Melbourne CEO Gary Pert believes the Demons are on the “bottom of the ladder for facilities” in the AFL.
Multiple club departments are currently situated across different locations, and the Demons are looking to harmonise all operations under the one roof.
The club has been working on a design for a new base near AAMI park in Gosch’s paddock, which is set to be funded by a joint venture between Melbourne, the AFL, and the Victorian Government.
Speaking to SEN’s Dwayne’s World, Pert said the club’s dire situation in terms of training facilities is recognised by the AFL.
“If (the state government) fast tracked it, I’d be more than happy, I’ve been working on it for three years now,” he said.
“We’ve won the premiership this year and we’re acknowledged at a government level and by the AFL that we’re clearly on the bottom of the ladder for facilities.”
“If I was to talk to anyone at the AFL and say, ‘I’ll meet you tomorrow at the Melbourne footy club,’ basically you wouldn’t know what I’m talking about because we’re in three, four, five different locations.”
The fact of Melbourne’s poor facilities makes the Demons triumph in Saturday’s AFL Grand Final “even more amazing,” according to Pert.
“It’s started, we’re starting the redevelopment of our oval, we’ve had a junior-sized oval that we’ve been training on for the last 10 years and in the next few weeks that’s going to be resurfaced and enlarged to an MCG length and Marvel (stadium) width oval, so that’s a really big step for us,” he said.
“Right at the moment, we don’t even have the facilities of a community club, which makes the performance of the players even more amazing.”
The Demons will return home to Melbourne from Perth in the coming days after breaking the longest premiership drought in the AFL with their win over the Bulldogs.