robbiefrom13

Even when Bontempelli kicked his third, I had little concern - we were the fittest, we were stronger and we had more stars. I was sure we'd run it out better than the Dogs. I said to the young Bulldogs fan next to me, "you watch, they'll put Jackson in the ruck, Harmes will go onto Daniels and shut him down, it's what they do." he laughed and said something about living in hope - but then it all kicked off. We were so far a different article, the doggies looked absolutely astonished - and then they folded. Anybody would have. We have got a list nobody can match. Gawn Oliver and Petracca - who beats that? but then there's Jackson as well! Not forgetting Viney and a queue of rising strong learners. The best backline, able to shut down anybody. Who has got hold of them in the past twelve months? Kozzie is only starting, so is Ben Brown really. Fritsch is pretty good! We have arrived, and I have never seen a more capable set of players at Melbourne, including 1964; never mind the competition-leading fitness and the team ethos. We've got the wings sorted, and we can kick goals. Bowie and Salem are rock-sloid, smart, skilled - absolute guns. You hesitate to look over-confident, but the objective facts seem to me to point at MFC being the benchmark by quite a margin. Short of us stuffing it up, why would anyone think we're going to be looking back later and saying "i'm not surprised"? This is the box-seat! Clearly the most gifted and well organised team in the competition. And young enough for it all to be in front of them! Max shows the way - hard-working to the nth degree, but with that in place, it's all about fun. I loved the way Petracca spoke so unselfconsciously about knowing he had the talent. It's simply a fact. This is all new for us, but it's real and we should enjoy!

I will go to the footy and barrack!

the Quantum Kozzie?

we'd slaughtered Collingwood in the second semi-final, and it seemed to 14-year-old me a bit of an anti-climax that the grand final was a slog. Melbourne winning was normal enough - I wanted it to be glory... I listened with a mate who was Collingwood. Felt a bit sorry for him when Crompton broke ranks and won the game. But it stood to reason we would be better than Collingwood - Melbourne was a whole city, not just a suburb; and just on the jumpers, never mind anything else - black-and-white was TV, as compared to the movies, and surely we had then as we still have the best looking jumper by a mile. Regal! At school, you could hold your head up being a Melbourne supporter - even when we lost a game, we were still obviously the best team. We had Barassi. We almost always ended up the winners... Following Melbourne since then has been a wonderful ride. Builds real character - not just complacent arrogance. If we win this year, it won't be anything like 1964 was. It'll be infinitely deeper and better, I think. Obviously I couldn't have known enough about the psychology of the players back then, to really compare, but considering what it has taken to escape two generations of failure and in its place build this present charge, what we are seeing now has to be a huge human drama playing out. Brian Dixon may have been conned by Norm Smith into fearing every week that he would be dropped, but our current team are coming off genuine longterm grounds for being unable to believe - yet look at them! Spectacular turn-around - and huge credit to all of them. And their coaches. This an unfolding achievement that will be way beyond 1964.

clean ball-handling, and the ability to stop or turn on a sixpence, made Robbie virtually untackleable. Heavier-built by miles, but Petracca does have quite a bit of those attributes. Watching the old footage shows how Wilson had quite a bit of that too. Exactly the things Viney and Jones don't have. But then Viney has a bit of the Barassi unstoppability. One of my strongest memories of Barassi was of him marking a drop-kick probably less that 10 metres from where it had been kicked. A full-blooded low kick that at full stretch Barassi just reached. it stuck in his grip and smashed him backwards onto the turf, as though he'd been shot by a cannon-ball. He didn't let go of the ball. it's imprinted on my mind as much as that famous shot of him airborne, having just kicked, with one arm stretched out to the side and the look on his face - unstoppable. But Robbie was a scalpel among axes. Pure poetry, finesse, instinct for what was going on. He struck in the split-second right moment. Timing as perfect as that isn't likely to come around again.

