SO HUGE was the outpouring of grief at the tragic loss of Collingwood football star Darren Millane in October 1991 that it brought central Dandenong to a standstill.
A crowd estimated at between 5000 and 6000 people packed the Dandenong Town Hall and its surrounds for what is still considered one of the biggest funerals held in Victoria.
Millane, who grew up in Noble Park, died when his car collided with the back of a slow-moving truck in Queen’s Road, Melbourne.
The previous year he was a member of the much celebrated, drought-breaking 1990 Collingwood premiership side, playing out the finals series with a broken arm.
His death shocked the wider community.
Channel 9 newsreader Tony Jones, a Dandenong boy, knew him well – their mothers worked together.
“I couldn’t believe it when I first heard it,” Jones told The Journal. “
I think 3KZ went with it first, and I don’t know whether they should have or not but it was just one of those things that was just impossible to believe.
“I go to Collingwood functions now and I bump into his mum and what have you … but it was massive. We’ve seen some really, really big funerals but that one in particular was just enormous.
“I can sit here now and visualise the scenes outside the Dandenong Town Hall.”
“Just the enormity, the sheer volume of people that spilled out of that town hall. It was pretty big.
“I can’t recall … and God knows I go to a lot of them, but I can’t recall a bigger … Jim Stynes was pretty big, but just for the sheer emotion and the sheer volume of people spilling out of that town hall I can’t quite remember anything like that.”
At the funeral, former team-mates and officials at Dandenong spoke fondly of the “loveable rogue”, known as Buzz locally and Pants after he moved to Collingwood.
The second of three sons to Bob and Denise Millane attended Noble Park Primary School and Coomoora High School, completing his secondary education at Chandler High.
He played for Noble Park, then Parkmore juniors and by 16 was playing senior VFA football with Dandenong, becoming the youngest player to captain the side.
An extraordinary sporting talent, he also once took all 10 wickets in a cricket innings as a junior.
