By Lynda Carroll
When you wander through the empty MCG before a game, you can feel the atmosphere start to build. In the function rooms, staff are bustling, getting organised. Outside, broadcasters are pacing back and forth, getting equipment in place. Then there’s someone like me, taking the opportunity to soak it all in as I make MCC Library Fact Sheet deliveries around the ground.
I’m a Melbourne supporter, after all. I’ve been there – through finals, sad times, glorious games and bad days when the rain fell and the scoreboard was bleak as well – and I’m here now. As a fellow red and blue devotee said in the exuberant aftermath, ‘What a lovely view it is from the top – still waiting for the crash!’
Well, at least the crash won’t happen at the MCG right now, if indeed it does happen at all. There might be a few speed humps, but we’ll have these nine games, no losses to always bookmark the start of 2021. It brings the current team – McDonald, Oliver, Petracca, Salem, Fritsch, Pickett, Gawn, May, Lever, Langdon…name your player – into line with teams such as 1956. Now there was a special season. It was 65 years ago, but with recent comparisons revitalising this magic season, it was just yesterday. Norm Smith was hitting the heights of his coaching powers. Noel McMahen was leading the way as captain. Preparations for the Melbourne Olympics meant that the team didn’t play at the MCG until Round 5, let alone get to unfurl the 1955 pennant for supporters to enjoy.
But the team played fine, bustling through to thirteen wins – that’s only four more to go, 2021 – and just two losses on the way to the first back-to-back premierships since the middle of the 1939, 1940 and 1941 hattrick, and hitting the middle note of the 1955, 1956 and 1957 triumphs with aplomb. The entire 1956 team was ultimately inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame, forever to be known as the ‘Olympic Premiers’, and rightly hailed as one of the best outfits in the game’s history.
Now, Ron Barassi – one of the powerhouses of that season and many others – sits in the stands, still a presence. The 1950s and 1960s cast a long shadow into the present day. But the MCG can hold all these stories and more. That is why we keep coming back, either to play the game or to watch it. It’s a constant holder of all our emotions, sinking into that green circle of turf, soaking into the seats and the stands. No matter how many times the structure is reshaped, the ‘remember that day?’ stories stay fixed in the soul of the place. Remember the 2000 finals when Carlton supporters thought they had won, then two youngsters – Brad Green and Cameron Bruce – took control to help deliver a narrow win and a Preliminary Final berth?
Of course we remember. This game is another that has recently been resurrected, and was one of the favourites of 2000. On cold, harsh days, these are the memories that keep us coming back. Round 9, 2021 will be another to add to the collection. While the Blues led at the start, after Fritsch kicked two goals of his three for the game early in the second quarter, it was time for the Demons to take charge. Leading by 13 points at half time, the rest of the game provided the opportunity to build on that margin. Tom McDonald continued his domination with three goals in the first half, along with ten marks and assisting in other scoring opportunities. Down the other end of the ground, Lever and May had the Carlton forward line under control.
The second half added steady rain to the equation, but this didn’t deter supporters, and it certainly had little impact on the likes of Langdon (24 disposals), Oliver (29 disposals) and Petracca (27 disposals). It will be interesting to see the totals for these three come season’s end, whenever that may be.
In the end, it was Melbourne by 26 points. 26. Now there’s a season that resounds with meaning for the red and the blue. It was 95 years ago…but we’ll hold for a few minutes, a few weeks, a few months, and keep enjoying 2021. After six games here, the next time that the red and blue will be on display at the MCG is 14 June, in one of the favourite games of the season. It’s Queen’s Birthday, up against the old enemy in Collingwood.
I think I might arrive early that day, and take a stroll around the empty stands, taking in the atmosphere, before the stories begin.
When you wander through the empty MCG before a game, you can feel the atmosphere start to build. In the function rooms, staff are bustling, getting organised. Outside, broadcasters are pacing back and forth, getting equipment in place. Then there’s someone like me, taking the opportunity to soak it all in as I make MCC Library Fact Sheet deliveries around the ground.
I’m a Melbourne supporter, after all. I’ve been there – through finals, sad times, glorious games and bad days when the rain fell and the scoreboard was bleak as well – and I’m here now. As a fellow red and blue devotee said in the exuberant aftermath, ‘What a lovely view it is from the top – still waiting for the crash!’
Well, at least the crash won’t happen at the MCG right now, if indeed it does happen at all. There might be a few speed humps, but we’ll have these nine games, no losses to always bookmark the start of 2021. It brings the current team – McDonald, Oliver, Petracca, Salem, Fritsch, Pickett, Gawn, May, Lever, Langdon…name your player – into line with teams such as 1956. Now there was a special season. It was 65 years ago, but with recent comparisons revitalising this magic season, it was just yesterday. Norm Smith was hitting the heights of his coaching powers. Noel McMahen was leading the way as captain. Preparations for the Melbourne Olympics meant that the team didn’t play at the MCG until Round 5, let alone get to unfurl the 1955 pennant for supporters to enjoy.
But the team played fine, bustling through to thirteen wins – that’s only four more to go, 2021 – and just two losses on the way to the first back-to-back premierships since the middle of the 1939, 1940 and 1941 hattrick, and hitting the middle note of the 1955, 1956 and 1957 triumphs with aplomb. The entire 1956 team was ultimately inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame, forever to be known as the ‘Olympic Premiers’, and rightly hailed as one of the best outfits in the game’s history.
Now, Ron Barassi – one of the powerhouses of that season and many others – sits in the stands, still a presence. The 1950s and 1960s cast a long shadow into the present day. But the MCG can hold all these stories and more. That is why we keep coming back, either to play the game or to watch it. It’s a constant holder of all our emotions, sinking into that green circle of turf, soaking into the seats and the stands. No matter how many times the structure is reshaped, the ‘remember that day?’ stories stay fixed in the soul of the place. Remember the 2000 finals when Carlton supporters thought they had won, then two youngsters – Brad Green and Cameron Bruce – took control to help deliver a narrow win and a Preliminary Final berth?
Of course we remember. This game is another that has recently been resurrected, and was one of the favourites of 2000. On cold, harsh days, these are the memories that keep us coming back. Round 9, 2021 will be another to add to the collection. While the Blues led at the start, after Fritsch kicked two goals of his three for the game early in the second quarter, it was time for the Demons to take charge. Leading by 13 points at half time, the rest of the game provided the opportunity to build on that margin. Tom McDonald continued his domination with three goals in the first half, along with ten marks and assisting in other scoring opportunities. Down the other end of the ground, Lever and May had the Carlton forward line under control.
The second half added steady rain to the equation, but this didn’t deter supporters, and it certainly had little impact on the likes of Langdon (24 disposals), Oliver (29 disposals) and Petracca (27 disposals). It will be interesting to see the totals for these three come season’s end, whenever that may be.
In the end, it was Melbourne by 26 points. 26. Now there’s a season that resounds with meaning for the red and the blue. It was 95 years ago…but we’ll hold for a few minutes, a few weeks, a few months, and keep enjoying 2021. After six games here, the next time that the red and blue will be on display at the MCG is 14 June, in one of the favourite games of the season. It’s Queen’s Birthday, up against the old enemy in Collingwood.
I think I might arrive early that day, and take a stroll around the empty stands, taking in the atmosphere, before the stories begin.
