IN JUST four days’ time, Melbourne will play in the 2021 Toyota AFL Grand Final.
It’s a rare opportunity that comes with an added layer of meaning for the Melbourne faithful.
After 57 years without premiership success, Saturday’s game brings a wave of nerves for those watching on in the red and blue, as they yearn for something not experienced since 1964.
But one supporter, with a particularly special connection to the club, is surprisingly quite the opposite.
Former Melbourne player Tom Flower, and brother of club legend Robert Flower, is feeling calm heading into the momentous game, and quietly confident that the Dees can achieve the ultimate success.
“I’m very relaxed and very excited at the same time,” Tom told Melbourne Media.
“The whole team has been outstanding, and I’ve got a good feeling about it.
“I really believe this is the start of something positive that could continue for years to come.”
While Tom and his family are eager for the game to come, he knows his brother would’ve been at the forefront of this year’s Grand Final build up.
“He would’ve been jumping out of his skin with excitement,” Tom said.
Robert was one of Melbourne’s most beloved players, running out in the red and blue in 272 games and captaining the side for seven years from 1981 to 1987.
He was inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame in 1996 and was named in Melbourne’s Team of the Century in 2000.
Throughout this memorable career, Robert never got the opportunity to play in a Grand Final, narrowly missing out in his last AFL game with a heartbreaking Preliminary Final loss.
Tom spoke fondly of Robert’s love of the club and what this year’s potential premiership success would mean to his brother.
“He loved going to the footy, we’d go virtually every week to watch Melbourne,” he said.
“So, he’d be really over the moon.
“He played a lot of football without playing in a Grand Final, so I think the fact that Melbourne is even in the Grand Final after so long, is an added bonus.”
Having such an important history with Melbourne, Tom insisted that the Demon spirit remained strong within the Flower family.
“It’s very exciting for the whole family,” he said.
“Rob’s four children are all mad Demon supporters.
“The excitement is fantastic, but if they win, they win. If they lose, we won’t be guttered because they’ve had a great season.”
Having watched such positive wins throughout the season, Tom said he has a strong belief that 2021 could be the year the Demons break the longest remaining drought in the competition.
“It’s one of the strongest Melbourne sides I’ve ever seen since I’ve been following the Dees,” he said.
“I think this year, the players have been together for so long and there’s been such a build up over a long period to get to this point.
“It looks like it’s all starting to come together.”
Like many Melbourne fans, Tom and his family have spent a fair chunk of the season in a COVID lockdown, unable to physically attend games.
And while it hasn’t been an ideal year, Tom said the way the Demons have played has brought himself and his family needed joy.
“We’ve been watching a lot of footy in lockdown and of course every single Melbourne game,” he said.
“We’ve been rapt with how they’ve played this year.
“It’s given everyone an extra buzz about them and I’m quietly confident the boys can do it.
“Either way, they’ve really made a bad year special for all the Melbourne supporters.”
