In some ways, the Geoffrey Edelsten of today is much the same man as the flamboyant entrepreneur who successfully bid to own the Sydney Swans in the mid-1980s. Then, as now, the good doctor seemed to live the flashy lifestyle with a young blonde wife in tow. Edelsten seemed to have it all when he became the first private owner of the Swans on July 31, 1985, ultimately edging out businessmen Basil Sellers and Richard Pratt for the licence.
It was soon after that he launched an audacious recruiting raid on opposition talent, with newspaper clippings from the time recording similar agitated tales from rival clubs to those now written about expansion sides Gold Coast Suns and Greater Western Sydney.
Those were the days ... Geoffrey Edelsten and former wife Leanne toast buying the Sydney Swans licence in 1986 ... and went about promoting the club in all sorts of waysCredit: Peter Moxham
Stellar talent comprising the likes of Greg Williams, Gerard Healy and Merv Neagle would defect north in time for the 1986 season, ensuring the league's ugly ducklings became an instant success in a competition still named the Victorian Football League. The summer of '86 was a heady time for Edelsten, whose medical clinics continued to spread in Sydney and Melbourne amid controversy about his colourful background, one that would catch up to him quicker than he had expected.
But as he reflected on those days in the boardroom of his St Kilda office, Edelsten, still involved in medical centres, now wants to set the record straight on some ''myths'' from that time. While his legend, in part, has been built around owning that pink helicopter in '86, Edelsten insisted he had only a blue-and-white chopper - not pink. ''It never existed. Absolutely. If you go to YouTube, there is an interview of me and [wife] Leanne walking around the boundary of the Carlton Football Club with Peter Donegan [a Channel Seven reporter at the time],'' he said.
Dynamic duo ... Geoffrey and Brynne Edelsten.Credit: Paul Rovere
''Then he [Donegan] says: 'Ah, there is a helicopter over the ground, that must be the pink helicopter'. It was one of the health and safety helicopters. It was red and white. It wasn't pink at all. There never was a pink helicopter.
''One journalist wrote that I gave my wife a pink car and helicopter. I gave Leanne a pink car but the pink then became attached to the helicopter. I had a blue-and-white one which I used to fly to Liverpool hospital to deliver babies.''
Edelsten also rubbishes claims by Essendon ruck legend Simon Madden, a schoolteacher, that he even offered to buy him a school to entice him north. ''This is a sore point. It's absolute nonsense he was offered a school,'' he said.
Madden was reportedly offered a $1 million contract to be paid over 10 years, with the intention he would become an assistant coach when he retired. ''It was more money than he was getting at Essendon. That was all. It was a very brief conversation and that was it,'' Edelsten said. ''I am sure I would have said I could find you a teaching position.''
Edelsten also disputes a claim in Garry Linnell's Football Ltd - The Inside Story of the AFL, a magnificently researched and detailed account of football in the 1980s, that on the night VFL commissioner Jack Hamilton phoned to say he had won the licence, Edelsten confided to business partner Bob Pritchard he didn't have the money to complete the $6.3 million bid, of which $2.9m was in cash. Linnell wrote that Edelsten told Pritchard: ''The only problem is I don't have a dime. I have no f----ing money whatsoever. So now we have to go out there tomorrow and find someone with the dough.''
Edelsten also disputed that claim, declaring: ''I wrote the cheques. I am the only one that really knows what the financial situation was - my accountants and the VFL's accountants, Price Waterhouse.'' Edelsten said he made the two initial payments of $250,000 each ''but then Westeq Ltd became involved and we changed the structure. We got the VFL's permission to have a public company. I paid all the initial funds.
''What made Pritchard's comments stupid was that we had just finished an audit with Price Waterhouse where they had established coming up with $6.3 million in value was not going to be a problem with the business that existed at the time. That was one of the commission's biggest concerns.''
Westeq Ltd, which had joined the stock exchange in 1983, was keen on opening Edelsten-style medical clinics in Western Australia. The company became curious about the benefits of linking with the Swans, and agreed to stump up much-needed money for Edelsten, in return for slashing the number of shares Edelsten and business partner Pritchard had in Powerplay International, the Swans' controlling company.
It was the beginning of the end for Edelsten, who now wishes he had never aligned himself with the Swans, a move he said at the time was all about rescuing an ailing side, and not about promoting his clinics.
''I wouldn't have done it,'' Edelsten said when asked if there was anything he would have done differently. ''I think … [actor] Matt Damon was being interviewed on Channel Nine. He was asked: 'How do you handle fame?' He said it was fantastic when you get invited to events, get reservations at restaurants but anonymity is far more important. I feel the same way. If I had my chance again, I would not be giving this interview … Even today if I see a camera, I let [new wife] Brynne stand there, and run. The scrutiny is so intrusive, and imposing. It's not worth it. Once you have lost your anonymity you can never get it back.''
A shy person away from the cameras, Edelsten was able to attract so much attention simply through bravado and clever marketing in cohorts with the savvy Pritchard, who had helped market cricket for Kerry Packer. Edelsten and Pritchard have not spoken since Edelsten, as he explains, quit or, as others have claimed, was sacked as chairman of the Swans in July 1986 by club owners Powerplay International.
Reasons for his exit were varied, with some Powerplay officials suggesting his comments about the club were undermining confidence. It was reported at the time he had offended officials by references to his club, his team. Others suggest he was tapped on the shoulder when the police investigation into his relationship with hitman Christopher Dale Flannery gathered momentum. Edelsten was later jailed for a year for perverting the course of justice and soliciting an underworld figure. ''I got involved to help football. It was to save the game so the Swans didn't fold. I didn't have any other motive at all,'' he said.