The sacking and later reinstatement of Norm Smith by the Melbourne Football Club in 1965 is still one of the biggest stories in VFL/AFL history.
Smith was in charge of the Melbourne team that had won premierships in 1955-57, 1959 (losing to Collingwood in a major upset in 1958), 1960 and 1964.
But the genesis for the Smith dismissal came two years before, when after a Melbourne game in 1963, Smith called umpire Don Blew, ‘a cheat’.
It was no surprise to anyone that Blew sued Smith.
But when Smith came looking for support from the MFC committee, he was told, “You said it; you are an experienced public figure, you wear the costs and don’t come looking for help from us because we won’t support you.”
From that point on, Smith’s fate, in the eyes of the MFC committee, was sealed. The MFC committee was looking for any excuse to get rid of Smith.
Even though Melbourne won the premiership in 1964, that didn’t stop the MFC committee from plotting Smith’s downfall. The MFC commmittee was concerned that Smith was becoming bigger than the club, and also upset that Smith pleaded with the committee to allow Ron Barassi to be cleared to Carlton.
Finally, after a poor start to the season, the MFC committee decided to dismiss the man that took them to 6 premierships. It would be a little bit like Manchester Utd sacking Sir Alex Ferguson.
But the MFC committee didn’t count on a backlash about the dismissal.
Smith appeared on the Tony Charlton Football Show and ripped into the committee. The Melbourne players, the football public and even new Carlton coach Ron Barassi came out in support of Smith.
Finally, the MFC committee agreed to reinstate Smith to the job.
But the damage had been done. Melbourne would not appear in another finals series until 1987, and still hasn’t won a premiership since 1964.
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