Back to the '70s

It's pretty clear, what with the November references to VCE exams and the occasional remarks about tutorials that this forum has some youngish (that is to say, under 45, contributors) so at the risk of sounding like an old fart here's a history lesson.

What you saw yesterday was not tanking. It was '70s- style coaching and I guess I can forgive Jake Niall and Michael Gleeson in The Age for not getting it since they are still wiping bum fluff off their cheeks.

Nowadays coaching talk is all about strategy: zones, rolling zones, flooding, run and carry etc. Back when Barassi and Hafey were big and innovation was the huddle, in turn countered by the anti-huddle 'outriders', coaching genius occurred within a game with the inspired move of a key defender up forward where he would kick a couple of late ones, or the midfielder sent into defence, or the career wingman who was give a shut down role.

That's all they could talk about on World Of Sport, some game turning positional shift. Of course, that meant players actually had positions to play, which is less often the case now.

So get off Bail's back and don't fuel this corrupting tanking talk. He is obviously a coach returning to the classics for inspiration.

Anyway, that's the best I can do - it's taken me all night to think of it but it's not bad and I am going to run with it.

That's despite the fact that as they lined up for the last quarter it took a while for me to wake up. I was sure we were kicking to the city end, but Warnock? and Frawley?

For the record, Mathew W looked OK up there and I really wanted Ricky P to kick that goal at the 27 minute mark so he would know he could do it.