charles. The Melbourne Football Club more resembled the Royal Melbourne Hospital!

 

The two foundation clubs Melbourne and Geelong kicked off the Centenary Year Celebrations with the opening round clash at the MCG on a brisk Friday night. The Demons were humiliated with a massive 127-point loss to the Cats.

 

On Thursday April 11 I hear for the first time the word merger and Melbourne in the one sentence. Anthony Mithen a football journalist with The Age rang to warn me that Eddie McGuire would be revealing that merger talks between Melbourne and Fitzroy are taking place. I had no comment to make.

 

Later that month I received another call on a Sunday afternoon from WA footy journo Mark Duffield. Before we started our conversation about the Dockers and Demons clash the previous Friday night Duffield says, “some bloke’s gone mad down in Tassie.”

 

By early evening the entire world knows of Martin Bryant, who by this time had fled to a nearby farmhouse after shooting dead 35 people and injuring 18. The tragedy of Port Arthur becomes Australia’s worst mass-killing.

 

On Saturday 11 May following a loss to the Sydney Swans at the MCG Neil Balme, Chris Jones (our strength and conditioning coach) and myself filed out of the MCG immediately after the game to travel to Hepburn Springs for a three-day strategic planning workshop to assess and plan for the long-term on and off field viability of the Melbourne Football Club.

 

The three-day workshop is attended by all club directors except for Ian Johnson and the recently retired Sean Wight together with Chief Executive Officer Hassa Mann, Finance Manager John Anderson and Commercial Manager Libby Crossthwaite.

 

Following a convivial evening meal on the Saturday night, the group convened on Sunday morning where facilitator Warwick Cavell outlined the purpose of the day and how it would be conducted. The thrust of the morning session was to devise a mission statement by which the club would be guided by and adhere to in the coming years.

 

‘To recruit and develop quality players to form the best team in order to attract optimum corporate sponsorship, membership and financial status together with a strong club culture,’ was to be the club’s mantra moving forward.

 

Player acquisition, revenue streams and the need for a state-of-the-art training facility are other topics of priority and discussion.

 

An underlying theme that became very apparent throughout the entire workshop was the board’s desperation for immediate success. The draft, salary cap and the club’s inability to trade for success had frustrated those closely associated with the club. Some believed there was no light at the end of the tunnel despite having played in a Preliminary final 24 months earlier and just missing out on the finals in 1995.

 

Guided by Mindshop facilitator Cavell, it soon became apparent that in the minds of the Board, and in order to achieve the agreed mission statement, an amalgamation was the most efficient and guaranteed method of immediate success. President Ian Ridley pensively quipped, “what your telling me is that a merger is the only way to go for the Melbourne Football Club.”

 

Finally, the merger word is laid out and is now on the agenda and it would become the focus of the board’s attention until September 16.

 

We were divided into working groups and assigned eight weeks to analyse, investigate and put forward recommendations on player acquisition, revenue streams and training facilities under a merger scenario taking into account the attractive package the AFL had put forward to reduce the number of teams in Melbourne. The groups are to investigate merger scenarios with Hawthorn, St Kilda, Fitzroy and North Melbourne – clubs deemed to be in financial difficulty and receptive to the prospect of sharing the MCG as its home ground. Within weeks and for a multitude of reasons it becomes obvious that only one club – Hawthorn is a viable option to merge with.

 

Unbeknown to all bar Ian Ridley, Hawthorn had long been putting out the feelers for a saviour. I was to learn some years later that those feelers extended to the Gold Coast and the cashed-up Southport Sharks Football Club. The Hawks financial status was at a critical level, their playing list ageing and the $6million merger package put up by the AFL provided an attractive incentive. And Ridley had already designated Board members Messrs Balcam and Johnson the task of working with Hawthorn directors Graeme Knott and Raymond Vidor to form a Melbourne/Hawthorn merger sub-committee.

