When did the Roman empire collapse? Hard to say, because hordes of barbarians had been knocking on the door for centuries. When did the mighty demon empire collapse? In this game. Melbourne lost their aura of invincibility that Saturday, and never got it back:

From the Archives, 1965: Melbourne’s armour pierced by Saints

Tonight we can be the barbarians, and go 6-0. Go Dees.

Remember it well and the day still hurts after all these years because it truly heralded the end of Melbourne’s great golden era. And it was all the more painful because we were 8-0 on Queen’s Birthday morning, 1965. 

The truth is that our team was growing older, we hadn’t recruited well for a couple of years and there were cracks in the ranks over the loss of our greatest ever player Ron Barassi who had switched to Carlton while Norm Smith and the committee weren’t seeing eye to eye over a legal issue. In short, the bubble burst and we even failed to make the finals (it was a final 4 in those days).

My only criticism of the article by Age journo Percy Beams and a great Demon was his comment about the game being “watched and enjoyed by a crowd of 72,114.” I didn’t enjoy it and at least half of the crowd would not have enjoyed what was the beginning of the “Norm Smith curse”.

The lesson is that you can never take anything for granted.

Footnote for those who follow the American folk/rock music scene is that on the day after the game and the very day on which the Beams article was published, the  great Bob Dylan went electric at the Newport Folk Festival and caused an uproar that had massive repercussions in the American music scene. As a fan of the folk scene at the time as well as the MFC, my entire world was turned upside down in the space of two days.

It's funny how we mark our lives with these things. FWIW The Saints trajectory never really took off like it should have, and was marked also with its own tragedy. Getting overrun by The Dons in the '65 GF, getting run down by the Hawks in '71 and failing to win any premierships in all the years following Barry Breen's miraculous point. 

GO DEES.

So many games on the big stage that the club should have won and we folded.

Apart from being smashed in two Grand finals, the saddest loss for me was being spanked by the lions (I think) after Jimmy's passing. I just felt so gutted that we didn't turn up for the bloke.

After 54 years of supporting this club, I want them to play solely tonight for Nathan Jones. To lift themselves to a new level and play relentlessly hard football for four quarters.

Please let this be the year we transform back into a ruthless football club.

 

 

3 minutes ago, Brownie said:

So many games on the big stage that the club should have won and we folded.

Apart from being smashed in two Grand finals, the saddest loss for me was being spanked by the lions (I think) after Jimmy's passing. I just felt so gutted that we didn't turn up for the bloke.

After 54 years of supporting this club, I want them to play solely tonight for Nathan Jones. To lift themselves to a new level and play relentlessly hard football for four quarters.

Please let this be the year we transform back into a ruthless football club.

 

I'm so sick of this narrative.

The idea that a professional sporting team, which is by design playing at its maximum potential if the coaching staff and players perform their roles, can 'lift' for an occasion and suddenly become 10/20/50% better than they otherwise would have been is just pure nonsense.

It implies that collectively they have been leaving something in the tank in other 'non occasion' games. Or that they are lacking motivation to perform in the absence of a milestone. 

Inevitably, the team that performs better on the day/night in terms of executing their roles, strategy and football skills will win the game. It's as simple as that.

The media love these stories as they are sentimental and easy to understand, but it's just not a concept that holds any water. 

In this example I'm not sure how the passing of a club great would cause 22 unrelated men to collectively raise their output. In all likelihood, the Lions were just the better team on the day. 

As we were in Spud's game. 

1 minute ago, fr_ap said:

 

I'm so sick of this narrative.

The idea that a professional sporting team, which is by design playing at its maximum potential if the coaching staff and players perform their roles, can 'lift' for an occasion and suddenly become 10/20/50% better than they otherwise would have been is just pure nonsense.

It implies that collectively they have been leaving something in the tank in other 'non occasion' games. Or that they are lacking motivation to perform in the absence of a milestone. 

Inevitably, the team that performs better on the day/night in terms of executing their roles, strategy and football skills will win the game. It's as simple as that.

The media love these stories as they are sentimental and easy to understand, but it's just not a concept that holds any water. 

In this example I'm not sure how the passing of a club great would cause 22 unrelated men to collectively raise their output. In all likelihood, the Lions were just the better team on the day. 

As we were in Spud's game. 

Frap my experience is that we do lift in big games. I think that in normal sporting endeavour we operate below our maximum, and on the big stage we lift to levels that previously we may not have known existed. This can happen individually or as a collective. Tonight may or may not illicit such an outcome, I hope it does.

Sorry to be a party pooper WJ, but that game was in mid June and Dylan's gig at Newport was in late July.

44 minutes ago, demonstone said:

Sorry to be a party pooper WJ, but that game was in mid June and Dylan's gig at Newport was in late July.

Sorry demonstone, I like WJ’s version way better. (Never let the facts get in the way of a good story....)

1 hour ago, demonstone said:

Sorry to be a party pooper WJ, but that game was in mid June and Dylan's gig at Newport was in late July.

You’re quite right demonstone. The festival was in July and Dylan was booed by many in the audience when did an electric version of "Maggie's Farm" – the booing got worse when his band played "Like a Rolling Stone", the song he originally recorded in the Columbia Studios in New York on 15 June, 1965 for the Highway 61 Revisited album. 

2 hours ago, fr_ap said:

 

I'm so sick of this narrative.

The idea that a professional sporting team, which is by design playing at its maximum potential if the coaching staff and players perform their roles, can 'lift' for an occasion and suddenly become 10/20/50% better than they otherwise would have been is just pure nonsense.

It implies that collectively they have been leaving something in the tank in other 'non occasion' games. Or that they are lacking motivation to perform in the absence of a milestone. 

Inevitably, the team that performs better on the day/night in terms of executing their roles, strategy and football skills will win the game. It's as simple as that.

The media love these stories as they are sentimental and easy to understand, but it's just not a concept that holds any water. 

In this example I'm not sure how the passing of a club great would cause 22 unrelated men to collectively raise their output. In all likelihood, the Lions were just the better team on the day. 

As we were in Spud's game. 

Any mathematician will tell you the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

13 minutes ago, Sydney Pennski said:

You’re quite right demonstone. The festival was in July and Dylan was booed by many in the audience when did an electric version of "Maggie's Farm" – the booing got worse when his band played "Like a Rolling Stone", the song he originally recorded in the Columbia Studios in New York on 15 June, 1965 for the Highway 61 Revisited album. 

Excellent research Mr. Pennski and I stand corrected.

Both dates are significant for Dylan aficionados. 

The Newport Folk Festival fiasco took place on 25 July, 1965 which of course was the day after the sacking of Norm Smith was announced and Melbourne took the field against North Melbourne under the coaching of “Checker” Hughes who will be honoured tonight at the G.

And let’s hope that the times are a changing and we get the job done on the Tigers.

Here’s a great story about Smith’s sacking from the perspective of player Ray Groom who later became Premier of Tasmania.

Norm Smith was sensationally sacked by Melbourne 50 years ago

 

4 hours ago, bush demon said:

When did the Roman empire collapse? Hard to say, because hordes of barbarians had been knocking on the door for centuries. When did the mighty demon empire collapse? In this game. Melbourne lost their aura of invincibility that Saturday, and never got it back:

From the Archives, 1965: Melbourne’s armour pierced by Saints

Tonight we can be the barbarians, and go 6-0. Go Dees.

Can someone identify the (Melbourne) players here? I see Darrel Baldock with the pill being chased by Don Williams and possibly Ross Smith in the background and Big bad Carl on the left.