Melbourne grand final 2021: Follow the latest Demons news and updates

Before the ball was bounced, Melbourne president Kate Roffey, watching the prelim from quarantine, saw Max Gawn’s eyes and knew he was about to demolish the Cats.

Roffey says she knew Max Gawn was switched on when she saw his eyes during the anthem. Picture: AFL Photos/Getty Images

If there were a turning point for Melbourne and its tortured fan base, it might have come last August when president Glen Bartlett picked up the phone and chucked a wobbly.

Editor's note: Since this story was published new evidence has emerged concerning Glen Bartlett's sudden departure as President of the Melbourne Football Club. At the time, it was widely believed that he had lost the support of the football department and most directors after he had publicly lambasted the team in mid-2020. It has since emerged that from late 2020 until his departure, there had been a secret dispute between Bartlett and other senior club figures, including CEO Gary Pert, regarding concerns about alleged bullying and behavioural issues involving coach Simon Goodwin. Bartlett was imploring the board to professionally deal with Goodwin's conduct. Concerns about Pert and Goodwin’s conduct came to light after the passing of information to the board from club doctor Zeeshan Arain. Amid the dispute, both Bartlett and Dr Arain were forced out of their roles with the club.

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The Demons had just capitulated to Port Adelaide at the Gabba, prompting the then club boss to publicly condemn the team’s performance as “insipid” and “soft as butter”.

“The players understand what it means when you wear the Melbourne jumper … they completely trashed it last night,” Bartlett told the Herald Sun’s Jon Ralph.

“I can’t play full forward. Perty (chief executive Gary Pert) can’t play centre half back. There is no excuse for anything but results.

“It was disgraceful. When you pull on a Melbourne jumper, we don’t give them out in Weeties packets.”

“It’s not what I would have done,” Bartlett’s replacement Kate Roffey said when asked about the infamous Bartlett interview this week.

“He was the president, that was his call, but would I do it like that, personally, as a female? Probably not, but that’s just me.”

Roffey has been a central figure in the stunning revival of Australia’s oldest football club.

Her no-nonsense, straight-shooting style and regular temperature-check conversations with coaches, players and staff have been hailed as a missing link in the Melbourne chain.

“It’s a journey and it’s hard, every president is different in the way we approach things,” Roffey said.

“You talk to Nathan Jones who went through the hardest — hardest — times at the club. You can’t blame the players and the coach sometimes for the culture of the club.

“I always think that is our job as a board to lead that culture and to lead by example and we have spent a lot of time, particularly this season, working with Goodie (coach Simon Goodwin) and the players to make sure that the culture is all about the club first and that they can be the best people that they can be, so that they can be the best players that they can be.

“I think we blame head coaches when things go wrong but once you are out on the field, as one of the West Coast players said this year when they got smashed, ‘the head coach always gets a hammering but that was our fault - we didn’t do what we were supposed to do’.

“So I really take the view that if something is not going right in the team and something is not going right with the culture of the club, then that’s my fault as the president.”

Roffey said she would be the first one to question whether the performance of the team was reflecting the actions of the board and her role as president.

“There is a difference between not being able to play well — I mean that is experience and other things — but if you feel like your players aren’t giving 100 per cent, constantly, then I think that is a cultural thing and as far as I’m concerned that’s my fault,” she said.

“For me it’s not a case of standing up and hammering the players externally. You have to sit down with the players and the coaching group and say, ‘Okay, what is going on?’ As I do with Simon.

“I sit with Simon and talk to him about all sorts of things. ‘What’s happening with the team, where are we at with the team, how are you going?’ That’s the way I am and I do it with all of the players. I do it with Perty, my board members and the staff.

“We are on a mission to make this club great — and we are all aligned from the top down on how we go about it culturally. That is probably the biggest difference that people are seeing. “Goodie himself will say it’s so unique to have this absolute alignment with what we are trying to do … it’s a very open and honest conversation.

“If I don’t like it, I’ll ring Simon up and say, ‘What is going on here?’ I’m not going to ring you and say in the media ‘X, Y and Z’.

“Those constant conversations mean that if you see something that is going to be an issue, you are heading them off before they do.

“We talk about succession planning all the time. It’s always difficult. We love these clubs and you always want to be a part of them, but we all have to step off at some time. These conversations take place over months,” she said.

Roffey — the director of deals, investment and major projects at Wyndham City council — was a latecomer to the Demons faithful.

She grew up in far north country New South Wales and followed the rival rugby codes until moving to Melbourne in the early 2000s to become the chief executive of VicSport.

