AFL Finals 2021: Melbourne great Garry Lyon on what a fairytale premiership would mean to the Demons and their supporters

Few clubs know heartbreak like Melbourne. On and off the field, the Demons have faced harrowing challenges. This is what a win in two weeks would mean to its people.

Melbourne great Garry Lyon says a Demons premiership witnessed by beloved club figures Ron Barassi and Neale Daniher would be a football fairytale for a club that has witnessed so much recent heartbreak.

Lyon was in Perth to witness Melbourne steam roll Geelong to book a Grand Final berth for September 25 as part of his Fox Footy duties.

He cannot help but ride the wave of emotion for a club that has endured the passing of Jimmy Stynes, Robbie Flower, Sean Wight, Troy Broadbridge and Dean Bailey, along with tanking scandals and only a single finals berth from 2007-2020.

Club legend Barassi and MND ambassador Daniher have given so much to the Demons — and the wider football community — and Lyon believes they can witness an elusive Demons flag on September 25.

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Skipper Max Gawn starred as Melbourne booked its place in the grand final. Picture: Michael Klein

“Every club would have storylines like that, but there has been some real sadness and tragedy around the Melbourne football club and it’s been well-documented,” he told the Herald Sun.

“Ron is the biggest name in footy. He was the biggest name when I arrived at Melbourne, he was like a god.

“And Neale has had such a big impact as well. Barassi is just the man and he’s not getting any younger, the great man, so it would be a wonderful thing for him.

“That is the sadness of this year. You would love to be anticipating a preliminary final at a chock-a-block MCG on a Friday night and the cruellest and saddest thing is it will be empty.

“You almost forget we had 78,000 at Anzac Day. But the AFL and players have done an unbelievable job to put their shoulder to the wheel and here we are in Perth watching a prelim and ultimately a Grand Final.”

Melbourne legend Ron Barassi played in the club’s last Grand Final winning team in 1964. Picture: David Caird

Lyon’s Fox Footy duties will involve nightly crosses into AFL 360 as well as broadcast duties, with the footy expert requiring a shove in the right direction from partner Nicky to jump on a plane west.

“It looked like the preliminary finals were going to be in Perth and maybe the Grand Final and I was offered the chance to go and cover it.

“Initially I wasn’t that keen and going into quarantine wasn’t really my idea of something I would like to do, but Nicky said, ‘You never know what will happen. If they did do something memorable and you weren’t there, you would kick yourself”,” he said.

“I have a legitimate reason to be here for Fox Footy and it all happened pretty quickly so I said, ‘Yep’, and here we are.

“We have to be very respectful of what is happening over in Perth but a full house playing against the mighty Cats for a chance to play in a Grand Final is the place you want to be, so I will be there.”

Fox Footy’s Garry Lyon is hoping for another Demons flag for many different reasons. Picture: Mark Dadswell

Lyon’s three boys Ben, Josh and Tom share his love of Melbourne and have been there through plenty of lows and the occasional high.

His WhatsApp group he shares with the boys will light up on Friday night just as it has over so many crushing lows and unexpected highs.

“Yeah, you wouldn’t want to see that reprinted in the newspaper. It gets pretty fruity,” he said.

“But it’s what footy does. It connects families. It connects you with your kids.

“That is the thing about this year — you love your footy club but sometimes you don’t know how much you love them.

“This time around you can see it in the eyes of your kids and families and the messages from people who are just so nervous.

“My boys are a pretty good window into the typical Melbourne supporter.

“They are passionate and excited and they can get shitty so you can bet the texts will be flying around during the game.”

Neale Daniher, Jim Stynes and Ron Barassi.

THE REAL EMOTION BEHIND DEES’ FLAG TILT

History has taught Garry Lyon getting ahead of yourself as a Melbourne supporter only leads to pain and heartbreak.

In 2018, as his beloved Melbourne marched into a Perth Stadium preliminary final against West Coast, Lyon shelled out to fly sons Ben, Josh and Tom across to Perth to see history in the making.

“Yeah, it was a quick kill,” Lyon laughs of a finals obliteration that saw the half-time score read 10.9 (69) to 0.6 (6).

