tiers

The talent pool for top level AFL footy was diluted when the league expanded to 18 teams. We now need over 700 AFL standard players to service the fans. Remember WA and SA had their own state competitions pre 1987 and then, as now, NSW and QLD delivered few footy players. Suddenly the players who were good enough to play in the inferior state comps were being asked to step up to the top league. Big ask. Population numbers don't create a linear change as bigger source populations don't necessarily provide talent with the requisite drive to excel in the top league. Talent spotting, recruitment and development can overcome much, if not most, of the dilution but it still remains.

Febey was a consistent, talented and skillful player who went under the radar for most of his long career. He played his role to perfection and made a huge contribution. Reminds me of Foulds of bombs who played 300 games just doing his job. Davey changed the nature of forward defensive play and showed some of the most exquisite skills ever seen. Just last week he shimmied and shook and kicked a long goal in the replay of the 2006 final against sinners. He also got us into the finals against doggies when he stalked a doggie and smothered a kick. From the throw in White got a free kick and goaled. That sets him above nearly all players in the red and blue. Davey for me. For the record this contest is grossly unfair to players like these two. Implement repechage system.

1. Hopelessly unfair due to the shape of the ball and the direction of the bounce. Will destroy the spirit of the game - can you imagine players deliberately hand passing the ball so that it ricochets off an opponent and over the line or a group of team mates shepherding the ball as it bobbles over the line. Free kicks in our great game should have to be earned from a contest, not from some bureaucratic mumbo jumbo. 2. No. For frees and marks, change rule so that kick must go 15m past the mark so as to advance the ball. How many times have kicks gone sideways and not even crossed the mark. Otherwise leave it alone. See also 3. 3. Can't hurt. Most backward passes lead to play on so let's formalise what is happening. 4. Change rotation system so that players can only rotate once per quarter. This will automatically reduce maximum rotations per quarter to 18 (based on starting 18). Once you are off per quarter you get a long rest. On again, off again is ruining our game. Strategies might develop to rotate players per quarter and will force changes to coaching when mismatches can not be so readily responded. Fun and games and remove the staleness of our great game. Malcolm should stick to playing and coaching where he excelled because of an abundance of footy brains. Beyond that he is just another voice.

To me it is always about what sets them above other players. Todd was tough, determined and a leader with average skills but not much more than many others. Johno at his best (1988 elim final v wc) was electrifying and a match winner. He started on a wing and then improved when he went back to the back pocket (in the days when these were real positions) where he excelled. Alan Johnson for me.

Stinga was a great demon with heart, strength and skill second to none. Jako was the greatest forward I have ever seen in any team, bar none, for his 47 games. Like only a tiny handful of players in the history of the game, he was not just better but he could do things on the field that others could not even dream about. These are unfair choices. Should implement a repechage for Stinga and Ooze. Jako for me.

Max has been a demon for his whole career so far. All Australian and dominant at times. Brent was great for us but one dimensional - get it, kick it long. Might have been effective if the team was coached to take advantage but it didn't happen. Max by far.

+1. It would be hard to argue that 1988 was not a better standard of pure footy than today with today's supposed strategies, kicking down the line, flooding, zone defences and the other questionable improvements to the game. The umpiring was light years ahead of today because the umpires understood the game whereas today's umpires seem to be overcoached to allow the game to "flow' leading to scrums and ugly footy. Notice how the umpires then blew the whistle quickly as soon as the ball was stopped, ran in and bounced the ball quickly without having to indicate their exit path and asking for the ruckmen to be nominated. The stoppages were hardly noticed then whereas today the umpires are afraid to ball it up fearing that they will be accused of slowing the game. Close to the best team since the 60s with Lyon, Wight, Stynes, Lovett B., Spalding (what nincompoop let him go?), Johnson, Lovell, Hughes, Grinter, Healy, Wilson. In the end too knackered to beat the pre-draft era zoning favoured dorks in the GF.

No disrespect to Glenn but the mercurial Farmer could win matches on his own.