“Everyone said, ‘You’ve got to have a team’ and Melbourne were the bottom of the ladder and so I thought, ‘Well, I better pick the underdog’ and I’ve been following them ever since,” Roffey said.

“I’ve been on the board for eight years and now I find myself as the president.”

As a new club director, she had a front-row seat to the Melbourne transformation led by former CEO Peter Jackson and ex-senior coach Paul Roos.

“I remember Roosy saying to me, ‘Heads up — you’re not going to win a game for a couple of years but we have to go through a total rebuild’ and so as a board we were committed to doing that,” she said.

“Paul and Peter were the ones who came in and did that tough work. You can try and patch over the cracks or bring in a player or two but if you want to be really strong in eight years’ time or 10 years’ time, then you have to make those hard, hard calls.”

Plans for a new facility at Gosch’s Paddock are the final building block.

“Trust, respect, unity, excellence, they are our key pillars of the club and at the moment unity we don’t have,” Roffey said.

“We’ve got our admin over at the MCG and during Covid our players are training at Casey and we’ve got the usual footy program at AAMI Park. We don’t have a home at the Melbourne Football Club - the oldest club in the league.

“Everyone is aware that this is a priority, we are the last one to be looked after.”

Roffey watched Melbourne’s preliminary final triumph from hotel quarantine in Perth and will attend Saturday’s Grand Final.

“I just looked at Gawny’s (Max Gawn) eyes during the national anthem in the game against the Cats and thought, ‘This guy is possessed’,” she said.

“I didn’t think it was a ‘55m on the run goal possessed’ but there was something about him that just said he’s so ready to step up and take up all the pressure that that leadership actually requires.

“He’s a good person, a down to earth character with the bushy beard — and he never gives up.”

Roffey and Western Bulldogs counterpart Kylie Watson-Wheeler are aiming to become just the second female president after Richmond’s Peggy O’Neal to lead their club to an AFL premiership.

“I knew Peggy a long time before I became president — she has done an enormous amount of work to blaze that trail,” Roffey said.

Melbourne has endured an unfair share of tragedy across the years, which Roffey said was the “driving” factor behind this year’s magical run.

“We have been challenged all season, like a lot of clubs, but it seems we just get things a bit worse,” she said.

“We are in the air and I get a message saying the team has been diverted to Canberra, they’ve got to come back from Brisbane because there has been a Covid outbreak. Then we had the thunder and lightning gods trying to get involved in Perth.

“The club has asked these boys to stand up everytime and they have and the reason they have is that I don’t think they are playing for themselves, they are playing for the Ron Barassi’s, the Norm Smith’s, the Neale Daniher’s, the Jimmy Stynes, the Troy Broadbridge and fifty-odd thousand members who can’t be in Perth to watch them.

“There are so many people that just want to see Melbourne win for so many reasons and the players are very aware of that. It’s one of the things that gives them that steely resolve … to actually bring that premiership cup back home.

“Hopefully we will be able to let go a bit of that ‘long-suffering Dees supporters’ tag because it’s different now. It’s like Richmond. We have been through a rebuild and hope to have sustained success for a long time.

Track watch: How Dees are shaping for GF

Melbourne is confident small forward Charlie Spargo will play in Saturday’s Grand Final after he failed to train with his teammates on Monday.

Spargo injured his left ankle during a tackling drill on Saturday and was a mere on-field spectator while his teammates trained in Joondalup.

The 21-year-old instead talked to teammates and the club’s trainers without even putting on his boots.

But teammate Tom McDonald declared there is “absolutely no way he‘d miss it” as the Demons look to break a 57-year premiership drought against the Western Bulldogs in Perth on Saturday.

McDonald insisted there was nothing to worry about and that Spargo was following a normal course of action for someone who rolls their ankle.

“He’s going to be fine. Guys who have a normal rolled ankle, they’d never run on a Monday, probably not a Tuesday, and you’d try to get them to train for a Wednesday,” McDonald said.

“There would be absolutely no way he’d miss it.

“He didn’t need a scan, they tape it up pretty tight, and worst-case scenario he’d have some painkillers for the game and be absolutely fine.

“It’s not going to be something that really nags him or affects him physically. He’ll be a little bit sore after the game, but it’s not going to affect him during the week.”

Key defender Steven May, who injured his hamstring in the preliminary final win over Geelong, was able to complete the low-key session without any issues.

Defender Christian Salem was also on light duties on Monday, but McDonald said that was “pretty standard” for him, having suffered some groin issues during the season.

“I think he’s always just managed his groins through the year,” McDonald said.

