But it is also true that it was highly unusual timing for a president to quit as Bartlett did three games into the season after he lost the support of the board and the backroom handover to Roffey was achieved. He will be replaced as soon as a suitable candidate has been found and Roffey said it was non-negotiable that that candidate would be a woman.

Roffey,a former CEO of VicSport and the Committee for Melbourne,had a female candidate earmarked for the forthcoming Bartlett vacancy but is back searching after that candidate was unable to take the role.

‘Everyone is welcome at this club and everyone is part of it.’

Kate Roffey

That she has initiated talks in recent weeks with McLardy,Spargo,Howcroft and Thurin among others speaks volumes. Roffey toldThe Age:“Everyone is welcome at this club and everyone is part of it. They have all been wonderful supporters for a long time and we need them now more than ever.

“It is a critical role of a chairman or chairwoman to welcome everyone. Leadership is about empowering everyone around you and surrounding yourself with diamonds. I’ve sat on a number of sporting and other boards and that is how you achieve success.″⁣

She also spoken with and plans to meet Peter Lawrence,who earlier this year won significant support but was ultimately unsuccessful when he stood for the board as an independent. Bartlett’s handling of the challenge raised eyebrows and included a controversial letter to members in January in which he endorsed the incumbent board candidates and disendorsed Lawrence.

At some point during the process - which Roffey conceded was questionable - the club’s chief operating officer David Chippindall stepped down from the role of company secretary. Roffey said of the Bartlett letter:“Was it correct in a governance sense? Probably not. In the bigger picture I think we need to look at some changes to our constitution,which is probably outdated.”

Bartlett loomed as the ideal solution for the broke and losing Demons when he came to the club in the second half of a tumultuous 2013,which had already seen the sacking of coach Mark Neeld and chief executive Cameron Schwab. Handpicked after an extensive search by then AFL boss Andrew Demetriou he boasted a strong West Australian football pedigree and an equally impressive professional CV as an industrial lawyer who had moved to Melbourne to become managing partner of Clayton Utz.

Demetriou had also convinced Peter Jackson to replace Schwab and orchestrated a seven-figure settlement to cover Melbourne’s costly payout bill. In a matter of months Jackson had achieved his first big play in luring Paul Roos back into coaching.

Free of baggage from the club’s recent and distant past the Bartlett-Jackson team started strongly. Bartlett quickly put an end to some elements of the old boys’ network including the practice of board members hosting private player functions and housing players. Writing on a clean slate the new chairman seemed unencumbered by historic grievances and bursting with fresh proposals.

If some of Bartlett’s musings seemed outlandish,others,like the annual Anzac Eve clash with Richmond dedicated to Checker Hughes,proved inspired. Ditto the decision to walk away from gaming and the equally inspired andbrilliantly timed sale of the Leighoak club to the Moonee Valley Racing Club.

But the Bartlett-Jackson relationship had eroded by the time Jackson left at the end of 2018. Jackson,who with Bartlett had transformed the club’s balance sheet,is known in AFL circles for his impatience with club boards but those who worked with both insist Bartlett’s insecurity contributed to the fall-out. They point to the former president’s lack of comfort at times when the CEO was publicly afforded praise;a lack of comfort which also emerged at a Foundation Heroes function that singled out the efforts of McLardy.

Jackson became disenchanted with Bartlett’s leadership notably when the club failed to manoeuvre any significant connection with key movers in the Victorian government as the Demons lost an opportunity to secure a new home in the Jolimont precinct.

Whether the Roffey-Pert team have the clout to finally secure a central facility for the geographically fragmented club seems contingent on the strategic mood of the Victorian Government. But after a dream start Roffey,now one of three women AFL club presidents with Peggy O’Neal and the recently appointedWestern Bulldogs chair Kylie Watson-Wheeler,seems determined not to waste her honeymoon period.

Her speech last Sunday at the Melbourne-Carlton function was as always delivered without notes. A sport scientist by trade,she publicly paid tribute to McLardy and Howcroft and Spargo and asked Melbourne supporters to maintain the faith - a characteristic not normally attracted to the Demons’ psyche - by not giving up at the first hurdle and not saving their applause for the last five minutes when the game had been won.

“It’s so important to be a strong club off the field and our supporters are such an important part of that,” said Roffey. “But for a long time everyone’s been too scared to believe. We all need to believe.

“Peggy[O’Neal] tells me there’s no better feeling than winning the premiership when you are president so we’d better hurry up because I’m not going to be here forever.”