1979

Captain - Coach: Carl Ditterich
Finishing Position: 11th
Best and Fairest: Laurie Fowler
Leading Goalkicker: Robert Flower (33)
Best First Year Player: Peter Giles
Major Sponsor: Mayne Nickless

Matches	Ladder	Playing List	Night Series	Best and Fairest	Reserves	Under 19s

Newly appointed coach Carl Ditterich returned to Melbourne for a second time to replace Denis Jones and started his reign by putting the players through a torturous first training session. He immediately declared that the Demons would make the finals, and was ruthless in cutting what he considered to be dead wood with 18 players axed from the senior list before the season started.

It was a bold claim for a side that had finished last with five wins the year before, but one backed by six wealthy businessmen who pledged $10,000 each to the club if they could finish in the five. The club had outlayed $600,000 on players alone, bigger than the entire budget of 1978, and the hope was that the bonus money offered by the businessmen would help offset those costs. Other fundraising efforts included a weekly disco at an Armadale hotel, ‘selling’ lots of MCG turf to fans, and a $50 club tie. Phil Carman was the first of the big names to sign up.

It didn't take long for the new campaign to hit trouble. A pre-season trip to New Zealand was thrown into disarray when five players who were also employed as teachers were refused leave by the Department of Education. Chris Woodman, Peter O'Keefe, Greg Hutchison, Mark McKeon and Ditterich himself were the affected players. Ditterich eventually made the trip. Pre-season training was further affected by not being able to use the MCG until the Thursday before Round 1 due to the ground being occupied by cricket and a military tattoo event.

Ray Biffin was a playing assistant coach but retired after Round 3 to take charge of the Reserves. By Round 14 he had been lured back to an injury hit Demon backline which was leaking huge scores on a weekly basis. Frank Davis was the non-playing assistant coach.

The biggest score of all was Round 17, an afternoon where the Demons made history for all the wrong reasons. Fitzroy registered the highest score and biggest winning margin in VFL history against them at Waverley.

Fitzroy's highest score record would fall 13 years later when Geelong demolished Brisbane at Carrara, but the biggest win was never seriously challenged until Round 19, 2011 when Melbourne lost to the Cats by 186 points at Kardinia Park. In the spirit of all things that were topsy-turvy about the Demons in the 70's they won the next week against Essendon.

The club was so desperate for a competitive advantage that they had a consultant who practised a process called 'eyeballing', where players were encouraged to sit with knees touching and stare into each other's eyes, then be frank about their feelings towards their teammates contribution.

They still won six games for the season and finished three games in front of last placed St Kilda with 10% better percentage. A total of 46 players were used for the season - the equal most of any Melbourne season - and the 70s ended with the Demons as the only VFL team not to make the finals at some point during the decade.

At the end of the season, as multiple committee members resigned from the board, it was revealed that the club was more than $150,000 in debt and for the first time serious questions were asked about the club's survival. A plan was put in place to separate from the MCC at the end of the year, but the committee got cold feet and pulled out, prompting Richard Seddon to resign.

Despite constant talk about Ron Barassi returning to coach, Carl Ditterich retained his job going into 1980. Carman departed after a rocky season, and Greg Wells tried to leave. He first asked for a clearance to North Melbourne, then went through a protracted process that finally landed him at Carlton in mid-1980.

The Reserves competition was known as the Commodore Cup for sponsorship reasons.

Practice Matches

Opposition	Result
Geelong	LOSS

Escort Cup

Round	Opposition	Result
1	Claremont	LOSS

Premiership Season

Round	Opposition	Result
1	Footscray	WIN
2	Geelong	LOSS
3	South Melbourne	LOSS
4	Richmond	WIN
5	Carlton	LOSS
6	Fitzroy	LOSS
7	Essendon	LOSS
8	Hawthorn	LOSS
9	North Melbourne	LOSS
10	St. Kilda	WIN
11	Collingwood	LOSS
12	Footscray	LOSS
13	Geelong	LOSS
14	Richmond	LOSS
15	South Melbourne	WIN
16	Carlton	LOSS
17	Fitzroy	LOSS
18	Essendon	WIN
19	Hawthorn	LOSS
20	North Melbourne	LOSS
21	St. Kilda	WIN
22	Collingwood	LOSS

Ladder

	W	D	L	%	P
Carlton	19	0	3	139.6	76
North Melbourne	17	0	5	123.6	68
Collingwood	15	0	7	126.7	60
Fitzroy	15	0	7	122.8	60
Essendon	12	1	9	105.1	50
Geelong	12	0	10	100.4	48
Hawthorn	10	0	12	99.8	40
Richmond	9	0	13	97.6	36
Footscray	7	1	14	81.8	30
South Melbourne	6	0	16	90.9	24
Melbourne	6	0	16	75.9	24
St. Kilda	3	0	19	65.0	12

