bush demon

Also, Nicole Hayes', "The Whole of my World".

The Tom Wills Biog. 'First Wild Man of Australian Sport" by Greg De Moore is also instructive in this area.

It will be alright. I'm still pining for Aitken, Parke and Dillon to be on the track together, and as Digger would say, "That's a very long time".

Agree with BB. This kind of thread is plain nasty. At least Brent Grgic played AFL and ran out in the red and blue, which is I guess stratospheres above what the poster has done.

Always enjoy your season summaries but the 1974 was a depressing read following our last six years Plus ca change... . I was in Form six in 1974 and had to front up to my classmates justifying the mighty dees performances from the weekend. PS You have been promising the 1956 season for a while, WJ: "Fast virile football of high standard throughout the game thrilled four thousand Melbourne supporters on Saturday. Players produced football of match calibre and on this form the 1955 premiers should again be foremost in league ranks this year". (The Age, Apr 9, 1956)

Many thought that when Ian Ridley took over, when Bobby Skilton took over, when Big Carl came over, when The Messiah frocked up in '81, when John Northey took us to the mountain etc etc... We need to wait until at least the first quarter v. The Saints and get Stan Alves' and his mate's summary to gain a clearer picture. Pre-season is like the night series of the 60's and 70's - seriously misleading.

One also has to factor in his poor disposals and clangers which means he really has to get high stats to have any impact.

Just read the article. My stupidity has nothing to do with Connolly's mis-reporting.

Connolly's assertion that TS is now making headway after 'a few stutters at Melbourne' is just VB inspired commentary. The player continues to stutter and would be expected to improve. The experts at the time were all over him. National AFL draft is still a lottery

Pushing up.

You just haven't thought that one through. It's a classic Aussie expression.

Kellie Underwood on ABC774 gave the old Michael Williamson adage, "Luck's a fortune" a considerable thrashing during the last season. Bad luck had to keep hearing it.

"Lowering the eyes". It's a bit naughty.

The real competition is between the codes. The home and aways, trading, pre-seasons, finals and drafting are the sideshows.

Just want to say i object to this constant name calling ... it's not 'pencil', it's Spencer. Some of these new generation football supporters have no respect. it's a blight on a supporter website, plenty of other posts get dumped for trivial reasons yet we keep seeing these pathetic putowns repeated ad nauseum .... if i was a player it would certainly turn me off the club if i knew these were supporters. In Disgust, BD. PS would these people address the MFC players in these terms at family days, at training sessions or any other public functions?

Even better, if he put on some octopus or squid imagine those eight-arm pack marks.

"Sylvia's mother says Sylvia's packing, he's going to be leaving today. Sylvia's mother says, Sylvia's manager is going the heave-ho way. Sylvia's mother says, please don't say nothing to make him start crying and stay..." (Apologies, Dr. Hook)

Public ownership of football a la the 60's, the 70's, the 80's has already been forgotten. Punters are being gently massaged into the new normal all the time. It is a sure thing that the rich and powerful will rule the roost and we will forget it was ever any other way. You only have to listen to BBC World Sport, (EPL) and the commentators only ever mention the power clubs , it's like the others don't exist. And Australia is supposed to be more egalitarian than the poms...

I thought true demon tragics may like this one. From AROUND THE PACKS by Jack Dunn of the Melbourne Sun, June 1966:

Especially since the Free Agency concept is now a moveable feast.

GWS backed off due to 'due diligence'. If they had used that yardstick a couple of years ago they wouldn't have wasted millions to spite Melbourne and then could have outbid other teams when the time came. Just sayin...

'Jesse Pinckman' has posted a spoiler tweet showing him in bed with Walt and Skylar. Didn't pick that.

Agree. Just read Red Fox, and it is explained how Ron Jnr. was recruited after Melbourne initiated changes in recruiting rules to allow him to be picked up. Any common sense understanding starts at least with the Barassi Snr, Barassi junior legend.

Our mid-60's rivals were just hungrier at every level. We had ten premierships in 25 years so things just plateaud. My other thought on it is that we preceded the age of television, and all entire glorious record vanished (like the '64 GF tape), so that future youngsters got brainwashed on the likes of the Saints, The Blues, The Tigers, The Pies etc, and we became a museum piece. Nowhere exists any meaningful footage of passages of play of our great teams, other than very brief snapshots.

It may be heresy to say this, but Norm Smith's day had passed. In a way, the sacking preserved his immortality because it has allowed supporters past and present to wallow in his demise and how the club's misfortunes can all be be laid at the feet of the 1965 MFC committee. I am sick of this crutch. More attention should be accorded to the (unnamed) seagull which has unceremoniously pooped on the Ron Barassi statue.