52 minutes ago, chook fowler said:

 

 

Edited December 11, 20231 yr by chook fowler

Just got my membership package - 37th consecutive year as a member 🫠

And it’s all Big Bob Johnson’s fault!
 

If my then 8-year-old Dad hadn’t met Big Bob, and Dad’s mean sectarian grandmother hadn’t said ‘Johnson can’t be your favourite player, he’s a Catholic’ we wouldn’t be in this mess 😂

Came to oz in 06. First game I went to was queens birthday that year. I decided whoever won that game I would follow. Dees won and the rest is history. I shudder at the thought I could have been a pies supporter and thank my lucky stars every day that we won that game.

I have indoctrinated the kids as well so we’re a 100% red and blue household. If anyone tries to switch allegiances it’ll be immediate eviction and excommunication. 

I sold my soul in order to become the handsomest,wittiest man in the entire Prahran region when I was a boy.

Needless to say I met the devil at the crossroads (High and Chapel st) in the mid '80s.

I fulfilled my half of this Faustian pact,racking up admirers along the South Eastern seaboard .

It took the Devil many years to repay my sacrifice.

 

The first point to make is that when you are a kid you are highly impressionable. And football games for boys at a young age can be excessively addictive. So when we got the massive TV aerial put up in central Gippsland all of a sudden it was Ron Barassi mania. Sometime in '63 l must have chosen Melbourne, because there is a wasted part of my brain that remembers channel 7 replaying ad infinitum Ron "decking" Roger Dean, which we all know didn't happen. There is another wasted part of my cerebellum which recalls highlights of Melbourne wiping Collingwood in the '64 second semi. Strangely enough l don't have any highlight reels of the GF. But my English father took me to see Everton v Australia that year at Olympic Park and the green'n'gold  were smashed 8-2. Funny that l have  supported Everton since that day, as well. (And it is wonderful to see them climb out of adversity this year, culminating in a 2-0 thrashing of Chelsea overnight). So l caught the very tail-end of Demon Greatness, then proceeded to spend fruitless decades turning up at the G. For me though, the 2021 flag trumps all  misfortune. And it is a timely reminder that Gods do do indeed, exist: Petracca, Oliver, Brayshaw, Bennnny Brown, and Bayley Fritsch. To name just a few. Truly from the top shelf.

Edited December 11, 20231 yr by bush demon
Sp.

When I was 4 we left Australia and moved to Greece 

7 years later my parents decided to move back here. As time approached for a return to Australia  Mum started telling me about this great game of Football she grew up with. Her team Melbourne had the best colours in the league she said. 
 

She couldn’t wait  to take me to a game when we got back here she kept saying and was always talking about this great player in Robbie Flower.

No chance you’d find a footy in Athens during the 80s so mum showed me how to handball using a plush dog, apparently it was the closest thing resembling a footy. 
We returned in 1988, first game mum and her mad Melbourne brother took me to was against the Eagles that year at the G. Hooked ever since. 

All my Mates were Richmond so they were the only games I went to as a kid. My Old man's Dad and himself were Demons, my Mum was a Magpie. Could a been Any of those 3, but after the 1980 Granny, Number 1 didn't understand why at the age of Ten, all my friends and their Family crying, Number 2 thinking it's only a game of Footy. Number 3 thought that i didn't feel bad for Collingwood losing, didn't care for Richmond winning the Granny. Ahh the wisdom of age.  When walking up the steps to the MCG and seeing the Red And Blue of the Reserves at the start of the day putting a smile on my face, I knew I was a Demon and whenever we lost produced anger. Long live all our Hearts that beat Red and Blue. Bring on the Hope of 2024.

1958: I was eight, had lived in OZ for 2 years, Western Suburbs, my grandma was one of the first to own a TV in North Sunshine and every Saturday afternoon I took my brother and sister to my Oma's to watch Zig and Zag etc. In late September Oma turned on the TV and there was a game I knew nothing about in progress.  We watched till the end. I sensed the team in Red and Blue was losing and naturally, being a graduate from the Academy of Underdogs - being wog or such in 1958 was a tough gig - I barracked for the losers. It was, of course, the 1958 Grand Final. Been a fan ever since, especially when my friend at Our Lady's Sunshine asked who I barrack for in 1959 and I replied, Melbourne. He said, Oh. They are a very good side...

I should have been a Geelong fan. 

No one in my family was into football at all, with one exception - my grandfather who was my hero.

My dad nominally supported the tigers, but was never a really a fan and wasn't even really a football fan (i went with him to two games  - the 1978 Grand Final. I sat right behind Mike Willisee. And the tigers game, I think against the Hawks where Roach took that pack mark screamer). 

Mum couldn't stand football, or sport for that matter, as much of her youth involved waiting for her dad to finish cricket or football training.  

My grandfather was a gun footballer. Right before WWII he trained with the Bombers. The war skuppered his VFL career in the short term, but he played representative football in the Army and by all accounts that was a super strong team.

