Inside explosive Demons saga

[GVGjr]

Demons at war:

When Simon Goodwin had a medical episode at a Melbourne club function in December 2020, Glen Bartlett handed him a tissue and a distressed look.

“I’m an OH&S lawyer and I care deeply about people,’’ Bartlett says. “I was seriously concerned about his wellbeing. And I actually went down to the car park afterwards (with him), I think for about 20 minutes. I was really concerned for him.’’

After a meeting with AFL Commission chairman Richard Goyder, chief executive Gillon McLachlan and Demons board member Mohan Jesudason in February 2021 about Goodwin, it was agreed action was needed.

“I did what was required after that meeting,’’ Bartlett says.

“I spoke to him (Goodwin) about some pretty significant issues. Gary Pert (Demons CEO) was there.”

But despite believing he had the support of the AFL and club, Bartlett says a push for hair testing of all senior club officials and other initiatives to improve standards resulted in a brutal and swift campaign to oust him from the club.

“Players get hair tested, but for other senior people in a club there’s no policy in place. That’s what I was pushing hard to introduce,’’ he says.

“On the behaviour stuff I was dealing with, I had a few people in Melbourne around the board table and executives who I think melted like marshmallows in front of the fire at Mt Buller,’’ he said.

“People don’t understand the difference between winning and performance and conduct and behaviour and needing to be good citizens off the field and on the field.

“I had people around me flinching ... Richard Goyder and McLachlan were fully briefed. McLachlan had a whole lot of his own information and they just evaporated.”

Bartlett’s issues with the AFL were detailed in Tuesday’s Herald Sun, but they were matched, he says, by the internal subterfuge and backstabbing at the Demons which forced him to resign as president on April 9, 2021.

Detailing for the first time how he claims the club turned on him, an exasperated Bartlett says: “I’ve had a gutful.”

The official start of the end came when board members Steve Morris, once a good mate, and David Rennick, called Bartlett on April 6 and told him he had to stand down as president immediately.

“Rennick said ‘Glen, you need to step down immediately to preserve your legacy because there will be a group coming to challenge at the end of the year and we don’t think you can win’.

“My response was that’s complete bulls***, we will deal with that then. Why blow up the club when we’re 4-0. Then I cited that it was complete breach of trust, respect, unity, our core values.’’

Asked why he thought he received the call, Bartlett says: “It’s because I wouldn’t just sweep things under the carpet, and I was going on hard on hair testing.’’

The walls were closing in.

But despite the club later declaring the board was unanimous in its decision to topple him, Bartlett says he knows otherwise.

“I knew at least three board members were disgusted by the phone call and didn’t support it. This concept that it was unanimous I step down was bulls***,’’ he says.

After the April 6 call, Bartlett announced his resignation on April 9, citing club great Ron Barassi and legendary coach Norm Smith as inadvertently helping him to make the decision.

“When I first became president Ron Barassi invited me for a coffee in 333 Collins St, and gave me a book autographed by him. He said ‘Glen, your greatest challenge will come from within the club and if you can sort out the within, then anything is possible’.’’

Smith’s sacking in 1965 is part of footy folklore and although Bartlett did not compare himself to Smith, the legendary coach’s scathing interview at the time was prevalent in his mind.

“It derailed the club, the fight,’’ he says.

“The whole culture at Melbourne ... I’m sitting there thinking maybe this culture stuff is embedded. It all became a melting pot.

“I could’ve called a meeting of members and put it to a vote and I would’ve been pretty confident that, no, it’s got to be Glen. But that would’ve blown the club up.’’

Pert also called him.

“He used to ring me every day and he hadn’t called for four days. Anyway Pert rang me and said, ‘Oh mate, the board has kept me out of this, I don’t know what’s going on, but one thing I can help with is the media because the AFL controls the media and I control Gill,’’ Bartlett says.

But days later, Pert accused him of leaking his resignation story to Fox Sports reporter Tom Morris.

Bartlett flatly denies this and even says he confronted Kate Roffey, who replaced him, about it.

“I said Pert’s accused me of leaking my own announcement, that’s a pretty serious thing for a CEO to accuse the president of leaking anything to the press,’’ Bartlett says.

“Pert didn’t speak to me until the week before the preliminary final in Perth against Geelong. Pert rings me up and says ‘Mate, there’s no AFL function this week, the AFL has given us a box, for you and David Robb (board member) to sit in with sponsors’. I said ‘Ok’. But I did think that the call from Pert was a bit odd because the AFL always do functions for the finals.”

The media campaign post his resignation, he says, was devastating.

“I love the club, I love the members, I love the supporters, I gave eight years of my life to it and I still don’t understand what happened and why they continued to s***tcan me and run these (media) campaigns,” he says.

