{"id":711651,"date":"2026-06-03T02:31:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T02:31:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/711651\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T02:31:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T02:31:10","slug":"caroline-wilson-recounts-how-an-accidental-text-message-exposed-the-melbourne-demons-tanking-scandal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/711651\/","title":{"rendered":"Caroline Wilson recounts how an accidental text message exposed the Melbourne Demons tanking scandal"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the AFL\u2019s<\/a> most explosive stories broke thanks in part to an accidental text message sent to the wrong person.<\/p>\n

Veteran sports journalist Caroline Wilson has revealed how a board member\u2019s blunder handed her confirmation of the Melbourne<\/a> tanking scandal, a story that would rock the AFL.<\/p>\n

WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: The accidental text that broke the Melbourne tanking scandal<\/p>\n

Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today Arrow<\/a><\/p>\n

Wilson was chasing what she believed was a major story late one evening when she rang a board member for confirmation. The source denied the story and convinced her it wasn\u2019t accurate.<\/p>\n

\u201cI rang my sports editor and said, \u2018look, I don\u2019t think it\u2019s going to, it\u2019s not happening\u2019,\u201d Wilson recalled on The Agenda Setters<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But moments later, everything changed when her phone pinged with a text message from the same board member.<\/p>\n

\u201cCaro knows a little, but not a lot. Think it will break,\u201d the message read.<\/p>\n

The board member had meant to text another board member but accidentally sent it to Wilson instead.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow lucky can you get?\u201d Wilson said.<\/p>\n

Armed with the accidental confirmation, Wilson immediately called her sports editor back with new instructions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said, \u2018scratch that\u2019, and the story ran in The Age the next day,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The story confirmed the AFL would investigate Melbourne Football Club over tanking allegations, with evidence the league had been gathering.<\/p>\n

When the board member realised his mistake and called Wilson to ask what she planned to do with the information, her response was blunt.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said, well, \u2018(what do you think I\u2019m going to do?)\u2018,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes you just get lucky.\u201d <\/p>\n

In 2012, the Demons were investigated over allegations they deliberately lost matches in 2019 to gain a priority pick. <\/p>\n

While they were ultimately cleared of specifically tanking, then coach Dean Bailey, general manager Chris Connolly and the club copped heavy sanctions for \u201cacting in a manner that was prejudicial to the interests of the AFL\u201d.<\/p>\n

Bailey, who had been sacked as Demons coach in 2011 and was an assistant at Adelaide, was suspended for the first 16 matches of the 2013 season. <\/p>\n

Connolly, who was still at the club in a role outside the football department, was suspended from serving in a position at any club for 12 months. <\/p>\n

The club was fined a whopping $500,000. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Essendon face huge question as Brad Scott\u2019s payout details emerge<\/p>\n

3 min read<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Raging Hird v Buckley debate starts all over again: \u2018I\u2019m flummoxed\u2019<\/p>\n

5 min read<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the AFL\u2019s most explosive stories broke thanks in part to an accidental text message sent to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":711652,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,1625,7804,3863,588,85],"class_list":["post-711651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-lifestyle","tag-melbourne-demons","tag-sponsored-content","tag-sport","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=711651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711651\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/711652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=711651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=711651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=711651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}