After the war there was some VFL interest but he ended up signing for Camberwell in the VFA as they offered him more money than he would have got in the VFL.

I'm not sure why he picked the Cats as his team but he wasn't a huge fan of them or the VFL in general. He lived on the Peninsula and never went to the footy, in large part  because he played footy well into his 40s so there was no time.

We were close, but he never tried to get me on the Cats train. But that might have been because he missed his chance as i became a demon on my 5th birthday. 

Family friends of ours were huge dees fans. They were the only people we knew who were football crazy like i am now. We went over there for dinner one day sometime around my 5th birthday.

For my birthday they gave me a puppy (Patch, coz it had a patch on its eye). But there was strings attached. They also gave me a dees jumper. And the unspoken agreement was that i had to support the dees. 

I've been a dees tragic ever since. 

Fair to say the timing wasn't great seeing i got Patch in 1972. 

Love the thread 👏

Ferndale park circa 1992. First day of (what was then) VicKick. I had chosen to follow Mum and support the Eagles (vomit) but the old man cunningly chose to put me in his old Dees jumper. When it came to my turn in saying who I barracked for I didn't want to look like an [censored] so said Melbourne. Paid off 30 years later

Edited December 11, 20231 yr by Clayton van Oliver

It was the early 60s, Melbourne were a great team and my best friend at school and all his family barracked for them - so i did too. Went to the footy with his mother and family for a few years; the my mate stopped going and i completely lost touch with him, but kept in touch with his mum for about 50 years (until she passed away).

Edited December 11, 20231 yr by Ollie fan

6 hours ago, roy11 said:

Some interesting stories here, mine not so interesting. As a young lad I knew I lived in Melbourne, found out there was a team called Melbourne and decided that was for me - that's it aha. 

If only everyone in Melbourne had such a thought process, our membership would be through the roof!

New membership strategy based on this thread:

• Put a membership delegate at the Irish embassy.
• Find a way to reach out to influential older siblings in families likely to produce several children (and then occasionally check in to make sure none are secretly harbouring disloyalty!)
• Have a "give your neighbours a scarf" membership option.
• (After googling what the "Tarax Show" was) get a Dees player on an episode of Bluey ASAP.
• Seek out regional/international sporting teams with the same colours and convert on that basis.
• Reach out to players with short or non-playing careers and cement the friendship for generations to come, so no one can question the validity of their claims.
• Give junior members money for playground bribery.
• Start enforcing the "no choice" clause when it comes to house-kicking-out.
• Pets with red and blue strings attached.

I should have been a Carlton fan (everyone in Adelaide seemed to follow them at the time) but as a 9 year old in 1987 I started watching VFL and fell in love with Robert Flower and the Dees instantly. There was something about that run in the 87 that drew me to the club and have stuck on since. The Crows never appealed to me and Port are simply vermin.

Outside of the GF in 2021, the 87 finals and the merger game will always stand out.

 

Edited December 11, 20231 yr by Jibroni

Melbourne was in my zone and playing for Edithvale-Aspendale growing up.  Greg Healy came to training when he commenced his playing career at Melbourne. Sean Wight did a couple of Football Clinics at my Primary School. There was a Melbourne presence in my suburb in Aspendale growing up. But now Aspendale is very much a suburb of St Kilda supporters now. 

I was about six years old and my mother was in a class with Jim Stynes at the old Burwood Teachers’ College.  She said he’d come in every Monday morning,  covered head to toe in scratches and bruises.

He wrote me an autograph and from then on in, I was hooked!

 

3 hours ago, Biffen said:

I sold my soul in order to become the handsomest,wittiest man in the entire Prahran region when I was a boy.

Needless to say I met the devil at the crossroads (High and Chapel st) in the mid '80s.

I fulfilled my half of this Faustian pact,racking up admirers along the South Eastern seaboard .

It took the Devil many years to repay my sacrifice.

 

Biffen meets Beelzebub. In Prahran, of all places. How mundane. Is you and the devil still pacted a la Faust? 

1 hour ago, Dees_In_October said:

Find a way to reach out to influential older siblings in families likely to produce several children (and then occasionally check in to make sure none are secretly harbouring disloyalty!)

• Have a "give your neighbours a scarf" membership option.
• (After googling what the "Tarax Show" was) get a Dees player on an episode of Bluey ASAP.
• Seek out regional/international sporting teams with the same colours and convert on that basis.
• Reach out to players with short or non-playing careers and cement the friendship for generations to come, so no one can question the validity of their claims.
• Give junior members money for playground bribery.
• Start enforcing the "no choice" clause when it comes to house-kicking-out.
• Pets with red and blue strings attached.

Pfft imagine that! I mean, what sort of messed up kid would do that?!  SMH

One day on here my grandson will tell the story of how he became a Dees supporter.  It was the result of a battle of the grandfathers. One a Don, the better one a Demon. There was a great (friendly) rivalry. The grandson was born only one week after our ‘21 premiership. I couldn’t have any grandson of mine associated with that Essendon mob, so I immediately signed him up as a baby member of the club. He’s a demon for life whether he likes it or not. The other grandfather was pi…d.

