Rarely has the destiny of such a brilliant, troubled, often dysfunctional athlete so reflected the fortunes of his football club.

So it is for Clayton Oliver and his winning Demons as he tries to keep to the structured existence that was forced upon him as he seemed to have run out of chances and avoid a potential fall from that good-behaviour wagon.

It has been four months since Oliver left the club’s Lorne pre-season camp after he arrived out of sorts. As the summer progressed, the prospect of the four-time club champion shaping up for his club’s two-game road trip to Adelaide looked unlikely, let alone for the opening-round clash with Sydney.

Melbourne’s centrepiece: Clayton Oliver.Credit: AFL Photos / Getty Images

Had Oliver sat ranked 25th on Melbourne’s list he would most likely no longer be in the AFL system. And even considering his talent, his off-field bosses at Melbourne now concede the intervention to correct Oliver’s demeanour and behaviour around the club could have come much earlier before it was virtually forced upon them.

The club started to ponder a world without Oliver, now 26, and just what a potential trade would look like.

As Melbourne’s disastrous September merged into a hellish off-season, the Oliver trade talk became public, as did his downward trajectory. Oliver was sent to hospital in an ambulance after a seizure late last year and was subsequently charged with driving while his licence was suspended post-seizure. Club officials arriving at Oliver’s house were taken aback by the lack of regular order in his life.

The road back required a whole-of-industry approach. Two people who were at the meeting confirmed that Oliver was confronted by his CEO Gary Pert in a room that included AFL Players Association boss Paul Marsh, manager Paul Connors and senior AFL staffers including the competition’s head of mental health and well-being, Kate Hall. Such tactics not only reflected the depth of Oliver’s problems but also his value to club and competition.

That Oliver wasbrought before such an influential and high-powered group was also a clear indication of the level of concern around where the Demons feared he was headed. And junior and senior staff at the club unwilling to talk publicly about Oliver’s past behaviour, said that he had been a difficult employee around the club for some time. Unpleasant to staff and often unwilling to go the extra yard in a community sense and yet also a fanatical trainer.