It’s forty-five years since the greatest Grand Final of any was played out on the MCG. But only now has the story been told.
Central to the tale is the late Carlton defender Vin Waite - and the yarnspinner is Michael Shane, a long-serving member of the club’s cheersquad and one of 121,696 patrons crammed into the MCG on that glorious September Saturday in 1970, when Ron Barassi’s Blues completed the most famous comeback of all time.
Shane, who this week completed a sentimental journey back to the ground he knew as Princes Park, recalled members of the cheersquad banding together at half-time of the ’70 Grand Final, with Carlton a massive 44 points in arrears of its most hated inner city rival, Collingwood.
“When the Carlton players were walking off at half-time it wasn’t looking good, but we wanted to instil some spirit in that team so we chanted in support of the first player to the last as they disappeared down the race,” Shane said.
“When the team emerged after half-time we cheered again.”
It is at this point, in the Northern stand at the old race shared by the Melbourne and Richmond co-tenants, that the legend is born.
“Back then the competing teams’ races were side by side, and on that particular day Collingwood’s cheersquad prepared a half-time banner,” Shane said.
“They put it up after the Carlton players ran out on the ground - but there was one straggler, Vinny Waite, and Vinny was a hulking-sized player by the way.
Michael Shane visits Ikon Park.
Shane remembered that when Waite emerged from the race he briefly contemplated making a beeline around the opposition banner. “But I could see his mind ticking over and he thought ‘Bugger it, I’m going to run through it’ – and he ran right through the middle of the Collingwood banner and the Carlton cheersquad erupted into cheers.”
The Vin Waite story is but one of a million swirling around in Shane’s memory, as his association with the cheersquad can be sourced to its halcyon days of the early 1960s.
In a later life from 2006 through to 2009, Shane also served his beloved Carlton as a masseur. So he was chuffed to renew acquaintance with the likes of Andrew Carrazzo and Bryce Gibbs at headquarters this week – and pose for posterity on the site of what was once the cheersquad’s domain at the Robert Heatley Stand end.
“It’s wonderful to be back. This place evokes so many memories. There was this continuous seat affixed to the inside of the fence so that if you got here early on matchday you could find your place in the front row,” Shane said.
“When you look out on the old ground it’s still how it was – and when I look out across to the advertising hoardings I can still see in my mind’s eye the old banners I used to hang up.”
For those of us old enough to remember, two banners affixed to the fence at Princes Park through the 1960s and ‘70s leave a lasting impression.
The first, in glorious old English lettering, simply read “Ye Olde Blues forever”.
The second, of Shane’s making, took up fence space for half the ground and read as follows;
CRIPES! YOU GALAHS COULDN’T BEAT CARLTON IN A MONTH OF SUNDAYS. OUR BONZER BLUES WILL DO YOUR MOB LIKE A DINNER – AND WE’RE FAIR DINKUM SPORT!
“I remember Harry Beitzel calling a game here at Carlton, during which he made mention of quite a magnificent banner being unfurled,” Shane said. “Wouldn’t it be great to see that banner back,” Shane declared.
For years, Shane dutifully ferried the “Cripes” banner - in three parts – to Princes Park. There, he affixed the homemade signage to the fence by rope threaded through eyelets fixed to the top of the material.
Michael Shane, right, pictured during the 1970 Grand Final. (Photo: Carlton Football Club)
It was all part of the fun for Shane, who more recently wielded the “Hot as Blue Blazes” banner at Carlton games.
Though he’s lost count of how many contests his cast a discerning eye over, Shane declares the 1970 Grand Final as “undeniably the best of them”.
“You hear this expression about floating, and when the siren sounded in 1970 and I ran onto the MCG I was literally floating,” he said. “I was running, but couldn’t feel any pressure in my feet. It was all adrenalin. To think that they’d knocked us over three times that year and we got them in the big one.”
Michael Shane is this week’s special guest on The Two Tones podcast:
