bush demon

Opposition supporters at the ground say better stuff about our players than do the posters on here and 'ology.

I'm sure your comments won't get onto the record in fact i'm quite positive. I'll add Bluey Adams and Hassa Mann. You probably have never heard of them. Melbourne has won 12 premierships, not by accident. All this 'legend' palava of course is courtesy of the cardboard men of the AFL Publicity machine. In an age when television and film data was not preserved we had an endless supply of legends (at least) from '33 onwards. (apologies, i.w smith).

His jaw will be longer if both sides broken?

As of Saturday morning Norm Smith's tome lies in the bargain basket in a Warragul bookshop going for the princely sum of $25. I read Red Fox a year or more ago and it is undoubtedly part of the brickwork which will again raise this club upward. This publication just would not have come out in the 70's, 80's or 90's. Our club was essentially a death star from mid-65 until late in the '87 season. Red Fox connects the generations, and explains how our club history is woven. It is a page-turner (for a demon supporter, anyway) which gives a balanced appraisal of the Smith legacy. Smith was a hard man who probably made enough enemies to ensure his ultimate downfall. His spirit i am sure has lived on in modern day heroes (read: Jim Stynes) and the lesson of this book is that we don't need him to continue to wallow as a martyr in order to restore the MFC to its premiership gloss. (sub-edited by Sparkling Cockatoo Ridge, signing out, Bush Demon.

As I remember it, the WCE completely threw us with their 'switching' style of play, criss-crossing the ground to continually set up loose players. in the first half we were totally left behind, totally incapable of stopping or checking their fast ball movement. at the scoreboard end a big fat wce guy kept yelling abuse amidst a sea of r and blue demon supporters.

Perhaps Chris, Jimmy and Cameron could look at an anti-Robbo Stinkers' Stand to house the miscreants targetting Robbo on this site and Demonology. The Stand could replace the old smokers stand. Instead of watching the footy these heroes could bring their laptops and plug into the club's wifi.

Totally in agreement with the suspension. head-high contact is inexcusable and Franklin's hit was a cowardly action. and thank goodness the ugliness of vfl thuggery and 'contact sport' has, and is being gradually expunged from our game. dipper's lowly hit on robbie flower in the '87 prelim was a closer-to-home example of this form of manliness. i suspect the main supporters of this kind of assault wouldn't have to confront it in their own daily lives.

It's simple, Parma. Put up a website, add a splash of red and blue and then allow anyone with the inclination to cyber-stalk or 'rate' AFL footballers. Preferably from your own club. Another variation is watch the same jackals rip this home truth apart.

The Beatles said it all on the Double White Album: "No 9, No.9, No.9".

If you can't support this club and its players, look elsewhere.

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,2...389-661,00.html

Good to see the reference to demonology/ demonland in The Age today re: purchase of Jurrah's jumper. Great advertisement for supporters of the club if the low-grade trash adorning this thread gets picked up in the media.

Robbo, about to pass Gary Lyon as 3rd highest all-time goalkicker for MFC, and within catchable range of the great Norm Smith. Not only that, you are a club legend.

That is nonsense. Smith coached angry, and his time was up. Read Red Fox. We simply didn't recruit the cattle, and other clubs went past us. IMO Richmond now have inherited the Melbourne disease with cage-rattlers like Sheedy and Bartlett now upstaging the new guard. In contrast we have Stynes' as the unifying figure, whether or not he is still able to be the frontman.

Are you complimenting Warren, Hannabal? You to/too/two make a good complement. PS my favourite grammatical gripe is when gen y'ers (or whoever) opine that "so and so would 'of' been a good player" etc instead of 'would have'. Class dismissed.

I remember reading up on this game a while back, not sure if it was from Red Fox (Smith biog.) or from a friend's scrapbook. In some ways, this was MFC's high watermark. Even though we continued to be finalists, 61, 62 and 63 seem to be etched as failures. In '60 we finished a clear first on the ladder with a high percentage. In the much-touted second-semi we obliterated the highly rated Fitzroy (coached by Norm's brother Len) and then ran over Collingwood in the Grand. Not since this time (imo we 'fell in' in '64) have we dominated a finals' series.

