Melbourne Football Club
The Melbourne Football Club is an Australian Football -Verein from Melbourne , Victoria , who in the Australian Football League plays (AFL). The colors of the club known as "The Demons" are dark blue and red. The Demons , founded in 1858, were one of the first clubs ever to be set up for playing a football sport.
history
Members of the Melbourne Cricket Club founded the club in 1858 to keep fit during the winter break. As the first club of its kind, this was instrumental in the codification of the rules of Australian football. In July 1859, the Demons performed the first game under the new rulebook against South Yarra. In 1897 Melbourne was one of the founding members of the Victorian Football League (VFL). The three decades between 1933 and 1964 are considered to be the glorious years of the club's history, which were shaped above all by club icon Norm Smith, who, as a player and coach, played a key role in shaping this “golden era” of the Demons. During this time the club reached 13 grand finals and won ten championships. From 1955 to 1960 they moved into the Grand Final every year under the leadership of superstar Ron Barassi, losing only once (1958). 1964 achieved the last title win to date. After that, a long period of decline set in, from which the club was unable to recover. Although there were two other Grand Finalists in 1988 and 2000 , Melbourne has been one of the weaker teams in the AFL over the past few decades.
Fans
The close connection with the Melbourne Cricket Club had both advantages (they were the first football team to use the Melbourne Cricket Ground for their home games) and disadvantages for the Demons . Since members of the MCC automatically had the right to attend all home games of the Demons , the number of members has traditionally remained low and is still rather small compared to teams like the Collingwood Magpies or the Hawthorn Hawks at around 35,000. In addition, because of this connection Melbourne had the reputation of being an "establishment" club.
successes
- Championships (12): 1900, 1926, 1939, 1940, 1941, 1948, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1959, 1960, 1964
- McClelland Trophy (4): 1955, 1956, 1958, 1990