Are we looking at 1987 again?

[2014-Flag 0]

Without getting too far ahead of ourselves, today’s match reminded me of the Demons last dramatic surge into the finals in 1987, when we got into the final 5 after a hard fought 15 point win at the Whitten Oval in the last round, but only after an after the siren goal by Jason Dunstall for Hawthorn over Geelong. It was our first final series for 23 years. A very young side painstakingly built by Barassi over the previous six years ran on adrenalin to easily defeat North, the Swans in the first two finals, and then to be cruelly denied a grand final appearance by a mistake by a first year player by the name of Jim Stynes when he ran though the mark after the siren to go over to his Irish parents in the stands to celebrate victory with them, which allowed Gary Buchanara a 15 metre penalty to bring him within 45 metres of goal. One of the most famous incidents in AFL history. The Hawks won by 3 points. This set us up for a Grand final appearance in 1988, and brought consistent finals action for the Demons for almost the next 20 years save the short lived Neil Balm era in the mid 1990s. The AFL drama of yesterday was the closest I had seen to those years. There is nothing like a young side playing on adrenalin for excitement and drama.

I believe that is what we will see here, maybe not this year, but certainly in the near future, although if we play with the same passion and, yes, skill as we played yesterday, you never know. Remember, we have at least 7 first pick players out which will make a huge difference when they return and if we can consistently play now the gameplan, instensity and skill we showed yesterday we all might be pleasantly surprised.

IMO Dean Baily is at least as skilled a coach as John Northey, and we have an order of magnitude better administration as that era.

Go Dees!

[Chook 14,647]

Here's a stat for you. It's been 23 years since that game and if we win the next 23 games in a row, our 23rd will win us the Grand Final. Coincidence? I think not

EDIT: Or for the pessimistic, if we only just make the finals, our twenty-third game will be a heartbreaking loss against the Hawks in a Preliminary Final.

Edited April 3, 2010 by Chook

[Dappa Dan 2,188]

I thought this thread was suggesting THIS year was the year.

But yes, if the Hawks are anything to go by a climb up the ladder is likely to come all at once. Eg, if we won 8 this season, we'd only have to win 4-5 more to be in with a real shot at top 4. Fits and starts.

[Range Rover 1,935]

If there was ever an illustration of the maxim that 90% of sport is played above the shoulders, it was yesterday's game.

[2014-Flag 0]

I thought this thread was suggesting THIS year was the year.

But yes, if the Hawks are anything to go by a climb up the ladder is likely to come all at once. Eg, if we won 8 this season, we'd only have to win 4-5 more to be in with a real shot at top 4. Fits and starts.

No, I meant a surge into the finals may be possible this year on yesterday's performance. To go past the first week into the finals though would certainly be a bridge too far at this stage.

Watching them try though over the next six months or so though will be very exciting, and make for a very enjoyable football future.

[Dane 3]

I remember the 87 year well, for most of that season we played ordinary football and looked no chance to play in the finals, then something clicked and the team clicked, we had to win the last six games of the year to just squeak in the the finals. We then played some really exciting attacking football the best from the MFC since 1964. We Thrashed North in the first final by well over 100 points, we then destroyed the swans by more than 70 points in the next final, it was the great Robbie Flower's last year and the atmosphere around the club was electric. The next game was against the all conquering Hawks who were right at the peak of their powers and in the middle of a run of 7 consecutive Grand Finals. If you look at their team then it was one of the greatest every assembled with stars all over the ground. They were far superior to us on paper in every way. But we continued our brilliant play of recent weeks and late in the third qtr had a 23 point lead. Unfortunately we played a bit defensively in the last qtr but still had several chances to win when players ran into open goals and missed. We lost after the siren as you all know and i was quite depressed for more than a week after that. but it was the most exciting time for our club since out glory days and it could happen again soon i believe and when it does all the Dees suporters will know this excitment again

[bush demon 1,927]

I remember the 87 year well, for most of that season we played ordinary football and looked no chance to play in the finals, then something clicked and the team clicked, we had to win the last six games of the year to just squeak in the the finals. We then played some really exciting attacking football the best from the MFC since 1964. We Thrashed North in the first final by well over 100 points, we then destroyed the swans by more than 70 points in the next final, it was the great Robbie Flower's last year and the atmosphere around the club was electric. The next game was against the all conquering Hawks who were right at the peak of their powers and in the middle of a run of 7 consecutive Grand Finals. If you look at their team then it was one of the greatest every assembled with stars all over the ground. They were far superior to us on paper in every way. But we continued our brilliant play of recent weeks and late in the third qtr had a 23 point lead. Unfortunately we played a bit defensively in the last qtr but still had several chances to win when players ran into open goals and missed. We lost after the siren as you all know and i was quite depressed for more than a week after that. but it was the most exciting time for our club since out glory days and it could happen again soon i believe and when it does all the Dees suporters will know this excitment again

1. Brett Bailey blazing away;

2. Tony Campbell blazing away;

3. Simon Eishold being put on a ridiculous angle after marking directly in front, but not in the centre-of-the-front. that is the most stupid rule.