I have audio of the 1960 ABC Grand Final commentary, which I passed on to Graham Smith over a year ago. This came through ABC ARchives, Sydney about nine years ago. One cassette cost me $70! The first and last quarters of the game are also available on video: Red and Blue: History of MFC. It is about the only reasonable grand final video preserved of Melbourne in its glory era. Unfortunately the game was wrecked by the sodden MCG. Most of the action consists of players kicking the ball along the ground through puddles. It is worth watching though. Highlights: A beautiful pick-up on the run by Tunbridge, Len Mann's ruckwork (like Keating for Brisbane a couple of years ago. Also, Barassi marking, and missing a direct shot just before the siren. On the audio, the most fascinating part was at the end when the captains were interviewed. Barassi said to the ABC commentator that he was 'going through a flat spot' and was too down to answer the guy's questions! Postscript: I spoke to Len Mann at the Fed. Square 150th celebrations last year and he was also very interested in getting hold of this footage for his own memories!

It is interesting to note that coaches are quickly brought down when they belittle players in public. 'Bakes' are usually kept out of the public eye, and a united front is presented to the supporters and football world. Also, after a game it is a modern-day ritual that players show their genuine respect and honouring of the opposition with a handshake and chat after the game. What you get on unofficial websites is the exact opposite. Players are commodities that can be shafted, 'traded', the works. Imagine these posters yelling the same abuse they apply on messageboards at games! It seems to be a fashion around here as to who can top who in calling Robertson selfish, McLean slow, Newton - you name it and so on. I have been going to the MCG to see Melbourne since 1969, and if i carried these same thoughts around in my head about half the playing personnel i would have given up long ago. I am pleased to say that i rode out the barren post-Smith period, enjoyed the Northey years, and many of the years since when we have regularly made finals. Sunday night, despite the 22 point 'shellacking' i would say was a good night at the football. we all know the list is re-building so what's the point in allowing these sour and miserly threads to reign unchecked?

The endless negative ranting on this, and 'ology websites could just as easily be written by supporters of other clubs. The castigation of Bates, Jones, Robertson and Maclean in particular is quite sickening. I don't know if the typists on this site actually go to the football, or just like to big note themselves with their influential opinions. If any players or people associated the MFC are foolish enough to use internet explorer to find these pages i want them to know that not all everyone who posts here supports the cheap skapegoating that passes in the name of supporters' opinion.

This happened before half-time, all over the ground. Why do our supporters think they will win a prize holding up the opposition sponsor's sign? Why would a hawthorn sponsor choose a demon supporter to win whatever prize is on offer? Why do we need to fund the Hawthorn revenue stream?

Cale Morton will be offered a huge bucket of money. it may be a matter of whether we can match it. Morton will have to summon up a Robbie Flower quantum of loyalty to stay in the red and blue.

One of my best memories was Robbie Flower's towering marks on the forward line against North and Sydney. All at once he had been converted into a marking forward. The sea of red and blue around the ground was also very exciting. Very satisfying also to see Gerard Healey get his desserts by playing in a losing boutique team against the team he had walked out on.

Wacking a bit of futurology into the prognostications, i would say that the draft system is coming to an end in its present form, and that we may be one of the last beneficiaries. the present system creates too much of a gap between the bottom three or four and the top three or four. It means if you are stuck in the middle lane of traffic (ie have got a good coach, administration and play with desperation each week) you never get a chance at the top pickings. this makes the middle of the ladder the new bottom. in recent times carlton, hawthorn, stkilda and footscray have just shot up the ladder. teams like fitzroy, south, collingwood and north on the other hand may well be locked into the 'almost good enough' category for years. i was wondering whether a lottery system which distributes the largesse more randomly would be a better way to go. it would certainly scale back the tanking.

Billy Graham, the evangelist preacher got over 90,000 to the mcg for a gig in 1959. thankfully, he wasn't gifted this booking. wiseblood, i hope you are drinking with plastic cups.

Who cares? I turned the telly off and went to the gym. How can stan alves and others support the vested interests of essendon and collingwood v. the rest of the competition? This day should belong to the grand-finalists from the previous year, not the also-rans. ps the eddie-bashing is boring. He has done a good job for his club, as did sheedy for the other scrubbers.