Once the Melbourne Football Club broke its 23-year drought and made the finals in 1987, it became pretty good at that finals footy caper.
Indeed, over the next 20 years, Melbourne made the finals on 12 occasions. Only Essendon and West Coast featured in September more often.
Sadly for the Demons, there were no premierships to show for an extended period when they were one of the most competitive teams in the AFL and particularly well coached by John Northey, Neil Balme and Neale Daniher.
They made the Grand Final twice in that time, well beaten by Hawthorn in 1988 and Essendon in 2000. There was no real shame in finishing second in either instance. Fans of both the Hawks and the Bombers will tell you that those premiership teams might be the greatest and most powerful their clubs have ever produced.
And talk to Melbourne people of the time and they’ll say the 1994 team was the best of the lot. There were some seriously good footballers in that team, starting with a Brownlow medalist, Jim Stynes, but also the likes of Garry Lyon, Brett Lovett, David Neitz, David Schwarz, Todd Viney, Steven and Matthew Febey, Stephen Tingay and Sean Wight, to name just a few.
The Demons exploded in September, upsetting Carlton and destroying Footscray, before being well beaten by eventual premier West Coast in the preliminary final. But what was notable about this team was that it was the last Melbourne team to win the first four games of the season.
Until now.
The 2021 Demons are also off to a similar flyer. There was a positive vibe surrounding Simon Goodwin’s men in the lead-up to the season, but once key forwards Ben Brown and Sam Weideman succumbed to injury, expectations were tempered a bit. 3-1 or even 2-2 would have been regarded as acceptable, but now at 4-0, they find themselves right in the mix for the top four.
The flying start to the season has been powered by a super midfield with the re-signed Clayton Oliver and Jack Viney fit and firing at the same time. Max Gawn has been terrific as ever in the ruck and Christian Petracca, through the midfield and the forward line has been mercurial. The Dustin Martin comparisons last year might have been premature, but he is knocking on the door of superstardom.
The absence of Brown and Weideman has been well dealt with until now and with 10 goals through four games, Bayley Fritsch is emerging as one of the best medium forwards in the competition. Kysaiah Pickett is a true excitement machine. Steven May and Jake Lever have been defensive pillars for more than a year now, although a facial injury will keep May sidelined for the next month.
Still, the strength of the Demons is that erstwhile flanker Adam Tomlinson stepped in for May against Geelong last week and kept Tom Hawkins to just two goals.
We probably will get our best read on the Dees when they face Richmond in the Anzac Eve game at the MCG on Saturday week. But before then they need to get past Hawthorn on Sunday and it is the classic trap game.
Understandably, the Richmond game looms large, especially with Nathan Jones’ 300th game adding to the occasion. But the Hawks have played only a bad quarter here or there so far this season and are probably a smidge better than their 17th place on the ladder would indicate. But the Demons are showing all the traits of a team that takes care of business when it needs to. That’s what the good teams do.
It's also a big week for…
Richmond: The Tigers are hardly likely to panic after two straight defeats, but if we’ve learned anything from the books and documentaries about the club in recent years is that hard questions will be asked of the players and coaches and key aspects of the ‘Richmond’ process will be examined. They were exposed by St Kilda’s speed across the ground in the corresponding game last year. Sadly, this is the last Thursday night game for some time, but it shapes as a good one.
Nathan Buckley: Collingwood was terrible in large parts against GWS last week and it led to all sorts of discussion thereafter with everything on the table – gameplan, list management and of course, Buckley’s future. But what the Pies have been the masters at for the last 20 years is the great backs-to-the-wall win on the road, with last year’s elimination final against the Eagles in Perth being a case in point. Selection will be fascinating on Thursday night – Finlay Macrae’s debut has already been penciled in – but can the old stagers conjure up some more magic against the odds?
Carlton: The Blues want to be taken seriously in 2021, so this is the one. One of the flag favourites is heading to the MCG on Saturday night missing a few soldiers and with some others likely to play hurt. This is the statement game.
Joe Daniher: The first time in a long time that a Daniher will be listed on the team sheet for a game against Essendon. Bomber fans are quickly falling in love with their young team with the electric Nik Cox at the head of the queue, but it will pain them no end if Daniher has a big night out at the Gabba. Shame this one isn’t at Marvel Stadium just to add to the theatre of it all.