UNREAL - Part Two by Whispering Jack

By coincidence, Queens Birthday 1965 occurred on 14 June as it did this year. On that day 45 years ago, the Beatles released their album "Beatles VI", John Lennon's second book "A Spaniard in the Works" was published, Cincinnati Red Jim Maloney no-hit the NY Mets but his team lost in 1-0 in the eleventh inning, composer Guido Guerrini died at the age of 74 and battles were raging in the jungles of South Vietnam. At that particular time, none of those things mattered much to me. I was too busy coming to terms with the shock and the awe of witnessing the demise of my football team because that very day marked the end of an era for the Melbourne Football Club.

A little over a decade earlier, the legendary coach Norm Smith took over a rabble and quickly turned it into the most formidable combination that ever graced the field in the history of Australian football. The Demons dominated the scene as none had ever done before. Perennial finalists, they won six premierships in a decade culminating in 1964 when they overcame the traditional enemies, the Magpies of Collingwood, in the grand final.

The joy of success continued into the following year when Melbourne won its first eight games despite the defection of its greatest ever player Ron Barassi to Carlton. When the Demons beat the Blues in Round 8, 1965 it was a case of the master (Smith) besting the pupil (Barassi) and, on the face of it, all was well with the world.

Underneath the surface however, storm clouds were looming and they manifested in the following round with a crushing defeat on Queens Birthday by 61 points at the hands of St. Kilda (the first 10 goal defeat since Smith became coach in 1952) and in the sad events of the following month that culminated in Smith's dramatic sacking and the reversal of that decision a week later. The wheels had fallen off, Melbourne floundered and failed to even make the finals. There was to be no more finals football for the club in over two decades and, while they subsequently made two grand finals, the Demons never seriously challenged in those games.

I remember waking on the morning of Tuesday 15 June 1965 wondering how I was going to face the inevitable taunts of my schoolmates. My once great team had failed without even raising a whimper. They were old and had lost the will to win. I knew already that Mr. Davis, my geography teacher who later joined the priesthood, was going to greet me with invocations on the biblical theme of "how are the mighty fallen," and while the radio on the school bus played the soothing acoustic tones of the folk group singing "Don't Think Twice It's All Right", it wasn't "all right". On that very day halfway across the world, the author of that song turned his world upside down by going electric and introducing his new face to the world. While it might be a long way from the MCG to the Newport Jazz and Folk Festival, on that day everything in my world converged. The times had changed.

Forty-five years later to the day, I celebrated my son's birthday and we mused about the unreal game of the previous day. This time, a Melbourne team had graced the field at an MCG that hardly bore any resemblance to the ground it was on Queens Birthday 1965. This time it was a youthful team that was hungry and fought tooth and nail against a physically stronger foe. Unlike its counterpart of years gone by, this team was not tired of battle. This team wasn't going to give in easily and it fought out an honourable draw against a premiership contender.

The line has been drawn and the times are a changing again.

Nice work as usual WJ but how did you know on that QB that it was all over?

Another great read Jack. I remember those days of 1965 only too well. It was the second time in my life that I can honestly say I felt devastated by things to do with football. The first was in September 1958, but strangely, even that didn't hit me as hard as the great Norm Smith's fall from grace at the Melbourne Football Club. Sadly there have been many disappointments since those times ...... but never enough to sully my undying passion for the mighty Demons.

I am now more confident about the future prosperity of our team than at any time since the heady days of the late 1950s and early 60s.

Absolutely, "the line has been drawn and the times are a changing again".

Nice work as usual WJ but how did you know on that QB that it was all over?

That's a good question and I think I would have to write another article to explain it fully but I'll try to answer it as best I can straight off the cuff:

* recruiting - Melbourne had such a strong group of players for well over a decade that we started getting a bit slack with recruiting. It was often so hard for young players to break into our team that they went elsewhere to clubs where they could get a game. Sometimes good players languished in our reserves and eventually went elsewhere - to other clubs, interstate or even back home. Geelong's Doug Wade trained with us for a pre season one year and couldn't break into the team so Norm Smith sent him home to bulk up and then come back the following year. He did come back but it was to Geelong where he made his mark as a century goalkicker and then kicked a ton in a premiership team at North Melbourne. At various other times we had other players signed like St. Kilda great Daryl Baldock but we let their papers lapse. We also had two brothers, the Minton-Connells, playing in our reserves but, although very good players, they couldn't break into our senior team. They eventually left the club and, a couple of years later, their relative Peter Hudson was snared by Hawthorn which beat every club in the VFL for its services. Imagine if the M-C's had managed to break into the senior team. It might have made it easier for us to snare a champion footballer. We sent Kevin Sheedy from our local zone to Richmond. Also, our suburban recruiting zone was in a partly ageing area and we didn't get the extra populations until the late 60's (just missing out on getting Leigh Matthews and his brother Kelvin and Michael Moncrieff). We had a terrific club secretary in Jim Cardwell but he was doing it by himself and we were still being run like an amateur club while others were becoming more professional. In other words, there was no succession plan in place to cover the loss of ageing long term champion players.

* Ron Barassi - this bloke was the greatest player ever to pull on a red and blue guernsey by a country mile and he was at the absolute peak of his form in 1964. I saw him play most of our games that year and he was sensational every week. They awarded the Brownlow Medal to a Carlton player Gordon Collis but he only got it because they award it to the fairest and best. If it was just for the best or the champion player of the year it would have been a no contest in favour of RDB. My theory is that Barassi was a completely driven man in '64 with just one aim - to win the premiership. Perhaps it stemmed from his suspension on the eve of the '63 finals. Many felt we would have won the flag with him in the side (we lost the prelim final by 7 points in his absence). And after we won the 1964 premiership (by 4 points over Collingwood) RDB knew he was free to go to Carlton to start his coaching career. IMO he could have stayed at the club playing at the top level for another two or three years.

* so we won our first eight in 1965 without Barassi but many of the wins were close shaves. We weren't convincing in many of our wins and we struggled to win against team like Richmond and South Melbourne - teams we would have breezed past in previous seasons. In 1964 we thrashed the Tigers by over 100 points in a game at the G. In round 1 of 1965 we fell in by 5 points - they had a young team on its way up. By mid 1965 we were starting to fall apart at the seams. The dynasty was over.

* some interesting lessons here. These days things are very different to the 60s but it will be interesting to see what happens with Geelong if Garry Ablett Junior goes to the Gold Coast at the end of the year. Will this start a downward trend at the Cattery?

That young Richmond side that we thrashed in 64 and we scraped home against in round 1 of 65 became a champion team that won five premierships between 67 and 80. We hardly ever beat them during this period. During 65 they were up and down and very inconsistent. Our current team reminds me of that!

Thanks WJ! I've spent 45 years trying to get over that match, and you brought back all the bad memories!!!

I remember Ian Cooper taking the mark of the season. The match was a turning point and changed St Kilda's fortunes too. They realised after thrashing us that they could be a genuine finals contender.

Thanks WJ! I've spent 45 years trying to get over that match, and you brought back all the bad memories!!!

I remember Ian Cooper taking the mark of the season. The match was a turning point and changed St Kilda's fortunes too. They realised after thrashing us that they could be a genuine finals contender.

That mark of Cooper's wasn't just the mark of the season - it was the biggest mark I've ever seen!