The 1996 thread makes mention of a game where Wayne Carey tore the MFC apart and this got me thinking about matches where greats or our game have played blinders against our beloved MFC.  With the benefit of a few years of healing, should I feel happy or even fortunate to have seen legends of the game at full flight, even if it was at the expense of the team we love?

A few of matches spring to mind...

Gary Ablett Round ONE 1996: 18 disposals, 7 marks 9 goals 6 behinds

Ablett was unstoppable on this Friday night at the MCG marking everything that was coming his way and being somehow impossible to tackle or dispossess.  If not for some pretty errant kicking, he could have been well into the teens.  As the thirteen year old sitting in the Southern Stand, he single-handedly destroyed my high hopes for 1996.

 

Wayne Carey Round SEVENTEEN 1996: 31 Disposals, 15 marks, 11 goals, 2 behinds

Another cold Friday night, this time sitting in the old Olympic stand, Carey was simple amazing.  Speed, power and breathtaking skills, he was primed and merciless.  It was a depressing evening for an MFC supporter as it looked like the team would merge and we'd be finishing at the tail end of the ladder, but even so, I knew I was watching a pretty special player.

 

So... 19 years later I think I can say I'm glad I was able to see first hand these two legends of the game in full flight, even if they did hand the Dees a monstrous drubbing.  Which brings me to the point - what great of the game have you seen in full flight, tearing up the Melbourne Football Club, and how do you feel about them now?

I seem to recall Jade Rawlings doing it to us once or twice when he wore brown and gold. 

21 minutes ago, TeamPlayedFine39 said:

 

Would love to help out, but all my old bad memories have been replaced by newer, even badder memories.

I don't mind it so much when the champion players smash us. That's to be expected. It's when the nobodies do it that I get frustrated.

i immediately push it to the furthest recesses of my mind

Ablett Jr last year or the one before.  We matched GC all over the ground, but every time we tried to attack he took the ball off us and fed it out to their kids again.  I said at the time it was like a bunch of kids playing and someone's older brother was playing in their backline. He mostly just let the kids play, but any time their team looks like being scored on he steps in, takes the ball off us and gives it back to them again.  He was just so much better than anyone else on the ground it wasn't funny. 

Carl Ditterich round 1 1963 anyone? 

Jason Dunstall in the merger match. 

25 minutes ago, Moonshadow said:

Jason Dunstall in the merger match. 

Yep. He kicked 10 that night, including his 100th for the season.  Among the best games I've had the pleasure to watch. He got us a few times Dunstall, even when we did manage to knock them off in the late 80's (8 in rd 7 1988).

Riewoldt kicking 9 against us in 04 is a personal stand out, especially as he excelled in a team that was soundly beaten on the day.  I thought we were playing well enough to give the Premiership a good shake at the time.

Ablett Jnr has towelled us up on a regular basis, but the one that hurt the most was the Suns maiden victory at the 'G in 2013. 38 touches and 3 votes in a 60 point loss to the Suns was among the lowest of low points in the Neeld era.

 

Kent Kingsley 2001-2004 (yes, I know, certainly not a great of the game but on the topic of tearing us up..)

In those 4 games, he had 31 scoring shots (19.12) from only 38 kicks.

Still drives me bonkers how he averaged 4-6 goals against us for the better part of half a decade.....

Its seems we aways have an oppo that we cannot match, i.e. kingsley or when Brownie was out Bradshaw would destroy us.   Often not the best's forward either which makes it worse. 

59 minutes ago, Darkhorse72 said:

Its seems we aways have an oppo that we cannot match, i.e. kingsley or when Brownie was out Bradshaw would destroy us.   Often not the best's forward either which makes it worse. 

I quite liked Bradshaw... I think he liked us too!

McKernan killed us in a final one year after the media had given him shot for weeks about his form. First contest he smashed us, I turned to the old man and said "we're fooked!"

12 hours ago, RalphiusMaximus said:

Ablett Jr last year or the one before.  We matched GC all over the ground, but every time we tried to attack he took the ball off us and fed it out to their kids again.  I said at the time it was like a bunch of kids playing and someone's older brother was playing in their backline. He mostly just let the kids play, but any time their team looks like being scored on he steps in, takes the ball off us and gives it back to them again.  He was just so much better than anyone else on the ground it wasn't funny. 

Could have been worse. Could have been his father.

Time to move on......watch and enjoy our stars like Hogan, Brayshaw, Jones, etc tearing up others.

14 hours ago, Earl Hood said:

Carl Ditterich round 1 1963 anyone? 

was at that game he played an absulute blinder think was his very first game.changed the way ruckmen were to play in the future

29 minutes ago, monoccular said:

Time to move on......watch and enjoy our stars like Hogan, Brayshaw, Jones, etc tearing up others.

Yeah, we couldn't possibly discuss football on a football forum in the off season. That would spell disaster.

1 hour ago, barneymfc said:

was at that game he played an absulute blinder think was his very first game.changed the way ruckmen were to play in the future

I think that was also the game that he kept calling Ron Barassi "Grandpa"

Trent Croad 1 decent performance for Freo, 2002 vs Dees at Subiaco, Croad bagged 7 and the Wiz kicked the winning goal after the Siren

 

Still shudder thinking back to that game

I wonder if the interesting point is the year.... 1996...    2nd half of the  '90's.   Did our players start to lose the defensive work ethic across the list ?

Edited January 6, 20169 yr by dee-luded

Murray Weideman, 1958 Grand Final. When it really counted.

Might we dream of some "tearing up" of oppositions obo MFC by someone out of the same gene pool?

Love these topics.  

1. Ian Cooper, mid 65 .  We were unbeaten at the top of the table when he took his famous speccie on the back of a Melbourne player this game directly preceded the abyss. 

1974ish  Second half Royce Harte goes mental, again in the second half destroying our pretensions for that year  

about 1971 Hudson kicks 16  

1971 Len Thompson destroys us  we were unbeaten about eight zip under Ian Ridley  monster crowd at the G we didn't recover from that drubbing  

 

 

 

We used to have a standing jokes...

How do you stop Malcolm Blight kicking 7 goals against Melbourne ? Let Kerry Good kick 8

How do you stop Michael Roach kicking 5 goals against Melbourne ? Let Bruce Monteath kick 6

During the 70's and early to mid 80's it seemed if we kept one of the greats to a very small goal total, some other chump would kick a bag instead

 

12 minutes ago, nutbean said:

We used to have a standing jokes...

How do you stop Malcolm Blight kicking 7 goals against Melbourne ? Let Kerry Good kick 8

How do you stop Michael Roach kicking 5 goals against Melbourne ? Let Bruce Monteath kick 6

During the 70's and early to mid 80's it seemed if we kept one of the greats to a very small goal total, some other chump would kick a bag instead

 

Pretty sure this was also the case in the 90s, 00s and 2010s.

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