How James Brayshaw saved North Melbourne from being dumped on the Gold Coast
FOR the first time James Brayshaw has detailed North Melbourne’s 2007 high-stakes gamble to reject an AFL push to relocate to the Gold Coast, how close the vote went, and how he was thrust into the chairmanship.
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FOR the first time former North Melbourne chairman James Brayshaw has detailed the club’s 2007 high-stakes gamble to “go down swinging”, rather than be dumped on the Gold Coast.
In a revealing new documentary, Keeping North South, to screen on Fox Footy on Tuesday at 9pm, the protagonists recount one of the most dramatic chapters in the club’s proud history — and the extraordinary tensions surrounding it.
A decade on, Brayshaw insists he has never been more certain that the people-power move to keep the club at Arden St was the right one.
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And he maintained the Kangaroos dodged a bullet by not agreeing to a $100 million offer to move to the same stretch of sand now occupied by the floundering AFL-created Suns.
The documentary, co-directed and co-produced by North Melbourne’s Heath O’Loughlin and Ange Campagna — also reveals how:
— Club powerbroker Ron Joseph hand-picked Brayshaw and his brother Mark as key figures to fight the AFL push.
— The AFL believed Mark Brayshaw was “almost driving the bus to the Gold Coast” before sensationally switching his vote.
— The Brayshaws, and others, were highly sceptical of the true value of the AFL’s promised $100 million offer.
— Club great Glenn Archer was targeted by the AFL to help make the move happen, but knocked it back, saying he wanted the club to go down swinging if it had to.
— Long-time club shareholder and passionate fan Peter De Rauch accused the AFL of being “bullies” who tried to railroad the club.
— AFL heavyweights Andrew Demetriou and Mike Fitzpatrick were “fuming” when Brayshaw informed them the club was rejecting the offer.
WAS IT REALLY $100 MILLION?
“The maths never really added up to me, to be honest,” James Brayshaw said.
“A lot of the presentation was around the mythical amount of money.
“I remember looking at it, thinking, ‘you can’t guarantee that stadium, that’s a huge part of making this work financially, and it is not there’.
“(It was like) ‘This stadium you keep talking about, you haven’t actually got it, and you can’t guarantee it. None of these numbers will actually work without it’.”
Fellow board member Mark Brayshaw agreed: “There was one key they couldn’t satisfy and it ended up being a bullet that the Gold Coast Suns just dodged and that is of all the modelling they did, they couldn’t resolve the question of what rent they were going to have to pay on the ground.”
Demetriou still stands by the figure: “It is always good to have a nice big round number, so if you total what the stadium was going to bring, if you totalled the package which had an eradication of debt and money going into the bank, you could easily get to the $100 million.
“I am pretty sure it was the right number.”
THE VOTE
During the AFL’s hard-sell, Peter De Rauch says he would have betrayed the North Melbourne family if he had caved into the league’s plans of buying his shares.
He labelled the AFL “bullies … we have evidence of Andrew (Demetriou) and Mike (Fitzpatrick) sort of being bullies, and saying this is how you do it … attack, attack, attack.”
Joseph said: “If the North Melbourne members knew some of the things that the AFL did and some of the things that the (former Kangaroos chairman Graham) Duff board did in trying to get North Melbourne out of Arden St, they would have brought the bloody house down.”
James Brayshaw knew a decision had to be made before a planned Dallas Brooks Hall rally scheduled for December 6, 2007.
“That Dallas Brooks Hall thing was happening that night, so I had a view … we can’t go there without a definitive answer,” he said.
“North Melbourne people are wonderful, unique, they didn’t want to see their club not exist, and neither did I.
“I just said (to the board) … ‘why don’t we just put it to a vote?’ There was silence … it wasn’t until that moment that I ever contemplated becoming chairman.”
Board member at the time, Fulvio Inserra, recalled: “We basically did a vote around the board table. It just happened to start on my left and it went around the table and by the time it got back around to me, it was three-all.
“It is still an honour to this day to say I had the chance to be a part of the history of the club to stay in Melbourne.”
That night more than 2500 North Melbourne members rallied, many unaware the new chairman and his board had voted to keep North Melbourne south.
TELLING THE AFL
“Andrew (Demetriou) and Mike (Fitzpatrick) were fuming,” James Brayshaw said.
“Funnily enough Andrew was the most measured. I went and saw (Fitzpatrick) in his office in the city, and he was not happy.
“Their desired result was for us to move. I get where they were coming from. I was coming from the total opposite direction.”
Part of the AFL’s frustration was their belief that Mark Brayshaw had switched his vote.
“I think at one stage a couple of the guys (directors) were driving the bus to the Gold Coast, that’s how supportive they were of the move,” Demetriou said.
Gill McLachlan, Demetriou’s deputy at the time, added: “The only thing I remember being bemused about someone changing their vote and someone driving the bus to the Gold Coast and suddenly it was going in reverse down the Highway.”
Mark Brayshaw, now the AFL Coaches’ Association chief executive, recalled: “I have it on authority that the AFL were shitty with me because they felt as though I was going to vote to go.”
Asked if he feared payback, Brayshaw said: “Yes, unquestionably.”
But Demetriou and McLachlan denied the AFL targeted the club after they voted to stay in Melbourne.
“I’ve heard over the years … that if you don’t follow the AFL’s way, there will be retribution,” Demetriou said.
“It has never happened. It is just one of those myths that gathers momentum over the years, and the myth becomes greater (than the reality).”
SAVIOURS
Brayshaw pinpointed businessman/philanthropist Peter Scanlon as the man who ultimately saved the club in the days, weeks and years after 2007.
Scanlon injected millions into the club, and then set up and helped run North’s groundbreaking community program The Huddle.
“He (Scanlon) is … almost single-handedly the reason the club is as it is today,” he said.
“The real truth has always been without the towering backing of Peter Scanlon, it didn’t matter what else happened, or who else was involved, there would have been no option but to relocate.”
“We should have a statue out the front because North Melbourne would not exist as a footy club without the great Peter Scanlon.”
The documentary also revealed the extent to which former chief executive Eugene Arocca — who helped organise the club’s $15 million redevelopment of Arden Street — and one-time president and shareholder Bob Ansett still care about the club.
Both were reduced to tears during filming, with Ansett saying the revival of the club was “a dream come true”.
THE FUTURE
Now watching on as a supporter, Brayshaw expressed his delight that the club seemingly on death row for so many years now has a guaranteed future.
“To have all that uncertainty gone … ‘are we going to be around in 15 years?’, or ‘are we going to exist as a club?’, or ‘are we going to be a part of the competition?’.
“(In) the early 2000s, there was a real chance there wasn’t going to be a North Melbourne. There is no chance there won’t be a North Melbourne footy club now.”
Keeping North South screens on Fox Footy on Tuesday at 9pm
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Originally published as How James Brayshaw saved North Melbourne from being dumped on the Gold Coast
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