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Melbourne FC - the Irish connection

jaymzstevens
in Melbourne Demons

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Hi folks

Am putting together something for a uni assignment, and I wanted to see if you more historically astute guys can help me out.

What connections do Melbourne FC have with Ireland? (apart from the obvious, of course!!!!)

If you could help me out with any information you might have about past and present players from Ireland or of Irish background, that would be awesome.

Thanks in advance, to be sure, to be sure.

J

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    Might be handy to provide the context or question for your assignment as each area will have a different angle and I'll be happy to put my two cents in.

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    Just a general history connecting Ireland and the Melbourne FC is what i'm looking for. 2 cents would be completely awesome :)

    The assignment isn't specifically about this, I'm just using the Dees as part of a history-based component.

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    Well, the Irish experiment was started by Melbourne in the 1980's with Sean Wight the first recruit, then Jimmy Stynes the second. And since then, heaps more.

    International rules has been around for a long time, hasn't it?

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    There were several attempts in the game's early days to spread the game to other nations. Our game was played at various times in South Africa and New Zealand in the early part of the 20th century.

    At the end of 1963 Melbourne and Geelong toured the United States after the season and played exhibition games in Hawaii and (I think) San Francisco.

    Then, former umpire Harry Beitzel organised an international tour that involved exhibition hybrid games against Irish and American teams which played Gaelic Football and were the forerunners of the International Rules games we have today. The first tour was c1968 and Ron Barassi was in the squad. In America there was a brawl involving Barassi and a tough Irish-American cop named Brendon Tumulty which gave the touring team lots of publicity. The Aussies were called the "Galahs" - it was a time when a lot of cringeworthy exports were sent out of the country. I think the name "Galahs" and Bazza McKenzie topped the list.

    When Barassi became coach of Melbourne in 1981 the Irish Experiment was instituted. It's two major successes were Sean Wight and Jimmy Stynes but there were a handful of others who didn't make it. The idea was taken up once or twice until the early 2000s when it was abandoned because of the cost involved. When Jim returned as President two years ago, I thought there was a chance of it being revived but there's been no sign to date that this is going to happen.

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