‘Roll up your sleeves and do something’: The money men (and funnyman) behind Melbourne

The slick modern building in the south-eastern corridor of Melbourne is a long way from the old school ties and committee rooms traditionally associated with the Melbourne Football Club.

There are hot and cold pools where the Demons players rehabilitate bruised muscles, a state-of-the-art gym and indoor kicking areas. Such facilities are non-negotiable for AFL clubs seeking every increment of improvement in a competition hellbent on equalisation, and the name above the door can be as important as the president, coach or captain.

In Melbourne’s case, it’s the Thurin High Performance Centre at Casey Fields, named after former board member and club benefactor David Thurin.

Thurin is the owner, executive chairman and chief executive of Tigcorp, a company that owns and manages retirement communities, and has investments in listed securities and private equity. According to Melbourne’s list of Foundation Legend benefactors, Thurin – a lifelong Demons fan – is the only supporter to have donated at least $1 million.

He has typically eschewed publicity, dating back to 2008 when he found himself on the Demons’ board just weeks after taking a call from then-president, the late Jim Stynes, whom he had met through the latter’s Reach charity. But, as part of this masthead’s series on AFL club powerbrokers, and the crucial support they provide, Thurin was happy to discuss his love of a club ingrained in him by his father.

He said the call from Stynes came at a fortuitous time, as he had just stepped down from another board.

“We realised what a dire situation the Dees were in,” Thurin said in an interview at his South Yarra headquarters. “People said, ‘Don’t be one of those supporters complaining in the background – roll up your sleeves and do something’.”

“When we got in there, there wasn’t much there. There was no money, there was no management that was stable at all, at that stage. There was so much to do. The directors were doing management roles, everybody just rolled up their sleeves. It wasn’t just about raising money. It was whatever you could do, [to] just get in there and help.

“We were right on a knife-edge, absolutely. I think, at the time, everybody knows about Foundation Heroes night, Debt Demolition, there was $3 million raised [to service a $5 million debt] in that first month. Without it, I don’t know where we would have been. I don’t know whether the AFL would have supported us.

“It was a very different AFL then… It was about how many teams does Victoria need. Looking back at the time, I think they would have been quite happy if Victorian teams relocated.”

A board member until 2020, Thurin was heavily involved as a backroom player in many major moments.

Coaches have come and gone, some on good terms, others, including the late Dean Bailey, leaving with a bitter taste. There was the tanking fiasco that Thurin is quick to point out that the Demons were found not guilty of, but which ruined relationships and held back the club for two years.

For a long time, he said the Demons had had a fractured relationship with the AFL, recalling a story where one senior figure at league headquarters, according to Thurin, told another club director: “You are nothing, you stand for nothing, why should we let you exist?” Thurin denied the comment had come from then AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou or his then-deputy, Gillon McLachlan.

He said it wasn’t until 2013 when Melbourne was found to have had links to disgraced former Essendon sports scientist Stephen Dank that Thurin, a former doctor who was sent to meet with McLachlan, realised the league “was our friend, was there to support us”.

“This was stopped in its tracks. No harm ever occurred at the Melbourne Football Club,” Thurin said.

Thurin was also instrumental in the Demons striking a deal with the City of Casey to establish a training base in the south-east.

Former Melbourne president Don McLardy said Thurin was the club’s “biggest benefactor”.

“David would be the most passionate Demon I have almost ever met,” McLardy said. “His wife Lisa has supported him. The number of functions they had at their [Toorak] home, things they have contributed to over the years, things that he has funded, and, obviously, just the straight donations, all fundraising activities, he would be miles and miles ahead of anybody at Melbourne.”

Demons vice captain Jack Viney said Thurin – and all club benefactors – were crucial to a club’s success.

“It makes a big difference, the quality of facilities, the quality of resources. You are talking, not necessarily the one-percenters, but they all add up,” Viney said.

“In such a competitive landscape like the AFL, when we have got these really generous individuals, like a David Thurin, able to create aquatic facilities down at Casey Fields, or wherever it might be, it’s an advantage against opposition.

“Every little bit counts when you are playing 24 games in a home-and-away season and finals against teams that are doing the same thing.”

Thurin, said one former board challenger speaking on the condition of anonymity, wasn’t a “political player”, but he is well-connected.

Thurin is married to Lisa Gandel – the daughter of Chadstone shopping centre co-owner and property magnate John Gandel, the family worth $7 billion. Lisa’s brother Tony has had ties to Carlton.

Board member Chris Barlow and David Massey are also prominent benefactors.

