Norm Smith was sacked 50 years ago today

[monoccular 17,695]

not dantes inferno, bbo?

Maybe not: I haven't read it but I suspect in Dante's Inferno the demons would be the top dogs.

[1964nowMORE 492]

If you haven't worth reading the Red Fox all about norm smith. Great book about our history. Hardto fathom now but we were feared for decades back then.

[dee-eee 231]

A schoolmate of mine in the mid 1960's surveyed nearly everybody at my bayside secondary school as to their footy allegiances . We came out on top with The Sainters a close second......daylight third ! Now I believe only about 3% of AusKickers follow us .

[dee-luded 2,959]

We were a victim of our own success and remained innately conservative clinging on to the ways of amateur sport when the direction everywhere else was towards professionalism. The club was run with an imperious air by a committee that thought it was born to rule and it brooked no change. The attitude to a loyal and successful servant in Smith was just part of the problems that were building up at the club but the sacking was the watershed.

On the Saturday, we played North Melbourne which had moved that year to the Coburg City Oval. Checker Hughes was our stand in coach and I remember it rained heavily and we lost. To North Melbourne - a lowly club and in normal circumstances we would never lower our colours to them. We were the reigning premiers. We won the first eight games of 1965 and the boat was being rocked.

The dismissal

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norm_Smith#The_dismissal

From 1964 tension began to build between Smith and several influential figures at Melbourne. One factor was the decision by Melbourne's star player, Ron Barassi, to move to Carlton in 1965 as captain-coach. Barassi lived with Smith and his wife from the time he was 15 – Barassi became the older man's protege and the two enjoying a unique relationship. Smith supported Barassi's aspirations, offering to stand aside so Barassi could coach Melbourne. When Barassi rejected this proposal and insisted on a clearance to the Blues, some Melbourne officials unfairly accused Smith of ridding himself of a potential rival.

Another factor was Smith's sometimes acid tongue, which he sometimes turned on committeemen he felt were interfering in his domain. This facet of the Smith personality put him in a difficult situation when he was sued by an umpire for defamation.

In defending the action, Smith found no support from the men running his club.^[3][4]

Finally, the situation exploded on the Friday night before the round 13, 1965 match with North Melbourne. A courier delivered a termination notice to Smith at his home.

When the news leaked to the media, it created a sensation, arguably the most dramatic news story in Australian football history.^[5] Smith made an emotional appearance on television on the Sunday and speculation was rife that he would replace his ill brother, now coaching Richmond. Although he was reinstated within a week, he never again enjoyed his old relationship with the club.^[1][6] The Demons won only one more game for the year and missed the finals for the first time in eleven years.

In a matter of a few dramatic months, Melbourne's dominance was dismantled.

The Demons wouldn't make the finals again until 1987, and have not won a premiership since the dismissal, which is sometimes superstitiously attributed to the Curse of Norm Smith.^[7]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norm_Smith#The_dismissal

[dee-luded 2,959]

We miss you Smithy

...... & we've missed you for what seems like an eternity.

[Biffen 12,949]

In any walk of life,there are people with real power and people with authority ,given or earned.

The people with real power are the ones who have peoples respect,the people who are given authority ,still have to earn it.

Smith had both at Melbourne and the board clearly couldn't handle that fact so they imploded the club to maintain their flimsy authority.

Sh#tmen the world over know this method.

When you are weak ,unloved,small of heart,useless and scared,bring down the one who is the opposite of these things!

Malcolm Fraser,Sir John Kerr and Co knew this.

It is why the world is run by the mediocre.

[Bitter but optimistic 22,289]

In any walk of life,there are people with real power and people with authority ,given or earned.

The people with real power are the ones who have peoples respect,the people who are given authority ,still have to earn it.

Smith had both at Melbourne and the board clearly couldn't handle that fact so they imploded the club to maintain their flimsy authority.

Sh#tmen the world over know this method.

When you are weak ,unloved,small of heart,useless and scared,bring down the one who is the opposite of these things!

Malcolm Fraser,Sir John Kerr and Co knew this.

It is why the world is run by the mediocre.

Your being profound is quite eerie and disturbing Biffen.

Please resume your smut flow.

[Biffen 12,949]

Your being profound is quite eerie and disturbing Biffen.

Please resume your smut flow.

Sorry,i wasn't feeling myself this morning.

[Bitter but optimistic 22,289]

Sorry,i wasn't feeling myself this morning.

Hahaha. Thanks. One of your best ever!

[dee-luded 2,959]

In any walk of life,there are people with real power and people with authority ,given or earned.

The people with real power are the ones who have peoples respect,the people who are given authority ,still have to earn it.

Smith had both at Melbourne and the board clearly couldn't handle that fact so they imploded the club to maintain their flimsy authority.

Sh#tmen the world over know this method.

When you are weak ,unloved,small of heart,useless and scared,bring down the one who is the opposite of these things!

Malcolm Fraser,Sir John Kerr and Co knew this.

It is why the world is run by the mediocre.

IF We were a cricket club, I'm sure this would not have been done to the legendary coach; but because it was the feared footy code, who's coach was so razor witted & tongued, that the verbaling was intolerable to those in such esteemed places.

its just not cricket Smithy.... your outa here. sent in a telegram................. so typical of the Norhtern stand methods of avoidance.... just like the Mfc teams since Smithy finished, always falling into a casual social affair of the Ego's...

[Mazer Rackham 14,971]

Fcuking hell. This is old material. Seeing it rehashed again and again achieves nothing. Look forward, not back.

[dee-luded 2,959]

Fcuking hell. This is old material. Seeing it rehashed again and again achieves nothing. Look forward, not back.

the club has been trying to move forward for 50 years TF.. but it keeps tripping up over the same corner of the same rug... once is an accident, 50 times is an Idiocy. the club likes to avoid the truth, & so doesn't look for it, as its too deep in the closet.

...... & so the lesson has never reached being understood, & therefore being learn't from

... the lesson is still waiting to be unpacked, opened, read, & understood, & then acted upon openly.

.

[SaberFang 7,151]

Happy 50th, Norm. I hope we made you proud.