1955 & 2017 A wasted opportunity?

[dergert]

Hate this sinking feeling. It's all too familiar for us dogs fans.

 

[WAbulldog]

Hate this sinking feeling. It's all too familiar for us dogs fans.

Yes it is, wish we can have a dynasty but we’re a cursed club for that to happen.

 

[footscray1973]

Can add 1962 to this as well, I know we didn’t win the flag in 61 but history has said that we miss the finals after playing in the grand final in the previous season, hopefully not a bad omen for the rest of the season.

See my post above yours - the whole purpose of my bump was to say I believe/hope 2022 won't be a 1955/1962/2017:

1962 starts with a GF replay v Hawks in round 1 - we break away after half time to win easily.
Sadly we finish 5th again, missing the 4 by 2 games and 4%. (Amazingly, premiers Hawthorn finish 9th!)

 

[WAbulldog]

See my post above yours:

Ah sorry wasn’t really read the post earlier just saw the thread title and posted my piece haha

 

[Claudonious]

Hate this sinking feeling. It's all too familiar for us dogs fans.

We have lost 2 games to the premiers and a super fit side with a new coach bounce by an average of under a goal per quarter. With a handful of players playing injured, a number out of form, our full forward out injured , and 6 weeks less prep.

You would think we have been pumped by 12 goals in both games to 2 bottom four sides.

Remember the prelim - what was being said then?

Let the media embarrass themselves with their day by day reactive bullshit - I am not going to bu y into it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Dogs_r_barking]

My expectations for this year are very low, too many of our players out of form or already injured. I hope this year to see development in Marra, Garcia and Jones, and a hard prune of our list at the end of the year. We need to not just patch up our holes, but fill them with quality.

Agree with others if we lose a midfielder but pick up a gun defender from elsewhere. I have confidence this club will bounce back with a vengeance, we always do.

 

[D Mitchell]

Not fated or doomed. John Lack, former History Professor at the University, wrote the history of the Club in his book, imaginatively titled History of the Footscray Football Club. In it, he attributes the decline after the 1954 Grand Final to failure to retain players who fled to the bush to coach. That’s from memory, I lost it in a move in 2018. looking at the post Premiership players

1954. 2 of the 20 finished up after the Grand Final,, Angus Abbey, 20th man. Was he pissed off at not getting a run ? 26 year old half back flanker, Alan Martin went to Golden Square to coach.

1955 Dave Bryden left to go coaching Nhill. 19th man, Jack Nuttall left.

1956. Half forward flanker, Ron McCarthy left, he was 21 at the time. Now there’s a mystery, what happened to Ron ?

1957. Harvey Stevens, grandfather of the Talia brothers and the mecurial and enigmatic Peter Box left and went to VFA Camberwell.

1958. the last year for 9 of the 1954 Premiership team, that left Ted Whitten, Jim Gallagher and Arthur Edwards to soldier on.

None of that supports Lack’s theory that the team fell apart heading off to the bush to coach. My own opinion is that the decline was a consequence of the big frog in the small pond syndrome. Growing up in Footscray, I observed that the ultimate ambition of local lads was to get a game in the Firsts, needless to say that I was among the overwhelming majority who failed to achieve even that goal. The Club needed David Smorgon 30 years earlier. More extraordinary was that within 3 years of the 1958 mass exodus, Footscray were in another Grand Final. Celebrate. The post 2016 team faltered but back into a GF 5 years later.

 

[WAbulldog]

The Curse is over!

 

[Dogs_r_barking]

My thought exactly, maybe this is the revolution that Bevo was talking about

 

[footscray1973]

I think, despite our 2 games so far, this is the year we break this cycle of missing finals after Grand Finals. On the back of some Bevo tweaking, injection of a couple of hungry youngsters, Brucey back even in a limited capacity, and the pairing of Sweet and English starting slowly but gathering momentum, we make the 8, win a couple of finals, see some magic on the finals stage from JUH and Naughton (and more magic from Baz and Treloar), and prime ourselves for a successful challenge in 2023!

This poster was onto it back in March! (I may have been more pessimistic as the year progressed in other threads, but I'll ignore those! Also my Sweet/English call was not so prophetic, but you can't win 'em all!)