The way that a number of WB players stepped up in this year's finals - think Johannisen, Hambling, Picken & a few others reminded me that in some finals series it is not the stars or the established players that do the job but ordinary players who get on a roll & play above themselves.

In 1976 when the Dees got on a roll to make the finals it was nondescript players like Ted Carroll & Terry Wilkins who played out of their skin & got us going.  In the run of 1987 Duursma, Tony Campbell, Newport & Chiron were all inspired. I know some will think this is trivial but I find it an interesting point.

Maybe next year Spencer, JKH, Garland & Harry O will fire up & get us on a roll. 

,

 

I remember both seasons well, and it's the reason why for 2 years I've been down on Roos and praising Beveridge. We had some truelly ordinary players, but we had belief. Anything is achievable with belief.

Roos walks in and tells everyone that the players are mentally scarred. He tells everyone that we're 18 months behind the Dogs in development, a team that ends up sacking their coach and has an exodus of senior players.

Beveridge walks in and doesn't say a word to the media about expectations. He just tells the players to work on their strengths, and gives them belief. He fights to have older players like Boyd and Morris retained, because he doesn't believe in premiership windows, and thinks that they can help the club win games.

I pray that Goodwin is from the Northey/Beveridge mould, not the Roos one.

21 minutes ago, Cranky Franky said:

The way that a number of WB players stepped up in this year's finals - think Johannisen, Hambling, Picken & a few others reminded me that in some finals series it is not the stars or the established players that do the job but ordinary players who get on a roll & play above themselves.

In 1976 when the Dees got on a roll to make the finals it was nondescript players like Ted Carroll & Terry Wilkins who played out of their skin & got us going.  In the run of 1987 Duursma, Tony Campbell, Newport & Chiron were all inspired. I know some will think this is trivial but I find it an interesting point.

Maybe next year Spencer, JKH, Garland & Harry O will fire up & get us on a roll. 

,

 

We didn't make the Finals in '76 Crank

Bit of a stretch to compare that year to a Premiership. 

Red and Blue Sunglasses. We have a lot of work ahead of us to move of First Base yet. 

14 minutes ago, mo64 said:

I remember both seasons well, and it's the reason why for 2 years I've been down on Roos and praising Beveridge. We had some truelly ordinary players, but we had belief. Anything is achievable with belief.

Roos walks in and tells everyone that the players are mentally scarred. He tells everyone that we're 18 months behind the Dogs in development, a team that ends up sacking their coach and has an exodus of senior players.

Beveridge walks in and doesn't say a word to the media about expectations. He just tells the players to work on their strengths, and gives them belief. He fights to have older players like Boyd and Morris retained, because he doesn't believe in premiership windows, and thinks that they can help the club win games.

I pray that Goodwin is from the Northey/Beveridge mould, not the Roos one.

Said it before and I'll say it again, the Melbourne team of 2013 that Roos took over was worse then a top up Essendon this year or even Fitzroy of 95' (their 2nd last year).

We're coming from a lot further back then the Dogs of 2014 or Melbourne of 75' or 86'.

We're tracking well.

 

1 hour ago, Cranky Franky said:

The way that a number of WB players stepped up in this year's finals - think Johannisen, Hambling, Picken & a few others reminded me that in some finals series it is not the stars or the established players that do the job but ordinary players who get on a roll & play above themselves.

In 1976 when the Dees got on a roll to make the finals it was nondescript players like Ted Carroll & Terry Wilkins who played out of their skin & got us going.  In the run of 1987 Duursma, Tony Campbell, Newport & Chiron were all inspired. I know some will think this is trivial but I find it an interesting point.

Maybe next year Spencer, JKH, Garland & Harry O will fire up & get us on a roll. 

,

 

had forgotten how close 76 was.

In the last round we beat Collingwood but Footscray drew with Carlton (the top team) to make the five. We had a better percentage than Footscray but their draw in the final round saw them make the five on 46 points and us on the "outer" at 44

Has the hallmarks of 87 in that we won our last 4 games in the "charge" to the finals.

The Bulldogs suffered a 7 point loss to Cats in the first elimination final .

And Collingwood took the wooden spoon for the first time !! (There was some joy after all )

 

7 hours ago, mo64 said:

I remember both seasons well, and it's the reason why for 2 years I've been down on Roos and praising Beveridge. We had some truelly ordinary players, but we had belief. Anything is achievable with belief.

