Evidence mounting against Dees

Former Melbourne player Brock McLean said he cut ties with the Demons because they weren't trying to win games. Picture: Michael Dodge. Source: Herald Sun

The AFL announces its fixture list for the 2013 premiership season.

RICHMOND hearts sank when Carlton's Brock McLean fluked a match-winning goal with 42 seconds left on the clock on July 28.

But if the kick hurt the Tigers, it has done more damage to his old club Melbourne.

Three nights later, man-of-the-moment McLean dropped a bomb when invited to appear on Fox Footy's On The Couch.

The Demons, he declared, weren't trying to win games in 2009. He said it was why he quit the club. It was an explosive claim that reignited the AFL tanking debate and triggered a fresh investigation. Only this time the evidence against Melbourne is mounting.

The latest allegation surrounds a secret meeting of Melbourne football department staff at the Junction Oval in 2009.

It is said at least three club officials, past and present, have admitted to league investigators that the importance of losing games to secure a priority pick was discussed at that meeting.

Melbourne's loss to Richmond at the MCG a few weeks' after the meeting of football officials has long been hailed as exhibit No.1.

In laughable circumstances, Richmond's Jordan McMahon kicked a goal on the siren to win the match for Tigers. The Round 22 loss to St Kilda, involving several puzzling moves, has also been identified.

In August this year, the Herald Sun detailed accounts of another suspect game - Melbourne's Round 17 loss to Sydney at Manuka Oval.

Demons figures who attended an inner-sanctum dinner the night before the match say a football department boss openly indicated steps had been taken to reduce the prospects of a win.

"We'll be right - we've made eight changes," the official declared.Melbourne had already announced five key changes at team selection.

Then on the eve of the game, two more pulled out with ailments.Seven changes in all - not eight as predicted - and in a forgettable encounter the Swans got home by 18 points.

Even one of Melbourne's club doctors said "Blind Freddy could tell the team wasn't picked for optimal performance" late in the season.

In the Canberra match, Melbourne used its interchange bench 67 times. Its season average was 85. But Andrew Demetriou's reaction to the Herald Sun story was typical for a tanking non-believer.

The AFL boss dismissed the report as "lots of colourful language to try and determine an outcome".

"We don't go by that sort of story. We go by evidence," Demetriou said. "We've got a guy, (AFL investigator) Brett Clothier, who's very capable.

"If he gets to the bottom of something then we will deal with it but at the moment there's no evidence to sustain this allegation of tanking."

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