The condemned man stayed on after the execution and even came to the defence of his hangman.

Deposed Melbourne chief executive Cameron Schwab has been through a lot of strife and he admits some of it has been of his own doing.

But Schwab did himself nothing but credit with the way he handled his third and surely final departure from the Demons.

Something had to give after Melbourne’s appalling start to the season and that came on Tuesday afternoon, with the club calling a media conference at short notice.

In walked Schwab, holding a Demons guernsey, and club president Don McLardy.

That sat side by side and tried to explain the circumstances behind Schwab’s sudden resignation.

In one sense, they cut to the chase, agreeing that McLardy had met with Schwab and said the board wanted him to resign.

But why? And why now, only a day after McLardy had pledged no radical decisions at the embattled club?

Journalists were soon peppering McLardy with questions, yelling over the top of each other and not gaining much satisfaction from the answers.

Schwab stepped in, even going to the extend of defending McLardy and the club board.

“It is quite within the rights of the president and the board … to make the call they have,” he said.

“Also, I recognise that ultimately, on-field performance is an indirect … situation from the role I play as CEO.”

But if anyone in the AFL was equipped to deal with this, it was Schwab.

He practically said himself on Tuesday – I’ve been around, I know how this rolls.

The son of former AFL executive commissioner Alan Schwab joined Melbourne as an office boy in 1981.

At the age of 24, he became the youngest chief executive in AFL history when he took the job at Richmond.

But for every high in Cameron’s long career as an AFL club administrator, there’s been a low.

He soon left Richmond, consulted on Fremantle’s 1995 entry into the AFL, then returned to Melbourne and became their chief executive.

He became chief executive at Fremantle in 2001 and held the job for seven years, leaving that post to return to the Demons again.

Schwab was very close to losing his job in late July two years ago, only for Geelong to thrash Melbourne by 186 points.

With president Jim Stynes gravely ill and the club teetering, they sacked coach Dean Bailey instead after a tumultuous weekend.

This time, there would be no escape.