Melbourne can't exorcise taint of the AFL's tanking investigation

MELBOURNE has conceded the fallout from the AFL's tanking investigation could affect membership and sponsorship.

MELBOURNE has conceded the fallout from the AFL's tanking investigation could affect membership and sponsorship.

Director of sports performance Neil Craig yesterday said the probe into allegations the club set out to lose matches in 2009 was having a "minimal" impact on player preparations.

But, with the club and key officials facing serious sanctions if found guilty, Craig conceded there was a flow-on affect from the explosive claims, which could affect the Dees' off-field business.

"Like most things in that situation there can be a ripple affect," Craig said.

"It's downtime for (football manager) Josh Mahoney, it's downtime for (media chief) Ryan Larkin, because they actually have got to deal (with it) from a time perspective, time which they would use in other areas.

"It can have an affect on members, on your membership. Do they want to be associated with the Melbourne Football Club until it's all cleaned up?

"Sponsorship? You don't deny that because it exists."

Craig said it was important not to "rush" the club's response to the AFL's demands.

"When you get put under a time constraint ... you can make poor decisions ... it needs to make sure we do it really well," he said.

Melbourne will not sanction players who it said voluntarily left the MCG after clashing with spectators at the Boxing Day Test.

Craig admitted the possibility of "errors of judgment", but said the club would use the incident to help educate players.