The AFL has turned to a group of heavy hitters to examine and ultimately reduce Victorian clubs' reliance on poker machines.
The "Project Fruit" working party is chaired by former Tattersalls boss Ray Gunston and includies Hawthorn and Carlton presidents Richard Garvey and Mark LoGiudice ??? whose clubs are the two biggest gaming operators in the AFL.
The move follows recent revelations that Victorians lost almost $94 million over the past year on football club-owned pokies.
And it comes despite public defiance from the clubs, which argue that some gaming revenue is invested back into the community and that without poker machine profits they would struggle to survive.
The AFL and the clubs have also pointed the finger at the Victorian government for perpetuating the state's damaging pokies' culture.
Garvey's involvement in the working group is significant given Hawthorn's entire profit in recent years has generally mirrored their gaming profit. Over the past financial year Hawthorn led the nine Victorian AFL pokie clubs, reaping $23.29 million in gaming takings, a 3 per cent increase on the previous year. Carlton came second, with their four venues reaping $17.6 million - up 3.3 per cent.
Both club presidents were tight-lipped regarding Project Fruit, saying it was too early to discuss the gaming machine working group and its objectives.
But the project will examine the clubs' financial results from pokie venues in the changing social and political climate with a view to considering possible strategies to wean clubs from their heavy dependence on gaming revenue.
Last month the Andrews government announced the next round of gaming licences in 2022 would be granted for 20 years, double the current agreement, and also moved to allow clubs to double the number of pokies they operated in their group to 840, allowing AFL clubs to increase their market share.
Gunston, the game's finance boss, is regarded as one of the few administrators within the AFL with a strong understanding of the gaming industry. He recently seconded two senior club administrators to Project Fruit: Melbourne's CFO David Chippindall and Richmond's chief operating officer, Michael Stahl.
Despite their public defensiveness, most clubs privately admit to varying levels of discomfort regarding the heavy financial and social toll gaming venues have taken, particularly on Victorians from poorer communities.
Geelong president Colin Carter, whose club has shed about 50 machines this year, came under pressure internally in 2016 when he conceded that in the long term "we would probably prefer to be out of the industry", although such a move was not currently affordable.
"I think the AFL ... industry has become seriously off the mark with this," Carter said, adding that while it should not be blamed for getting clubs into gaming "the only blame I would have of the AFL is I think the AFL has been slow to come to terms with the fact that we have got a big problem.
"But we are all complicit in it."
North Melbourne dumped their poker machine business 10 years ago and are the only Victorian club to have done so.
Project Fruit's establishment has come with the AFL, which currently reaps $10 million a year in its rich sponsorship agreement with CrownBet, still developing its first responsible-gambling policy, a policy pushed by commissioner Kim Williams.
Earlier this year the AFL took on the federal government over proposed bans to TV gambling advertising during live sport. The AFL, NRL and Cricket Australia won an exemption to the planned restrictions after 8.30pm and also succeeded in getting a government backdown over a push to outlaw gambling commercials during the highly profitable hour before sports broadcasts.