“Everyone had this same sense of nerves and anticipation and it was done and dusted so quickly.

“I flew the boys over and they were so excited and they texted me 20 minutes in saying, ‘Holy hell, what is going on’. At least it was quick”.

Three years later, former Demons club captain and Fox Footy commentator Lyon is torn between his head and his heart.

His head tells him this surge is sustainable and built on a bedrock of solid game plan and immense talent from the likes of Max Gawn, Christian Petracca and Clayton Oliver.

His heart has been broken before by all the pain that has gone before from supporting success-starved Melbourne.

Garry Lyon and Stynes in 1993.

It is why he is so conscious of the potential for Geelong to ruin this emotional Melbourne march, for the Demons to come up short once more.

But before the Demons booked their place in the Perth Stadium Grand Final, he couldn’t help but be swept up in the emotion after two weeks of Perth quarantine before his role for Fox Footy in Friday night’s telecast.

So much disaster has befallen the Demons on and off the field in recent decades, and he cannot help but think of great mates such as Jimmy Stynes who are not around to enjoy this charge.

“I think about (Jimmy) quite a bit. I think about him a lot,” Lyon said.

“There was a man trying to keep his footy club on track while fighting for his life. There is a lot of perspective about what it meant to him. He will be looking down and smiling.

“There is the Stynes family but also the whole Melbourne family. We have had to rally around lots of families in recent times. The Broadbridges, the Baileys, Sean Wight’s family, Jimmy himself. There has been so much tragedy there.

“The Melbourne football club has been there for all of them and that would be the emotion if it (a premiership) ever happens.

“But it’s only a preliminary final and I am at pains not to look too far past Friday. You just can’t look too far beyond a Geelong side that has been so good for so long.”

Lyon after the 1988 grand final loss to Hawthorn.

Lyon’s decorated 226-game career featured a dozen finals and the 1988 Grand Final loss.

Yet, success for the Demons since the golden years has only ever been fleeting.

“If you know Melbourne’s history, and I have lived it, it’s been a roller coaster ride.

“We have been able to make big finals, and then we are bottom two the next year, then we bounce back into a Grand Final. This appears to be more sustainable.

“The list seems to be one that is good enough to hang around and have a crack at it for a little while.

“You don’t take anything for granted, but the list appears to be in good nick, they have their good players locked away, and now they have to deal with what is in front of them.”

Lyon’s man crush on midfielder Clayton Oliver is well advertised, but has the brilliance of Kysaiah Pickett or the versatility of Luke Jackson seen his admiration drift to a rival Demon?

“Wash your mouth out….” he jokes.

“There is only one. He is still the man. I have been astonished by his level of consistency. He has performed at an eight-and-a-half out of ten or better for most of the year and it just astounds me. Look at the growth in him. He is using the ball better, he is hitting the scoreboard, he is tough, he covers the ground. I try to be objective, but it’s very hard.”

Clayton Oliver will again be key to the Demons’ chances on Friday night. Picture: Sarah Reed/AFL Photos

The club’s biggest names famously parked their selfish attitudes over summer and decided to be better teammates, to invest in care for each other.

Lyon says the years of close misses and frustrating losses laid the groundwork for the players to commit to an attitude every AFL club attempts to channel.

“I think it’s real. Most clubs would touch on topics like that in the pre-season, but not everyone goes and lives it. The difference is this Melbourne group really talked the talk and walked the walk,” he said.

“It’s really easy to sit there in the summer and say this is what we are going to do.

“For whatever reason something has happened to challenge this group, and they have embraced it and lived it.

“And the irony of that is when you embrace that selflessness your individual play is highlighted.”

Lyon was at the ground at Perth Stadium on Friday night instead of his boys fearing that quick kill once more as a generation of failures have taught him.

But if you cannot have some blind faith as a supporter of a downtrodden team like Melbourne, what have you got left?

“We have gone through some harsh times as Demons fans,” says Lyon.

“But so many Melbourne supporters have hung in there, and it all pays off for nights like this on Friday night.”

Originally published as AFL Finals 2021: Melbourne great Garry Lyon on what a fairytale premiership would mean to the Demons and their supporters