Carlton powerbroker Bruce Mathieson reveals myeloma diagnosis

Carlton powerbroker Bruce Mathieson has revealed he has been diagnosed with myeloma but has remained positive, celebrating his ‘cracker of a life’.

Billionaire pubs, pokies baron Bruce Mathieson talks about his cancer diagnosis at his Mermaid Beach home on the Gold coast. Picture: Glenn Hampson

Billionaire pokies king and long-time Carlton powerbroker Bruce Mathieson faces the fight of his life after being diagnosed with cancer.

Mathieson, 80, has revealed he has myeloma, an aggressive type of blood cancer that develops from plasma cells in the bone marrow.

“I’ve got bone and blood cancer — and hopefully we can get on top of it,” Mathieson told the Herald Sun.

“But if it’s your day — it’s your day. I’ve said to the kids, ‘Don’t cry for me — I’ve had a cracker of a life’.”

Bruce Mathieson opens up about his cancer diagnosis. Picture: Glenn Hampson

Bruce Mathieson was once a director at the Carlton Football Club. Picture: Glenn Hampson

Mathieson collapsed while walking his dog on the Gold Coast late last year.

“I ruptured my right kidney, so when they were looking at the blood they found out that I had myeloma. He (the doctor) just said, ‘You’ve got some problems here’ — and I said, ‘oh, yeah. What’s that?’

“He said you’ve got multiple myeloma and the problem is you’ve got the very aggressive one and we’ve got to hit it and we’ll give you everything we can to try to bring it into line as quick as we can.”

Asked if he thought he could beat the cancer, Mathieson said: “Well, you can’t beat it but if I can knock it down one more notch then I’ll be in remission and will have to be on drugs and things for the rest of my life, but that’s okay.”

Mathieson, a former Carlton director, was a pivotal player in the 2001 coup that brought down controversial Carlton president John Elliott and removed his name from the Princes Park grandstand.

John Elliott and Bruce Mathieson speak to the media after a meeting at the home of Kevin Hall in Hawthorn.

He has poured more than $100 million into the Blues coffers courtesy of lucrative gaming machines licences he gifted to the club.

Mathieson, who grew up in Port Melbourne, left school at age 11 and became an apprentice toolmaker at 13.

“I’ve never written a letter in my life, never texted anything in my life and I’ve never used a computer,” he said.

His life changed in the 1970s when he stayed in a motel on a road trip to Adelaide.

“I said to (wife) Jill, ‘Geez these things must make a fortune — we should buy one’, and she said, ‘You’d be no good in a motel but you’d be very good in a hotel because you are a man’s man, so a week or two later I went out and bought a hotel. The Macedon Hotel.

“And I’ve had 1068 pubs since,” he laughed.

“It’s been a journey and I’ve had a hell of a time.”

Mathieson has handed the reins to the family empire to son Bruce Jr while he continues his treatment.

In The Boys’ Club book about football power and politics, the pokies baron accused the AFL commission of hypocrisy in encouraging clubs to cut ties with poker machines, while sports betting profits continued to pour into league headquarters.

“They (the AFL) have no principles,” Mathieson said.

“If it lines their pockets, it’s a different thing, but then they come and play God elsewhere. “It’s like saying you can drink whisky, but you can’t drink gin or brandy. If you believe in a cause and you live by the rules, then fair enough, but if you don’t, then you’re just a hypocrite.”