I would also add that the 2018 team drank their own bathwater a lot. Every guest on the WCE Backchat 1.0 in 2019 with Schoey was about the 2018 flag and They released that Friends Family Flags doco in 2020 when they're all still playing. Huge part of where we're at.
Most definitely, but largely the results still came during those years. 2019 we rolled the Pies again at the G inside the first 3 rounds. Eventually lost to Geelong in Melbourne to end our season in some trying circumstances - wouldn't be the first team that's happened to.
Got off to a garbage start to 2020 in the hub but built form in Perth, did okay in hub #2 from memory and finished 5th. We didn't have our ruthless finishing but we were thereabouts.
Does not winning in 18 give the players that last 5% to win a couple more of those games, get the top 2/4 finishes and win a flag? Possibly, but either way we still end up with one. Glad it happened when it did for guys like Lecca. He hung them up at the perfect opportunity.