Straight Sets Simon

Only 20 years too late, well done AFL.

Minor premiers. Only team to be in the top four all season. Started the season with nine straight wins and ended the season with seven straight wins. Fewest points against in home and away season. Five All-Australians including the captain plus the coach (most of any team). Total losing margin across all games of 47 points (Geelong’s in 2007 was 45). AFLCA Award Winner (Oliver). Rising Star winner (Jackson). Average finals winning margin of over 10 goals without playing a single home final at our home ground. Won the Grand Final by 74 points. There’s probably a heap more but but I can certainly see why some people weren’t convinced.

This is why the whole round 1 “rematch” with the Bulldogs is perplexing. It has been set up as some sort of grudge match as if the Bulldogs actually had a chance in the Grand Final and didn’t lose by 74 points.

Which one?

That interview was just the same three questions asked in different ways.

Robbo is great but two songs would have been plenty.

Why are they doing a Grand Final “rematch” now and not previous years? To me, it screams of people thinking the Bulldogs actually had a chance of winning the Grand Final and didn’t get destroyed by 74 points.

Howe is star, would have been very handy the past five years or so. However, as others have alluded even when he was at Melbourne he was very much a Collingwood man.

I still can’t get my head around the fact we are the premiers.

Most other teams could do a lot worse than pick Hore up (assuming his knee has recovered).

Getting better at centre clearances effectively won us the flag. Bang! Bang, Bang, Bang!

Easton Wood busted his hand pretty early in the Grand Final let’s not forget.

Gerard Healy was really awful in that call. Anthony Hudson and Gerard Whateley are two of the best callers but hearing radio calls from people not at the game just isn’t the same.

Preach.

I’ve said this many times but winning a flag and being the best team aren’t always the same thing. This year we did both which makes all the more special bit further to this we have the potential to be the best team for the next couple of years.

I have no idea how they get away with selling products using imagery and IP from others without paying royalties. The players are actually missing out here so I don’t like it personally.

Different supporter size and demographics.

If you have a spare $700.

Despite a small blip against the Bulldogs, from that point that Oliver kicked that first goal Melbourne became one of the most dominant teams in football history.

Geelong recruiting 30 year old Ceglar is hilarious.

Not one player who is about above a C+ has been traded or talked about being traded. Putting aside our Melbourne bias for a second (as I have thought this for a long time) it is a disgrace that so much energy goes into the trade period so soon after the finals. If good players were being talked about being traded I would understand, but Bobby Hill changing teams is about as relevant and interesting as eating cardboard.

Heavily weighted towards Pickett and Fritsch highlights (understandable as they kicked so many goals) but otherwise excellent to see highlights from throughout the year.

The arrogance of Hawthorn is they (Kennett) believed their success came from some sort of superior system or culture when in reality it was brought about by a bunch of high and priority draft picks. Their sustained success then came from being able to attract good players from other teams who wanted to play with all the high and priority picks. Geelong are similar in that their success was based around a lot of father-son selections (although they do draft very well) and then topping up their good list with other good players from other clubs.

True, it but it makes up almost half the video and they skipped over crucial goals like Brayshaw’s (just the still shots).

That was great except two changes I would have made: 1) Too much focus was on the Bulldogs and their small run on 2) Every Melbourne goal should be shown Also, hilarious that they edited BT’s awful call on the final siren of “every heart is beating true and blue for the red and blue” to just “every heart is bearing true for the red and blue”.