I was pretty sick at the time and never actually watched this match, but watching it back this afternoon for the first time I found it pretty interesting.

A quick refresh - down nearly four goals in the first quarter, down by a couple of goals in the last quarter, turned it on in the last ten minutes to quick the last five goals to win by 18 points. Since this game both coaches have been sacked, and the two sides have gone won 15/31 and 6/31 in the season and a half since.

Playing that night:

Luke Ball, Nick Riewoldt, Brendon Goddard, Steven Baker, Leigh Montagna, Robert Harvey, Stephen Milne, Justin Koschitzke, Sam Fisher, Nick Dal Santo, Jason Gram, Andrew Thompson, Stephen Powell, Justin Peckett, Leigh Fisher, Fraser Gehrig, Brett Voss, Aaron Hamill, Michael Rix, Max Hudghton, Raphael Clarke, Xavier Clarke

Cameron Bruce, Brock McLean, Jeff White, Brad Green, James McDonald, Travis Johnstone, Byron Pickett, Colin Sylvia, David Neitz, Daniel Ward, Daniel Bell, Brad Miller, Adem Yze, Matthew Bate, Ben Holland, Russell Robertson, Jared Rivers, Nathan Carroll, Matthew Whelan, Aaron Davey, Nathan Jones, Mark Jamar

Now the Saints have lost Thompson, Powell, Peckett, Voss, Hamill and lets add Gherig to retirement since. We have lost Neitz and Pickett.

Saints had one 300+ (Harvey), three 200+ (Gherig, Thompson, Peckett) and seven 100+ (Baker, Hamill, Hudgeton, Milne, Powell, Reiwoldt, Voss)

Dees had zero 300+, three 200+ (Neitz, White, Yze), and nine 100+ (Bruce, Green, Holland, Pickett, Johnstone, McDonald, Robertson, Ward and Whelan)

Relatively even, although the Saints 100+ gamers are older than ours, as there's a lot of guys with long term injury problems.

The under 100 gamers:

Saints

Runners: Ball, Clarke X, Clarke R, Dal Santo, Goddard, Gram, Montagna

Key position: Fisher S, Koschitzke

Undersized Key position/Mid-back: Fisher L

Ruck: Rix

Demons

Runners: Davey, Jones, McLean, Sylvia

Key position: Bate, Carroll, Miller, Rivers,

Undersized Key position/Mid-back: Bell

Ruck: Jamar

My contention is this: We were in a far greater shape than St.Kilda were at this time. Nearly our entire spine was young and developing (Bate/Miller, Rivers, Carroll), and we were far less reliant on the older players, who were either on the verge of retirement, often injured, or both. We were second in the league for tackles and our scoring both for and against had us in the top five. It seemed we had added some hardness to the more open style we were playing in 04 and 05.

Both sides in 2006 were not Premiership sides, but they were on the track. One was fighting the closing of the window, the other was just opening. One was going to have to regenerate retiring players, the other was going to have to upgrade at a few positions. One was running out of time to do it, the other had time on its side. Both changed the way they play their footy at the start of 07. Now its 2008, we're bottoming out and the Saints are just about doing the same.

If you've got a copy of that game try and sit down and watch it before Sundays game. Watch them in comparison. Hard to believe it was just 18 months ago.

I was jumping around like a mad man in the final minutes of that game. A great win, made all the more important in the context of losing in elimination finals the two years previous. The Difference? Nietz.

Brock had a massive 2nd half.

I think thats when the football world stood up and took notice of what we were saying about him.

I saw the game a bit differently.

We were getting slaughtered in the first half. X and R Clarke and Gerhrig were all injured before half time.

We dominated after half time but couldn't put it on the score board, or at least outscore them until the middle of the last quarter.

I saw it as a great win for the 'youth' that ND decided to put on the park but, 'all things equal' we should have lost.

Go Dees - Building for the Future

I was pretty sick at the time and never actually watched this match, but watching it back this afternoon for the first time I found it pretty interesting.

ahhh that game was great, i was loving it. it was so funny when gehrig tryed to run around carroll lol it was right infront of me where i was siting. and that play by davey to neitz when he came back on teh ground after being sent of... just ahhh beautiful is there any chance that u are able to upload this game to computer/torrent or anything? maybe make a copy or something? i been wanting to see it ever since i was there live

Let's not get carried away with how young we were then - we had been fighting against the closing of the 'premiership window' at the time as well.

It's important to note the huge number of veteran players who were on our list at the time, not all of them played in that final but they are a part of what you have on offer, none the less.

Our list of departures since then include -

Pickett, Neitz, as you mentioned, plus Ward, Godfrey, Brown, Bizzell, Ferguson, Nicholson, Read, Smith and Neville.

And after all that, we still have a heavy turnover to go - White, McDonald, Holland, Yze and Robertson.

Bruce, Whelan and Carroll are just a half-step younger than them, too. Don't go thinking Carroll is young because of his relatively low games tally - he was a VERY late bloomer.

Demons are looking at 6+ list changes for three consecutive years, by my guess, at an average of almost a thousand games experience delisted each year.

On the bright side, our young players are just plain better than St. Kildas young players.

And we're gonna beat them on Sunday and send them into a crisis. Again.

We were vastly over-rated after the '06 season. I made a thread at the time, suggesting that we wouldn't be in contention for a few years. Plenty of people seemed to think our premiership window was upon us.

ahhh that game was great, i was loving it. it was so funny when gehrig tryed to run around carroll lol it was right infront of me where i was siting.

That was brilliant.

just made this highlights video

http://bigpondvideo.com/index.php?url=http...he+best+moments