If we got him back, one thing would be completely different to last time we had him - he would not be being white-anted by Fremantle trying to sell him an unrealistic heaven in Perth. So he got sold something - welcome to the advertising age! If he came back, he would not be constantly having his eyes drawn away. We might see a single-focused Jesse - and not the disillusioned Jesse he appears to have been in Perth. Plus - Harley Bennell came within a whisker of making it. Why can't Jesse actually do it? If he's keen, and MFC is keen, it's an absolute no-brainer to welcome him back. The potential win is so great, we would have to take the chance.

no comparison - keep Jetta; Jones no loss.

I would be very surprised to hear they were not delighted to welcome him back. They shared a lot. Also, he played some very good football for us. He may need to behave himself and perhaps that would not be as easy for him as it is for others, but there's a lot of different types of people and Hoges is not somewhere way off the scale... Carl Ditterich returned. Hardeman. Donny Williams. It happens - and with success in those cases. Just one more talented player to be properly harnessed for the big dance. Which the players surely would understand - and recognise what he brings for them all.

When in their 'wisdom' the brains trust turfed Jack aside, Roos said, "You need players like that'" and "he won half a dozen games off his own boot in the past couple of seasons." One against Hawthorn, in the last quarter he hit Pederson on the lead with a bullet-pass, he put it 55 metres onto Tyson's chest in the pocket, and he hoovered up the ball right out of Lewis' hands in the centre and drove it forward for another goal. Three goals in 5 minutes thanks to Watts - sheer class. The number of times he took saving marks on the last line, at the end of quarters... I always thought you could judge a coach by his ability and willingness to recognise and make full use of great talent. The two outstanding mediocrities of man-management in the past twenty years were with Watts and Jurrah. Some people can only paint by numbers. These guys were fabulous talents, who coaches tried to squeeze down into their petty one-size-fits-all plans. I will always remember the QB winning goal, watching it from that forward pocket - it was a moment of vast significance, heroic and symbolic of so much - drama of the highest order. Exhilirating beyond compare. I remember Jack outside the boundary on the members' side, taking his shot - a huge high looping ball that just curved and curved home - and you knew, of course Wattsy would get it. I remember Jones refusing to hpnour his leads. I got a phone call out of the blue one night a few years ago, and it was Max Gawn doing the phone-around. I'd already renewed as it happened, but we had a bit of a chat anyway. He was a young feller at the time, and out injured. I asked how he was coming along. I said being from Tasmania I don't get to that many games, but I'd seen Robbie Flower's first game and I'd seen Jack Watts' first game, and I tell you Max, I said, I saw your first game too, and I reckon I'll remember it too. In the end Jack didn't achieve as highly, but boy I loved seeing him play. Fabulous human beings all of them. Fabulous thing, to have followed these guys, regardless of the outcome.. Jack Watts is a memorable and real part of the story of the Melbourne Footy Club, and i got wonderful pleasure from supporting him, and believing in his skills and his generosity. There's more than success in being a supporter. .

Half the country is unloading their wisdom about Dan Andrews. All over the western world people are publicly protesting against the rules imposed to stop us infecting and killing each other. There's a lot of spur-of-the-moment full-head-of-steam stupidity around. How do we know what it's been feeling like for Harley Bennell? Lots of people do erratic things. So he's done similar things before? Jake Lever has dropped marks before. We've all posted rubbish at one time or another. We can hardly say that the person having the capacity or tendency to make the mistake makes it a worse mistake - it's at most just likelier. Give the guy a break! MFC is trying to put together a winning team of footballers. Harley Bennell is a bit not-dead-centre perhaps, but he can play football. How much damage has he done to anything other than PR? I cannot get my head around the reasoning, the holier-than-thou shock-horror being expressed. Football might have saved Liam Jurrah, or any one of the players who subsequently were found to be fighting depression etc. Thank goodness for football, where some lucky people have gifts that might clear them a pathway through their own demons. I hope there is wisdom at the club, and not just cringing from the public commentary, when they weigh this up.

