bush demon

When I was 14 and bored with things i made up a game called marble football. i still have the record book of the seasons. (the coodabeens said i should offer it up to the museum of sport). the teams: clarinda ballarat mildura shepparton springvale springvale north dandenong clarinda westbridge one missing can't remember this was called the VFU (Victorian Football Union). i kept over 200 marbles in ten kool mint jars. every marble had a name. the game was played on the carpet behindthe couch. i used batteries for goals and a chinese checker for the football. at the end of the season i threw all the marbles over neighbouring fences so i wouldn't be tempted to go into season '71 playing marble football. still, my brother like balloon football. ps why relegate the dees into a divisional situatin when we are looking at ten years as a possibly top ranking club. the lesser teams would draw minimal crowds, have no finance, no sponsors no tv, and players would use free agency to get away from them. bush demon

you obviously didn't see his king-hits on giles and stephen smith.

Crackers Keenan, serial bagger of the dees said we would get slaughtered and that his beloved North would play with shinboner spirit against Saints. Could be a cold winter in your wet North jumper crackers. Don't forget your Melbourne jumper is still lying under the bed where you left it.

1. Brett Bailey blazing away; 2. Tony Campbell blazing away; 3. Simon Eishold being put on a ridiculous angle after marking directly in front, but not in the centre-of-the-front. that is the most stupid rule.

Not to mention Sean Wight to Full Forward, which won us the 1988 Elimination final after a pathetic first half.

You are kidding, Jones played a typically gutsy game. Willing to get hurt for the betterment of his team. One of our few inside players.

Great to see Gerard Healey at the club presenting jumper to player Strauss. No doubt this is Jimmy's handiwork.

As Ritchie would say, "A triple-whammy tautology, that".

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!