The year of the red and the blue

There's little outside of Clayton Oliver that remains truly unprecedented in Australian rules football, but the predominance of red & blue rocking the footy fields of Australia in 2018 is surely a first? 

In addition to the mighty Melbourne Demons fighting for a place in the AFL grand final on Saturday after 18 years on the sidelines, and of course the now Casey-aligned Demons taking on the Box Hill Hawks in the VFL decider on Sunday, we also have the Norwood Redlegs as the red-hot favourites for Sunday's SANFL grand final, and the West Perth Falcons playing off for the WAFL flag versus Subiaco on the same day. Has this ever gone close to happening before? 

This I do know as an avid Redlegs fan - the Demons' dominance in the 50s-60s coincided with a worst premiership dry-patch for Norwood. In more recent times, after future Melbourne coach Neil Blame led us to glory in 1982 and 1984 (when Melbourne hovered around eighth place, in a six-team finals competition) Norwood again claimed the flag in 1997 after the departure of one-time Melbourne caretaker coach Neil Craig - in the same year that the Demons claimed the wooden spoon prior to the magnificent 1998 revival (when Norwood in turn dipped out of contention).

Since then, Nathan Basset, Simon Goodwin's all-Australian and later Essendon-injection team-mate and current defensive line-coach for the Power, guided the Redlegs to a threepeat between 2012-2014. We all know full-well where the Demons featured on the AFL ladder throughout the same period. Yet, when ex-Demon uber-Alex Georgiou took over the the captaincy of Norwood in 2015 the team turned to relative [censored], for some reason, but for some other reason, now that ex-Demon nine-game stalwart Jace Bode has commandeered the captaincy they're back in the box-seat for 2018.

I'm pretty certain, through many years of twisted pain, that the Demons and Redlegs have never coincided in their good fortunes - although the Redlegs were formed somewhere around the late 1870s and dominated the early stages of South Australian (and national) football. From recent memory at least, the Legs bombed out in the first week of the 1998 and 2000 finals. As for the WA-based fans, I image there's some conflict between supporting the red and black Perth Demons and the red and blue West Perth Falcons, but I have no idea of the relative success of each team.

Nor do I have a jot of an idea as to the the history of Casey or any historically other red and blue teams in the minor leagues in Victoria (and don't otherwise give a toss about the NSW, QLD or Tasmanian competitions). So over to you sports-fans - can you fill in the gaps - of the red and the blue footy-clubs country-wide and their connection to the Melbourne Football Club?  A quick google squiz tells me that West Perth won local flags in 1995, 1999, 2003, and 2013 - coinciding perfectly with when the MFC was absolute crap in the up and down years.

Just for the record, over the years Norwood has supplied Melbourne with not only uber-Georgiou and Jace Boce but also 2013 top-three Bluey contender Dean Terlich, along with Picket-favourite Michael 'Juice' Newton and other house-hold names such as Art Gilchrist, Nick Smith and CHF sensation Greg  Parke. Other cross-overs include some bloke called Phil Carmen, father-and-son's Graham and Glenn Molloy (no relation to Mick), and the infuriating turncoat Martin Pyke - as well as indeedy the one and only Austin Wonaeamirri. Please add your local team contributions below. 

Austin Wonaeamirri
Austin Wonaeamirri playing for the Tiwi Bombers in February 2016
Personal information
Full name	Austin Wonaeamirri
Date of birth	2 October 1988 (age 29)
Place of birth	Milikapiti, Melville Island, Northern Territory
Original team(s)	St Mary's Football Club (NTFL)
Draft	19th overall, 2007 AFL Rookie Draft Melbourne
Position(s)	Forward pocket
Playing career1
Years	Club	Games (Goals)
2008–2011	Melbourne	31 (37)
1 Playing statistics correct to the end of 2011.
Career highlights
U/18 indigenous tour to South Africa, 2006 AFL U/18 National Championships (Northern Territory), 2007 U/18 Northern Territory best player, 2007 AFL Rising Star Nominee, 2008
Sources: AFL Tables, AustralianFootball.com

Austin Wonaeamirr