Undermanned at the wrong time of year.
Van Rooyen has probably cost them with his brain fade.
Lever probably gets up this week under the old system too.
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And playing Viney. Played just one game before the finals…and he looks close to the end.
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Not to forget Gather Round where they were pantsed by the worst team in the competition
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The Integrity Unit Episode 8: Former Melbourne president Glen Bartlett on the AFL’s culture of cover-ups
Former Demons president Glen Bartlett was swept aside in 2021, after eight years in the role. In that time, he says the AFL built a culture of cover-ups.
September 2, 2026 - 5:00AM
A culture of “cover-ups” surrounding AFL integrity issues has “hurt” too many people, says former Melbourne president Glen Bartlett.
In a season marred by several integrity scandals, Bartlett declared it was time for a “comprehensive review” of how off-field incidents and disputes were handled by league chiefs.
“The AFL has been built successfully on deals, the CEO needs to be a deal-maker and I think they’ve done that pretty well – but deals don’t work in the integrity space,” Bartlett said.
“Deals don’t work when it comes to OH&S issues, such as illicit drugs, they just don’t work.
“And that’s something that needs to change … You have to do thorough and independent investigations.
“Cover-ups or things being swept under the carpet end up being a bigger problem and people probably get more hurt by that.”
Bartlett called on new AFL Commission chairman Craig Drummond to lead a long overdue overhaul of the league’s integrity practices.
“People are probably trying to cover things up to protect the brand, and that does happen. No question. But along the way, people can get hurt,” he said.
In a wide-ranging interview on Code Sports The Integrity Unit vodcast, Bartlett detailed the lengths clubs go to protect the game’s best players.
Ex-Dees president Glen Bartlett has revealed he is aware of an instance where the media were given the wrong name of a player to protect a star teammate who went out partying when they shouldn’t have been.
“I won’t talk about names, but there was a group of players that went out partying when they shouldn’t have been and there was a media inquiry, and the media were given the wrong name of one of the players there to protect the star player. So you think about the damage to the player who got named who wasn’t even there,” he said.
Bartlett famously took on and beat the AFL in a long-running legal dispute in relation to his sudden exit as Demons president in April 2021.
The AFL’s integrity practices have come under scrutiny during the Luke Sayers “■■■■ pic” probe, the botched Hawthorn racism investigation and last month’s Geelong concussion waiver fiasco.
Bartlett said he had been hand-picked to take over the Melbourne presidency by former AFL boss Andrew Demetriou in 2013 after the Demons were reeling from the tanking fiasco.
He spent eight years rebuilding the club in tandem with chief executive Peter Jackson and coach Paul Roos, and enjoyed a close working relationship with the league until his murky removal as president.
Bartlett said he was “very very disappointed” with the leadership of ex-AFL commission chairman Richard Goyder, with whom he first raised concerns about Melbourne’s off-field culture in early 2021.
Bartlett and former Melbourne vice-president Mohan Jesudason held a crisis meeting with Goyder and then-AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan in April 2021, just weeks before Bartlett was dethroned in a shoddy boardroom coup and replaced by Kate Roffey.
The Dees went on to win a famous premiership in Perth during the Covid-19 affected 2021 season.
The Demons won the flag in Perth in 2021. Picture: James Worsfold/AFL Photos/Getty Images.
Skipper Max Gawn with the premiership cup in the middle of Optus Stadium. Picture: Michael Klein.
A series of legal disputes erupted the following year in relation to Bartlett’s sudden departure.
Melbourne and the AFL reached an out-of-court settlement with Bartlett in November 2024 in exchange for the dropping of his litigation.
The size of the payout has never been disclosed.
“Leadership is not a popularity contest and there’s no doubt I trod on some toes along the way, no question, for eight years … but in terms of scandals, we were out of the press, it was all about football first,” Bartlett said of his tenure at Melbourne.
Asked about McLachlan’s leadership during the legal dispute, Bartlett said: “Look, I think Gill’s fundamentally a deal-maker, so in this space again it’s sort of symbolic really of where the AFL are and left it because it’s all about bums on seats, TV rights, Tasmania and these areas were not given the level of care.
Glen Bartlett says he had “no idea” about the “staggering” secret drug testing that allowed players to confess to taking illicit drugs prior to a game to be pulled from the match to avoid suspension.
“I had a rapport with Gill … (but) I was much more aligned with Demetriou because with Andrew and probably Mike Fitzpatrick too, you might not like everything you see, but you know what you’re gonna get.
“And I could have gone and had quite a straightforward conversation with him. I didn’t, I just didn’t align with Gill in the same way. I can’t really say any more than that.”
Bartlett said his last interaction with premiership coach Simon Goodwin came when they embraced on the Perth Stadium playing field in the aftermath of Melbourne’s premiership win.
“That was the last time,” Bartlett said.
“I gave him a lot of support in the build-up to the ’21 season and I’d publicly gone on record there’d been a coaching review saying, ‘Yep, Simon’s got some feedback but I believe he’s kind of our Frank ‘Checker’ Hughes, he’ll be the next Melbourne premiership coach’.”
Bartlett on the sidelines at the MCG in 2018. Picture: Adam Trafford/AFL Media.
Bartlett revealed that Gary Pert was appointed as Demons CEO in 2018 after a strong “recommendation” from McLachlan.
“Well, when you’re dependent on the AFL financially, you might be told it’s your decision, but for a board, you know, it’s difficult once you’re told that,” he said.
He also detailed how McLachlan had attempted to stop him and his wife, Vicki, from entering the Perth Stadium arena to join the post-match premiership celebrations.
“The siren’s about to go and Gill says to me, ‘Hey, you and Vicki don’t go on the ground … you wait over by the side,’” he said
“I’m like, ‘Oh yeah, no worries’ but of course we were straight out there, that was never going to happen.”
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Clearly code for “Gill is as shifty as a used car salesman”.
But we all knew that…
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So Brad could’ve been a plant then.
Shock, horror.
Jack Viney told to look around for a potential new home.
Let’s see … getting old, body stuffed, slow and can’t kick over a jam tin. Yeah, nah.
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Thered be worse players to pick up for near on free.
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If we had infinite list spots, maybe. But we don’t.
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Good thing there about a dozen players I’d happily cut tomorrow
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If Viney was on our list, you’d have a dozen plus one.
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Would take over Prestia or McNeil. Viney got everything out of himself. Sets the standard on professionalism and preparation
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Prestia and Rampe/Lester.
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