Brock McLean . Another lost chance to develop a player into a champion. Colin Sylvia the same. We drafted well but couldn't improve them. Cam Bruce and Brad Green were no better at the end of their respective careers at the dees than when they started in 2000. Let's hope Tracc, Gus and Clarrie get a chance to become the champions they should be.

Trapper was the most skillful, instinctive and innovative player since Robbie. He could do things that no other player in the league could do. Sadly the coaching panel at the time was unable to take advantage of his unique ability to improve our team. When he is quoted above as saying that we would have won a premiership with better facilities he also means better coaching. 1998 was a lost year. Yze was brilliant but only because he was better at the same things that others could also do. Trapper for me.

How do we start a petition to the AFL, Vic govt and Fed govt that WE WANT FOOTY, NOW? Limit the teams, adjust the format, play a game a day for as long as we can and give us our fix. We need footy.

I agree that 2020 is now done and dusted but any footy is better than none. Let's have more original ideas so that we can see some footy. Perhaps go back to the VFL teams in Victoria only - 10 teams are here and don't need visas or quarantine. Come on, a year without footy is too much to bear.

Maintaining the even more obscure sub-thread: Jewish Ex-Demons footballers, Derek and Rick Feldmann. I don't think they qualify under this heading, not the number of games played.

+1.

All sorted out. See Lightning Premiership thread.

I don't think the Feldmanns qualify.

Clarko was never elite but a top class role player who suited our team at the time. Guess that was when he learned to find and use role players in his recruiting for his coaching career.

They may still look the same but their playing styles were noticeably different on the field.. Michael played in the centre (when there was such a position) and was a runner in perpetual motion pushing the ball forward for the whole game. Henry played more as a forward/utility who was also a runner but like taking speccies and kicking goals. Both were great amateur footballers.

Heard stories today about sending teams to quarantine for two weeks in the same spot and then playing footy. Tasmania, which was already socially distancing itself from the rest of the world, seems like a good starting point. Send 18 teams with coaches and staff to Tassie, wait 2 weeks then start training for a lightning premiership season based on a truncated series of matches. Every team plays every other team once (there is of course no home ground advantage) over a short period, say two games a week with minimum 3 days rest with a new game every night for the season to clean up with the TV viewing (just like T20 cricket). If the season runs into spring and summer, so what as it never gets too hot in Tassie and there is no international cricket season to protect. Top eight teams make the finals and an express final series to be played for the premiership. If the virus is under control, play the GF on the G on any day of the week so as not to upset the precious cricket crowd. We will of course be gentle with the surface of the drop in wickets but all those studs would only aerate the soil. Non-stop footy every night on the telly, saturation coverage in the media and around the bbq and cooler (if we are allowed), the locals can attend in club colours (they will also have been in quarantine) and a season to remember. Who would go back to the old ways? It's yours Gil. I'll let you work out the details of times, duration, number of players in the squad and on the bench, payments etc. But no change to 18 on the field although, like in the old days, the forward and back pockets are for rest and the resting players cannot chase the ball but can only attack the ball if it comes to them (they will need their rest). Royalties welcomed. 10% of my cut to the MFC so long as I get my 2020 MFC/MCC scarf.

Add Trevor Korn. All played with AJAX in the ammos.

Nearly chased down Gabbo's run to the goal square in the last quarter of the 64 grand final. Caught up with him at the 50th anniversary lunch in 2014 when he signed my team sheet from the GF Footy Record. Fourteen out of twenty were there. Not bad after 50 years. For those who played and those who were there we are getting to that age. Another premiership would be nice.

Herbie Matthews - son of swans brownlow medallist Michael Byrne - another cast off to play in a premiership with another club

As I recall, Stinga came on for the first time in the last quarter (interchange but no rotation in those days) and kicked the winning goal with his first kick.

Robbie's first final in 1987. The 118 point demolition of roos.

Brett Bailey - kicked the winning goal in the 1987 night grand final defeat of the bombers. Left foot snap from the forward pocket.