Ollie fan

Can’t agree with this. The reason he didn’t win back to back premierships has exactly for the reason you spelled out in your last sentence. In other words, they weren’t a particularly great team, there were teams that were better equipped that year – e.g. Sydney – and he coached them to win the GF despite that. He didn’t have the fire power to go back to back.

Totally agree about Kossie. What I love about that piece of play is how instinctive and quick it is – absolutely natural football understanding.

Mind-numbing rubbish. So many things to complain about in this selection but I’ll just mention one: why does everyone rate Jeremy Cameron so high? Yes he could once play but what has he done for two seasons now?

Can’t agree with this. He certainly whacked his head – it was visible for the rest of the game. As for the doco itself, I agree with the comments above - Brought tears to my eyes. Absolutely fantastic. IMHO, it is worth looking at Clarrie’s posture when Treloar kicked his first goal in the second quarter. Even from behind, I think you can see how much he really does hate losing.

And Dangerfield!! According to him, he has never given away a genuine free, but has missed being awarded about 20 per game.

I really like Harms but he was an utter failure at half back when tried there a season or two ago. My guess is, they will be starting Baker there.

Just checked Kayo - not on there.

No, I’m tired of looking back – I want the team to be fully focused on this coming year. Not keen on these distractions. We won the premiership, that is fantastic, now to get a repeat, three peat or fourpeat.

Last year I started two separate threads at different times suggesting that she should be a coach, and of a mens team. I hope she plays out this season, does her media work, and comes back to the Dees in 2023 as a strategy coach.

I want us to really smash Carlton! They have always been arrogant ……..s and they really think they are going to be good this year. I would love us to nip that in the bud, right now.

Jeremy Cameron at 35? Based on what? His stellar season last year????

Who is better? He won the coaches award, Mongrel Punt ranks him number one, I think he is clearly the best player in the competition. He reminds me a great deal of Barassi - they have the same relentless, nothing-will- stop-me approach; Total aggression at the ball.

I grudgingly have to give him credit, and considerable credit, but I can’t help but recall – The time when he, a member of the rules committee, put his hand up as the Ruckman and won a free kick in the forward pocket in an absolute sham. The fact that he is a shocking diver. The numerous times he has collected people’s heads with his elbow.

……. but I also agree with Big Col. Schwarz was magnificent.

Although he tarnished his reputation with meddling in our administration: G Lyon (I assume it should really be limited to living people )

I just can’t wait until we play them again and smash them!

Now that is a good thought!! We have had lots of great players come across from North - off the top of my head: Steven Icke, Crosswell, Brian Wilson, Alan Jarrott, and now of course BBB. And I am sure that is just a fraction of them

Did I see Jake Bowey playing forward in those clips? Interesting! As for Clarrie, in recent years he has reminded me a great deal of the great RDB. They have the same relentlessness, energy, attack on the game and on the ball, the same ability to galvanise the team.

I just love this constant focus on what we stand for. It can only be good if it is genuine, and I believe it is

I don’t understand some of the comments in this thread about the non-family nature of the old grounds. From about 1963 on, I went to the football weekly, aged 10 in 1963, in a group consisting of a mother, often one of her female friends or sisters, and up to about 5 kids of my age or within a couple of years of it. We would arrive at about halftime in the reserves and would usually have seats on the fence or a row or so back (my memory is the most grounds had rings of two or three seats from the fence back). We didn’t have any problems. A couple of times a season there would be a fight between spectators somewhere in the ground, but these fights would be over very quickly and would be very limited. True, a lot of the toilets were pretty disgusting but apart from that, facilities were basic – as were the times – but we could enjoy the footy in peace.

A lot of posters, in 2021, said we couldn’t afford losses to teams like Adelaide and Collingwood. Obviously, we could. We lost to them, we finished the top of the ladder, we won the premiership. Losing to low teams is not a problem, so long as you win against the top teams. If you win against the top teams, and GENERALLY win against middle and lower teams, you will get enough points to be top four. The real problem is if you consistently lose to one of your genuine competitors – which suggests that they are better than you are. In 2021, we beat everything in the top eight. in 1963, Geelong won the premiership. Fitzroy won one game only – against Geelong. Top teams do occasionally let their guard down against lower teams; it is inevitable. But if they mostly play to their ability, it is not fatal to lose one of those matches

Like everyone else on this site, I’m thrilled with our team and with the way we performed last year. If we can replicate those periods of glorious attack, we deserve to be favourites. But….. we should not forget that in round 23, Geelong kicked eight goals straight against us. In the grand final, the dogs went from 2 goals down to 3 goals up. During the season, there were many games where teams got a short run-on against us. The commentators generally thought we were vulnerable against a ground ball attack. There is no doubt that opposition coaches will be studying those passages in games intently, trying to find out how we were vulnerable, and to replicate and intensify it. We need to work out what went wrong, and remedy it. Then we can go back to back and more.

I went to all these grounds. I remember seeing Hassa Mann‘s goal in 1964 at Glenferrie; I certainly remember the final round in 1987 at Western Oval. But strangely, one golden day was at Arden Street, the last round in one of the late 70s, we were getting thrashed and were expected to, and a North player attempted a dropkick. He flubbed it but it was still interesting. The weather was perfect, very early spring, and the day was just golden despite the result. I loved the old football. At 2.10 on a Saturday afternoon something like 10% of Melbourne’s population would go to the footy, which I think is extraordinary.

I am with those who say Roos was essential to the development of our club. He and Jackson inherited a shambles and turned it into a professional, focused organisation. The Club is forever in his debt.

As for Hunt v Bowey, we all got carried away with Bowey’s fantastic performances when he was selected, but I think Hunt is more mature and is stronger one on one. Regrettably, one has to expect that injuries/Covid will answer a lot of these selection dilemmas.