bush demon

"This has not been my happiest year at Melbourne. Many people in this room have to put away their shotguns for another year. These critics are within the football club itself. There are too many people at the club who claim to know a great deal about football - more than anyone else - but they do nothing about it but criticise. Today I have given those critics my answer. We have done the job and done it well. I am being frank as I always am. I have had this choked up inside me for a long time. It's easy to criticise the selection committee. We might argue keenly among ourselves behind closed doors, but when the team is finally selected we accept it without question. I ask that next year the critics within the club do the same: accept the teams that are selected to play and stop criticising. Put those shotguns away. Hang them up on the wall." - Norm Smith speaking at Melbourne's grand final dinner. (From Red Fox, p 502).

Tony Petracca...

The first half Footscray had the upper hand from memory, and Robbie couldn't get his hands on it. Wasn't till the third quarter that Robbie and the team lifted.

I was at that game, and I remember it was a bright, sunny day. (until the 3rd q). Such hopes for Melbourne. If we won, we would have been back in town. Alas, we were swept away. Used to look forward to reading the Sunday Observer's write-ups in the early part of that season. Players like Denis Clark racking up the stats.

Love these topics. 1. Ian Cooper, mid 65 . We were unbeaten at the top of the table when he took his famous speccie on the back of a Melbourne player this game directly preceded the abyss. 1974ish Second half Royce Harte goes mental, again in the second half destroying our pretensions for that year about 1971 Hudson kicks 16 1971 Len Thompson destroys us we were unbeaten about eight zip under Ian Ridley monster crowd at the G we didn't recover from that drubbing

Two of these games I don't agree with. 1. Freo. It was a great comeback, but in the context of the season it was meaningless. We were useless before this game, and useless after it. 2. The Broadbridge tribute game. Had great symbolism and was an emotional occasion in commemorating the late Troy Broadbridge. But as a game of football it was just so so. Without delving into afl stats I would put forward the following: 1990's game where we were undermanned and unheralded, but played all over the top of west coast in perth, with Russell Robertson starring. An early 1990's game where we came from behind and beat Essendon and Windy Hill, Darren Bennett going berserk. A late 90's? game where we beat Adelaide in Adelaide, in a thriller. A set play from the boundary line saw us get home. Round 18, 2004. Melbourne beat Hawthorn to go top of the table. Not sure we had achieved this feat since 1964, certainly not at this time of year. There were many games in the early 70's when we had Alves, Dillon and Parke starring which I would also rank above the paltry offerings of the Age journalist. apologies to Billy Beane for picking up the west coast and Essendon games. I would also put the last round of 1976 into the list, where we had to beat Collingwood at Collingwood to make a late dash for the four, which would have been our first finals appearance since 1964. Alas, another game (featuring Robbie Walls) didn't go our way so we didn't make the four. But a great game, still remember going to it with my brother. Colin Graham was a top player that game.

Or, to misquote Oliver Harvey, 'another fine mess we didn't get ourselves into'.

Cool story. Did you have a point? 'MFC losers'. Suffice to say, we are all losers - players, administrators, supporters - given our win/loss ratio since the Melbourne V St Kilda game, mid 1965.

Signing Jessie Hogan long-term, based on our improved ladder position.

Probably can't type with one finger either.

My father wouldn't let us have the telly on because he was a Middlesbrough and soccer supporter who called Australian Rules 'aerial ping-pong'. In 1964 I was caught up in the Ron Barassi celebrity football worship thing and so we would sometimes catch him doing his little TV presentations. My moment of total Dee devotion was capped off when my parents arrived at school one morning unnannounced, with a pair of brand new Ron Barassi footy boots. I then proceeded to wear them round school, stops and all. In those days footy boots had soft pads around the ankle bone, and Barassi boots had RB's signature on each pad. Now my whole family follows the Demons.

'of the team', 'team of the'..... is wordy. maybe could be, "...Melbourne, the red and the blue".

There are too many teams in the competition, this is the problem. Any team finishing lower on the table is getting players sucked out of it regardless of their so-called culture or draft selections. Conversely, the higher teams are having players drawn toward them, you might say in a draft fashion, ensuring they remain a top team.

Ron Barassi was best practise for chasing the dollar, testing the market and chasing glory and premierships with other clubs. Jeremy Howe finished the season strongly, and has plenty of what this club needs. He is getting better, and a new contract may settle him.

quite sickening to reflect that as soon as the ball went over the umpire's head, that was the end of Melbourne's greatness.

This kind of comment should be sent out to every demonlander who even thinks of sledging melbourne players. i once dreamt i ran on the ground for the mfc but unfortunately for me, could never get near the ball. at least i dreamt my dream.

Age paints things in a clearer light. Melbourne now seem to be calling the shots. Not dissimilar to the the Dustin Martin fiasco where he was shopping around and then returned to his home base. JH to stay.

Glenn Swann. No one has mentioned his eight goals. Same as Cuthbertson and Cordner, all of whom faded to obscurity. What a let down from all three after high hopes.

Lou Richards used to have a running joke on WOS with his moniker. He went from Diamond Jim to Topaz Tilbrook to Tillendrium Tilbrook.

Not to mention George Lakes in 1969. He got the cover photo on INside Football in the pre-season.

Goal from the wing at VFL park, i think that's stretching it. I do remember him running in to pick up a half volley that day (v swans was it?) and the ball bounced awkwardly making him look silly. He was moved to the half back line later on in his brief career and he became a more reliable rebounder.

Shocking for the competition. No joy in this even if it's Carlton. Only good footy news so far is the likelihood of GW$ losing Treloar because of the money Sheedy wasted trying to punish Melbourne.

And yet Checker was sitting in the coaches box in 64 gf, can't Have been too much of an issue. I think Smith counselled Barassi to do a Rossie Lyon, and go to a team on the up.

Don't forget Smith and Barassi were both shopping around in '64, according to Red Fox. Ultimately the business model collapsed cow of over-reliance on these two.

An uglier win was v Collingwood in Sep 1964. Scrappy play, no forward line and a fluke snap getting us over the line.