Barlow’s family, with its related Withers family, sold the Australian arm of 7-Eleven stores to its Japanese-based parent company for $1.7 billion in 2023. Massey is a stockbroker now based in Perth. Each has tipped in up to $750,000 as part of the club’s Foundation Legends program.

McLardy, a long-time board member and president in 2012-13, has also been instrumental in the Demons’ rise, through his connections, ability to unite and his own donations and sponsorships, even donating office space for the past players and officials association. He also played a pivotal role in the Foundation Heroes dinner.

His insurance business, McLardy McShane, has just renewed a new sponsorship deal with the Demons worth about $250,000 annually.

Another key contributor has been businessman Peter Spargo, a former vice president and caretaker president who replaced McLardy when he stepped down in June 2013. Spargo, who has donated up to $500,000, was later replaced by lawyer Glen Bartlett.

“Peter has put in a lot of money, and is very passionate. He has served on the board, acting CEO, has been a great contributor that way, but also a great contributor financially,” McLardy said.

“He has also opened his home and had great functions and paid for them. He would probably be No.2 [benefactor] to be honest.”

Current vice president Geoff Porz, a solicitor and property developer, has given up to $500,000 as a Foundation Legend, and contributed $42,377 in player sponsorship last year.

Porz, according to one club insider speaking on the condition of anonymity, is a “classic backroom powerbroker who is now on the board”.

And John Trotter, a former Deloitte Victoria managing partner, has donated up to $500,000.

Other prominent figures at the club include current board director David Rennick, a legal and property expert, and former vice president and businessman Geoff Freeman. Each has donated up to $250,000 as part of the Foundation Heroes program. Rennick also contributed $25,420 last year and $21,095 in 2023 in player sponsorships.

Former vice president Guy Jalland, a lawyer by trade, has tipped in up to $250,000, as has board challenger Peter Lawrence, who took the club to court last year over the club’s director election system.

Former board member and businessman Steve Morris, who also sits on the board of the Jim Stynes Foundation, is another significant figure.

Bill Guest, the son of Alan Guest, who established Guest Furniture that was sold to Freedom Furniture in 1999, have also been major names. Bill is a former vice president, resigning as part of a peace deal upon the appointment of Gabriel Szondy to replace Joseph Gutnick in 2001. Alan Guest had been a long-time Melbourne Coterie member.

Club great Steven Smith has joined the board and is a president in waiting. He is expected to replace interim president Brad Green and take charge later this year.

Perks or premierships?

For those lucky enough to experience them, premierships are enough of a return on the benefactors’ investment – the Demons have celebrated just one in the past 60 years, and most Melbourne supporters, influential or otherwise, were locked down and under COVID-19 curfew for the drought-breaking 2021 flag.

While Thurin and his family missed being in Perth on the night of that breakthrough flag, a video chat minutes after the final siren with the likes of Max Gawn, Christian Petracca and Christian Salem remains a vivid memory.

He stressed the days of having a small group of players over for quiet dinners, where football wasn’t the main topic of conversation, had been richly rewarding.

Club-related sources, granted anonymity to speak freely, said the “money men” were rarely directly told what was happening in the boardroom or at executive level – but there were times when they were indirectly, or eventually, looped in.

As a sign of how highly he is still regarded by the club, Thurin was called immediately after the Demons’ board meeting this month that confirmed Paul Guerra was the new club chief executive.

The Demons’ board and executive typically try to keep any major move quiet for as long as possible, but that can be difficult. When then-CEO Peter Jackson and the board hauled coach Mark Neeld in after a 10-goal loss to Gold Coast in round seven, 2013, with Jackson warning Neeld the team had to be competitive otherwise action might have to be taken, it didn’t take long for club-connected sources to find out.

If finances are involved, for instance a payout, or the need to raise funds or sponsorship for a high-profile coach (as was the case with Paul Roos in 2013) then the heavy hitters can get involved, either to offer their services or for a heads-up before the deal is confirmed publicly.

The Demons are likely to turn to benefactors, including Thurin and Barlow, in their bid to build a new training and administrative facility at Caulfield Racecourse.

Supporter groups

The Demons have an array of major coterie groups who contribute or help raise hundreds of thousands of dollars. These groups include the Melbourne Coterie, now in its 88th year, Foundation Heroes, Centre Circle, Trident, Mental Demons and the Jim Stynes Foundation.

A Melbourne Coterie membership, with access to 10 home games, costs $5860 this season, and includes access to coach Simon Goodwin.

Then there is the Inner Sanctum, which has VIP membership of $19,590, including a pre-match briefing at all MCG home games, an opposition analysis session at all away games and an invitation to a breakfast with club recruiters ahead of the national draft. This is an exclusive club, with about 20 members.

