IT WAS not a pretty scene in the Melbourne boardroom two nights ago when Jim Stynes pulled out his knife and aimed it at Paul McNamee.

Although the Irish-born Brownlow medallist and the Melbourne-born Wimbledon doubles champion shook hands at the end of it, some home truths were exchanged before they parted company for good.

Sackings are never easy and even more explosive when two impressive egos are involved. McNamee had come to one of the AFL's most struggling and divided clubs at the start of the 2008 season with a big reputation. Now he was being publicly humiliated after 3½ months.

Stynes had been mounting his assault on the club at the time of McNamee's appointment. He had not approved of the decision. Still, he said he gave the former golf and tennis administrator a chance.

It was in the last week that Stynes came to the conclusion that McNamee was all wrong for one of the AFL's toughest jobs — that he did not have the football or financial acumen.

One significant difference between the two men was Brisbane champion Jonathan Brown. McNamee saw Brown, soon to be out of contract, as a key piece in his vision for Melbourne: "The Premier Club."

McNamee had been deep in talks with Brown's management, offering the player the five-year $5 million-plus contract that it would take to bring him home to Victoria. Once Stynes got wind of the negotiations he put a stop to them.

The big-picture man who reinvigorated the Australian Open, McNamee been publicly gagged by Stynes for close to a month. He was told, he said, that Stynes would be the person to make public comments on behalf of the club.

Last night McNamee and his family, wife Lesley and their son, were entertaining close friends, playing tennis under lights at their Malvern home, which is up for sale. Still stunned at the sacking he did not see coming, McNamee said his biggest disappointment was being frustrated and barred at every turn from executing his bold vision.

"I believed we could take on Collingwood," McNamee said. "I was sick of making up the numbers as a football club and I felt … we could be the first, the premier club.

"I was going to be audacious in the player area and it was an area familiar to me. Federer, Agassi, Graf — the works. I've done it before. I said to them: What about Jonathan Brown? He stands for everything we are working towards and we have to work quickly. We don't have much time. But he didn't fit into their game plan."

Said Stynes yesterday of the bid to market Melbourne as The Premier Club: "That's not us."

It was with the lukewarm approval of Stynes' new board that McNamee travelled to Wimbledon late last month, just days after the day-long club think tank on June 27.

McNamee commented during his seniors tennis campaign at the All-England Club to long-time doubles partner Peter McNamara that the new Melbourne board was entirely different to the one that had employed him — and he'd have to keep his wits about him.

Yesterday, he said: "The old board was about corporate governance. The new board is a managing board. They had a game plan and I had a game plan and their game plan surrounded the debt, which was the right thing to do, they are a talented group. My game plan was audacious and I think it was the right thing also.

"They didn't like it and in the end it was untenable."

As McNamee described it yesterday "the drift" was all wrong around the Melbourne Football Club from the time Stynes and his team took over in the second week of winter. He reportedly also felt a distinct lack of support from the club's new football boss and former player, Chris Connolly.

"It was an appointment made by the previous board," Stynes said of McNamee to The Age yesterday.

Stynes, on taking over the club, publicly described McNamee's appointment as "interesting".

"We gave him a fair go and in the end we didn't think he was going to deliver our strategic plan," Stynes said yesterday. "He didn't have a football background and he didn't really understand the industry."

The McNamee situation came to a head at board level last week. Reading between the lines Stynes clearly had issues with his CEO.

Interestingly, it had been leaked that McNamee had raised eyebrows at the club by extending his overseas trip to compete in the seniors doubles event at Wimbledon by journeying to Paris for several days afterwards. The report was not true, said McNamee — he came back from London two days early.

McNamee stated in an interview that the Demons would look to play two home games in Canberra next year, Stynes corrected that, saying the MCG was the club's priority.

Having sat in during the early stage of the interview process for the new CEO, Stynes, who was still building his takeover plan, did not agree with previous chairman Paul Gardner who chose McNamee, liking his charisma and ideas. When McNamee unveiled his mock TV commercial during one stage of the interview process, the vision of The Premier Club was born.

Stynes told McNamee once he took over that he had not been happy with the process, but that he would give McNamee a chance. The feeling from Stynes yesterday was that — despite the fact McNamee lasted barely five weeks under him — he had had his chance.

Now Stynes says he will open up the chief executive's position to all comers. He denied the obvious conclusion that Melbourne was reuniting Connolly, the former Fremantle coach, Stynes himself and backroom supporter Garry Lyon by reinstating their old CEO, Cameron Schwab.

"We are going to ask people to apply and we will talk to Cameron if he applies. But we will be talking to a lot of people," said Stynes. The two talked at the Fremantle-Melbourne clash last Sunday.

As for McNamee, his $440,000 contract — massive for an untried CEO at a financially struggling club — has been terminated. His payout is believed to exceed $100,000. Because debt-ridden Melbourne had just handed out a much larger six-figure sum to the previous sacked CEO, Steve Harris, back in February, the club was unwilling to put Harris' replacement on a potentially costly long-term contract.

"I still have a great affection for the club and the players and the people," said McNamee. "I'm disappointed more than angry, because although it was a shock when it happened I've had a sinking feeling for a long time."