This is such nonsense. What you'd do is you'd shut yourself. And all of us can remember pieces of play from Petracca, for example, from games right through the year. Some of those games, just one piece of play, if that's what you meant to be saying.

the thing is, I think, people are all a mixture of things - and we get the idea of "the dominant story", when that's only part of it. The Robert Muir story in the paper the other day put up some of the "alternative stories" about him. A lot of us only knew the "mad dog" story, which Northey rightly (wisely) called out early on. You see things confirming the dominant story, and it becomes the person's identity. Those in a position to influence opinion need to be making sure dominant stories don't lock people into deep pigeonholes with no way out. Coaches can strengthen players by drawing out their alternative stories - and actively opposing negative dominant stories; at the same time, they won't help anyone by trying to force onto a player an alternative story that is not part of that player's make-up. St Kilda should have seen the negative dominant story of their new guy, and realised how essential it was going to be to counteract that - his talent was surely enough to have created a whole new dominant story. Jurrah was characterised as the Warlpiri Warrior, and the Jurrahcane - not helpful, with hindsight. His particular skillset could have been made the main story, and should have been. Harping on about defensive skills when he was clearly the most electrifying offensive force in the competition - it was denying his identity, and pushing away what was the dominant story that brought him to Melbourne. Please let us value Harley Bennell for who he really is. And all of us refuse these racist stereotyping stories that reduce players to categorised clones. Not everyone is good at adopting such a required dominant story. Football teams try to make the most of their players, even though there can be a mixture of parts to the player. In among the various stories of each individual, there can be stories that are valid and troubling, and needing intelligent care. Makes you realise what a wonderful person Robbie Flower was - brilliantly skilled, modest (claimed he was overpaid for what he did!) and always with a smile and time for anyone, unshakable optimist, team-oriented, loyal forever... Hard to think of a negative story. But Robbie Muir shared some of those attributes. People have a mixture of parts, and good management recognises this and brings out the best. Roos was skilled there. "Sink or swim" is no management strategy - and nor is "you made your bed - you'll have to lie in it." Good management will draw the person into their better bits - they are equally as true - and we unfortunately don't always get to choose which bit of us becomes the dominant story. Community has a responsibility. Sorry, too long.

Liam Jurrah telling the coach week after week, no, I don't feel ready. That never rang true, to me. I thought he was lacking someone doing what Lyon did with Farmer - and I don't know whether I'm being racist thinking it. Jimma reached out that way when he was well, early on. But maybe what's needed is for clubs to set up affirmative action - counteracting the systemic bias that indigenous people live under. Anticipating it. Which I suppose could be patronising, too - so difficult... Melbourne worked on this, with Jetta and so on - brothers, connecting - but there can be the divide in a set-up like that, too. An aboriginal friend of mine told me once, all he really wanted was for us to be like regular mates; like, just mates...

excellent response from St Kilda - well done. Admiration.

Garry Lyon kicked 10 in three quarters the day after his first was born - he'd had no sleep. Reckoned he was less tense or anxious than usual - is there something to learn here? Maybe those suffering from coach-induced self-doubt need to have a night in the maternity ward, get things in perspective, and go out too tired to complicate anything, with the 'ah bugger it, it's just a game' attitude...

what will it take?

Lever would be good at what he does if we asked him to play the position he is good at - but we don't. ditto fritsch. ditto Tmac. ditto Bennell. ditto Goodwin

Remember when Jurrah was under the pump because he wasn't defensive enough? like Diesel Williams wasn't fast enough... Like Fritsch is letting us down by not being bigger for the position we put him in. Is this what they had in mind when we took Harley Bennell on? And was it explained to him? Such great story, to have him get fit enough to play - and now we want him to become a different player to the one we recruited...