McLardy said Foundation Heroes supporters were tapped for financial help.

“They get called upon when we are trying to raise money. For a while, we haven’t needed to do that. But I would think in the next couple of years, with potentially [a new headquarters] at Caulfield, there will be a need to raise some money as well,” he said.

“Obviously, we have a bit put away from the Bentleigh Club [sale], but we may need to find some extra security, and the Foundation Heroes would be the logical place to go.”

Gary Pert, who stepped down as CEO last year, made particular mention of the Trident members when unveiling the cutting-edge facilities at Casey.

“I’ve never been involved in a club, I’ve never heard of a club, that is able to get this financial support from its supporters,” Pert, also a former Collingwood CEO, said.

“These are guys I can tell you now – it normally takes a single telephone call [to get financial help].”

McLardy and Russel Howcroft, the prominent 3AW breakfast broadcaster and advertising guru, established the Mental Demons seven years ago.

“It’s for people who have had afflictions for barracking for Melbourne for so long. It started with about 12 of us. We now have about 150 of us,” McLardy said, half-seriously.

The group could merge with the Jim Stynes Foundation, which Howcroft chairs, and where Viney is a board member. Viney said coterie groups could prepare – and aid – players for life post football.

“Sometimes players will build strong relationships with some of these people, whether they be involved in coterie groups, or at board level,” Viney said.

“We all have interests outside of football. It’s important to tap into those relationships and talk to some really successful people that have done well in different fields of life.”

McLardy encapsulated Thurin and Spargo, and the broader group of wealthy benefactors, with his typical flourish.

“We are actually psychopathic Demons. We just want them to be a great footy club. The fact that we have businesses, and those two have a fair bit of dough, they can, obviously, do things,” he said.

“But it’s never on the basis of you want something back. You just want the footy club to be successful. We have been through a lot of difficult times. Some, self-inflicted, some not self-inflicted. We have been through the ringer a lot. We have been affected by that, but we keep coming back, because we just love the footy club, and want it to succeed.”

Prominent supporters

Media tycoon Rupert Murdoch is a former No.1 ticket holder. Other prominent figures include businessman Joseph Gutnick (who reportedly injected $2.7 million into the club when he took charge in 1996), and Terry Bracks, the wife of former premier Steve Bracks and a prominent non-executive director in her own right.

Journalist and politician Derryn Hinch, former radio host Neil Mitchell, comedian and businessman Rob Sitch and Baz Luhrmann, a world-renowned writer, director and producer, are also prominent supporters.

Garry Lyon, a former club captain and now AFL commentator, has had influence at various stages of his career, including sitting on the selection panel that chose Neeld as coach. When Goodwin and Pert opted to conduct one of the few interviews they did through the Clayton Oliver trade saga of 2023, they went to Lyon and his breakfast radio show on SEN.

Then there is comedian Titus O’Reily.

“When you are a Dees supporter, there is always a sense of what could go wrong, will go wrong. Even winning the premiership [in Perth during COVID-19 lockdowns], we couldn’t go. That’s typical Melbourne,” O’Reily, now part of Triple M’s breakfast show, said.

“Where we are now, it feels like a lot of the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s and 2010s again – it’s kind of like normal programming again, with a brief moment of happiness back in 2021.”

O’Reily and his young family love the Demons, and he often completes unpaid gigs for the club on game day, splitting time between the various supporter groups. His assessment flicks between jest and seriousness, insisting a club with a tougher edge would not have allowed the drama of recent years to fester, and acknowledging the premature retirement of Angus Brayshaw, widely considered a future captain, had hurt.

He likes what Green and his board have done now, but then plays up to the Demons’ stereotype.

“The one thing I would say about Melbourne fans is the fact there are Melbourne fans is an absolute miracle,” O’Reily said.

“We often get told we are fair-weathered and off to the snow. I mean, one, we are rich enough, we can just fly up and down to the snow in our helicopters during the week. Secondly, the fact we have got the members we have got after what we have been given in my lifetime, it’s more a question of, ‘Are we the most insane supporters, up there with the Doggies, really?’

“This sums up the mind of a Demons supporter. When Mark Neeld was our coach, and we were finishing [with the] wooden spoon regularly, I still ticked the box on my membership form that you paid extra to reserve yourself a grand final ticket, in case. If I had taken that money and put it into Bitcoin back then, it would be worth about $300 million dollars.”

Then comes O’Reily’s kicker: “I am a Melbourne supporter – I wouldn’t notice $300 million!”

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