[John Crow Batty 8,352]

I too remember 87 well. It was the most exciting time for the club since 64. Northey took over when the club was a rabble at its lowest and it took him half a season to get the players to play tough disciplined accountable footy. But it all came to nothing although Melbourne became regular finals contenders. If they did beat Hawthorn in 87 they would have faced a firing and fresh Carlton side who eventually crushed Hawthorn. I doubt they could have beaten Carlton. Melbourne's best player Robbie Flower would have missed the GF due to injury if they made it. They were considered over achievers at the time due to lack of star players. IMO they had their best chance in 1990 when they were widely considered flag favorites at the start o the finals but blew it against West Coast and were eliminated.

Another example is Brisbane who started 2001 in average fashion after a lowly few years but then surged and won I think the last 14 games of the season to kick start their great premiership run. But they had star players to make good on their claims.

If Bailey can get Melbourne to play disciplined accountable footy and get his game plan going then there is hope but it a big call for this year. At least this time the Dee's have potential star quality in their line up. The big plus about yesterday was that they played the committed disciplined footy required to build confidence. I loved the way they moved the ball around. Skills still lacking but it is surprising how skills improve once there is confidence.

Edited April 4, 2010 by america de cali

[2014-Flag 0]

I too remember 87 well. It was the most exciting time for the club since 64. Northey took over when the club was a rabble at its lowest and it took him half a season to get the players to play tough disciplined accountable footy. But it all came to nothing although Melbourne became regular finals contenders. If they did beat Hawthorn in 87 they would have faced a firing and fresh Carlton side who eventually crushed Hawthorn. I doubt they could have beaten Carlton. Melbourne's best player Robbie Flower would have missed the GF due to injury if they made it. They were considered over achievers at the time due to lack of star players. IMO they had their best chance in 1990 when they were widely considered flag favorites at the start o the finals but blew it against West Coast and were eliminated.

Another example is Brisbane who started 2001 in average fashion after a lowly few years but then surged and won I think the last 14 games of the season to kick start their great premiership run. But they had star players to make good on their claims.

If Bailey can get Melbourne to play disciplined accountable footy and get his game plan going then there is hope but it a big call for this year. At least this time the Dee's have potential star quality in their line up. The big plus about yesterday was that they played the committed disciplined footy required to build confidence. I loved the way they moved the ball around. Skills still lacking but it is surprising how skills improve once there is confidence.

Agree, and the skills will further improve once we get a lot of our full list back. In addition it will create real competition for place which can never be a bad thing.

I too felt the most heartening thing about Saturday was seeing a young and inexperienced side, by no means our best 22, play a quick moving, skilled brand of football which with further injection of skilled players can only get better and more consistent, with a consequent reductions in mistakes.

The brand of football was very exciting.

[praha 10,552]

I think you're all getting a head of yourselves.

In regards to Hawthorn, they had Mitchell and Hodge, and had several players that would snag them top 20 picks. We don't, and haven't over the past few years. Johnstone was probably the only player worth trading for a top 20 pick, and we got Grimes, which is great. But we don't have a champion in Crawford, or players like Mitchell and Hodge, to lead. We don't have players of that quality. Nor do we have a Franklin or Roughead. Nor do we have a Lonie or Thompson to trade for more top 20 picks.

We're totally different to Hawthorn of 2006-2008.

I still don't see us making the finals until 2012. I hope they do before then, but I don't see. I'm just being a realist based on our squad.

[Hellaintabadplacetobe 4,150]

I think you're all getting a head of yourselves.

In regards to Hawthorn, they had Mitchell and Hodge, and had several players that would snag them top 20 picks. We don't, and haven't over the past few years. Johnstone was probably the only player worth trading for a top 20 pick, and we got Grimes, which is great. But we don't have a champion in Crawford, or players like Mitchell and Hodge, to lead. We don't have players of that quality. Nor do we have a Franklin or Roughead. Nor do we have a Lonie or Thompson to trade for more top 20 picks.

We're totally different to Hawthorn of 2006-2008.

I still don't see us making the finals until 2012. I hope they do before then, but I don't see. I'm just being a realist based on our squad.

Tend to agree.

The 87 team was not as young as you think. Yes we had a handful of young players, but we had a lot of hard bodies to compete with the heavyweights of the AFL.

Currently, we have very few hard bodies and loads of inexperience but I still hold hopes of making finals next year. Yesterday was as good as our disposal efficiency has been for 3 years. We hit targets everywhere, it looked awesome at times, yet our team efficiency was 69%. Get some muscle on these kids, get our efficiency closer to 80%, then we can start talking about a very dominant era!