Robert Harvey, Stewart Loewe and Nathan Burke helped stop St Kilda-Carlton merger in 1995

Almost 30 years ago, the league was about to write a $10 million cheque to help St Kilda and Carlton join forces. Then, as SAM LANDSBERGER reveals, came the sliding doors moment.

Pledges of loyalty from Robert Harvey, Stewart Loewe and captain Nathan Burke helped squash a stunning St Kilda-Carlton merger in 1995 that had the support of the club’s bosses and the AFL.

Almost 30 years on, it can be revealed the league was prepared to write out a cheque for up to $10 million to lock in their joint bid to become a premiership-winning superpower.

But the out-of-contract Saints champions insisted they could reach the summit on their own — and two years later drove the club to its first grand final since 1971.

“The telling story from the three guys was we have done so much fu***** work to get 17 kids into the club — Joel Smith, Tony Brown, Aussie Jones, the Wakelins (Darryl and Shane),” then-president Andrew Plympton said.

“(They said) we love it, we’re going to win a premiership, why would you let it go?

“Harvey got an offer from Fremantle that knocked your socks off. It was double what we offered, so probably a base of $500,000.

“Essendon got into ‘Loewey’. I don’t know what the gap in money was, but it would’ve been considerable.”

St Kilda greats Nathan Burke and Robert Harvey helped stopped the merger.

Along with star forward Stewart Loewe, pictured here with former president Andrew Plympton.

Plympton visited Footscray president David Smorgon — via intermediary Trevor Flett — after AFL commissioner Graeme Samuel made it known the competition would not support 11 Victorian clubs.

But the radical Saints-Blues proposal evolved quickly through a series of secret breakfast talks between Plympton and Carlton counterpart John Elliott.

“My view was if we’re going to do it, we’re going to do it with something that has 16 premierships attached to their name so I can walk around and say ‘17’,” Plympton said.

“And I’ve always liked John Elliott. It would’ve been pretty formidable and I would’ve been a pretty formidable president, too.”

The late Elliott once said a merged club would have worn St Kilda’s jumper away, played at Princes Park and had a 50-50 split of the board.

Plympton said those details were discussed in “a very superficial manner” to ensure they did not trip up the goal of bringing a 17-premiership club together.

“We didn’t take that tribal approach. Our approach was how can we dominate AFL footy for a decade or so,” he said.

“Effectively we agreed we wouldn’t discuss club colours or footballers because those things would deal with themselves if we could get the big picture right.

“The big picture was that Carlton was heavily in debt. Building the Legends Stand effectively put the club in debt $11 million.

“So I went back to the AFL and said, ‘We all hear stories about Footscray etc, I’m talking to Carlton’.

“I went to (AFL chief executive) Ross Oakley and said I can’t do it with $3.5m or $5m, I’m going to have to get this to help remove Carlton’s debt.

“He came back to me in three days and said, ‘You’ve got the deal’. Effectively I could’ve got (up to) $10 million from the AFL. For Graeme Samuel it was just a massive tick.”

The late John Elliott, Plympton and Eddie McGuire in 2010.

Plympton did not fear taking the proposal to his members — but the optics were not helped by the Blues dropping just two games (one against the Saints) on their way to the 1995 flag.

The final death knell came with Harvey, Loewe and Burke’s sacrifices.

Plympton had tried to spin to Harvey that fortnightly flights from Perth to Melbourne as a Docker would dilute his special powers — but he could’ve saved his breath.

“‘Harvs’ committed himself to us. He was just a good bloke. One of the greatest people in footy,” Plympton said.

“‘Loewey’ was a bit more difficult. ‘Sheeds’ (Kevin Sheedy) is standing up talking absolute bull**** about we’d never pinch players from poor clubs, and here he is trying to do a deal with ‘Loewey’.

“But ‘Loewey’ acknowledged that Burke and Harvey were with the young kids, so he stayed.

“That gave encouragement for the lunatics like ‘Spida’ (Peter Everitt) and Barry Hall and all the kids to stay, and they did.”

Originally published as Robert Harvey, Stewart Loewe and Nathan Burke helped stop St Kilda-Carlton merger in 1995