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When the Dees are playing interstate on a Sunday, my routine is to watch all of the Sunday footy review shows, plan as lazy a day as possible - to the displeasure of she who must be obeyed - and generally sit back and watch Channel 7’s Footy Flashbacks, before the live footy begins. Last Sunday, it featured the history of the surviving Collingwood Captains. While I despise our mortal enemy, I found myself getting quite nostalgic. The consolation was how the earlier part of the show concentrated on Collingwood’s regular finals appearances in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s, without ever taking the major prize - a flag. They were masters at snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Names like Terry Waters, Max and Wayne Richardson, Barry Price, Twiggy Dunne and of course Peter McKenna featured heavily in the early part of the show. While I detested the black and white, I always had a begrudging admiration for Bobby Rose; a true gentleman, whose time as coach was blighted by so many near misses. Inevitably, the show then featured the 1990 season. The toothless brigade had not won a flag since 1958, when they upset a much more fancied Melbourne and Barry “Hooker” Harrison whacked Ronald Dale. They performed highway robbery and stole the consecutive flag record from us. At the end of the 1990 season, Melbourne finished 4th, with 16 wins and 6 losses. Essendon finished minor premiers and in what was then a final 5, Collingwood finished second. The Dees season started spectacularly with a 53 point win over North. In round 3, we beat Essendon by 27 points at the ‘G. There were many stunning highlights for the Dees during the 1990 season. In round 7 we beat West Coast by 55 points and the following week demoralised Richmond by 53 points. Come round 9 we were soundly beaten by a Hawthorn team, whose glory days were showing signs of going into hibernation, albeit, as history shows, temporarily. Hawthorn would eventually finish 5th in 1990. Back to back losses would come in the form of a 52 point thrashing at the hands of Collingwood in round 10. Mid season saw the Dees lose their focus and the season was in danger of going off the rails. Our slump reached its lowest ebb with a 127 point demolition by Kangaroos in round 14, which represented a 180 point turn around from our win over North in round 1. In round 16, we finally got our season back on track, with our second win for the year against the Bombers.. Trailing by 27 points at 3 quarter time and with Essendon kicking the first goal of the final term, the Dees went on to kick 8 goals to 2, with Darren Bennett rising to the challenge, to run out 8 point winners at Windy Hill. Oh what a sweet victory that was. In round 19 we trounced the Swans by 67 points, followed by another win over the West Coast at Subiaco by 36 points. Our last game of the year witnessed a do or die struggle with Hawthorn at the ‘G, where we ultimately prevailed by 2 goals. The following week saw us pitted against the Hawks again in the Elimination final on Sunday. The first half was a tight tussle, with the Hawks leading at half time by 7 points. The 3rd quarter saw the Dees come out and slam on 6 goals to the Hawks 1, to see the Demons go into the the final term with 4 goal lead. The final stanza was a desperately tight struggle, with skipper Sugar Healy showing plenty of courage and determination. The Hawks would kick 3 goals to our 1 in the last quarter, but with Sugar running with the flight of the ball, at the Punt Road end, deep in the last quarter, he marked and sealed the win for the mighty Demons. It seemed we had our Mojo back. The day before, Collingwood was having its own problems out at Arctic Park against West Coast. The game was tight all day, but Peter Sumich had a chance to steal it with a kick right on the siren. Had the Colliwobbles struck again? The angle tight, Sumich lining up from the non-preferred pocket, he kicked a point making the game a draw. In those days, there was no extra time, so the 2 sides had to get themselves up again, for a rematch the following week, effectively giving Melbourne a weeks rest. Not a bad luxury for a team that only made the elimination final. The replay saw Collingwood have it all over the Eagles and the Pies ran out winners by just under 10 goals. So it was with confidence that we went to Waverley the following Saturday to take on what surely must have been a demoralised and battle weary West Coast side. From the first bounce this was a fiery affair and from my perspective, it seemed we fell for West Coast’s 3 card trick. In the second quarter, West Coast kept us goalless while they piled on 6 majors. Honours were split in the premiership quarter, with both sides booting 6 apiece. It would seem though, the damage had been done and our hopes of a preliminary final berth were all but gone. The final term saw us kick 7 goals to the Eagles 3, but the margin was too great to overcome. I remember Rod Grinter trying his best to fly the flag, but unfortunately he had few mates on the day and it was all too late. The fact that we were totally sucked in by the Eagles’ aggression and that bar for the second quarter brain fade, we matched them in all other aspects, meant that we let a precious chance slip. History records that in 1990, the crowd from Hoar Frost Park in Collingwood won their first flag in 32 years. It was the year that saw the Dees participate in the finals for the 4th consecutive year. But for me, out of those 4 years, I had the sense that 1990 was the year that got away. Of course the mid season jitters did not help our cause, but I reckon, we were as good as anyone come the business end of the season. We were more mature and battle hardened than we were in ’87, no-one was going to beat omnipotent Hawthorn in ’88 and although it was a credit to us to back up again in ’89, we weren’t in the same class at the Hawks and the Cats that year. To this day, I certainly believe we would have run Collingwood close for that Premiership Cup. Oh, what could have been for the MFC in 1990!!!!