Luke Sayers; John Elliott; Visy; The secret meetings and messy exits among Carlton Blues elite in the 30 years since their last premiership

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The Carlton administration was initially unaware of the Roos meeting, but were told about it subsequently, according to one of the off-record insiders from that time.

More than any other AFL club, Carlton has been the one in which people of enormous wealth and influence in the business world have sought – and often gained – a major say in the club’s tempestuous affairs.

“Unfortunately, Carlton was led by the most autocratic, dictatorial people,” said David Parkin, the most recent premiership coach of the Blues. Parkin acknowledged he “was one of them [autocratic types],” but was speaking particularly of his president, the late John Elliott, with whom he reached an amicable accommodation: “You worry about raising the money, keeping this club going. I’ll worry about who we play and how we play.”

If not by billionaires, such as the Pratts and Mathieson, the club was helmed or heavily shaped by Collins St networkers nonpareil, like ex-PwC boss and now departed president Luke Sayers (who resigned in January following a social media scandal), or the figure who most personified Carlton for two decades (1983-2002), the brash beer baron, Elliott.

Parkin was on good terms with Elliott, but decades later found issue with Sayers, feeling forced into participating in Carlton’s coach search. Previously, Ross Lyon had been courted by Sayers, before board level dissent prompted a back pedal and a process that led to the appointment of Michael Voss.

Lyon would later say he withdrew because he did not wish to be in such a process.

For nearly five decades, Carlton has been either led, prodded or funded by members of what one prominent supporter dubbed “the five families” (a satirical reference to the New York mafia’s five families): The Pratts, Mathiesons, Smorgons (Sam and his son Graham), the Elliotts (John) and the Kerr family, whose patriarch Laurie, was, as per Sayers, extraordinarily well-connected in Melbourne business via his public relations firm.

Elliott, Richard Pratt and Graham Smorgon would all serve as Carlton president, while the Kerrs and Mathiesons supplied a pair of board members (Bruce and his nephew Craig Mathieson, Laurie and son Peter Kerr), flexed political muscle, and were instrumental in coups that re-shaped the club.

But the tycoons had friction.

Big Bruce Mathieson would not have gaming partnerships with his Blues while Elliott was in charge. The pair’s hostile relationship culminated in Mathieson engineering the board takeover that saw Elliott forced out and Ian Collins, big Jack’s long-serving CEO and ex-AFL football boss, installed as president in October 2002.

The Blues were about to be smashed by AFL penalties for salary cap cheating.

Once a major edge over a less regulated competition, Carlton’s oligarchs and benefactors would turn into a two-edged sword.

“Brendan is our Marlon Brando.”

Jeanne Pratt on Brendan Fevola.

Coaches, chief executives, staff and ex-players have all been beneficiaries or victims – subject to results – of a rapacious culture that prized success, above all.

Sayers, contacted for his response to criticism from Mathieson and to other issues raised in this story, offered this comment on Carlton’s culture: “The club had a history of disunity and throwing people under the bus instead of sticking together. I’d like to think my contribution was to turn that culture around and stand by good people, including Vossy.”

I asked more than a dozen Carlton people, ex-players, coaches, staff and board members, why the club had failed so egregiously over three decades, when it had been THE club in the 1970s, ’80s and for much of the ‘90s.

“One word describes what happened,” said four-time premiership star, ex-media commentator and board member (2002-2005), David “Swan” McKay of Carlton’s 30-year Blues.

“Hubris.”

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There is a longstanding vein of thought within the Carlton family and AFL clubland that the Blues were too reliant, for too long, on their benefactors, and that the club struggled to adjust to an equalised competition, and a set of rules that the Blues viewed like a bunker in the fairway – to be circumnavigated, if necessary.

Steven Trigg, the ex-Adelaide Crows CEO who took over the same role at the Blues late in 2014 and was removed by LoGiudice in late 2017 in a messy exit, had a different diagnosis for the prolonged failure than McKay’s: “I think Carlton would reflect, and probably should reflect, that for a long period of time, it’s been excessively impatient.

“In an equalised world, you need sometimes a little bit of patience. Sydney have proved it. Geelong have proved it. Richmond have proved it. And Carlton has a history of being impatient.

“With Luke [Sayers] previously – I felt from afar that Luke and Brian [Cook, club CEO] have had the capacity to lead a more patient Carlton.

“I think Carlton will reflect. And the other thing that Carlton should reflect on is, even when you make a change, there is a way to make it and not make it. I think Carlton, over time, with some really key figures hasn’t handled some of those exits all that well, and mine included, to be honest with you, but you know, I got over that pretty quickly.

Trigg said that when moving people on, “do it respectfully, openly, communicatively.

“It’s got a bit of a history of not doing that. I think that might have changed in recent years.”

