Deadline: When Geoff Clark’s mask slipped among AFL elite

Being welcomed to the best seats in the best AFL corporate box wasn’t enough for the then ATSIC chair Geoff Clark — an unusual demand revealed a sense of entitlement as big as the MCG.

Andrew Rule and Mark Buttler with the latest scallywag scuttlebutt.

The thief, the tie and the Brownlow winner

The thing about proven thief and accused serial rapist Geoff “Borer” Clark is that a lot of people who’ve dealt with him since the 1970s remember it — but rarely for good reasons.

These brushes with Clark are at both ends of the sporting, social and political spectrum.

Some time around the early 2000s, Clark was welcomed to the best seats in the best AFL corporate box along with various football and rugby figures, courtesy of mega-sponsor Rio Tinto.

He didn’t punch anybody but didn’t endear himself to at least one AFL official who recalls his behaviour and the sycophantic way he was treated.

The first oddity was that Clark (then the chair of ATSIC) and his companion did not mix with the other guests, including two indigenous rugby players. Worse, he demanded an AFL tie like the one an AFL executive was wearing.

To the embarrassment of some, the AFL man, a legend of the game, quickly unknotted his own tie and handed it to Clark on the spot, despite the fact Clark could easily have waited for one to be sent within a day or two.

Clark outside Warrnambool Magistrate Court in 2003. Picture: David Crosling

Clark outside County Court in Melbourne this week. Picture: Tamati Smith.

“In the formality of the corporate suite, I am sure, my very proper colleague felt acutely uncomfortable with his now open neck shirt,” the insider recalls.

“It has stuck in my mind all these years — I just could not share the reverence with which others apparently regarded this man. He was clearly used to getting what he wanted. At the time it seemed clearly like a demand and I felt embarrassed with my colleague that he acquiesced so quickly.”

The nice guy in this exchange once won a Brownlow. If there’s any justice, Clark will win the Downlow — a spell back behind bars for the first time since he was a vicious young thug.

Some 15 years before the corporate box stint, Clark took part in what became a notorious local footy match.

A knockabout ex-postie from Terang sends Deadline a message that has been edited for colourful language. Our correspondent states in part:

“Borer Clarke was a Dog, I remember having a kick with kolora football club v purnim bears I’m thinking 1986, borer and his cronies from fitzroy all stars kicked the s*** out of most of us! Our coach Peter Reilly who could fight like an axe murderer decked Borer and the rest of the Bears s*** themselves!”

Then prime minister John Howard with Geoff Clark for Prime Minister’s XI vs ATSIC Chairman’s XI match at Manuka Oval in 2001.

Living in interesting times

Now is about the time we’d expect a fellow called Ali El Nasher to be released from prison, based on what we’re told and some rudimentary maths.

El Nasher has made a name for himself in middle-eastern organised crime in recent years, notably for his role in violence which exploded at a fight night at The Pavilion venue in Kensington back in 2019.

Young father Ben Togiai was shot dead and Omar Bchinnati, a foe of Ali and his brother Abdullah, suffered a bullet wound to the leg.

Ali didn’t pull the trigger but was accused of stomping on the head of another patron, who was allegedly pistol-whipped by his mate Mikhael Myko.

Ali El Nasher’s … unique hair style would make it hard to hide from police.

The El Nashers and Myko went on the run for a while but were eventually rounded up over an episode which left a bad taste in the mouths of some very heavy Melbourne hombres.

With his distinctive haircut, Ali probably didn’t have much chance of living incognito. Plenty has happened since then.

Two years on, Ali would run into trouble over a violent attack on a fellow closely connected to an already formidable gangland figure, whose influence has grown even further since.

He later copped a nasty beating at the St Kilda marina, police adding insult to injury by locking him up for breaching his bail by being away at the bay too late in the day.

Who could say what that bashing was about but Deadline has been told a long-time associate of Ali was later the target of a wrong-victim shooting ambush.

An innocent homeowner was lucky to emerge unscathed from that drama.

His brother Abdullah is no longer on the street, serving a long prison stretch over the murder of Mr Togiai and the shooting of Mr Bchinnati.

Let’s hope it’s all water under the bridge, though we doubt a bloke the El Nashers attacked back in 2012 will have forgotten them.

Abdullah El Nasher is serving a long prison sentence. Picture: Nicki Connolly

The poor fellow was driving along Harrison St, Brunswick, when he was blocked by a group of men and their vehicles.

He politely asked if someone could guide his car through, before someone replied: “You dumb f..k. You can’t drive, you stupid skip.”

His car was then kicked, a thug jumped on its roof and another hero smashed the driver’s window and punched him in the face.

The bleeding victim reversed away quickly when Abdullah tried to rip the keys from the ignition. He was then chased by the El Nashers through the streets at speeds of up to 100kmh before being trapped near Lygon St.

The victim was dragged from his vehicle then the brothers slammed his head into a door and flung him on the road.

He was punched and kicked as others held him down, prompting a withering dressing down from County Court judge Richard Maidment.

“Your conduct was appalling and utterly inexcusable. You both behaved like brutal, cowardly thugs, no doubt emboldened by a mob of your peers and those of that mob that joined you in the pursuit. You showed your victim absolutely no mercy, consideration or normal feelings of humanity,” said the judge, apparently not one of the bleeding heart variety.

Under the pump

A senior organised crime investigator found himself involved in some more coalface policing near headquarters last week.

The high-ranking officer was walking along Spencer St when he saw a homeless bloke verbally attacking an elderly woman.

The member told the abuser to pipe down but that only resulted in him starting to swing punches.

Back-up in the form of younger colleagues quickly arrived and helped the boss subdue the troublemaker.

From Harley horsepower to shank’s pony

IT probably seemed like a good flex at the time.

The bunch of seven Finks who decided to ride along Southbank Promenade on August 9 certainly got the attention of the public, whose roaring Harley Davidsons had them stepping aside.

Unfortunately, they weren’t the only ones taking an interest.

Members of the Echo taskforce also had a look and there was a postscript last week when a bunch of the Finks were charged.

Worse still, the bikies are now looking for alternative transport after Echo detectives seized seven Harleys.