AFL Daily: Live rolling footy news from around Australia for Friday, May 4, 2018

GEELONG is adamant it can get rid of all of its pokies after already selling more than half of its gaming machines but must work out how that is going to happen.

GEELONG is adamant it can get rid of all of its pokies after already selling more than half of its gaming machines.

The Cats on Friday announced they had raised $1 million in donations to help fund their 10 community programs around Geelong. Now comes the trickier task of selling off the remaining 80 machines still operating at a Point Cook gaming venue after selling off 100 machines in recent years. TRADE TARGETS: THE TOP 20 MOST WANTED PLAYERS TEAMS: GAZ MUST WAIT, SICILY BACK FROM SUSPENSION Cats president Colin Carter said Geelong was committed to ridding itself of poker machines at some stage. The Cats are understood to have held talks with the Melbourne Racing Club, following Melbourne’s lead in attempting to move away from poker machines. Many of those discussions are confidential, but the Cats want to work through their exit strategy without putting the club’s finances at risk. “What we can be public about is we have sold more than half of them. The other part is all bound up in commercial stuff we would prefer not to talk about,’’ Carter said. “But the intention is to get out, the question is when and how. We are not fully in control of that process. There is a desire for all sorts of reasons, it doesn’t quite fit where we want to be as a club, so we are on the way, half out, but not fully there yet.” Collingwood is another club working towards an eventual exit from pokies, with new AFL commission boss Richard Goyder continuing to push clubs to strip that revenue source from their businesses. Goyder said last year poker machines did too much damage to the community, saying he “hates” pokies. “The reason I’m concerned about it is ... most of the profits from poker machines come from problem gamblers, and therein lies the real problem, “I don’t want to be seen as Richard Goyder, this holier than thou person saying to those clubs in Melbourne, get rid of pokies,” he said. “Some of the clubs in Melbourne and their supporters are saying they would like to reduce their reliance on poker machines ... There’s also some people who are concerned that the AFL brand gets caught up in gaming, if you like, through betting on games.” LIVE stream every match of every round of the 2018 Toyota AFL Premiership Season. Get your free 2-week Foxtel Now trial & start watching in minutes. SIGN UP NOW

Live Updates