Diehard Demons fan Rod Warren off to WA grand final 57 years after watching Dees win 1964 flag from MCG stands

A young Rod Warren was among the 102,471 faces in the crowd at the MCG when his beloved Melbourne Demons last won an AFL-VFL premiership in 1964. On Saturday, 57 years on from that magical day, the fanatical Demons supporter will be among the 60,000 at Optus Stadium for the first AFL grand final held in WA. It has been a long wait for Demons fans since the win at the MCG on September 19, 1964, when Melbourne pulled off a thrilling four-point victory over Collingwood. As a 13-year-old at the game with his dad, Mr Warren can remember Magpies skipper Ray Gabelich taking four bounces and running in to slot a goal that put his side ahead late in the final quarter. The Demons took the ball forward and an unlikely hero emerged, with defender Neil Crompton kicking his only goal of the season after following his player up from the back pocket. The Magpies had a red-hot crack at wrestling back the lead, but the Demons held on, securing their sixth flag in 10 years. “Leading right through that era where we won six premierships in 10 years it was a great time to be barracking for Melbourne,” Mr Warren said. “I got to watch their last winning grand final and I can remember bits and pieces of it. “It was a really close game, only two points in it at half-time, and Crompton slotted it ... we were very happy Melbourne supporters. “I was 13 and I turned 70 last year, so it’s a fair gap.” Born in Ballarat and growing up in Melbourne, Mr Warren said football and, more specifically, the Dees, were in his blood. “I come from a Melbourne family and in Victoria, Aussie Rules was your religion,” he said. “If that was our religion, our church was the Melbourne Footy Club. The coach Norm Smith, he was the priest, and of course god was Ron Barassi. “That’s the way it worked in our family, we were Melbourne, Melbourne, Melbourne, otherwise you would have been thrown out of the house. “As soon as I was old enough to take to the footy, I remember watching Melbourne looking through the white picket fence around the MCG with my Footy Record.” Now, the Warren household in Albany resembles a Demons memorabilia shop. Arriving at the home, visitors are greeted by a red and navy blue letterbox, garden gnomes painted in Dees colours, and Melbourne number plates. There is more of the same inside — scarves, flags, pens, stubby holders, and a coffee mug, all Melbourne-themed. In another sign his heart beats true for the red and the blue, Mr Warren spontaneously broke out in the club song during his interview with the Advertiser this week. “I’d say I’m extremely passionate,” he said. “I’ve got a Melbourne dummy which I’ve spat plenty of times, but I do admit I haven’t spat it once this year. “I’ve sat in absolute amazement at how bad a side can play, stomped on my hat lots of times.” He was at Melbourne’s last grand final in 2000, when they were beaten by Essendon. But he thinks the Dees have what it takes to break the longest current AFL-VFL premiership drought on Saturday. He will be at the game with wife Kay and grandson Kallan Keeling-Holt. “It’s surreal they have got into the grand final and it is here in Perth,” he said. “This year I’ve been holding my breath. “The more games we won I kept looking for that precipice, where we were going to fall over because of previous experience, but this year they seemed to have got better and better. “All the lead-up games point to it — this has got to be our year.”