Michael Willesee was a genuine legend. His impact on the survival and ultimate evolution of the Sydney Swans from basket case to showcase was monumental – and his impact on the club was a shared experience with so many people who also played a critical role in the journey of the club since relocating to the Harbour City.

The off-field heroics of a few great people spanning from the Private Ownership Group (Willesee, Weinert, Gerahty, Kimberley and Sellers), through the Colless era to today has moulded the club into one of Australia’s great sporting stories. Here is the Sydney Swans’ official tribute to Mike Willesee.

As virtually everyone associated with our club would be aware by now, one of our greats Michael Willesee, lost a long and gutsy fight with cancer on Friday.

In the last 72 hours there has been a massive outpouring of affection and deep respect for Michael.

Because so much of the focus has been on his extraordinary media career this tribute focuses more on his contribution to his beloved red and whites.

That said, he was without question the interviewer’s interviewer. 

He was simply world class.

Not only was he the best in his field he was also able to commercialise his talents in a way that no one before him had been able to.  His company, Transmedia (which still exists) developed and owned the ground-breaking A Current Affair (the show that amongst many other things effectively discovered a young Paul Hogan).  A Current Affair became a prototype for many similar shows around the world.

He was also a major investor and driving force in the creation of FM radio in Australia (commencing with 2DAY FM).

In short, he was a brilliant TV television performer and journalist and a highly successful pioneering businessman.

Michael grew up in Perth, the oldest of six children to parents Don and Gwen.  His father, Don, was for much of Michael’s formative years a Senator in Canberra and was for a period the Deputy Leader of the Labor Party to Gough Whitlam. 

Michael lived in the West Perth Football Club district and played thirds for the club.  (It’s interesting that two of the giants of Australian media Michael Willesee and Dennis Cometti were both alumni of the West Perth Football Club.)

In his late teens Michael became a cadet journalist of the Daily News, the then evening newspaper in Perth.

In 1963 aged 21 he decided why not have a crack at the big smoke?  So, with one threadbare suit and virtually no money he bought a third-class train ticket to Melbourne.  

His intention was to try and secure a job with the Herald – basically the equivalent of the Daily News. However, continuing to display the kind of resilience and self-confidence that would become increasingly evident in every aspect of his life, he approached the prestigious morning broadsheet paper, The Age.  Rather than contacting someone down the food chain he went directly to the managing editor. And was hired.

In 1964, Michael Willesee’s 55-year connection with the South Melbourne/Sydney Swans Football Club began.

It started with a chance meeting with Graeme John, who would play with distinction for South Melbourne, coach the club and become its President – which is unprecedented in the club’s history.

Michael and Graeme had crossed paths playing thirds for West Perth and East Perth respectively where Graeme was the star of the competition before being elevated to the senior side.

During early 1964 Michael and Graeme began flatting together.  Michael accompanied Graeme to a South Melbourne function where he actively promoted the recruiting of this recent arrival from Perth.  Shortly thereafter Michael signed what was then known as a Form 4, which bound him to the club.

The senior coach Noel McMahen advised him he would be playing in the seconds team the following week.  Unfortunately, Noel hadn’t advised the club’s seconds coach.  It looked like Michael’s career maybe finished before it even got started, but fortunately one of the players couldn’t get to the ground on time and Michael debuted for the club.

He kicked two goals off a wing (although the Herald credited him with four) and he was named in the best five players for the team.  Shortly thereafter he had to make a life-changing decision and that was, “Given my belief that I am good enough to play in the senior team should this become my focus, or do I need to concentrate on being a full-time journalist?” 

After 8 games in the South Melbourne seconds he opted for the latter and the course of journalism in Australia was changed for all time.

Between 1964 and 1986 Michael’s passions were his family, his career, his business activities, and rather than AFL, racing.

In 1986, Michael unknowingly reconnected with the game and in fact his old club. He had his one and only meeting with Geoffrey Edelsten who had recently “acquired” the licence to operate the Sydney Swans.  It was at a press conference to do with Edelsten’s medical practice empire and it’s probably fair to say that it did little to lay the foundation for a long-term friendship.  Little did either party realise that the mess created by one would, a few years later, be attempted to be cleaned up by the other.

In early 1988 Graeme Samuel, one of the most influential people in the development of the modern AFL, approached Michael to see if he would be prepared to sit on an AFL board that was to be put in place as it looked for another buyer.

The club was clearly losing much of the goodwill and popularity developed during the halcyon days of 1986-87.