 

For the next five months, the spectre of a merger with Hawthorn would hang over the heads of not only those that made the trek to Hepburn Springs, but everyone involved or had a passion for both the Melbourne and Hawthorn Football Clubs. Indeed, like the Hawthorn Football Club, Melbourne would delve into the most unsettling and tumultuous period of its long and illustrious history. And for many the ordeal ahead would take an enormous personal toll.

 

The day after returning from Hepburn Springs, Tuesday 14^th May confirmation of a North Melbourne – Fitzroy merger surface in the morning dailies.

 

It was ironic that the Saturday following the Hepburn Springs sojourn Melbourne would take on Hawthorn at the MCG. At the 23-minute mark of the final quarter cheers break out in the crowd with all eyes cast towards the main scoreboard. Fitzroy had defeated Fremantle at the Whitten Oval – their first in 12 months. And it plummets Melbourne to the bottom of the premiership table.

 

The following Tuesday AFL CEO Ross Oakley announces the entry of Port Power into the competition for 1997 and I ponder the question how will we improve via the draft given concessions to new teams into the competition. And in late June the Fitzroy Football Clubs future is in doubt as the Nauruan Insurance Corporation puts in place administrator Michael Brennan to sort out the club’s finances.

 

As June closes out the Demons rally with a 51-point victory over the Adelaide Crows led by emerging champion David Neitz and an inspiring six goal performance. The feisty Alistair Clarkson and former Port Adelaide (SANFL) star Andrew Obst star for the Demons on the ball.

 

Eight weeks had elapsed since the Hepburn Springs summit and the group reconvened in a tiny conference room at the headquarters of Mindshop in St Kilda. Hassa Mann produces a comprehensive document full of research material compiled by the Football Department on the issue of player acquisition. It contains issues related to the draft, salary cap, free agency, and concessions to interstate clubs. A detailed profile of the Demons current list was also tabled. Mann formed the conclusion that for the Melbourne Football Club to gain access to the best players to challenge for a premiership a merger with Hawthorn would be the best option. He was quick to point out however that by doing so a new club would be formed.

 

Chris Jones outlines options for securing a state-of-the-art training facility complete with gymnasium and an aquatic centre. John Anderson displayed elaborate figures and revenue projections with specific reference to income derived from the AFL, match receipts, sponsorship, supporter groups, events, merchandising and gaming. He concludes the cost of operating a club in three to four years will jump from $7.5million to $12million – something the Demons will struggle to achieve.

 

That same day the Brisbane Bears trump North Melbourne to secure a merger with the Fitzroy Football Club. The Brisbane Lions had been born and President Noel Gordon sat very proudly and smugly at the desk of the Footy Show’s Eddie McGuire that night.

 

On Wednesday 24 July at about 7pm I received a phone call from Herald-Sun journalist Darryl Timms, a frequent caller who asks the normal questions around player injuries and preparations for the upcoming clash. After a brief pause, he put the question, “What do you know about your club merging with Hawthorn?” The board and key staff were bound by confidentiality regarding any merger proposition, so I quickly responded that I had no idea.

 

Timms proceeded to tell me that he and fellow journo Tony De Bolfo were preparing a back-page story revealing the details of the proposed merger with Hawthorn. Stunned by the accuracy of what he revealed I rang board Vice-President Bill Guest and divulged the contents of my conversation with Timms. Guest was stunned.

 

Guest rang President Ian Ridley who in turn quickly called me, “Ridley here – tell me what you’ve heard.” Ridley wants to know the full details and the source. I ring De Bolfo who confirms the same information as Timms but like all good journos does not divulge his source. I again ring Ridley and was greeted with deathly silence as I again outline the details of the story to be published the next morning. He is amazed at the accuracy of the story and puts in a call to AFL supremo Ross Oakley.

 

The headline ‘Merger Talks Are On’ is emblazoned across the back page of the Herald Sun on Thursday 25 July. In response Ridley calls a meeting with all players and coaching staff prior to the night’s training sessions at the Junction Oval and implores them to concentrate on playing football.  Despite his plea it is obvious several players are concerned by the implications of a merger.

 

With the merger scenario now out in the public domain both Melbourne and Hawthorn presidents Ian Ridley and Brian Coleman convene a press conference at the Hilton Hotel opposite the MCG and officially declare to the football public that merger negotiations are taking place.