We are only doing this to him because we refuse to pick the big blokes we've got.

put him where he can do something - not where he demonstrably can't. Put him where his physique gives him a chance. Then we might have one more successful forward. It's not his fault we don't have a big forward, and it makes no sense getting him to try to be what he's not. Of course he'll lose confidence

coached into ineffectiveness. no belief, and no hunger. Sadly, no brains

are they drilled to man up? are they drilled to find a team-mate? where's the connection between max and the runners? They've had a lot of time to get these things sorted. Does Goodwin know what our players are skilled at? not worth watching - so utterly predictable. And our blokes still guard the space where only a miskick will go; still wear themselves out chasing after the bolted horse. Geelong is laughing at us The whole competition is. Goodwin, this is you

The players are very young men, and playing for a perennially unsuccessful club - they need a father figure type of coach. Greater wisdom than their own. Norm Smith was tough in an era that had quite different values to what we have today; he was also apparently great at getting the players to bond; but his real greatness has to have been his outstanding football nous. He drew respect as much as fear (or love), and engendered self-belief and trust in the whole. Without an established culture of success, we do need the continuing input of a coach who sees more than the players have ingrained in themselves - and Melbourne appears to have struggled ever since the aura of Roos has faded. Goodwin being loved is not enough - it's not producing the outcome we want to see. What we can expect the players to be bringing, for the coach to build with, is their own skills - which a wise coach would be maximising - not trying to re-shape. Play them in their natural positions, and let them get confidence out of their own natural talent as well as from the coach's input. Validate them, surely - how else are they going to grow in confidence? Change can be disruptive, of course, but maybe change needs to be considered. English Soccer clubs aren't afraid of making leadership changes, and it doesn't seem to do them harm. Even if it is risky, persevering with what isn't working is guaranteed failure. Think twelve months too many of Neild. So I hope people at the club are clear about what KPI's are guiding them in their ongoing evaluation of Goodwin. I hope they have clear ideas about the sorts of principles that make coaches successful. I hope they learned from their experience of Roos. I remember going to a practice match against the Ballarat league in 1964, and listening to Norm Smith give his three-quarter time address, after which he left the ground and drove back to Melbourne - leaving the players to get on with it. No problem - such different times; a successful well-oiled machine... Everything seems so fragile today - brittle, permanently a whisker away from disintegrating; no consolidating patterns in anything. When Melbourne were 7.3 to nothing, I switched it off and said to my wife, "I don't trust it..." You can criticise this supporter for that, same as you can bag out players for what's wrong with them - but someone has to be able to turn the ship around - and it's not my fault, or Jack Watts' fault - it's the guy on the bridge who has to be steering.

Barassi and Flower are something else. There have been lots of good players. How about this - when Barassi started, he wasn't all that special. Norm Smith in a sense created him, a bit later. When Robbie Flower started as a skinny seventeen-year-old, one of our very good players - Stan Alves, captain and star wingman - was moved to the half-back flank to make room. And Robbie was a star from that first game. He gave everything he had for the Melbourne Football club, and whether or not he should be rated above or below Barassi as a great player, he is without peer as a Melbourne player, start to finish.

I remember watching Chris Aitken in a pre-season practice game, and he was just back from the bush. He hung around the goal square mostly, and went for the big hanger, over and over. He looked the goods and we thought "here we GO!" Perhaps he was lairising, even though it looked like he was just revelling in it. Thinking about it now, and the great number of big-marking forwards we've gone through - you have to wonder. I remember Hardeman going forward one week and kicking 8, but he was a backman, and back he went. We really didn't seem able to get into synch. The tone of that congratulatory letter to Ross Dillon sounds so complacent, so lordly superior, very MCC - and yet I know Jim Cardwell is well respected. Were other clubs sounding as fusty old-fashioned as we were? Back then, too, we played our pre-season in-house practice games on the MCG... I was just over the fence behind the goals, watching Aitken. Free admission, if I remember rightly. So much lost, despite what looked like such promise, and what was at that time an incredible birthright.