Blight is a multiple premiership winning coach and did it in less seasons then scott.
Autopsy Cats lose their way in 18 points loss to Saints
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Vdubs
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Not so when you account for his tenure at Geelong?
But that has zero relevance to his coaching abilities.
Vdubs
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Nobody is saying he couldn’t coach at Geelong, but he was burnt out without a flag, and had multiple talented players
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In an interview with Gerard Whateley in 2019, Blight opened up about the day he knew his time as Geelong coach was finished. In Round 12 of the 1994 AFL season, Geelong were hosting St Kilda at Kardinia Park, and at last break the unfancied Saints held a 26-point lead after kicking seven goals to none in the third quarter.THAT'S SPOOKY.
In many ways you can understand this quote because it took one individual (Ablett) to literally win Geelong that game by kicking 5 goals in the last quarter and Blight must have had an inclination then that this team would never win a flag.
When he went over to Adelaide, they were a complete team. Probably only 3 or 4 individuals who you would consider 'B graders'.
He took over a team that had finished 12th, got them to 4th and 5th where they got lucky under an old finals system to get home finals/avoid elimination, and won grand finals on the back of insane performances from Jarmen, McLeod, Johnson but they also had a lot of plodders.
Shane Ellen is a great example, there is a reason everyone only remembers him for his GF performance against the Saints and literally nothing else. B grade would be polite.
They had an average team but some elite talent that took the most of their opportunities and went back to back. But if their team was that complete it doesn't really explain why they dropped back to their 1996 efforts and finished 13th then 11th the next two years.
Croms 97/98 are the perfect example of their role players doing enough, their elite talent having incredible games, the finals fixturing looking after them, and other teams not getting lucky.
Wild how in 1998 they lose their first home final to Melbourne and don't get eliminated, meanwhile Melbourne who finished 4th and win their first final then have to play in a SF. That old finals system was awful.
Good points.
Adelaide team was very talented though.
Rehn, Ricciuto, Bickley, Tregenza, Modra, McLeod, Hart, Smart, Johnson, Edwards, Goodwin, Jarman and then you had a pretty decent bottom end in Vardy, Robran, Jameson, Liptak.
If you compared those names to that of the Geelong sides of 92-94, there were a lot more journeyman as a collective. Tudor, Tanner, Forssman, Handley, Simpson, Wills, Breuer, Brown, Neeld, Poole.
Brilliant top end we had.
You put Couch, Ablett and Hocking into any other team, and they would be playing in grand finals irrespective of the rest of the playing squad.
That's probably what Ollie was shouting at his teammates as they instead kicked it to Wilkie and the other spare Saints defender all night.
This table is so telling. And provides deeper context on why a run to the flag for us from here is incredibly unlikely.
Of the teams who are still in realistic contention, we have a significant lead over almost all of them in the 'run of goals conceded' stat. I don't see that trend changing in the heat of a final series. And you'd have to think that giving up even one of those runs in a final this year ends our season.
So unless we can somehow manufacture a way of stopping momentum that we haven't regularly managed for the entire season, I think we're an accident waiting to happen in relation to this stat as the finals series begins.
Absolute bulldust - both years in the home and away they only won 13 games -terrible record
The 90s finals system absolute farce , Geel playing that away final - rules made up on the run . The following year with their 13 wins and 5th position . lost the 1st final by 10 goals , should have been eliminated their and then .
The 1998 Premiership is the biggest farce since Fitzroy won a flag in a 4 team comp finishing 4th and last
The only reason I disagree with the "they lost the first final and should have been eliminated" thing is because under the old system Melbourne in 4th played Adelaide in 5th at the MCG. Crows lost, but so did the teams in 6th/7th/8th.
Under the current system Adelaide in 5th would have hosted Essendon in 8th in SA, they likely win that, but then who they face could have been anyone because the top 4 in 98 was very competitive.
Its only the first week of finals I had an issue with for Adelaide.
Top 4 was North, Dogs, Swans, Demons. Under the current system you would have North v Demons and Dogs V Swans. Assuming the favourites win those games, Swans and Demons would have home SFs which is what happened in 1998 anyway.
Crows beat Sydney in Sydney, then beat Dogs at the MCG before North utterly shit the bed in the GF and Jarmen broke them.
That old system was dogshit.
If they used the current system we have now then that Adelaide team of 1998 would be held in much higher regard. They would have had to beat a strong Essendon team that a year later would dominate before losing the PF by a point, then Sydney in Sydney (and shut Lockett down in the process) before beating the Dogs and North in the PF and GF.
The less said about 97 the better. Finish 2nd but had to play North on their ground in their timeslot on their day. Then Croms at Idiot Park. What a ****ing disgrace.
Robran and jameson were not in the bottom end.
Blight had a very similar side at the crows as he did at geelong. Geelongs was better because it had a better midfield.
Difference was adelaide played grand finals in weak years. Geelong didnt. That and the problems of geelong training on a sandy ground before the 94 grand final and mark bairstow getting kicked by a horse before the 92 gf and then getting smashed by matera.
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