The house of Raheen

The 2007 decision to sack Pagan as coach was made, via a phone call, from Richard Pratt on his private jet returning from Brisbane following another flogging at the Gabba.

Pratt employed ex-players at Visy, including the great Alex Jesaulenko, Wayne Harmes and, most contentiously, champion recruit and skipper Chris Judd. Pratt hired Judd as ambassador in a deal that was initially allowed to sit outside the salary cap – with the approval of the AFL – until late 2012.

Richard and especially Jeanne Pratt were also huge backers of the over-talented, sometimes troublesome Brendan Fevola, as numerous Carlton people, ex-players and officials, attested.

“Brendan is our Marlon Brando,” Jeanne Pratt told an official in the Brett Ratten period. A theatre buff, she told board members and staff that “you need stars in theatre,” arguing – unsuccessfully, by 2009 – against the trading of “Fev”, whom her late husband (Richard died of cancer in 2009) also regarded fondly, as a kindred larrikin spirit.

It was distinctively Carlton for the oligarchs to be aligned to champion players; Elliott adored Anthony Koutoufides and vice-versa, Bruce Mathieson was and remains a supporter of Stephen Silvagni, Richard Pratt had the odd couple of Fevola and Judd in his orbit.

Richard Pratt revived Carlton spirits in 2007, when at the request of hugely popular ex-skipper, board member and future president Stephen “Sticks” Kernahan, he agreed to step in as Carlton president when the Blues – mired around the bottom, and on the AFL drip feed to pay bills – had a power vacuum. Graham Smorgon had lost the presidency in an election following the terrible 2006 season.

One evening at Raheen, Pratt raised well over $2 million for Carlton by telling the well-heeled in attendance that he would match whatever they donated.

Pratt brought infusions of cash and hope and VISY became the Princes Park ground sponsor for a time, but it was also clear that he preferred the more laissez-faire days when the Blues could buy players, with minimal restriction.

Having secured Judd, ahead of Collingwood, Essendon and Melbourne, Pratt asked officials if they could land Matthew Pavlich, Fremantle’s out-of-contract superstar, in the same post-season. No, the system won’t allow it, we don’t have enough salary cap space or draft picks, he was told.

Geminder and Jeanne Pratt both served on the club board, together, Jeanne acting as vice-president from 2011 until 2021.

The pokies king

Bruce Mathieson has been a crucial financial backer/partner of the Blues, who retain gaming venues income from his Endeavour Group’s four gaming pub venues, which were moved from rival clubs to Carlton’s control.

For many years, those venues contributed around $3 million in earnings to Carlton’s bottom line; today, that amount is slightly less than $2 million, as the Blues have grown membership and non-football revenue.

It was Mathieson who suggested that the Blues “hand the keys in” to the AFL in late 2002 – essentially declaring themselves insolvent, and make the club’s fiscal woes the league’s problem. Carlton needed a letter of confidence from the AFL during the Ian Collins presidency.

Octogenarian Mathieson has been a critic of Carlton’s leadership more recently, his nephew Craig quitting in mid-2023 after discord between him and Sayers, when Carlton was in the bottom four and Voss was under fire. Under treatment for cancer, he lives on the Gold Coast and seldom attends games.

Mathieson has been a polarising figure at Carlton, given his trenchant views and willingness to air them periodically has caused insiders grief. He is effusive in praising LoGiudice for his term as president, and damning of his successor, Sayers.

Yet, board members of his time and right up into the LoGiudice period have defended Mathieson’s presence, noting that he contributed crucial dollars via those venues, albeit his company also profited from the arrangement.

“The best president that’s ever been, in my time, is Mark LoGiudice,” said Mathieson. Was this because finances were greatly improved? “No, no he just worked. He wasn’t high profile. He did it for the good of Carlton and mate, he was very good and … I’m a hard marker. He was the best we’ve had by six lengths.

“He left Carlton with basically no debt, all the new facilities. Everything was done on time. It was phenomenal.”

Mathieson offered one pithy comment on Sayers: “Thank God he’s gone.”

Mark LoGiudice

LoGiudice was without the profile of others. He took over from Kernahan, who had sought to be a glue holding Carlton together, and while not a confident public performer, he re-shaped the club board.

“Under Mark Logiudice, the club got back on its feet financially,″⁣ said McKay, an assessment shared by several others who were involved in Carlton in that president’s seven years in the chair.

Trigg, recruited as chief executive from the Crows as LoGiudice, the wealthy owner of a property and investment company, took over the presidency, felt positive change occurred in his time – such as improved finances, governance and a reduced board (from an unwieldy 13) with more emphasis on skills.

“Me not being there, I think, is largely attributed, on reflection, to the CEO and the president just not being on the same tram in terms of a number of things,” he said of his removal.