ALMOST 20 years ago, with an overwhelming show of strength on a raw and passionate September night at Camberwell Civic Centre in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs, Hawthorn members rejected the proposition of a merger with Melbourne.



Don Scott, the fiery former Hawthorn skipper and outspoken leader of the anti-merger forces, ripped a velcro Hawk logo off a Melbourne jumper, and the Melbourne Hawks were dead in the water.



And with it came the end of a policy the AFL had pursued with considerable zeal for several years beforehand.



The Hawks had been the team of the 1980s, winning five flags from 1983-1991. But a combination of a hubristic board and management and apathetic supporters saw the club in dire financial straits just a few years later. Success never translated into membership.



Operation Payback, with Scott as the figurehead and businessman Ian Dicker working the spreadsheet, painted an alternative picture for members. Part of the group’s plan was for the club to re-engage with its members and tap into its large, but dormant supporter base in the east and south-east of Melbourne.



Operation Payback drew widely from the Hawthorn supporter base. Past players and officials rolled their sleeves up to work alongside rank and file supporters. Several high-profile Hawthorn-supporting broadcasters and journalists took charge of the communications strategy. Tins were rattled, to be certain, but Dicker went to work on a business plan that would ensure the club's survival. Once the merger was averted and part of Dicker's group took over running the club, it emerged that before then, the Hawks had never drawn up a business plan or undertaken any sort of future planning.



Over at Melbourne, the story was more complicated. The Demons were meandering along. Their last flag was in 1964, and it took them 23 years to make the finals again. They made the Grand Final again in 1988 (losing to the Hawks) and were regular finalists thereafter under John Northey and Neil Balme, but the team was in decline in 1996 when merger talks heated up.



What Melbourne had going for it was its name, and, as real estate agents like to say, "Location, location, location." With its iconic name and MCG home ground, Melbourne shaped as the stronger partner.



It explains why Melbourne had been at the centre of merger discussions before. The Melbourne Kangaroos had once been mooted, so too had the Melbourne Lions.



In 1996, Melbourne's pitch was that the move to the Hawks’ Glenferrie Oval base for training and administration and the influx of Hawthorn players and intellectual property would make the club stronger. This probably explains why their members voted to support the merger, although it was the proxy votes of a few influential members that ensured it got over the line.



At Hawthorn the choice was much more stark - merge or die - which explains the urgency with which the Operation Payback team went about their business and ultimately presented a compelling case for members to vote down the platform.



The flashpoint was the fortuitous timing of the round-22 match between the Demons and the Hawks at the MCG. The Hawks needed to win to cap off their grandstand run to the finals, and they did by one point.



Hawks spearhead Jason Dunstall kicked nine goals on the way to registering a century. Many among the 63,000 in attendance waved 'No Merger' signs and Hawthorn fans were whipped into a frenzy when Chris Langford walked off the ground post-match holding his Hawthorn jumper over his head.



The carrot for the creation of the Melbourne Hawks was $6 million on offer from the AFL. The League was keen to reduce the number of clubs in Melbourne, firm in its belief 11 clubs in one geographical area was too many.



The AFL openly backed the Melbourne-Hawthorn merger. Chief executive Ross Oakley spoke out in support of it (in the process straining his friendships with some at Hawthorn, where he once served as a club director). The AFL Record at one stage devoted several pages to advocate the 'yes' case.



It would also be fair to say the AFL was not initially pleased with the result. Oakley lashed out at the "ranters and ravers" the following morning when it became clear Hawthorn would continue in its own right, although to be fair, given the disgraceful treatment of then-AFL Commission chairman and Hawk icon John Kennedy by some supporters at the Hawthorn meeting, he had every right to feel aggrieved at the outcome.



The message from the AFL after the vote was that henceforth, the Hawks were on their own, and before long the AFL Commission took the $6 million carrot off the table. The League had read the tea leaves; if the choice was to merge or die, then club members would need to prepare for the funeral.



Hawthorn's near-death moment had a galvanising effect. Membership jumped from 12,484 in 1996 to 27,005 in 1997. Now, 70,000-plus members is the norm for the Hawks, a true powerhouse on and off the field.



The Melbourne journey has taken all sorts of twists and turns. The cash injection by post-merger vote president Joseph Gutnick stablised the club and by 2000 the Demons were grand finalists under Neale Daniher's astute coaching. But for several years after that they were a football and financial basketcase. Only now under the leadership of chief executive Peter Jackson and coaching of Paul Roos do the Demons appear to be on their way to financial and football health.



And the landscape has entirely changed. The AFL's economic model is built entirely around nine games a week, meaning 18 financially viable clubs. Help will always be on the way, albeit it with heavy terms and conditions, but it is a claim that could not be made in 1996.



There will be no Melbourne Hawks, Carlton Saints or whatever combination you can think of. Not now. Not ever.



THIS IS AN EDITED VERSION OF A STORY PUBLISHED IN THE ROUND-20 EDITION OF THE AFL RECORD, AVAILABLE AT ALL VENUES.