“He missed a week mid-season, and they’ve always just tried to make sure he doesn’t roll into that stage he did in the middle of the year where he had to miss a game.”

The Demons face a big decision on whether to recall defender Joel Smith, who missed the preliminary final against Geelong with a hamstring injury.

Michael Hibberd replaced him and played well against the Cats, while Jayden Hunt is also fit again a vying for a return to the team after surgery. Hunt played every game until Round 21 before injuring his ankle.

“It‘s horrible really that someone has to miss out somewhere,” McDonald said.

“There’s probably five or six guys who could lay claim to a spot in the side, and you really feel for guys who miss out.

“I‘ve got no idea what they’re going to do (with selection), but somebody is going to be pretty disappointed.”

Brutal sessions priming Dees for grand final

Melbourne vice-captain Jack Viney expects Charlie Spargo to be “100 per cent” for the Grand Final, revealing the small forward had “pulled up fine” from an ankle injury scare.

In what Viney described as a “heated hit-out”, Spargo sent a scare through the Demons camp when he appeared to twist his ankle during the key training session for the minor premiers at Mineral Resources Park on Saturday night.

The 21-year-old, who has kicked 17 goals for the Demons this year, did not take any further part in the session but was on his feet with his boots off at the end of training.

Melbourne later confirmed Spargo had jarred his ankle.

The Demons said on Sunday Spargo had not required any scans or further treatment and would be able to take part in the club’s next training session on Monday.

Viney said Spargo, who has not missed a game for the Demons this year, had pulled up well from the injury scare.

“He has pulled up fine, he just had a little bit of a jar of his ankle,” Viney told ABC radio.

“He required no further treatment or anything like that, they weren’t getting him scans or anything like that, it was just a jar or tweak of his ankle.

“I am sure he is a bit stiff this morning but ice it up and that’s what we deal with on a regular basis is getting little jars of fingers, knees, ankles etc.

“But he is a professional and I am sure he will be 100 per cent come Saturday.”

Melbourne defender Christian Salem conceded last week it would be a delicate balance for the Demons between being match-hardened and avoiding injury in their match preparation as they tried to counter just one game of football in three weeks.

Viney said the Demons session had been “heated” but the club needed to train hard to get the rewards in the premiership decider against the Western Bulldogs.

“We had a pretty heated hit-out last night,” Viney said.

“I am a pretty big believer in you have got to train hard to play well.

“So, I gave it a real hot crack and that hopefully puts us in good stead in a week’s time.”

Why Dees are putting off contract talks with Goodwin

Melbourne has put off contract extension talks with grand final coach Simon Goodwin to focus on breaking a 57-year premiership drought.

Demons president Kate Roffey said she had not even had a conversation with Goodwin about his future beyond next year.

Goodwin, who was under pressure during the tenure of former president Glen Bartlett heading into this season, is contracted until the end of 2022.

Asked on Friday about the prospect of re-signing Goodwin to a longer deal, Roffey told the Herald Sun: “I can tell you with 100 per cent honesty, Goodie and I have not even spoken about it.

“When we talk it’s about the next game. A contract extension hasn’t even entered the conversation and Goodie and I talk a lot.

“When it’s the right time to talk about it we will but at the moment we are just entirely focused on doing the best we can to bring that premiership home after 57 years.”

Roffey took over from Bartlett in April after the Demons board lost faith in the club president.

Goodwin, 44, has since led his team on a run to the Grand Final.

Pressed on whether Goodwin could start next year without a new contract, Roffey said: “You’d have to ask Goodie, like I said, he hasn’t asked me and that is 100 per cent honest. Give him a buzz and he might tell you when he has plans to approach me about it …

“His contract – as you say – isn’t up until the end of next year, so if Goodie wants to leave it until then, we can have the conversation then. I am very open and happy to have the conversation with him but I’m telling you 100 per cent we have not had that conversation – it hasn’t even been broached as a subject as yet – we are totally focused on this year.

“He’s a part of our club and a part of our team. Do we want him going anywhere? No. But that doesn’t mean that we are sitting there worrying about his contract and stuff now, we are worrying about a game in eight days time.”

Roffey is in quarantine in Perth and will attend next Saturday’s sellout Grand Final at Perth Stadium.

Roffey and Western Bulldogs counterpart Kylie Watson-Wheeler are aiming to become just the second female president after Peggy O’Neal to lead their club to an AFL flag.

The last Melbourne president to oversee a premiership was Donald Duffy in 1964.

— with Rebecca Williams and Russell Gould