 

Roos could never do what Beveridge did when everyone knew he was leaving at the end of year 3. A leader can't ask a team to buy into a mission when he himself isn't going to see it through. 

Instead of aiming for a flag, or even finals, we've had the vague goal of 'improving' these past 3 years. This was an unfortunate but necessary consequence of securing the man we needed. It's also a reflection of where we were really at - a sub-par team whose first goal was to get up to AFL playing standard.

In any case, as others have pointed out in this thread and others, we needed to perform major surgery on the list, which can't be done in a single year or even 2.

Or do you think we could have been playing finals already with a list of self-believing Terlichs, McKenzies and Magners?  

3 hours ago, Cranky Franky said:

In 1976 when the Dees got on a roll to make the finals it was nondescript players like Ted Carroll & Terry Wilkins who played out of their skin & got us going.  In the run of 1987 Duursma, Tony Campbell, Newport & Chiron were all inspired. I know some will think this is trivial but I find it an interesting point.

Maybe next year Spencer, JKH, Garland & Harry O will fire up & get us on a roll. 

Sorry Crank but this is all just like some kind of omen bet.

It's all ancient history and doesn't mean anything and thinking about it doesn't accomplish anything.

3 hours ago, Cranky Franky said:

Maybe next year Spencer, JKH, Garland & Harry O will fire up & get us on a roll

Maybe a giant comet will strike the earth.

3 hours ago, mo64 said:

Roos walks in and tells everyone that the players are mentally scarred. He tells everyone that we're 18 months behind the Dogs in development, a team that ends up sacking their coach and has an exodus of senior players.

Fair enough but they were scarred.

You have to go back to Fitzroy, maybe North in the 50s/60s, and before them University to find anything comparable.

3 hours ago, mo64 said:

Beveridge walks in and doesn't say a word to the media about expectations. He just tells the players to work on their strengths, and gives them belief. He fights to have older players like Boyd and Morris retained, because he doesn't believe in premiership windows, and thinks that they can help the club win games.

This is Beveridge's greatest contribution to the modern "art" of coaching.

He is the myth buster. One myth he busted: when you get a whole stack of injuries you have to batten down the hatches because the season is gone.

The greatest myth busted: there is a thing called the "premiership window".

What happened to Richmond's "premiership window"? They should have finished higher on the ladder this year if it was a real thing.

What about Freo? They plummeted which doesn't happen in the "premiership window" view of the world. They're supposed to go down to 5th or 7th before their plummet.

Bevo has shown that you're either good enough to win it, or you're not. You don't have to "serve your time" in a progressing series of losing finals, and what happened last year has no bearing on this year. (And what happened this year has no bearing on what happens next year .)

In the "premiership window" model, we will finish higher on the ladder next year, maybe 8th or 9th or higher ... based on what? Based on anything that happened in 2016?

Our ladder position in 2017 will be based on what we do on the ground in 2017. Nothing is handed on a platter based on the "experts" saying "MFC will be in the finals", "get ready for an extended run of finals", etc.

It's up to us and we can learn from the Bevo method. Go and play your heart out and see what happens.

4 minutes ago, Ted Fidge said:

Fair enough but they were scarred.

You have to go back to Fitzroy, maybe North in the 50s/60s, and before them University to find anything comparable.

This is Beveridge's greatest contribution to the modern "art" of coaching.

He is the myth buster. One myth he busted: when you get a whole stack of injuries you have to batten down the hatches because the season is gone.

The greatest myth busted: there is a thing called the "premiership window".

What happened to Richmond's "premiership window"? They should have finished higher on the ladder this year if it was a real thing.

What about Freo? They plummeted which doesn't happen in the "premiership window" view of the world. They're supposed to go down to 5th or 7th before their plummet.

Bevo has shown that you're either good enough to win it, or you're not. You don't have to "serve your time" in a progressing series of losing finals, and what happened last year has no bearing on this year. (And what happened this year has no bearing on what happens next year .)

In the "premiership window" model, we will finish higher on the ladder next year, maybe 8th or 9th or higher ... based on what? Based on anything that happened in 2016?

Our ladder position in 2017 will be based on what we do on the ground in 2017. Nothing is handed on a platter based on the "experts" saying "MFC will be in the finals", "get ready for an extended run of finals", etc.

It's up to us and we can learn from the Bevo method. Go and play your heart out and see what happens.

Premiership window just gets the coach another contract. 

I am so glad it has been blown out of existance