In the previous post we looked at Melbourne Football Club’s coaches since the famous sacking of the legendary Norm Smith, the Demons’ last Premiership coach.
We were surprised. A radio commentary that Melbourne’s coaches had all been inexperienced, with the exception of Ron Barassi, seems to be quite a way off the mark. It seems there are other reasons for the Demons’ least successful period in their history*.
One year that stands out starkly is 1964, the year of the Demons’ last Premiership. Over the ensuing forty-six years, the club has competed in the Grand Final just twice. With seven first or second placings in seven consecutive years during the fifties (1954–60), expectations — and some might say a misplaced sense of entitlement that has persisted amongst Demon fans — have always been high.
The key event in the wake of the 1964 Premiership was the arrangement to share the MCG with Richmond from 1965. This was a controversial arrangement at the time. As an outsider, we can only speculate on the impact inside the club, but within two years Norm Smith was gone, Ron Barassi was gone and the Demons, it seems, were also gone.
Is it possible that this loss of entitlement to their spiritual home, could so take the wind out of a club’s sails? The MGC has always had an iconic status in the city and, especially through the super-successful fifties, it must have seemed that the club was foredestined, by virtue of its ‘home’ ground in the VFL competition, to almost perpetual success. Seemingly small events may have consequences out of all proportion. Many have argued, for instance, that the Demons lack of on-field fortitude in 2011 stemmed from the forced retirement of popular and respected captain James McDonald.
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*
Foundation VFL club, 1897
VFL/AFL Premiers 12 times: 1900, 1926, 1939, 1940, 1941, 1948, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1959, 1960, 1964
VFL/AFL Runners Up 5 times: 1946, 1954, 1958, 1988, 2000
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2 comments:
Your right that there is more to it than McDonalds sacking...
1) No one wants to play there. Chris Judd (a childhood supporter) would rather go to Carlton or Essendon where they spent more money on the footy department. Scully would also rather live in Sydney as GWS will probably win a premiership before Melbourne.
2) Melbourne tank, Bailey admitted they tanked for draft picks and when you do that you set a bad culture up which will take 2-3 years to correct
3) No senior coaches wants to coach there. Only one coach with prior experience has coached at Melbourne since Norm Smith back in the 60′s (which you pointed out).
4) Infighting throughout the last 15 years with the board.
5) Its taken a sick man who is on his death bed to make a stance for the club while others instead focus on their media career.
6) Members wanted to merge 15 years ago
Do we need to go on?
You've assumed much more from the post than was actually there, K2K.
1. I'm not real sure that childhood allegiances mean too much to professional footballers and we don't actually know where young Scully will be next year at this stage.
2. We've had this discussion before. There's a chasm of difference between going out with the intention to lose — tanking — and not pulling out every stop to win (in the longer term interest of the club).
3. You clearly didn't read carefully enough. Skilton and Northey both had previous senior coaching experience and Balme had coached Premierships in the SANFL (when that was still significant). Until Daniher, there was also no lack of Premiership cultural experience. Just wait. there'll be a line of people wanting to coach Jack Watts and Jack Trengove.
4. Hard to know. Media reports can be unreliable and speculative.
5. If the bloke with the media career is more interested in that than taking on some real responsibility, then I say keep the bastard away for as long as possible. As it is, media reports suggest he has been pulling plenty of strings anyway.
6. Not sure it was the members who wanted to merge, although they voted to accept the then-board's proposal. Also not sure why that doesn't mean that Hawthorn, whose Board was at least entertaining the notion, shouldn't also have collapsed in on itself.
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