Magpies want birthday spoils

COLLINGWOOD is considering reclaiming its lucrative share of the Queen’s Birthday blockbuster gate for the first time in almost 20 years.

The Magpies are in talks to end an agreement with Melbourne which has given the Dees hosting rights to the clash every year since 2001.

Collingwood will formalise its position in next year’s fixture requests in part because of the funds the club already contributes to rivals through the AFL’s equalisation policies.

The Queen’s Birthday match is worth $800,000$900,000 to the home team, helping Melbourne raise vital funds throughout one of the darkest periods in its history.

Significantly, Melbourne is now much less reliant on the yearly cash injection from the Queen’s Birthday blockbuster as the club eyes its fourth straight profit under chief executive Peter Jackson.

The Queen’s Birthday contest has become one of the most popular on the calendar — more than 70,000 fans watched the Dees win their fourth straight match against Collingwood in Round 12 this year. Melbourne has built the game into a marquee fixture which has helped Melbourne great Neale Daniher raise more than $15 million for motor neurone disease research under the “Big Freeze at the G” banner.

The Demons noted the significance of the game when declaring an operating profit of $720,000 last year.