SHORTLY after arriving from United Arab Emirates, Jehad Ahlip was quickly hooked on Melbourne - and Allen Jakovich!

WHEN I arrived in Australia as a slightly rotund, bookish six-year-old in 1986, football was only played with a round ball and pretty much the last thing on my mind. 

The United Arab Emirates wasn’t big on sport back then, and apart from the odd World Cup match every four years we were largely consigned to British Top of the Pops, American soapies and Arabic drama.

So a year later, when my new classmates started asking me who my favourite players were - and who I barracked for - I was quite perplexed. 

What were these strange terms being thrown at me and weren’t balls supposed to be round? 

The decision of selecting which team to go for turned out to be quite a stressful one. 

Which teams were any good? Who did my friends go for? Who had the best colors? 

Through process of elimination using the above three criteria, the Melbourne Demons became my team. 

A friend at the time convinced me that the Dees were a consistently good team, making the finals for five years in a row - and apparently they had some really good players named Garry Lyon and Jimmy Stynes.

I maintained the most casual of interests in the team until 1993, when my best friend and his dad, Chris decided it was time for me to see my team play live.

It was a sunny afternoon in May, round nine, 1993. 

The opponents were the reigning premiers, the West Coast Eagles. 

Our little troop congregated in level two in the Southern Stand. 

I didn’t know it at the time, but I was watching a team full of players I would grow to love. 

Apart from the excellent Lyon and Stynes, there was Todd Viney, Stephen Tingay, David Schwarz and a very young David Neitz.

Despite these great Melbourne names, there was one that would capture my imagination on this day: Allen Jakovich. 

For two and a half quarters the Dees were being outplayed comfortably by a slick, powerful Eagles outfit. 

At one stage I remember turning to my friend Chris, when the Eagles lead by four goals, and asked whether Melbourne had a chance. 

“Not looking good,” was his response. 

After a quiet first half, all of a sudden Jako got on a roll.

After a four-goal to nothing burst, the Dees were only a point down at three quarter-time, when Jako was kicking them from everywhere.

The momentum was firmly with Melbourne now.

Then, my standout moment from the game was Jako taking the ball, about 40 metres out, deep in the right forward pocket. 

I didn’t think he’d go for goal, never mind kick it! 

I should’ve known better. 

I remember the roar of the crowd and Jako finding little brother Glen and giving him a huge kiss on the cheek. 

Melbourne eventually won by 13 points. Jakovich kicked six goals, four behind and I was hooked!

That was 17 years ago now and I have many more fond memories of watching my team play. 

I now have a young daughter (22 months as I write this), who recently saw her first Demons game. 

I hope we’ll see many more together, but in the future I’ll tell her that on a sunny afternoon in May, I watched Melbourne play the West Coast Eagles. 

I’ll tell her we didn’t win this time. I’ll also tell her about Allen Jakovich.