SEPTEMBER DREAMING

by Whispering Jack

"Good evening listeners and welcome to Sportstalk2006. Our main story tonight is yesterday's AFL Grand Final and throughout the programme we'll be saluting the premiers and some of their long suffering supporters who have had to wait 42 years between drinks..."

Hmmm. An imaginary radio programme a little under 12 months into the future. It's one of those things that we dedicated Demon supporters can only look forward to and dream about in hope as the weather warms and we approach yet another long, hot summer of cricket, tennis, horseracing, surfing and sailing.

So what does it take for an AFL team to build itself up in order to become THE AFL power again? There's no doubt whatsoever that you need a talented list of footballers, a good coach, a supportive staff and a stable administration and these things are all within the control of the club. I really believe that in Melbourne's case we're slowly getting there but unfortunately, these things are not enough.

The one thing that we've learned about modern day football is that you need a fair bit of the "L" factor when September comes around.

"L" for LUCK!

They say you make your own luck with a combination of talent, hard work, dedication and inspiration but if you want to make it to that laudatory radio programme at the end of a long hard season, then you also have to the breaks going your way.

I recall listening to an American commentator describing the World Series victory of the Boston Red Sox earlier this year as having broken a long run of misfortunes on the part of that club running all the way back for almost a century. On listening to this, I had a vision in my heart of hearts that by the end of the year, my own football team – which also wears red socks – would have good fortune smiling down at it in order that it could put an end to its own long run in the wilderness.

That you need to have luck flowing in your direction has been something inherent in most sports for a long time but since the start of "modern day football" – which I date at the start of this century – it has become an essential ingredient in the premiership winning formula.

The Bombers of 2000 (the last year of the 20th century) were the dominant team of the year and I would suggest that every one of their players could have gone into the final series with one hand tied behind their backs and they would still have been a chance to take the flag.

From then onwards however, it's been a case of which team got it all right at the business end of the season.

Brisbane won three consecutive flags in 2001 to 2003 but not once did the Lions finish on top of the premiership table at the end of the home and away series.

In 2001, the Bombers were still the top side. They destroyed Richmond in the qualifying final, just squeaked past the Hawks in the preliminary and went into the Grand Final carrying injured players. The Lions powered their way through with consecutive finals at the Gabba including an easy preliminary at night against the Tigers and simply ran over a tired looking Essendon outfit in the third quarter of a warm day to end the hopes of a Bomber dynasty.

The Lions' run continued as they played Collingwood in the next two grand finals when the ladder leaders in each season, Port Adelaide, choked both times after recording imposing 18 to 4 win-loss ratios.

In Brisbane's case it was certainly a case of getting the entire team together for the big day. Clark Keating became legendary for missing large slabs of the regular season with injury and then coming up cherry ripe and dominant when it mattered the most. The Magpies also had their share of luck with injuries as they fielded near full strength sides in both grand final seasons. However, their luck ran out at the Tribunal when they lost key players (Jason Cloke in 2002 and Anthony Rocca in 2003) for indiscretions on preliminary final day.

When Collingwood's luck finally dissipated entirely and injuries struck in the following two seasons, their lack of depth was tried, tested and found wanting. They plummeted down the ladder.

Meanwhile, the Power finally got their act together in 2004 and ended Brisbane's dream of a record-equalling fourth successive flag with a runaway 40 point victory. The week before, they got the breaks and snuck home against the Saints at AAMI Stadium by a single goal in a game where the result could have gone either way.

And then there were the Swans of 2005. Before the season started, who would have given them a chance of taking out the AFL premiership? Not many, I’d bet.

After six rounds Paul Roos' boys were sitting in 12th place with just two wins. Things would have been worse had they not managed to just pip the Bombers by a solitary goal up in Sydney. On top of that, the "experts" had written them off because their style of play was unattractive, boring, defensive and tedious. Even the AFL's head honcho broke with protocol and gave them an absolute bagging for the way they played the game.

Ten rounds into the season and the Swans still weren't in the top eight. They didn't slip into the top four until round 16 and even after 19 rounds they had a tenuous hold on the double chance only by virtue of their superior percentage lead over the Kangaroos. Both clubs were on 12 wins and 7 defeats.

By that stage however, things were starting to run the way of the Swans and they were not required to make any compulsory changes to their line up from that point onward. The only team change made in the last seven weeks of competition including the finals was the naming of Paul Bevan on the interchange instead of Luke Vogels. An extraordinary piece of good fortune which I doubt has ever occurred in the past or that it ever will happen again.

Sydney came damn close to winning a final at Subiaco and, but for a couple of dubious umpiring decisions, they might have made it the easy way into a preliminary final. Perhaps they were lucky even on that score.

History records however, that the good fortune meter certainly turned the way of the Swans after that game. They were three seconds away from oblivion in the semi final when a tiring Geelong defence allowed them to steal the winning goal. A week later, they overran a tired and injury riddled St. Kilda. Who knows what might have happened had Sydney beaten West Coast in the first final and come up against the ladder leading Crows in a preliminary final instead?

Things continued to flow the way of the Swans when the AFL made a puzzling ruling which prevented a 2002 suspension against Barry Hall from counting against his record when calculating his demerit points in the Matty McGuire case. A few days later, the Tribunal came up with another beauty when it deemed that his strike on McGuire forty yards off the ball as being "in play". Hall belted the Guy in the guts. It hurt his opponent and he should have missed the grand final. But such things don't happen in "modern day football". Do they?

The West Coast Eagles were nowhere near their full strength on grand final day. They couldn’t play Michael Braun or Peter Matera because of injury, Michael Gardiner and Travis Gasper were underdone and Brownlow Medal runner up, Daniel Kerr, injured his ankle in the opening minutes. The Eagles hit the post four times and the laissez faire style of umpiring also played into the Swans’ hands. Even before Leo Barry’s outstretched arms grabbed that fateful, final mark of the year, you could sense that fate was conspiring a way to ensure the ball would land in his safe hands. I wish them all the best - they waited a long time for the moment.

So as fate would have it, my vision was partly right and partly wrong. The part about the players wearing the red socks drinking champagne from a premiership cup was right. It was just the team that was wrong and that left me with the hope and the vision that next year …

"... long suffering supporters who have had to wait 42 years between drinks. It was indeed a magnificent performance from that young midfield led by Brent Moloney who had great support from Brock McLean and Colin Sylvia. And what a magnificent performance from Byron Pickett to play such an instrumental role in his third premiership – every one of them at a different club..."