20 hours ago, Jumping Jack Clennett said:

It would have been handy to have Lyon and Connolly in the finals, if they weren’t Injured.

Also, we should have played Dirty Dave Williams in the prelim.

Might have been handy to have Gerard Healy if he hadn’t defected the year before.

Dirty Dave was an essential. Gerard was the second worst 'let go' we have ever done. Frosty was the greatest 'let go' loss ever since.

13 hours ago, JakovichScissorKick said:

Its a shame that we only sorted ourselves out  the very season Robbie Flower finished up.

Had he been a few years younger we would have won a flag or two between 88-90.

Don’t think a younger Robbie Flower would have helped us in 88 the Dawks were just to big to strong and to good plus  well coached. It’s 1994 for me that was our time.

20 hours ago, It's Time said:

Give credit where credit is due. Not to take away anything from Swooper but Barassi assembled that list and mostly did it the hard way. Came in 1981 on the condition Ray Jordan came across to coach U19’s & Reserves. The core of that team came through that system or were recruited by Barass. 

Yes and this was the key to success. Why aren’t we recruiting the superstar top players now? We don’t even seem to try to do so. For example, when a top player like de Goey is touted as possibly leaving Collingwood MFC is not even mentioned as a possible destination club. Instead we recruit broken down hacks with previous histories of major/recurrent injuries or third rate draft picks.

24 minutes ago, Bucket list said:

Don’t think a younger Robbie Flower would have helped us in 88 the Dawks were just to big to strong and to good plus  well coached. It’s 1994 for me that was our time.

Too not to.

I was at the Footscray game in the last round + the 3 finals. Even if we had won the Prelim we would have been thumped by Carlton the following week (GF).

10 minutes ago, bingers said:

I was at the Footscray game in the last round + the 3 finals. Even if we had won the Prelim we would have been thumped by Carlton the following week (GF).

Agreed sadly. To many broken collarbones. 
Brian Wilson talked about it last year

On 2/8/2020 at 12:40 PM, Call Me What You Will said:

The greatest year of my Demon supporting life by a mile. I have posted various reflections in numerous topic forums over the years. Those last 8 weeks...........!!!!!

Easily mine as well, To also know quite a few players personally made it all the more "Special"

Thanks for posting ...'ah the memories linger on and on"!

5 hours ago, Deemania since 56 said:

Frosty was the greatest 'let go' loss ever since.

Pure rot

20 hours ago, Jumping Jack Clennett said:

I see Steven Icke in WJ’s photo.

j don’t think he played in the finals...did he?
I really admired that guy as one of the most gutsy players I’ve ever seen.

He played 2 games for the year. Injury and time had 'tolled' him. He was a VERY underestimated player in his 78 games for the Demons. 

1 hour ago, dieter said:

He played 2 games for the year. Injury and time had 'tolled' him. He was a VERY underestimated player in his 78 games for the Demons. 

Agree. One of the best recruits from.another club in my time. Was undersized for a chb but gave everything he had.

On 2/8/2020 at 2:40 PM, Bring-Back-Powell said:

Who remembers the St Kilda game at Waverley that year?

It was a very significant game in 87’

It was the last game we lost before we went on our run of consecutive wins.  It was also round 17 played a week before our round 16 game against Geelong.  In an interesting fixturing event we played round 17 on July 18 and round 16 on July 25!! We beat Geelong comprehensively at VFL Park, the first of 6 consecutive wins.  In that run we beat not only the Cats, but also the Eagles and the Dogs - the three sides who ended up finishing directly below us.  We definitely earned 5th place.  Our other wins in that run were against also rans Richmond, Collingwood and Brisbane. We were in white hot form by the time we hit September.

7 hours ago, bingers said:

I was at the Footscray game in the last round + the 3 finals. Even if we had won the Prelim we would have been thumped by Carlton the following week (GF).

We beat the premiers(Carlton) three times in 1988, including in the Finals.

We were rank outsiders in all the three finals we played in ‘87, and surprised each tome.

We just might have surprised in the GF.

On 2/8/2020 at 11:25 AM, Whispering_Jack said:

We almost made it that year and all we had was one coach, one captain and one vice-captain. How things have changed!

I'm surpised that there were apparently only 49 players on the list. I thought lists numbering in the 40s was a more modern trend. Even more surprising is the number of names I don't recognise. Who was Wayne Barclay, Peter McCarty, Dale Lawrence, Peter Ryan, Cameron Smith, etc?

The other perhaps less surprising matter is the heavy weighting towards Anglo-Irish names. I haven't compared it with today's list, but I suspect these days it's a much more diverse group with Italians (Petracca), indigenous players (Jetta and others) and other European backgrounds (Kolodjashnij, Fristch, Vandenberg, etc). 

15 hours ago, drysdale demon said:

Pure rot

Move on over Frosty 

Let's see st seasons end !!!

Just now, 58er said:

Move on over Frosty 

Let's see st seasons end !!!

Sorry DD not you but Deementia 

1 hour ago, La Dee-vina Comedia said:

I'm surpised that there were apparently only 49 players on the list. I thought lists numbering in the 40s was a more modern trend. Even more surprising is the number of names I don't recognise. Who was Wayne Barclay, Peter McCarty, Dale Lawrence, Peter Ryan, Cameron Smith, etc?

The other perhaps less surprising matter is the heavy weighting towards Anglo-Irish names. I haven't compared it with today's list, but I suspect these days it's a much more diverse group with Italians (Petracca), indigenous players (Jetta and others) and other European backgrounds (Kolodjashnij, Fristch, Vandenberg, etc). 

Them were the days before Wogs rule.

However, look closely, Kol, Kiel, and perhaps Koop and Eishhold were not kosher ozzies.

4 minutes ago, dieter said:

Them were the days before Wogs rule.

However, look closely, Kol, Kiel, and perhaps Koop and Eishhold were not kosher ozzies.

And Joe Rugolo, too.

2 hours ago, La Dee-vina Comedia said:

And Joe Rugolo, too.

Yep, the most obvious. Thanks...

5 hours ago, dieter said:

Them were the days before Wogs rule.

However, look closely, Kol, Kiel, and perhaps Koop and Eishhold were not kosher ozzies.

and don't forget many european immigrants anglicized their names (e.g. schmidt> smith etc)

20 minutes ago, daisycutter said:

and don't forget many european immigrants anglicized their names (e.g. schmidt> smith etc)

True. And, of course, many of these players may have been "half-European" on their mother's side.

21 hours ago, dieter said:

He played 2 games for the year. Injury and time had 'tolled' him. He was a VERY underestimated player in his 78 games for the Demons. 

St Icke and the other imports from North, helped to keep our show rolling,  during a severe club stripback and rebuild.   The biggest strip back we've been through.   Thouroughly.

 

Swooper inherited a rolling machine,   needing a tuneup to his game style and ehtos.  Provided to him,  by a couple of the best-ever's  in the business.

Swooper didn't let them, or us down.