bush demon

Just got home after spending the day sucking vomit through my teeth. to make matters worse, someone stole two hundred dollars out of my wallet outside the ground (i think it was an mfc membership volunteer). the true sickness of this match is that there seems nowhere to improve from it, matters can only get worse. lowly brisbane treated us like witches hats, they ran and sprinted and shared and sparked for most of the game like they truly enjoyed playing football. all we got was a summer of 'elite compliance'. too much talk i feel, and too much cheap talk. what is aaron on? half a mil? doesn't dive low into packs, tries to pinch the easier ball and ends up with thin air. look at brisbane, they employed a 360 degree circle when dishing the ball out, we in turn were so pedestrian and predictable, inching the ball forward like we hated the code. trouble is, i have seen this stench before, always hankered for the year, the decade when it would get better. truth is, since barassi's walk-out the team has been the-ghost-that-walks. even shanked the 87 grand final with eishold's mad-eyed choke and let essendon punch us up when we threatened parity early in 2000. ps well done jack watts

In the spirit of your post I would have both Ross Dillon and Greg Parke well and truly on the list for their contested pack marking in our gloomy late 60's early 70's phase.

From Scully's perspective he made a good choice. The guy's rating was unwarranted - he is ineffective at this level - and he took advantage of KS's payback obsession to secure himself some control over his life. Melbourne did not lose by losing ts.

Jim Stynes you now lie in peace, a true great of this club. R.I.P.

My theory on Jack Watts is that he needs to be spoon fed until he is ready to take us to premiership glory. If Peter McKenna had to get his own ball he wouldn't have dominated the forward position the way he did. Watts' dilemna is not unlike that of Riewoldt who is also suffering under the modern game plan. Once Watts has developed confidence players will seek him out not leave him high and dry chasing fresh air. in the meantime shove him down the backline so he can re-bound and use his footy nous to set up play.

yes i know that, i also remember successive re-builds pre-dating the messiah's return. imo there has been too much talk pre-season, not unlike the situation back in the sunny days of 1981. everything will be better in the morning. the mfc press release beckons.

do you mean the re-build after barass left in '64? norm smith had a huge turn-out pre-season '66 and the hope was that the club would quickly re-generate. i wonder where my old blue radio is now? sure as hell ain't listening to that game on internet radio...

At the end of three years ND's boys were playing off for the premiership. (also 1998 prelim)

HEy RC, i will back you on both o'Brien and Baker. i think he about number one for marks in the league around this time. unf. the team wasn't good enough for crosswell he kept arguing all the time. i think he had some kind of learning disability, called team-mates 'tiger' because he couldn't remember their names at training.

o'brien was definitely NBT.

Saw the replay earlier tonight, looks like he came down on concrete... no give in the ground at all. That is one unsafe workplace: http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/bulldog-williams-out-for-four-months-20120307-1uj5k.html

Not in our zone, I think. (Red Fox)

Excellent in heavy traffic a gun player for melbourne and a playmaker when he was on. offloaded to saints and paid us back by kicking a bag and beating us off his own boot.

As one who rode the mighty wave of '87 I can't all these years down the track blame Jimmy's crossing the line for the loss that day. Instead I thank Ron Barassi for his foresight in bringing such a man to Melbourne. Who but a man like jimmy would be so driven to make the club his life-force and keep us alive with hope in the new century? We panicked no doubt in the last quarter, and the succession of easy misses reflected our lack of ultimate belief. That the team 'shoulda' won the flag i have no doubt, we just didn't believe it enough that when hawthorn finally got rollling we weren't prepared to - as john kennedy famously lamented, 'pay the price'. don't forget one-armed bandit robbie was there in the goalsquare ready to close the deal and give us the match we so badly wanted against carlton, a team we have consistently flogged in finals matches for nearly fifty years.

Also throw in Neil Crompton, No 5.

No 31 Ray Groom missed the '64 gf through injury. A very good player, later became Tassie Premier. Also, wasn't Ross Dillon 24? and "Peter" Townsend! Great job and an enjoyable read.

Kelvin Osbourne?

if gws can have leap of (considerable) faith with one of our ex-players, then we are no less obliged to see-em-and-raise-em, and anoint our young gun jt to the captaincy. we can can't keep on appointing leaders based on years served and loyalty.

In today's Age: Melbourne's leadership conundrum

Vearing, Jungwirth, Catlin, Dowsing from the fabulous 1966 season. In fact what happened to the whole team did they slip through a wormhole in space. Also what happened to our premiership ruckman, Graham Wise...

Norm Smith famously used the end-of-season matches in Honolulu and Hawaii as motivation against Geelong for Melbourne's failure to win the '63 premiership. Melbourne won both games - apparently spiteful contests - and went on to win the premiership the following year. Alas, both teams went into a prolonged drought, Melbourne's far, far worse than Geelong's. At least Geelong had regular finals appearances, not to mention their amazing humiliation of Melbourne in season 2011. It was not until the 'Battle for Geelong Road' occurred in season 2012 did Melbourne have the opportunity to avenge their 'stuck in traffic' (1964-2011) feeling. The clip is a match preview of Melbourne v Geelong's season opener in Round One, 1964. Melbourne went down narrowly, but showed they remained a force and would be a contender again, as they had for the previous eleven seasons:

Would have thought the HS would have had the decency to include a pic of the league's top $$$ going round. Maybe they didn't have one: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/photo-gallery/gallery-e6frf94x-1226233097176

I'm trying to work out the commentators in the Channel 9 footage. Is it Ian Major, Ian Cleland and Tony Charlton?

I have wanted to do this for ages. Will put more up as time permits, enjoy:

Bits of Robran here, what a gun player he was:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZqJBwvbWS8&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZqJBwvbWS8&feature=related