Carlton powerbroker Bruce Mathieson says Hawthorn would be dead without poker machines

ENRAGED by AFL Commission chairman Richard Goyder’s push to wean Victorian clubs off pokies, Carlton powerbroker Bruce Mathieson has declared Hawthorn would not be around today without poker machines.

CARLTON powerbroker Bruce Mathieson has declared Hawthorn would be dead without poker machines.

Enraged by AFL Commission chairman Richard Goyder’s push to wean Victorian clubs off pokies, Mathieson opened up on his role in helping to save the Hawks.

“Hawthorn would never have survived if it hadn’t been through the poker machines,” Mathieson said.

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“I set up Waverley Gardens for Hawthorn (in the late 1990s). They had nothing. I funded the whole thing, every penny of it.

“They came to me and asked me if I could get them a venue and I said, ‘Yes, I would’.”

Hawthorn is now footy’s No. 1 pokies club — controlling two venues where punters lost more than $23 million last year.

The Hawks have grown to be a financial and on-field powerhouse, having banked four premierships since their dark days in the 1990s.

Bruce Mathieson says AFL clubs wouldn’t have survived without poker machines. Picture: Stuart McEvoy

Mathieson said “it was just a joke” the AFL “could make all these grand statements years later” about the morality of gaming machines.

“They saved Hawthorn and plenty of other clubs,” he said.

Revenues at 17 pokies pubs controlled by nine Victorian clubs hit $94 million last year.

Hawthorn president Jeff Kennett on Friday said the AFL’s stance on pokies was “highly-hypocritical” given its lucrative associations with sports betting companies.

“If we can find other sources of revenue then it might be an option (to get rid of them) but until that happens — and it won’t happen overnight — we do not intend to allow ourselves to become financially dependent on the AFL,” Kennett said.

Asked about Mathieson’s claims, Kennett said: “I wasn’t there then — I do know we almost went under — but from ‘96 on there was also a lot of goodwill on the board, a lot of energy and a lot of good work from sponsors”.

Mathieson said the approach from then-Hawthorn president Ian Dicker and club great Peter Hudson came as the club was fighting off a proposed merger with Melbourne.

“After about 12 months or more, after we opened it, Ian, who was a thorough gentleman, came to me and said, ‘Bruce, I wonder if I could ask you a special favour? Could Hawthorn put the venue in their own name,” Mathieson said.

“That’s how financially strapped they were. Ian had even put his own house up to keep them going as collateral. That’s a true story.

“If they hadn’t of had that venue they would have sunk, because they had nothing to ever get them out.”

Hawthorn has turned into an AFL powerhouse. Picture: Michael Klein

Mathieson, a former Blues director, guaranteed Carlton’s long-term future eight years ago by handing over control of about 300 pokies to the club.

His company, ALH, runs the venues under management.

The AFL has set up a working party to investigate ways to reduce clubs’ dependence on pokies riches.

Goyder, who replaced Mike Fitzpatrick as AFL Commission chairman last April, has said he “hates” pokies and that “the custodians of the game” needed to tackle the reliance of clubs on the industry.

An IBISWorld report last year found poker machine cash accounted for a third of some AFL club revenues.