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It is a really encouraging circumstance that two of my favourite organisations are now collaborating for their mutual benefit.
The MCC, which is the best large-scale, membership-based sports organisation in the world, and The Footy Almanac, the best independent collaborative Australian football and general sports media organisation in…well…Australia.
I had planned to write about the Collingwood-Fremantle game at the MCG on Friday night, so I will get that out of the way now. It was the worst game of football in the AFL since Fremantle played Sydney in another debacle at the SCG in 2001. Statisticians can now place Fremantle in the worst two games this century. Now let’s move on.
Let me take you back to Round 1, 1995. Fremantle played Richmond at the MCG in their inaugural game. I watched from the outer, around about Bay 13. Richmond clung on to win by five points, and I started covering football games for the Fremantle Herald.
Let me take you further back to late September 1994. I had moved to Melbourne at the start of 1994 and I was sitting in the MCC Reserve with a friend (my boss actually) who had invited me to the grand final. I sulked through the despicable West Coast Eagles beating Geelong in the Grand Final. Not that I cared about Geelong losing. Being a Freo fan, I just hate West Coast.
But I did enjoy my first time inside the MCC very much. Awesome club I thought. I was comparing it with Subiaco FC and the WACA of the `80s - both great places. The MCC was probably better I suspected.
By the time Fremantle played at the MCG again, Round 17 1995, I was the holder of an AFL press pass and the real benefit of said item was that I had unfettered access to all AFL venues and in particular, the MCC. In 1995 there were still five AFL venues in Melbourne - Western Oval, Princes Park, Victoria Park, Waverley Park and the MCG.
Princes Park was probably the pick of them, but they were all pretty much down at heel - except for the MCG. I certainly didn’t shed a tear to see any of them pass into antiquity.
For my first five years in Melbourne I lived as much in Barwon Heads as I did in Melbourne, and my surfing colleagues from that part of the world stereotypically barracked for Geelong and were members of the MCC.
Many Friday and Saturday nights were spent until stumps in the Bullring Bar (and not the pale shadow that is the new Bullring - I will return to that another day) deconstructing footy and planning trips to Port Campbell. My boss (remarkably he kept me on) put me on the MCC waiting list in 1994, but it was my press pass that was the key to my ongoing love affair with the MCC.
I can’t count the number of times I have taken advantage of the two-hour parking in Wellington Parade and watched the second half of a game at the `G. Anyway after about 10 years of the press box, the mind numbing ‘coach’s conference’ and being forced into close company, however briefly, with real football journalists, I had had enough.
My very part-time role as a football journalist was seriously interfering with my love of the game. I woke in a cold sweat one game day and realised I did not have another match day report in me. I just wanted to go to the footy with my pals, scream and shout, have a bit of a laugh, and watch the greatest sporting geniuses in Australia do their stuff. I couldn’t bring myself to name another set of match day best players. I don’t care how many possessions Adrian Fletcher had - playing in the same team as Tony Modra he could never be best player.
Anyway resigning my Freo Herald ‘Our Man In Melbourne’ column started the interregnum. I spent four long years in MCC cold turkey until my Restricted membership date came up. What a happy day (in 2009) that was. Last night, by the time I left the bonhomie of the sparsely populated but still vibrant Frank Grey Smith Bar (actually it was very sparsely populated when I left), I had recovered from the football, had a good chat with my mates, and listened to some pretty good live music.
Sometimes I barrack for the Melbourne Cricket Club more than I do my footy team - and I suspect I am not alone.
Neil was born in Subiaco when the WANFL was the still the best football league in Australia. A child of the WA northern wheatbelt, he moved to Victoria in 1994. He denies the move is permanent.
Match Summary
COLLINGWOOD 3.4 7.8 7.10 12.13 (85)
FREMANTLE 0.1 1.4 3.5 5.7 (37)
GOALS
Collingwood: Cox 2, White 2, Cloke 2, Greenwood, Phillips, De Goey, Treloar, Smith, Aish
Fremantle: Pavlich 2, Ballantyne 2, Walters
BEST
Collingwood: Treloar, Pendlebury, Crisp, Reid, Smith, Howe
Fremantle: Barlow, Walters, Neale, Crozier, Hill, Collins
INJURIES
Collingwood: Nil
Fremantle: Nil
Reports: Nil
Umpires: Stephens, Ryan, Pannell, Mitchell
Official crowd: 20,320 at the MCG