 

The very next day former Hawthorn premiership captain Don Scott declares his opposition to a Melbourne-Hawthorn merger and vows to raise $7.1 million to avert any merge. He declares open Operation Payback -a fundraising campaign aimed at Hawthorn supporters to help rescue the club through donation. And with it a war between rival factions, many of whom had been loyal and devoted teammates in years gone by within two proud clubs was about to erupt.

 

In early August the Melbourne board gathered with many of its former greats in the offices in Jolimont to outline the reasons and benefits of a merger with Hawthorn. Ray Biffin, Greg Wells, Brian Dixon, Robbie Flower, Barry Bourke, Ian Thorogood, John Beckwith, Stephen Smith and Peter Keenan must have been stunned to hear the revelations on the plight of the club they lived and breathed for. The group were given 48 hours to declare its support or otherwise of the proposed merger. The group would return two days later, led by Biffin who declared their support for the club’s stance. Two people, however, are vehemently opposed.

 

Former premiership player and one time State Government Minister Brian Dixon together with champion player Robbie Flower once the pin-up boy for all adoring Melbourne supporters during the club’s lean years vowed to fight the board in order to keep the Melbourne Football Club as the Melbourne Football Club – forever.

 

The front man of the newly formed Demon Alternative group, Brian Dixon having reviewed all budgets and projected figures for the operation of the MFC suggests to club finance director Bill Balcam that he (Dixon)could rally enough personnel for the club to employ an honorary administration and an honorary coach (Ron Barrassi to make another return to the Redlegs) thereby saving over $1million in wages.  Really?

 

By Monday 19 August the Melbourne board announces that the merger issue would be determined by the members at an extraordinary meeting to be held on Monday 16^th September at Dallas Brooks Hall, East Melbourne at 8pm. Further, the board inform that if the merger vote is not carried, they will resign en-masse.

 

Meanwhile rumours emerge that Operation Payback has unearthed a saviour in the form of International Management Group (IMG) as they have sought audience with Hawk officials to gain details of a confidential report into the club’s finances.

 

On the Monday prior to the final game of the season when again ironically Melbourne would take on Hawthorn at the MCG Brian Dixon’s Demon Alternative produces its trump card – multi-millionaire mining magnate Mr Joseph Gutnik who Dixon dubs Melbourne’s white knight.

 

Gutnik pledged his financial support to the club to avert the merger. “I’ll do whatever I can and use all my business acumen that I have to keep our old club the way it is and the way it should be in the future.” Suddenly the Melbourne – Hawthorn merger looks likely to collapse. Gutnik outlined a $3million anti-merger plan, including $1.5million to the Melbourne Demons Forever Foundation, $200,000 a year for five years from his Kimberley Gardens Hotel and $500,000 towards a social club and headquarters. Like Skase, Edelsten and Pellerman before him, here was another dollars man promising to rescue a football club from financial oblivion.

 

Meanwhile the Boards of Melbourne and Hawthorn unveil the Melbourne Hawks playing strip and proposed club theme song. Clearly a showdown was developing between the power players of both entities – like the tenacious rover he was during his stellar playing days Ridley was not prepared to go down without a fight!

 

Gutnik quickly assumes celebrity status appearing on Channel Nine’s Footy Show and regular interviews with 3AW’s Neil Mitchell a staunch Melbourne man. Unfortunately, the celebrity status did not enhance Joseph’s reputation as someone who could lead a football club.

 

The night before our final game against the Hawks, coach Neil Balme convened a player dinner at the MCG and asks Ian Ridley to address the players. Ridley is a passionate Melbourne man, having served the club as a player, coach and president for over 40 years. No-one had a greater love for the club than the man they affectionally called Tiger.

 

He talked of past great players, coaches, memorable performances and premierships. He told the players that they were not only representing the current Melbourne family but are also the ambassadors for everything that has happened to the club in its glorious past. As tears welled up in his eyes all the passion and emotion of the time and the burden the merger scenario had taken on him and his family spilt forth from the great man – his address to the players was typically heartfelt and truly inspiring. And in that moment, no-one was hurting more than he.

