http://www.smh.com.au/afl/afl-news/when-dean-bailey-deeply-touched-a-family-20140313-hvia3.html

A really moving piece by Martin Flanagan on a families relationship with Dean Bailey and the Melbourne Football Club.

http://www.smh.com.au/afl/afl-news/when-dean-bailey-deeply-touched-a-family-20140313-hvia3.html

A really moving piece by Martin Flanagan on a families relationship with Dean Bailey and the Melbourne Football Club.

Wow. That got the tears flowing.

This is why I am Melbourne through and through.

Good read.

It says a great deal about the person that Bails was.

Flanagan first, Daylight second and then another 24 timezones before you get another journo who writes with the pathos of Martin.

All class is Flanners, and I've never met anybody more passionate about the game as a reflection of the people within it. His love of the totality of our game, particularly it's history, gives his natural writing gifts a lyricism and emotional weight that has no equal in sports writing in this country.

He is able to make the game so relatable and humanly when in todays game the players are seen as celebrities. He is truly a journalistic gem.

I agree. The subject of the story was my mate Tom, one of the best blokes you could meet. I regularly have a beer at the footy with his dad Dave, another demon tragic.

Very sad story, but I absolutely loved what the club did for Tom that day.

If you're interested, here is more of Tom's story. Dave and his family have since raised in excess of $100k for cancer research.

http://www.rainbowsforkate.com.au/tomstory.html

No doubt it's already being considered somewhere down at MFC, but could the annual clash between Melbourne and Adelaide become for the Dean Bailey trophy? Would duly recognise his impact was beyond state borders, and I'm sure the players, especially guys like Trengove, would feel it an honour to be part of.