Playing List

Number	Player	Games	Goals
1	Garry Baker	16	11
2	Robert Flower	21	33
3	Henry Coles	4	2
4	Tony Sullivan	7	0
5	Graham Hunnibell	6	1
6	Ken Roberts	1	0
6	Robert Elliott	17	6
7	Barry Denny	5	0
8	Glenn Elliott	15	11
9	Laurie Fowler	21	0
10	Carl Ditterich	17	6
11	Greg Wells	22	24
12	Cameron Clayton	13	7
13	Wayne Gordon	3	1
14	Michael Byrne	12	10
15	Phil Seaton	9	2
16	Robert Walters	12	22
17	Shane Grambeau	10	0
18	Maurice Wingate	10	6
19	Ray Biffin	7	14
20	Graham Gaunt	19	15
21	Jim Durnan	11	1
22	Ken Whitfort	9	5
23	Shane Fitzsimmons	2	3
23	Kelly O'Donnell	11	8
24	Tony Martyn	17	1
25	Kelvin Richards	2	0
26	Stewart Gull	2	1
27	Don Whitford	6	2
28	Tony Dullard	5	0
29	Andrew Moir	17	25
30	Peter Hamilton	13	0
31	Phil Carman	11	23
32	Bruce Elliott	2	0
33	John Dellamarta	2	1
34	Tom Flower	6	11
35	Steven Smith	16	15
38	Peter O'Keefe	1	0
39	Gerard Healy	21	10
40	Peter Thorne	6	9
41	Chris Woodman	6	4
43	Greg Hutchison	10	3
45	Peter Giles	11	0
48	John Wallace	2	0
50	Tony Elshaug	2	1

Best and Fairest

	Player	Votes
1st	Laurie Fowler	118
2nd	Robert Flower	105
3rd	Greg Wells	70
4th	Graham Gaunt	68
5th	Carl Ditterich	52
6th	Glenn Elliott	49
7th	Peter Giles	29
8th	Garry Baker	27
8th	Cameron Clayton	27
10th	Steven Smith	23
11th	Phil Carman	20
12th	Peter Hamilton	19
13th	Robert Walters	16
14th	Andrew Moir	15
15th	Kelly O'Donnell	14
16th	Phil Seaton	13
17th	Chris Woodman	12
17th	Robert Elliott	12
19th	Gerard Healy	11
20th	Ray Biffin	10
21st	Greg Hutchison	8
22nd	Peter Thorne	7
23rd	Tony Sullivan	6
24th	Tony Martyn	5
25th	Maurice Wingate	4
26th	Don Whitford	3
26th	Graham Hunnibell	3
27th	Michael Byrne	1

Other Awards
Redlegs Trophy - Jim Durnan
Tribunal

Round	Player	Charge	Sanction
Round 1 Reserves	Robert Walters	Spitting in face of umpire	Unknown
Round 4	Peter Hamilton	Striking	2 matches
Round 7	Carl Ditterich	Striking	2 matches
Round 15 Reserves	John Dellamarta	Striking	Unknown
Round 11	Graham Gaunt	Striking	2 matches
Round 21	Garry Baker	Striking	Not guilty

Reserves

1979 Reserves Season
Best and Fairest - Chris Woodman
Second Best and Fairest - Tony Sullivan
Special Awards - Peter Giles, Bruce Elliott, Graham Hunnibell

	W	D	L	%	P
Collingwood	15	0	7	138.5	60
North Melbourne	15	0	7	135.5	60
Footscray	15	0	7	124.3	60
Carlton	14	0	8	117.0	56
Geelong	14	0	8	113.3	56
Richmond	13	0	9	114.7	52
Essendon	12	0	10	109.4	48
Hawthorn	9	0	13	93.8	36
Melbourne	8	0	14	87.5	32
South Melbourne	8	0	14	78.7	32
St Kilda	5	0	17	58.2	20
Fitzroy	4	0	18	67.3	16

Under 19s

Captain - Phillip Greene
Best and Fairest - Phillip Greene
Second Best and Fairest - Greg Boyle
Special Awards - Tony Elshaug, Paul O'Brien, Peter Bardoel

	W	D	L	%	P
Geelong	15	1	6	114.8	62
Carlton	15	0	7	126.3	60
North Melbourne	14	1	7	114.4	58
Fitzroy	14	0	8	111.5	56
Melbourne	13	0	9	112.8	52
Richmond	13	0	9	109.9	52
Collingwood	12	0	10	113.6	48
Essendon	12	0	10	97.4	48
Hawthorn	8	1	13	101.7	34
Footscray	8	0	14	79.1	32
St Kilda	4	1	17	71.0	18
South Melbourne	2	0	20	68.2	8

Finals

Round	Opponent	Result
EF	Fitzroy	LOSS

Notes
Some sources say the club's debt was $197,000. This may be distinct from the single years' financial loss.

A new holding the man rule may have been adopted.

Media
Age - 13/02/1979
Inside Football - 29/03/1979
Age - 02/04/1979
Inside Football - 05/04/1979
Age - 02/05/1979
Age - 18/10/1979