 

The players left the MCG that night with a steely resolve, intent on flying the grand old flag as proudly as Ridley had flown it.

 

In a Grand Final type build -up before 63,000 fans Melbourne and Hawthorn turn on a classic. The Demons trailed by just two points going into the last term and in a titanic struggle the final quarter produces all the drama and excitement of a Grand Final. Champion Hawk full-forward boots his sixth century of goals and is flocked by thousands of fans, delaying the game for up to ten minutes. In the dying stages of the match, with Hawthorn leading by a point a desperate Melbourne opposition struggles to score despite bottling the ball up in its forward line.

 

Eventually the ball spills free on the members wing, is gathered by a free running Melbourne player who spots the leading David Neitz and delivers perfectly. As Neitz is about to mark in regulation fashion, he stumbles, tripping on a newly laid piece of turf. The ball is lost, and the Hawks hang on.

 

The fans of both teams stand to applaud the efforts of their players in representing their clubs for what might be the last time.

 

As Hawthorn’s Chris Langford waves his brown and gold jumper to the crowd in a gesture of defiance to the merger men, an exhausted Melbourne group gather as one on the half-forward flank by the players race and wearily trudge from the hallowed turf of the MCG to the emotion charged responses of the Melbourne faithful, many of whom shed a tear.

 

The following Sunday all players, staff and officials met at the fashionable Toorak venue The Church to unwind after a long, hard year. There are two notable absentees. Club Captain Garry Lyon and President Ian Ridley were meeting somewhere in inner Melbourne in an attempt to find some common ground on the plight of the players who were concerned over pledging their loyalty to the merger cause and the ramifications if the merger was to fail. The current board had called upon senior players in Lyon, Stynes, Viney, Lovett and Tingay to publicly endorse the merger.

 

By mid-afternoon Ridley and Lyon front the function and immediately summon the players into an adjoining room to discuss their intentions. Five hours and quite a few beers later with emotions running high the players emerge having resolved to not make a collective, unified stance publicly on the merger scenario.

 

Meanwhile over in the west, Fitzroy played out its final match at Subiaco Oval – ironically the home of the Subiaco Lions on Hayden Bunton Boulevard. The visitors are soundly thrashed a long way from home, and it’s a lonely place to die.

 

Only days before the extraordinary meeting the Demon Alternative issues a Supreme Court challenge against the Melbourne Football Club and the validity of its voting procedures. The challenge fails. And at the Riversdale Hotel in Hawthorn I’m meeting with Garry Lyon who discusses possible changes to the football structure of the club. The skipper outlined his dissatisfaction with certain elements of the club, including key personnel. Regardless of the merger outcome changes must be made he declared in no uncertain terms.

 

After an exhausting and emotional six months of manoeuvring around the merger proposal members of both Melbourne and Hawthorn file into Dallas Brooks Hall and the Camberwell Civic Centre respectively, for the most crucial meetings in their club’s history.

 

At Dallas Brooks Hall the queue stretches from the foyer out onto Victoria Parade and around the corner to neighbouring Albert Street, delaying the meeting by more than hour. A number of those in the queue are lining up simply to lodge their proxies and leave, but those inside the auditorium – the fanatics clearly in favour of Melbourne going alone are becoming agitated.

 

I recall entering the hall in my club uniform and being confronted with a mob of passionate and emotional Demon supporters chanting No Merger and brandishing placards admonishing Tiger Ridley and his fellow Board members. I too was to cop the wrath of the Demon faithful. One very distinguished looking, more elderly lady pointed her finger at me and yelled, “this is your fault because you can’t recruit a decent team for us!” She then proceeded to spit in my direction…

 

For Ian Ridley it must have been the toughest night of his life. He eventually opened proceedings outlining the evenings procedures. The Demon Alternative was represented by Maree Mulchay, Joseph Gutnink and Brian Dixon. Mulcahy and Gutnik speak of their love and passion for their club in controlled, measured tones. When Dixon takes charge of the microphone he draws upon his political background as he generates hysteria with his strong rhetoric and rebel rousing gestures.

