My “full strip” debut was in the spring of 1961. I was seven years old and it was sports day at Springvale State School.

Of course my dad could not afford a MFC jumper so my mother knitted one for me. Attached was a Sun newspaper MFC logo on an oval backing. This was dutifully sewn onto the left breast. Mum was able to buy me my beautiful Red Leg socks, turned over specially sewn garters at the top.

My Dad, a weary WWII veteran had completed building our timber and fibro house at 39 Regent Ave Springvale prior to my birth. Now he was ensuring my footy skills were well learned. I then played footy for 20 years.

Dad was raised in South Melbourne prior to enlisting in the army and heading off to New Guinea to fight the Japanese in Buna and Bougainville around 1942. He came home with a bout of malaria but then returned to Buna for another stint. He had played in South Melbourne reserves prior to the war.

My Auntie still lived in a terraced house in Park St, South Melbourne, so every second Saturday we would visit her and walk to the lake oval to watch South Melbourne get flogged.

I caused my father embarrassment by wearing my new full Melbourne Football Club strip to the lake oval each second Saturday, so he began taking me to MFC matches occasionally, never at the G, but at other suburban grounds. I’ll always remember seeing Carl Ditteritch’s first St Kilda game which was against Melbourne and I was there. It must have been at Moorabbin. We got beaten.

My father moved us from Springvale in the summer of 1964 to Wangaratta in NE Victoria. I still remember the thrill of the ’64 premiership, but the hollowness of not being close to it. There was no TV. We just heard the news.

My dad passed away at 50 from cancer. I am now 58 years old and still await my dream to see Melbourne Football Club as premiers.

My "full strip" debut was in the spring of 1961. I was seven years old and it was sports day at Springvale State School.

Of course my dad could not afford a MFC jumper so my mother knitted one for me. Attached was a Sun newspaper MFC logo on an oval backing. This was dutifully sewn onto the left breast. Mum was able to buy me my beautiful Red Leg socks, turned over specially sewn garters at the top.

My Dad, a weary WWII veteran had completed building our timber and fibro house at 39 Regent Ave Springvale prior to my birth. Now he was ensuring my footy skills were well learned. I then played footy for 20 years.

Dad was raised in South Melbourne prior to enlisting in the army and heading off to New Guinea to fight the Japanese in Buna and Bougainville around 1942. He came home with a bout of malaria but then returned to Buna for another stint. He had played in South Melbourne reserves prior to the war.

My Auntie still lived in a terraced house in Park St, South Melbourne, so every second Saturday we would visit her and walk to the lake oval to watch South Melbourne get flogged.

I caused my father embarrassment by wearing my new full Melbourne Football Club strip to the lake oval each second Saturday, so he began taking me to MFC matches occasionally, never at the G, but at other suburban grounds. I'll always remember seeing Carl Ditteritch's first St Kilda game which was against Melbourne and I was there. It must have been at Moorabbin. We got beaten.

My father moved us from Springvale in the summer of 1964 to Wangaratta in NE Victoria. I still remember the thrill of the '64 premiership, but the hollowness of not being close to it. There was no TV. We just heard the news.

My dad passed away at 50 from cancer. I am now 58 years old and still await my dream to see Melbourne Football Club as premiers.

My influence was my Grand Father, my Mums dad. He was a kind man who took an interest in young me & was excited to see me when we visited.

He was a MCC member & I believe he played cricket for the MCC in some fashion. He was a very good sportsman I'm told, and he would talk Footy to me when visiting, he gave me MCC/MFC year books and cricket score books.

My father wasn't a sportsmen, just a punter and Carlton supporter, as was my older sister.

My mother was apparently a Melbourne supporter, a very quiet one.

I never got to be taken to Melbourne games, but went to 2 or 3 Carlton games, but while it was interesting seeing Nichols smash Thompsons nose, it wasn't the Red 'n' Blue.