Laurence Money on the man who has, in my eyes, always been and always will be the greatest Demon of them all - Humble Legend.

I know tales about past players often sound like old war stories and can be boring, but the story of Ron Barassi Junior is anything but that. He was a hero to a generation of young Demon supporters and his story is complex, vibrant, tragic, heroic and emotional. I learned about the last part of his fascinating story when I watched an ABC programme in which RDB sought out his roots, discovered some surprising facts about his family and came face to face with the circumstances of his father's death in wartime.

The book by a prizewinning author Peter Lalor should be an absolute corker and I can't wait for it to come out. I'm only sorry that a prior commitment prevents me from being there for the booksigning on Wednesday. Otherwise, I would have been looking forward to it with the same anticipation as on the day I first met him as a contestant on Happy Hammond's kids television programme at Channel 7's Dorcas Street studios fifty years ago.

Nice story from Laurence Money too!

Laurence Money on the man who has, in my eyes, always been and always will be the greatest Demon of them all - Humble Legend.

Nice story from Laurence Money too!

Sounds like a man from another dimension. Which current player would say something like this today:-

''I still have the papers at home,'' says Barassi, ''showing that in 1959, when Melbourne were premiers and I was best on ground in the grand final, my pay for the year was £299. For the whole year!'' Some may ponder ''what if?'' but Barassi is not that sort of man. ''Money never came into it,'' he says.

Bit of a worry with him riding bikes with Crackers though.

I am also looking forward to the book's release and I trust that it will open up a whole new vista to many of the club's younger supporters who don't realise what an unbelievable treasure Ronald Dale Barassi was and is to our club.

I am also looking forward to the book's release and I trust that it will open up a whole new vista to many of the club's younger supporters who don't realise what an unbelievable treasure Ronald Dale Barassi was and is to our club.

An interesting question is this: what would have happened to our club if RDB had stayed at the end of 1964?

To my mind - as all suns must set - the Fall would have come in any event. The most cataclysmic decision in the history of the Melbourne Football Ball Club had already been made four years earlier (letting Doug Wade go - if we had had a 1000-ish goal FF from 1960 to 1974, our fortunes would have been vastly different); our Club was still operating amateurishly ( in the precise sense of that word) compared with other, more agile, more forward-looking clubs and Barassi himself as a player was largely washed up from wear and tear (as his 50 odd games at the Cheats illustrate).

Operating in a father/son dynamic as I do, I can understand rationally why RDB accepted the offer from that scoundrel George Harris in late 1964, even as it grates against my marrow. And to my mind, Barassi the player could not have averted the Fall - it was inevitable.

Edited October 25, 201015 yr by Biffinator

An interesting question is this: what would have happened to our club if RDB had stayed at the end of 1964?

To my mind - as all suns must set - the Fall would have come in any event. The most cataclysmic decision in the history of the Melbourne Football Ball Club had already been made four years earlier (letting Doug Wade go - if we had had a 1000-ish goal FF from 1960 to 1974, our fortunes would have been vastly different); our Club was still operating amateurishly ( in the precise sense of that word) compared with other, more agile, more forward-looking clubs and Barassi himself as a player was largely washed up from wear and tear (as his 50 odd games at the Cheats illustrate).

Operating in a father/son dynamic as I do, I can understand rationally why RDB accepted the offer from that scoundrel George Harris in late 1964, even as it grates against my marrow. And to my mind, Barassi the player could not have averted the Fall - it was inevitable.

I think the decision to let Doug Wade go after he did a pre season with the club in 1959 was a football decision made by Norm Smith who didn't believe he was ready for the big time yet. Obviously, Wade got his nose out of joint and didn't come back. Rather, he went to Geelong and became a legend of the game.

We also missed out on other opportunities i.e. we had Darryl Baldock signed on a Form 4 in about 1958 and allowed it to lapse because he didn't want to come over. I think there were others who didn't come over after the club had put in the hard work to sign them up. We had Peter Hudson's relatives, the Minton-Connells down at the club but for one reason or another they didn't make the senior team. Who knows, we could have had Huddo and Wade in the same team if our cards fell the right way.

Then there were the players who left the club for financial reasons because they were offered contracts to coach or play interstate or in the country. Stewie Spencer left after 2 premierships (Bluey Truscott winner both years) and at the age of 24 for this reason.

The fall was inevitable because it was a by product of our success. We were too successful, grew complacent and were lost in the revolution that changed the game from mainly amateur to professional. It was a long, hard fall. It started when we lost Barassi and we've never recovered to this day.