 

Dixon levels all blame on the club’s predicament at Ridley directing a tirade of abuse at his former teammate. It was sad to witness.

 

Ridley was soon to jump into the scrap. As he approached the microphone he was greeted with jeers and boos from the floor, thereby delaying his delivery by minutes. It must have felt like a lifetime for Tiger.

 

“I want to make it quite clear that I intend to keep talking. If you don’t want to listen that’s your business,” was Ridley’s opening shot. Battling against the No Merger chants Ridley pushes through his fifteen-minute address despite constant interjections and personal abuse. In what will become known in infamy as ‘football’s night of shame’ the mob mentality comes to the fore with some despicable acts, gestures and personal abuse rendering several loyal club people dismayed.

 

Then the diminutive general bellows to his fellow Board members seated behind him: “If you’re behind me, get on your feet, get on your feet and get over here,” he barked. And there they were. the Merger Men standing behind their President in a show of defiance, loyalty and solidarity. Ian Ridley, Stuart Spencer, Bill Guest, Bill Balcam, Ian Johnson, Kevin Jones, Graeme Conningsby and Paul Rothchild standing before the maddening crowd as if ready to be stoned for grave misdeeds in ancient times.

 

By now the mob is at fever pitch and a member rushes the stage as Ridley retreats to the table only to be whisked away by Blackshirts. Only a few kilometres away Hawthorn legend Allan Jeans is coming in for some similar treatment. And Hawthorn president Brian Coleman is close to breaking down as the Hawks anti-merger faction roars its disapproval as Don Scott ferociously tears apart a mock Hawthorn/Melbourne jumper.

 

The Melbourne vote was tabled and counted that night. Around midnight the decision is made with 51.4% of the Melbourne members voting in favour of a merge with Hawthorn. Word quickly filters back that Hawthorn’s bid to merge had been defeated at the ballot box. There would be no Melbourne Hawks.

 

A sprinkling off staff return to the offices in Jolimont with the Board and reflect on a tumultuous evening and to salvage some solace in the knowledge that they had overcome the Demon Alternative attack. As I looked at Ian Ridley across the Board room table, I saw a man totally spent emotionally and physically. It had been a long campaign, climaxing in one of the most emotionally charged nights in football history. I could only imagine the toll this Merger Madness had taken on Ian and his family. Such was the anxiety and distress experienced by his loving and loyal wife Jude she was admitted to hospital on the morning of the merger vote. In many respects I was glad that she had not been witness to what her husband was subjected to on that night.

 

After it had become apparent in the days leading up to the vote that Hawthorn would struggle to gain its members approval, Ridley and Mann had focussed their attentions on ensuring the board emerged victorious in its power play with Dixon’s Demon Alternative. But the campaign had become bitter and personal and was dividing a once-united club.

 

Two days after the merger vote had been taken Ian Ridley stepped down as President of the Melbourne Football Club and Joseph Gutnik assumed control. Board member Graham Conningsby retired and Gary Pearce and Mark Jenkins were elevated from the Demon Alternative to the board. The seeds of Ridley’s demise was sown less than 24 hours after the vote when the Demon Alternative threatened legal action over the validity of proxies and other procedural elements of the extraordinary meeting.

 

The prospect of long, drawn out and costly legal proceedings would have created more friction, tension and instability in an already fragmented club. Which is why the little general stepped down, having won the battle, but lost the war.

 

 

The proposed new guernsey of the merged Melbourne/Hawthorn Football Clubs – Wikipedia

 

 

Read more from Richard Griffiths HERE.

 

To return to the www.footyalmanac.com.au  home page click HERE

 

Our writers are independent contributors. The opinions expressed in their articles are their own. They are not the views, nor do they reflect the views, of Malarkey Publications.

 

Do you enjoy the Almanac concept?
And want to ensure it continues in its current form, and better? To help keep things ticking over please consider making your own contribution.

Become an Almanac (annual) member –CLICK HERE