Demons reveal Brayshaw payout figure; Petracca returns to training track

Melbourne Football Club have announced an operating profit of $1.7 million, despite paying out $3.1 million to Angus Brayshaw following his medical retirement.

Brayshaw was forced into retirement earlier this year after repeated concussions. He had five years remaining on a lucrative contract.

As reported by this masthead in September, Brayshaw was a major test case for the game, given he was the first player to have suffered a career-ending concussion with such a long-term contract still to his name.

Gone but not forgotten: Angus Brayshaw delivered an emotional speech at the Brownlow.Credit: AFL Photos

The Demons had been negotiating with head office to push more of Brayshaw’s five-year payout outside their salary cap. Under current rules, 90 per cent of Brayshaw’s 2024 payment is outside the club’s total player payments, with 75 per cent in 2025 and 50 per cent in 2026. But the fact he was contracted until 2028 means the full amount of what could be a heavily back-ended contract must also be included in the salary cap in 2027 and 2028.

The 2021 premiership player took to the stage at the Brownlow Medal count and the Demons’ best and fairest night to detail how difficult his transition into retirement had been.

“Days that were planned to the minute and filled with purpose need to be replaced, and in time they will be,” Brayshaw said.

“Football is all-consuming, no matter how long your career was, how successful it was, or even how well you prepared for the next stage; the transition is difficult, and there seems no easy way around it.”

In a tumultuous year when former club president Glen Bartlett launched legal action against the club, with a settlement reached this month, the Demons spent $900,000 in legal costs. The club had also been a respondent in a court case involving businessman Peter Lawrence.

Outgoing Demons chief executive Gary Pert said the Demons were in a strong financial position, underpinned by a future fund of $23.7 million, while there are $9.5 million of funds available for investment in the club’s training and administration project.

Meanwhile, Christian Petracca made an early return to pre-season training on Friday, and was in excellent condition after recovering from season-ending surgery.

Petracca was in good spirits while running and completing ball work with teammates at Gosch’s Paddock. The Demons will leave next week for a camp in the Victorian country town of Bright, where Petracca was due to officially return to action.

Petracca’s presence was a point of joy for teammates, coaches and the small group of supporters on hand, who understand how important the 2021 Norm Smith medallist is to their premiership hopes in 2025.

His booming right-foot kick was on show, while his soft touch with ball in hand was evident.

The robust midfielder-forward endured a tumultuous 2024, in which he suffered four broken ribs, a lacerated spleen and a small puncture to his lung in an incident in the King’s Birthday game against Collingwood.

The subsequent surgery ruled him out for the rest of the season. The anguish and pain of what had happened, and fears his life was in danger, along with the Demons’ rapid demise since the 2021 premiership, prompted him to inform the club at his exit interview, and to teammates at an end-of-season function, that he wanted to play for a rival Victorian club in 2025.

However, that did not eventuate, and Petracca has happily returned to the Demons, who now have a new president, and are hunting a new chief executive.

Demons football boss Alan Richardson told this masthead this month that Petracca was recovering well and had trained strongly at a pre-season camp at the Red Bull Athlete Performance Centre in Austria. This camp meant he missed the Demons’ best-and-fairest count.

The manner in which Petracca was handled by the Demons before his surgery and the fall-out from this remains an ongoing probe by the AFL Players Association.

Petracca said in August there were fears he might not survive his operation.

“It’s been really, really tough. Probably the most traumatic thing I’ve experienced in my life,” Petracca said on the Howie Games podcast.

“The trauma of everything … it’s actually not necessarily the incident of it, it’s the aftermath of it. The surgery in general was a really traumatic experience: being awake for it, internal bleeding, wasn’t able to be put to sleep under anaesthetic. I can think of every single thing happening at that time.”

Fellow star Clayton Oliver, who also endured a tumultuous 2024 campaign and sought a trade to Geelong, returned early to training last Friday.

Oliver has also made peace with the club, and has vowed to return to the form that has made him a four-time Keith “Bluey” Truscott Memorial Trophy winner.

Meanwhile, Collingwood, despite missing the finals, announced an operating profit before government revenue, depreciation and amortisation of $8.9 million, an increase from $6 million profit of 2023.

President Jeff Browne, who will step down in December after four years at the helm, said it was another outstanding result for the club.

“This year saw our club complete a $15 million redevelopment of our state-of-the-art facility, fostering an environment where all our athletes have the resources to thrive both on and off the field,” Browne said.

“My wish for Collingwood is that it continues to be bold and evolve, blending the art and the increasing proportion of science in football, to climb to the top of the mountain and relish in the view from there.”

Browne said he was delighted the Magpies had enacted all 18 recommendations of the Do Better report.

Hawthorn also announced a football operations surplus yesterday of more than $1.1 million for the financial year.

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