Demonstone

I'm absolutely loving this thread and I commend you on the work you've put into it. Fantastic effort!

He won the B & F in 1977.

Jesus wept.

I first noticed Schwarz running around in the Under 19s at the MCG one day, replete with long blond hair and bandanna. It was clear that he was going to be something special and it wasn't long before he became my favourite player. If only his knees had been OK. I clearly remember opening the Sunday paper and reading that he'd done his knee for the third time in a practice match at Lavington. There was a picture of him and his girlfriend watching from the stands later in the game and I reckon I was as close to tears as he appeared to be in that pic.

In an interesting quirk, three wearers of number 49 then went on to wear number 26. I think the only other number to be worn in a senior match is the 67 sported by Jeff Garlett in round 10 of 2017.

Nice work, David.

S-c-h-w-a-r-z!! If you think I'm being over pedantic ... do you like it when people stuff YOUR name up?

That's six, David! And Schwarz doesn't have a "t" in his name.

Is the return of the Little League?

I started following Melbourne in 1965 (I know...) so Barassi was before my time. The best five that I've seen would probably be Hassa Mann, Robbie Flower, Gary Hardeman, Garry Lyon and David Schwarz. Very honourable mentions to Stan Alves, Greg Wells, Jim Stynes, Allen Jakovich, Jeff Farmer and David Neitz.

And for those without ready access to player numbers, tiers is referring to Jones, Salem, Petracca, Spargo and Fritsch.

Dude looks like a Laidley.

Schwarz circa 1994 is close to my favourite all-time Demon player. Please posters, don't put a "T" in his name! *pedant rant over*

Of course I'd like to win it and I think we're well placed to do so at the moment. Here we are in the first week of May and we've only lost one game and have had no new injuries for over a month now.

Poor old Trenners; to this day people are still adding that second "R" to his surname. It's TRENGOVE.

Who or what are "Dover's" and why is there an apostrophe in the name?

I voted for Alan Johnson over Viney, but in this matchup I've gone for Viney over Davey.

The impact of Trengove's foot injury was starkly apparent the day that old concrete boots Brock McLean ran away from him.

Whitey was from the Frankston area and was drafted by Freo from the Southern (now Dandenong) Stingrays. I'd agree that Miller and Bizzell are the best two banana benders to have played for us.

Agreed BBP, just as baffling as why Footscray let him go in the first place. Did he leave us for more money at Moorabbin?

I also remember that Glenn McLean was magnificent for the Demons that day, marking everything in sight and being pretty close to best on ground. He may have even scored the three Brownlow votes that day, so dominant was he. Collingwood clearly hadn't forgotten how impressive he looked and they traded for him a couple of years later. Glenn subsequently went on to forge a brilliant two game career with the PIes.

My recollections of that particular game, which I posted on this forum a couple of years ago ... In round 20 of 1982, me and my Demon mate went to Victoria Park for the first (and last) time to watch Melbourne play Collingwood. We found standing room in a packed outer but soon realised we were surrounded by a seething mob of dirty, ugly, loud, abusive, obscene, smelly and toothless black and white supporters. Almost without exception, they were drunk, smoking like chimneys, swearing like wharfies and even at this early stage of the day fighting amongst themselves. Some of the men were just as bad. We started well with the wind but the Pies had regained the lead by half-time. The third quarter was all ours with eight goals and in the last, we kicked another eight to finish all over them by nine goals. Having kept very, very quiet all day for fear of attracting the wrong sort of attention, the beers (ice-cold cans!) finally got the better of me and this is when I did the craziest thing in my life. As Mark 'Jacko' Jackson kicked his seventh to seal victory, I let rip with a loud "Go Demons!!". Things then went eerily quiet in the outer as hundreds of pairs of beady eyes bored into us. I looked at my mate, he nodded and we turned and ran as fast as we could towards the exit and kept going all the way to Johnstone Street where we jumped on the first bus we found. It didn't matter that it was heading in the wrong direction, we just wanted to get away from that horrible joint. Only my drycleaner will know just how frightened I was that day.

Vielin dank bush demon, but Google is for my benefit to discover the meaning of these new words. Time to go and listen to some relaxing music by Blixa Bargeld and his folk pop outfit, Einsturzende Neubaten.

Hassa was my childhood Demon hero and I proudly wore his number 29 on my first ever Melbourne jumper as a kid. Although he was technically recruited from Rutherglen, he had been transferred there in his job (a bank, from memory) but hailed from Merbein, home of the late and sometimes great Colin Sylvia.

Two in two days, bush demon! Thank goodness for Google.