Melbourne Football Club

The Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed The Demons since 1933, is an Australian rules football club playing in the Australian Football League, based in Melbourne, Victoria. Founded in 1858, it is the oldest football club in Australia and is one of the oldest in the world. It is also distinguished by the fact that it was members of the club who wrote the rules of their game. Melbourne plays in red and dark blue colours, and its club song is It's a Grand Old Flag. The club was known in its early days as the Fuchsias and later as the Redlegs.

Current dilemmas

The underlying problem for Melbourne and the other older clubs is that the new Australian Football League, a 16-team national competition, has left too many clubs in Melbourne, a city which despite its great tradition of passionate support for Australian Rules Football, cannot financially support ten clubs competing against wealthy and successful interstate newcomers.

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Some observers wonder about the long-term future of the club, with its thin membership and supporter base, political instability, and lack of consistent on-field success. The AFL's current TV deal requires a 16-team competition and thus it is highly unlikely a team will be allowed to fold in the next few years. If such a guarantee disappeared and clubs were left to survive on their own resources, the Demons, along with the Western Bulldogs and Kangaroos, look the most financially vulnerable. Melbourne has an additional vulnerability, in that it is yet to establish a permanent home base, with current administration, training and social bases scattered around various venues of the MCG, Junction Oval and the Bentleigh Club.

Related Topics:
Western Bulldogs - Kangaroos - MCG - Junction Oval

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But in 2006, as they have done for 148 years, Demon fans' "Hearts (will) beat true/For the Red and the Blue." The most profound truth about Australian football is that "there's always next year." As the Melbourne Football Club prepares to enter the 43nd year since its last premiership, its supporters recall the words of the club song: "Keep your eye on the Red and the Blue."

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