bush demon

Just watching a bit of the '66 SANFL grand final when our game was called Aussie rules. How sad the pale imitation AFL is in this era. Behold the passion of the SA crowd, the intensity of the opening exchanges and the magnificent hulk, John Tilbrook. If only we had preserved the state codes in that form with perhaps a championship of Australia to be played at the end of state GF week. The drop kick would be returned with 9 pointers on offer for goals outside the 50 metre arc. State teams could be composed of 9 players from each GF team. Week 1 would be a qualifier betw. SA and WA states and the final played the following week on the MCG versus The Big V. The Australian cricket captain could toss the coin. The rugby states could play the two curtain raisers. Wait, it's Saturday morning in June 2020 and football is on again this afternoon.

Was it around this time that both Carlton and Richmond were secretly courting Norm Smith/Barassi?

With Northey we would drop 5-6 games on the trot before we got our intensity/ white line fever back. This cost us high finishes in several years meaning we had to play interstate finals.

I just wanted to say that Australia have Yorkshire in trouble at Sheffield, with Yorkshire sitting at 5/85 on the second day after Aus. had declared at 8/295. Garth McKenzie has picked up two.

This must be the worst wrist-slashing after a win I've ever heard. A 30-40 pt lead is nothing these days, we did shut them down when it counted. Once we get someone to clunk marks in the forward half we won't be so vulnerable on the rebound.

You obviously don't listen to the Coodabeens champions in QB weekends.

I remember Crosswell and Carmen taking some big speccies in the red and blue, they were absolute dominators for their clubs. I think Carmen played a few blinders for us. Seemed to be able to take big pack marks at will when he was on.

I think Kelvin Templeton was the triple A excitement factor, until it was realised he could no longer kick further than 35M.

Interesting fun fact that Casey is the demographic centre of Melbourne; or as Norm Smith once said, "I am Melbourne".

I think part of it was that we didn't have a big marking full forward like Peck, Wade, Waters, Ken Fraser etc so had to play a fast, swarming style game.

Lots more professional coaching now, but kids in the old days learnt their art in primary school, in the backyard and in the street hence the magnificent kicking of footballers in the 60s. The 1973 YouTube game between Carlton and Hawthorn and the '65 GF also on youtube shows much we have devolved into a boring system-based game.

When Don Blew blew, Norm Smith blued. Apologies in advance for any syntax or grammatical errors.

And Norm Smith got South into the finals in 1970 but he had to change clubs to do that.

If you watch the '65 grand final on YouTube between StKilda and Essendon it is easy to see that the talented players were gravitating to other clubs. StKilda and Essendon were two teams that showed us up mid '65 when we were unbeaten. I think by this time the Barassi Smith ranting methodology was wearing off and we overplayed the 'if only' victim game. I also think loss of rich talent zones had a lot to do with it.

I was just starting to barrack for the Dees at this time, and on that weekend my father - an Englishman who hated aussie rules but loved soccer - took me to Olympic Park to watch Everton defeat Australia 8-2.. If only the day before I could have gone to the G and seen the amazing demons play. It was mid-season a year later that Saint recruits Cooper and Ditterich tore us apart, ending our reign.

From the vault:.

I remember Porterfield scoring the winning goal in the 1971 FA Cup, i think against Man. Utd. Sunderland were the rank underdogs.

No, I got that one from my Beatles obsession (Bar owner telling Beatles to "mach shau"). The other one from uni days, world war two history etc.?

Well done. So now you will have to name them in positions!

So did any players of German extraction mach shau with the Dees?

Although he often played injured, Barassi's '64 season catapulted us into the grandy, and ultimately the flag. He wasn't a top performer in the finals series, but was undoubtedly the no.1 legend of the vfl, and losing him cost us our weltanschauung. there has been no viable replacement

So that would have been Barassi's first game since August, 1963.

Graham Molloy, from South Australia. A great player for the Dees in early 70s. Jeff White, Fremantle. oops, did JW start in Vic, go to WA and come back again?

Tassie.

Don Williams left Melbourne late 50s or early 60s went back to play for Sale then came back to star in Melbourne's '64 premiership team.