 

For reasons unknown to me, I was told by my strong Essendon supporting parents, that Melbourne had defeated Essendon to win the Flag in 1948 (which happens to be the year I was born).  As the story goes, I was leaning towards the Dees for this reason alone, but the ‘55 Flag sealed the deal, and I’ve been ‘rusted on’ ever since.  I was fortunate enough to live through our ‘Glory Years’ as a kid, and I still hold out hope for another era like it in my latter ‘twilight’ years.  
Unlike me, my three kids and five grand children, were given no choice in the matter.
After 2021, I’m sure they have no regrets.

I was a kid whose parents emigrated to Australia in 1964. In 1965 my father pulled into a Golden Fleece servo and brought back two stickers " I follow..." one was a StKilda sticker and one was a Melbourne sticker, he gave the StK one to me and the Melb to my mate. I looked at  the stKilda one and said to my mate "wanna swap" been a Melb supporter ever since. 

Footnote: I do believe my mate has stayed loyal to the saints too.

Moved to Melbourne from NZ in mid-1999.

Hard core rugby fan, but realised pretty quickly I'd be an outcast in this town if I didn't follow the game and choose a team.

Spent rest of the year learning what the sport was about and resisting recruitment attempts from Carlton, Collingwood & Essendon supporters. 

Entered a tipping competition in season 2000, still undecided.

Settled on Melbourne a few weeks into the season cause I liked the colours, the themesong, the Demons name, loved Jeff Farmer, they were fun to watch and it annoyed the @#$% out of my friends who followed aforementioned teams.

Won tipping competition.

Got 3 tickets to each week of the finals, including Grand Final.

(should have been 6 tickets, but I choked in the last round and half to split 1st prize with someone else 😭 )

Brought my Mum over from NZ and we saw the Dees play in 3 out of 4 weeks at the G.

Solidified my/our hatred for Essendon.

Signed my Mum up as a member, and she now comes over every year for a couple of games.

For the most part I now find rugby boring as hell, except internationals involving the All Blacks. 

My Mum, who still lives in NZ is a full AFL convert and likes it more than rugby too. When telling her friends about the teams she follows and the teams she hates, she refers to Collingwood as "the filth".

I was introduced by my uncle who was dees fan and used to take me to games in the 90s. Unfortunately he recently died a miserable death cutting himself off from the world and not talking to anyone for 20 odd years. But I smile knowing he saw 2021.

I became a fanatic in the 2000s when I first met one of my best mates who also happened to be a dees fan and we'd go every week.

I've got a lot of friends who don't really "get" sport and can't understand why I'm such a rabid supporter, but I've spent so much time watching Melbourne with people I love.

As a four year old to immigrant parents in 1964 my mother gave me a Hawthorn jumper and a Melbourne jumper to my older brother. Logic being neither jumper had white in it, easy to keep clean. 
The Dees won the flag and I deserted Hawthorn like the plague and made the switch to the mighty Dees.

12 Hawthorn premierships later I  luckily (and legally) managed to be in Perth in 2021 to see the mighty Dees snag the big one.  It was worth the wait. Go Dees!!

 

Edited December 11, 20231 yr by Wodjathefirst
Typo

I decided to do a best 22 and Melbourne had the best 22 so I went for them.

Grandma migrated from Adelaide and had gone for Norwood over there.  Dad has memories of attending the 64 GF and still tells me how the Neil Crompton the defender who wasn't suposed to be there kicked the winning goal.

Growing up in the 80s, I a flirtation with Hawthorn (I now shudder at the thought).  Went to a few MFC games in the 80s, but the one that really stands out was final Rd 1987 at the Western Oval.  I liked Robbie Flower as a kid and the one royal blue second hand jumper I had as a kid had No.2 on the back.  Dad had told me it was probably going to be Robbies last game, but if we won, there was a small chance we'd make the finals.

Recall us standing up the back in the standing room behind the goals, right at the back, near a big corrugated iron fence.  Even though I could hardly see the play through the crowd, it still goes down as one of my greatest footy experiences.  Vividly remember us comming from behind to kit the front and take control, then dad listening to the other game and them hitting the front.  The delirium when all the Melbourne supporters realised we'd be playing in our first finals series in 24 years is a feeling I'll never forget and I was sold on the mighty Demons ever since.

Even in the 90s when we had relative sucess, it seemed difficult to come across Melbourne supporters my own age.  Probably no coincidence that two of my best mates in high school were MFC supporters and that we are still close.

Sat through us getting trashed at the G in 88 and 2000 GFs.  Although 2021 was an amazing tonic at the time, it still stings that I couldn't get to the game and be there at the G when we won on the day.   ...so the quest goes on in 2024!

Edited December 11, 20231 yr by Rodney (Balls) Grinter