And the constant references to a ‘Melbourne insider’ in articles infuriates him.

“This ‘Melbourne insider’ appears in all these articles s***-canning me and what am I supposed to do? Sit back and let (the person) go bang.

“I’m not going to say who I think it is, because I’m not one to throw allegations around based on suspicion, but it’s probably one of three people,’’ he says.

“One of the reasons why I’m going hard now and will keep going, is I’m going to try to find out who that person is,’’ Bartlett warns.

A particular sore point for Bartlett relates to an article which purported he was forced out because he had breached the players’ trust in a rant to Herald Sun reporter Jon Ralph after Melbourne’s poor loss to Port Adelaide on July 30, 2020.

“It’s complete bulls***,’’ Bartlett says. “That so-called rant wasn’t even a subject of a board debate. I got compliments from board members at the time, from sponsors, from members, even Alan Richardson (senior football official) rang me and thanked me. Goodwin spoke about it.’’

Another article implying Bartlett had caused Goodwin’s anxiety “really upset me’’, he says.

“The thing that hurts is I provided Goody with lots of support. Even after my chat with him in February, 2021, he texted me to go down and spend more time in the footy department which I did,’’ he says.

“But I didn’t even get a thank you text message from him when I stood down, didn’t get a phone call. That stings.’’

He and Goodwin have not spoken since.

After being forced to stand down as president, Bartlett returned home to Western Australia, but remained on the board until November 4.

A footy lover since he was four, Bartlett’s business sponsored a WA amateur league’s business lunch in August, where he and Goyder were the guest speakers.

At the event, Bartlett privately asked Goyder not to forget him and fiance Vicki in regard to attending AFL functions through the finals, which were to be held in Perth.

The fallout from that conversation landed Bartlett in hospital, he says.

“Pert had told me there was no AFL function, but Richard rings me on September 9, the night before the prelim against Geelong, at about 6pm,” Bartlett recalls.

“Goyder says ‘Sorry for not getting back to you earlier, I’m just doing the seating arrangements for the function tomorrow night and you and Vicki are not on the list’.

“I said ‘That’s because Gary Pert told me there was no AFL function and you gave me a box to sit in with sponsors’. There was deathly silence on the call. What do you think Richard said? ‘I’ll speak to Gill and get back to you’.”

Stressed by the encounter and the build up to the big match, at 9pm that night, Bartlett suffered heart palpitations and was taken from a restaurant in Perth’s Crown resort to hospital.

“I almost lost my son in 2016 with it, but I had one of those things where the heart goes from 172 to 120 to 60,’’ he says. “Vicki was beside herself.’’

He was given blood thinners and beta blockers, was let out the next morning and warned not to become too stressed at the footy.

“I spoke to David Robb, told him it had been brought on by what Pert did and Goyder, and I said to David ‘I don’t want this to get out, I don’t want any drama, but you make sure Kate and Pert know and that I’m left alone to enjoy the finals’.’’

Then, during Grand Final week, Roffey did a series of interviews, which Bartlett described as a “shocker’’, “pumping up Roffey’s tyres at my expense”.

“I reckon they were trying to kill me basically – well that is how it felt,’’ he says. “They knew I had a heart condition. And they’ve gone harder.”

Bartlett also recalls how Eddie McGuire chose to alert him to one attack from Caroline Wilson on the Grand Final edition of Footy Classified.

“I don’t know what you think of Eddie McGuire, but I think Eddie is a great man,’’ he says.

“Eddie even rang me up before Footy Classified and said ‘Caro is going to have a go at you, this is what she’s got from Kate Roffey about you blocking the appointment of a female director, and that you should’ve stepped off the board’. I gave Eddie a text and he read it on the show to shut her down.’’

Asked why he was speaking now, as the 2023 season launches, Bartlett says: “I’ve had enough. I’ve had enough of being silenced, being threatened, tip toeing around all this stuff.

“There needs to be transparency. You can’t just shut people down. You can’t put stuff out that damages people, damages their health and damages their business and then try to hide behind confidentiality. People need to know.

‘’If you freeze somebody out and not deal with them, that’s unlawful, that’s work-place bullying, and you’re going to lose every day of the week. This can’t happen, this can never happen again.’’

[MrMahatma]

Kinda wish this came out last week.

[Grantysghost]

I really don't think it's that big a story.

Workplace politics - it's how things roll.

Sad for Bartlett, however maybe he just needs to move on instead of using the fourth estate to do his bidding in a quest for some sweet court room cash.

Goodwin stuff has already been done.

[jeemak]

Needing a tissue at a club function........