Stan Alves had a biog, or autobiog. Amazingly, his first three games (under Smith) occurred at the very, very end of MFC's reign of power and he went 3-0. For the next two hundred plus games of Alves' career the Dees were mostly a deadbeat team.
Can still remember "Dillon!!!!!" called by commentators when he took pack marks. Sadly we couldn't get Dillon, Aitken and Parke onto the ground much otherwise 60s and 70s could have been very different story.
That was my earliest childhood memory watching this on WOS. Dean went down like a bag of spuds. Melbourne rampaged through home and aways second half of season then struggled in finals without Barassi. Same thing also happened to Ditterich in 66 and Neville Crowe in 67.
During '67 we were being talked about as a final four side until a late slump. Ditto'71, ditto '76, '84 until Essendon smashed us at VFL PARK. Some minor glory after that but afl is now basically a premier league and Frost to Hawks is a travesty. Take up a hobby, it's never too late.
This post is another sad illustration of the Dees' backstabbing and white-anting culture and why we have owned the bottom half of the ladder for over half a century. So much for a supporter website...
Stan Alves had the distinction of playing his first three games in an all-winning, all-conquering demons team in 1965. the following week we were taken apart by the saints (and ian cooper) and for the next ten years his demons were our demons.
This was 'peak demons', when everything was set up for melbourne to win flags. when the clubs had complained long and hard enough change came, including recruiting zones and loss of the mcg. barassi saw the writing on the wall and took his mojo elsewhere. at least we ended up with ross dillon from shep. zone in 1966.
That was a ripping write-up by George 'on the outer' but there is a valid point made about how online sites provide/ encourage anonymous player sprays by internet experts. How many of these fair weather fans can 'put their body on the line'' the way AFL players are required to.
PS I am not referring to George here, but the many cowards who regularly slag our players.