Towards the end of 1988 the buyer that Graeme Samuel was searching for emerged in the form of a consortium led by Michael, Basil Sellers, John Gerahty, Peter Weinert and Craig Kimberley.

In December 1988, the new owners assembled in the then M.A. Noble stand at the SCG to announce the formation of what became known as the Private Ownership Group.  As the person with the highest profile Michael led the public announcement.  He was outstanding, professional and convinced everyone present, including all the new owners, many of whom had just met for the first time that morning, that the Swans were about to embark on the most successful era ever!

Peter Weinert recalls “Mike was announced as President as he would be the public face and media front person for the owners for all the obvious reasons, with John Gerahty as Chairman being the “brains”, in conjunction with Basil Sellers who was already based overseas, and the rest of us behind the scenes, who would be more “hands on” with the day-to-day running of the Club.”

“We were all filled with confidence and visions of Premierships from Mike's words. He was very convincing.  It was a very exciting time."

 Just over a year later, John also moved overseas for business reasons, so Peter became Chairman alongside Michael as President.

After deteriorating results on field for a variety of reasons, the club unexpectedly found itself totally overwhelmed with excessive costs and lack of support from many areas that tested everyone’s commitment, resolve, passion and ability to survive.  Some owners dropped away for different reasons.

Why this happened can be found in other stories and records from the time, but the culmination was that in 1992 the Swans were on the brink of extinction as a Sydney-based AFL club. And so began the herculean fight to save the club.

Mike Willesee with Ron Barassi. Image: Chris Pavlich

Peter says: “We would always talk and plan our approaches to all agenda matters before any meeting to ensure a consensus on critical issues at those meetings (that Mike so disliked attending).  Often a few words from him would stop a lengthy discussion on some matters.  He was great!”

“Ultimately in mid-1992 Mike was the professional architect of the press release that put his and my joint thoughts together, that the Swans existence was in the balance, in an endeavour to bring home to the AFL that we needed more support from the Commission in this difficult market in Sydney, and which started the now famous “crisis” period and fight to garner support to save the club.

“I sought and got Mike’s full support that I take up the role of trying to save the club.

“Over the next few months, plans were floated privately to others by the AFL as various alternatives to the Swans staying in Sydney were considered, as the AFL didn’t feel the club in its own right could be successful in Sydney any more.  Many of these were meant to have been without my and Mike’s knowledge, but with my contacts behind the scenes at other clubs, I was able to play the political game of clubs against clubs where necessary to shore up support for our survival.

"However, It was typical of the man that he would always stare you in the eye and decide for himself first as to whether there was a strong enough belief in other alternatives, particularly those I presented to him as solutions, and he could always see past what would otherwise have been long-term unsatisfactory solutions, which would have resulted in no AFL club based in Sydney, the largest commercial and TV market in Australia.

"With pressure from many directions and people, I spent hours with Mike to ensure he stayed convinced that the club had a future in Sydney, and ultimately it came to a crunch private meeting at his home when I needed his major ownership shareholding to support me, as I knew several of the other owners would  back me if Mike did. 

“Here I also saw his dry sense of humour as he initially unsettled me with some outrageous alternate solution which, to this day I still don’t remember fully as I was in shock –  but something to do with Darwin I seem to recall – when a grin came over his face, he took a deep breath and said he would back me, as I had convinced him I could do it.

“His decision of personal support alone reflected his loyalty to both myself and the long-term belief he had now been convinced of that the club could survive under certain parameters, and from then he backed me irrevocably, giving me full confidence to continue.

“He then never wavered in that support despite what I know he told others from time to time, as he always kept me updated on the plans and “traps” we had planned to get to the result we wanted. His loyalty meant so much at the time.

“It was typical of the man that he always sought in-depth knowledge from people to see if they were genuine, honest and with integrity, and once confident of that he never failed to back them whether it be a sponsor, supporter, fellow owner, friend or more importantly, player. Be honest with him and you were guaranteed his support and possible friendship forever.”

As history records in October 1992, the AFL agreed to extend the club’s licence to the end of the Owners’ term with administrative assistance from the AFL, following which it would revert to a public membership-based club. The Ownership Group had saved the club but lost control of it.

For the third time in 10 years the AFL again held the licence.

The Sydney Swans finished last as the club would do for the next three years.  

Notwithstanding the growing push from the AFL for a new board to be installed, Michael and Peter Weinert pulled off a master stroke in early 1993 by convincing Ron Barassi to move to Sydney as senior coach. By the time Ron has his first victory later in the year, the club had lost 26 games in a row.

