With an overwhelming show of strength on the raw and passionate night of September 16, 1996, at the Camberwell Civic Centre, 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 that the AFL had pursued with considerable zeal for several years beforehand.
The Hawks had been the team of the ’80s and won five flags between 1983 and 1991, but the combination of a hubristic board and management and apathetic supporters meant that within only a few years the club was in dire financial straits. Success never translated into membership.
Operation Payback, with Scott as the figurehead and businessman Ian Dicker working the spreadsheet, painted an alternative picture for Hawk members, one in which the club would 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 Hawks-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.