Reunion plans afoot for Club 10, featuring legendary goalkickers Ablett, Carey, Lockett and Dunstall
TWENTY-two years ago Ricky Nixon assembled the game’s biggest names for marketing juggernaut Club 10. How did he get these superstars together — and who would he pick now?
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TWENTY-two years after the groundbreaking launch of Ricky Nixon’s Club 10, plans are afoot for a lavish reunion next year of the 17 stars who helped form the concept.
The reunion was born after a recent conversation between Nixon and one of his founding Club 10 stars, North Melbourne great Wayne Carey.
Carey expressed a desire for his children and the families of respective members to meet and relive the heady days of the mid-1990s.
The formation of Club 10 resulted in an iconic image — the only time Gary Ablett Sr, Jason Dunstall, Tony Lockett and Carey were pictured together.
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The photo was taken at the top of Bourke St by Herald Sun photographer Ian Currie.
Currie, who worked with the paper for 24 years, said he was slightly overawed in the presence of such greatness.
“I remember they were pressed for time and being a North Melbourne supporter, I started with Wayne Carey on the left first,” Currie said.
“I had never snapped a quartet like that and there were some interesting looks from passers-by given who they were and where they were standing.
“I was very happy to be asked to do that picture.”
Ablett later recalled the photo: “I was standing between Wayne Carey and Jason Dunstall, and while I never played on Wayne, there was a time in 1990 (Rd 1, Waverley Park) when ‘Blighty’ (Geelong coach Malcolm Blight) moved me onto Jason in the last quarter after he had kicked 10 goals,” recalled Ablett.
“Our runner Greg Wells told me to move to full-back. I said, ‘are you sure you have your directions right mate?’. So I jogged down as slowly as I could and he kicked two on me. ‘Blighty’ was a bit of an eccentric that way.”
ORIGINS OF CLUB 10
“Solicitor Jeff Browne said AFL boss Ross Oakley wanted to send me to the US to the watch NFL, baseball and basketball,” Nixon said.
“The AFL had accepted that player agents were an inevitable part of the game. In America I noticed a concept named The Quarterback Club, featuring the guns of the time like Dan Marino, John Elway and Steve Young, so I came back wanting to do something similar.
“The AFL said they loved the idea and wanted to do a deal. I was that naive that I misunderstood what they were trying to do. They said “we’ll go 50/50 with you but we’ll own all the rights”.
“I took offence thinking they were stealing my idea, but what they really meant were the rights to the AFL logos. Club 10 changed the total ownership of intellectual property by athletes in Australia because I took the AFL to court.
“When a player signed his registration form, it said in small print down the bottom that they were signing over their intellectual property for nothing.
“I said, ‘no, your property are the logos, not the actual players’.
“We mortgaged our house to take them to court. When I arrived at court the AFL solicitor Jeff Browne said can I see you outside? He said, ‘here is a three-year deal, a million dollars’. I said, ‘thanks very much’.
ORIGINAL CLUB 10 MEMBERS
Nixon said most of the players he had spoken to are happy to get back involved.
The original Club 10 was Gary Ablett, Gavin Brown, Wayne Carey, Jason Dunstall, Glen Jakovich, Tony Lockett, Stewart Loewe, Garry Lyon, Gavin Wanganeen and Greg Williams. Matthew Richardson was added just after the launch, followed by Ben Cousins, James Hird, Anthony Koutoufides, Matthew Lloyd, Corey McKernan and Michael Voss.
Club 10 was launched in 1995 which coincided with the introduction of Foxtel, the two becoming natural partners.
“We had a marketing deal with Foxtel, Telstra signed us, so did Milo. You don’t see the same deals now,” Nixon said.
“We agreed the money would be split equally between everyone, including myself. They were making from memory around the $100,000 mark. Foxtel was $300,000, Telstra was $20,000 a player, so there’s $50,000, then after you start throwing in appearances it could get up around $100,000.
“Next year I’m doing Kick for Cancer where you to kick a ball into a wheelie bin 35m away. Hopefully the old Club 10 could become ambassadors for that.”
It's amazing what people still hold onto, Club 10 cap produced back in the 90's... this made my day @AFL @CarltonFC #club10 #footy #cap pic.twitter.com/LWhNrKlGxC
— Anthony Koutoufides (@anthonykouta) January 8, 2017
GARY ABLETT AND CLUB 10
Nixon received a call from Ablett shortly before the launch of Club 10: “Gary said he had heard I’d helped Wayne Carey earn $100,000 in marketing deals and could I do the same for him. I said, ‘Of course Gary, no worries, $100,000 is nothing, give me three weeks’.
“I got off the phone wondering how the hell I was going to do it. Just afterwards the phone rang with a bloke asking did I manage Gary Ablett? I said, ‘of course I do, have done for 10 years’ having just signed him that day.
“He wanted to do a life-size cardboard cut-out of Gary and offered $50,000. I said, ‘you’re kidding aren’t you, he won’t do it for less than $100,000’.
Can't wait for Ricky Nixon's book and the secrets I hope he unlocks. I still have My Club 10 Gazza cap with label. pic.twitter.com/Sk3m5UGV6i
— keep punching (@ScotPalmer) November 20, 2015
“The bloke agreed straight away. I thought how easy is this player management caper?
“So we organised for the photo in a studio in North Melbourne. Gary turns up with his sons Gary jnr and Nathan, who were typically punching the s... out of each other and knocked the light stand over.
“Gary came running in wanting to know what was going on while the photographer was starting to lose it, saying he’d had a gut full of the kids.
“To quieten them down he printed off a picture of Gary’s mark over Gary Pert, gave it to the kids and told them to piss off. But before they went they asked their dad to sign it.
“But he said no. I said, ‘please Gary’. Then he told me he’d been called to their school three times by the principal because the boys were selling signed footy cards of their dad for $50.”
CLUB 10, 2018
For Nixon the absolute superstars of today’s game fall short of the original Club 10.
“But in fairness in what era has there been Gary Ablett snr, Wayne Carey, Jason Dunstall and Tony Lockett? A big part of their marketing appeal was the fact they were goalkickers,” he said.
“Who would I pick today? I’d have Dustin Martin, Patrick Dangerfield, Buddy Franklin, Joel Selwood, Cyril Rioli, Gary Ablett, Nat Fyfe, Eddie Betts, Alex Rance and Joe Daniher.
“The AFL should create a new Club 10 where players such as a Marcus Bontempelli, Ben Brown or Josh Kelly serve an apprenticeship for a season. You could extend it to AFLW. It would be a massive marketing tool for big companies.
“And a good way for the top players to earn bigger money from commercial deals because they can’t earn it through he club due to the salary cap.”
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