As Michael describes it in his book: “My frustration with the AFL not only wanting to take back the licence for effectively nothing and install a new board was exceedingly frustrating because not only had we paid $4 million to acquire the licence – the entire proceeds of which were distributed to ailing Melbourne-based clubs – but I and others had also lent a considerable amount of money to the club as effectively unsecured creditors.

“I became aware that the AFL was trying to encourage a person by the name of Richard Colless to assume the chair.  Colless had been the inaugural chairman of the West Coast Eagles and had moved to Sydney for business reasons in 1988.”

Reflecting on the time, Richard Colless said: “For a number of reasons I was exceedingly reluctant to even have discussions with the AFL and the process of getting involved actually took many months. In part I was extremely uncomfortable about in any way being seen to be part of a move to remove sitting directors – particularly those who had given so much to ensure the club’s survival. I had a number of meetings with Michael (and Peter) and I found them to be extremely knowledgeable and honourable people.”

In Michael’s book he paints a picture of the money owed to himself and Peter, which was reflected as a contingent liability in the club’s accounts. He indicated that because of the two-way trust that was emerging between he and Colless, he decided to agree to write them off.

Michael went on to write: “I concluded that Richard would have stronger relations with AFL Head Office in Melbourne and therefore may be able to negotiate more favourable terms for the club.

“Richard was far more important for the club than any single coach or player.”

Richard Colless, who took the reins at Sydney in 1993, went on to become the AFL’s longest-serving Chairman.

Of Michael Willesee’s comments, Richard said: “While that is very flattering there wouldn’t be a club today without the group that owned it from the end of 1988 until mid-1993. They were fundamentally deceived and misled, but they threw everything at getting it to work.

“Eventually Michael and Peter without any prompting said that in order to give me clear air, to try and finish the job we started, we will step aside.

“Just imagine if you’d invested a massive amount of time, money, energy, emotion and your reputation to preserve something, not only for supporters but something that was vital to the long-term success of the game and the competition, and you basically had it taken from you. Wouldn’t you feel demoralised and disillusioned? And probably wouldn’t you question why you would want to be involved with this club any longer?”

"I suspect Michael was very angry with aspects of the AFL’s actions but in my dealings with him that was never directed to me. I found him to be entirely constructive. And I think we fairly quickly saw ourselves as allies.

"I think what’s important to understand with Michael is, it wasn’t the money, it was his concern that his vision for a viable Sydney Swans would be snuffed out. It’s why he was so ecstatic after every game that we won, highlighted by the 2005 and 2012 Premierships.

"From almost day one of our meetings he volunteered to do whatever I needed (or wanted).

"I took advantage of this for over a quarter of a century in many ways.

"The most visible way was him anchoring pre-game functions and doing the famous Willesee interview with guests that we could never have dreamt of having in attendance. The Swans pre-game function became simply the best regarded in Australia in sport.

"Pretty much as Peter has said, I can’t understate the impact Michael had on my morale.

“One simple example was in 1999, the first year of Eddie’s tenure as President of Collingwood. Michael was anchoring the event and without any prior arrangement called Eddie to the microphone. He said he was compering a new show called “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” He asked Eddie did he know how the show worked?

“Eddie said: ‘I think so’. Mike then said: ‘Do you know who the Prime Minister of Australia is?  A) John Howard; B) Kim Beasley; C) Bob Hawke; D) Kerry Packer’. Eddie said Kerry Packer. Michael (who knew Kerry Packer exceptionally well) said it is most definitely Kerry Packer and you’ve won a million dollars!”

Always supporting the red and white. Image: News Corp.

Michael was a Life Member of the Sydney Swans, a Patron, and the boardroom was named the Willesee Weinert Boardroom in his and Peter’s honour.

In 2015, Michael and Peter and the other members of the Ownership Consortium were inducted onto the Swans Heritage List under the title “The True Believers.”

In essence, Michael Willesee wanted to be part of a successful AFL club in Sydney. He wanted its South Melbourne heritage to be preserved and protected. He wanted it to be respected and admired, not only throughout the AFL, but across the Australian sporting landscape. He wanted an access-all-areas pass (which he would probably only use once a season). And he didn’t want to have to attend any Board or strategy meetings.

Think you might have nailed it mate.

To Michael’s children, Michael (a long-time Swans Ambassador), Katie, Amy, Lucy, Jo, and Rok and their families, and to all Michael’s siblings Colleen, Terry and Don, and their families, please accept the sympathy of everyone at our club.

Michael Robert Willesee AO – a True Believer and a True Visionary.