Nigel Dawe

I wasn’t going to write just yet, I was going to hold off for a while and see how the next few weeks pan out; and then I thought – ‘No, you know what, while things are rolling the way they are, 9-from-9 to start the season – now is absolutely the time to capture something of this very moment!’

To add another precursor of sorts, I’m not saying for an instant the Dees are any certainty to etch their name in diamond-encrusted platinum by going through a season undefeated (a ‘feat’ as yet unrealised, in over 120-years of the VFL/ AFL competition).

But for just a second, for one almighty miniscule fraction of old man time’s most precious commodity, let’s consider the potential of such a prospect. In the emboldened spirit of William Ellery Channing, who once roared: “Fix your eyes on perfection and you make almost everything speed towards it.” Why not dare, to at least unpack or remotely engage with what such an achievement might potentially look or even feel like. At the end of the day, you only ever hit what you aim for.

While there is no precedent in our code (at its most elite level) for a team that has gone from start to finish without feeling the cold slap of defeat at some stage; there are examples of ‘perfect’ seasons in other codes. In American Football for example, the Miami Dolphins ‘sailed’ through their season of 1972 taking all before them, achieving what no other side has done, before or since in that sport – and that is win – one week at a time, for each and every week of a given season. 

Arsenal, likewise in the English Premier League, won (well didn’t lose, they drew against some teams) by going ‘undefeated’ in all 38 of their games in season 2003-04, a feat which also earned them the title ‘The Invincibles’ and a special (never before given) gold-plated version of the Premier League trophy.

While our red and blue ‘crusaders’ of season 2021 have plenty more ‘immediate’ and pressing considerations to factor in to their collective focus for the year, like getting into September safely first; one nice ‘aside’ along the way, is the potential for achieving the ‘unprecedented’, and stamp their name for all-time on the very cliff face of the game itself.

It’s not unreasonable to consider a perfect season, it might be highly unlikely, even borderline ludicrous: but if the Dolphins of ’72, or if Arsenal of ’03/04 had thought leading in to round 10 of their respective undefeated seasons – ‘We couldn’t possibly do this, could we?’ Then guess what…? A loss would’ve certainly met them, with full ferocity ‘half-way’ along the rocky road of their own self-doubts.

At the original stadium of Olympia, the ancient Greeks had an altar set up in clear sight of all, but essentially it was for the competing athletes, in honour of ‘Kairos’, their mighty little god of luck and opportunity. Often depicted with arrows drawn and wings on his feet, because back then, as now – luck and opportunity have to be ‘taken’ on the fly, and seized without second thought or hesitation.

As such, right now is the ‘opportune’ time for the Melbourne Football Club to take its chances and play with absolute abandon; go out of your way boys – make it 10-in-a-row… we have nothing to lose or fear, except for loss and fear itself. In the purest spirit of one of the ancient world’s most popular sayings, which hasn’t lost any of its fitting gloss, since the ferocious old days of the Colosseum itself…

‘Fortune favours the brave.’