AFLW 2024 - Round 10 - Chat, game threads, injury lists, team lineups and more.
You only have to see the three crucial physical contests they lost in the last quarter which involved Birchall and Young and effectively resulted in Swans goals. Those two were earmarked as guns after 2008 and never really came on. And their chokes in defence in the last quarter effectively cost them the game.
"I well recall.... "I well recall you wringing your hands in angst at the prospect of the poor ol' mods having to deal with stuff like this a mere 24 hours ago.
That's a start fpm84, but it goes deeper than that both on Big Footy and to a slightly lesser degree in the wider footy community.
*sits in rocking chair*
Go back to the infamous 1985 game at Princes Park when Jacko was reported on something like 6 different charges, and Leigh Matthews broke an unsuspecting Neville Bruns' jaw.
I was there that day, just a kid (must've been 9), I liked the excitement of a bit of biffo as much as any lad but it was a weird, horrible atmosphere that day.
Both teams can share blame for the way things played out on field that day, Matthews descent into thuggery the brutal denouement on a dark afternoon.
Resentment lingered, Bruns broke the players 'code' and gave a damning testimony at the tribunal, Matthews was deregistered.
After that, for a long time Hawthorn had the wood on Geelong.
Looking over the head-to-head records, Hawthorn defeated Geelong *11 times in a row* between 1985-1991.
They prevented us from making the finals in 1987 in the final round at Kardinia Park (I was there too; very upset), Geelong played out of their skins for three quarters, but Hawthorn were too good in the end; although they did get one veeeery contentious 'deliberate out of bounds' free kick, which Dunstall duly converted - I don't think I had *ever* seen a 'deliberate' free kick paid in my short life to that point.
Anyway, Geelong lost, Hawthorn went on to lose the '87 GF to Carlton.
The two teams only met twice in 1989, yet both games were stone classics - both Hawthorn victories, the 2nd of which resulted in a flag to Hawthorn.
Hawthorn retained their knack for knocking over Geelong in both significant and close games (e.g. the 1991 semi-final at Waverley, or the 2000 elimination final, which capped a five-game winning streak against Geelong with a combined winning margain of just 59 points)
So far, so much suck for Geelong.
But the Footy Gods smiled upon Geelong supporters in 2007.
In many ways these things became irrelevant to me that day.
Hawthorn fans were very quick to remind us that we had beaten every team except them that year, though.
Then 2008; a year in which the simmering Big Footy cyber-war blew up (it was Skynet all over again).
Hawthorn fans have pointed out that a lot of Geelong supporters on this site reacted poorly.
I remember that period and I have to say quite a few did, unfortunately.
The term 'Bradbury-premiership' became popular. I never liked it.
It was a cold comfort to me, it was a line of argument I never personally bothered pursuing as it only led to more humiliation.
At this stage, Hawthorn supporters had quite a lot to be cocky about, no doubt.
But Geelong, the club, fought back onfield in a - in my opinion - gritty manner, to win another two flags, marking the clubs most successful era.
Along the way the Cats chalked up a series of memorable, stirring wins against Hawthorn - a lot of close, tight, contentious games. 9 of them and counting.
For a long time, too long, Hawthorn fans were very quick to bring up the spectre of 2008, e.g. 'you can have your win, I still have the memories of '08 and that's what matters.' Words to that effect.
After a while it became 'if I had to trade (insert #) h&a losses for a Premiership I would'
Or, 'wait til we play you in a final'.
It took Tom Hawkins after-the-siren heart-breaker to silence many of the haters, but by then the damage was well and truly done in the eyes of many Geelong fans on this site, and to a lesser extent those in the community (I know my fair share of Hawthorn supporters in RL, with three particularly rabid family members in that mix).
During this post-'08 environment, it is my submission that a hardcore contingent of recalcitrant Big Footy Hawthorn supporters undertook an unspoken campaign to smear, discredit, disrespect and undermine *anything* Geelong achieved.
Unfortunately, they have had to churn out many, many words of anti-Geelong propaganda, because the Cats won plenty of big games, plenty of finals and two flags during the time that this online, footy-centric version of the Cold War has played out.
It has always been Hawthorn supporters leading the chorus when it comes to threads on Selwood ducking, or Johnson/Chapman diving, or the *whole team* playing for free kicks - as a general rule they have given us zero respect - check out recent main board (not Bay 13) threads on Wojcinski and Scarlett which had their fair share of Hawthorn supporters taking cheap shots at them. Par for the course.
It has been a relentless and frankly tiresome tide of negativity toward Geelong from them; akin to the curent political paradigm. Perhaps that is fitting from supporters of a team formerly run by Jeff Kennett.
So, there is a potted history from a Geelong supporter.
Of course Hawthorn fans will have their version of events.
And so it goes.
I will say this : the great thing about Australia and one of the good things left about the AFL is the capacity for opposing teams' supporters to co-mingle.
There is passion, vitriol, emotions run high; but rarely is there really serious trouble.
I hope things stay that way.
Anyway, I personally have no problem with having my fun, within reason, when it comes to Hawthorn blowing their chance in 2012; I have no doubt they would be ****-a-hoop if the roles were reversed.
I haven't trolled their board, and have kept in perspective both Geelong's lack of success this season, and also the wider fate of the Grand Final day loser; it's is such a hollow, horrible feeling.
Without giving any specific sympathy to Hawthorn or it's supporters, it is a sad fact of sport that the loser in any Grand Final-type event suffers more misery and scrutiny than the also-rans they defeated along the way to their ultimate failure.
Perhaps the loss will be the force-fed humble pie that these fans need to learn humility and dignity in victory and defeat.
I don't really have a problem with any other team in the comp, or their supporters, personally.
Even Freo
see my reaction to hk89's post, if you could be arsed.
In short :
of course my views tend towards favouring Geelong's BF supporter base, as your views will always support Hawthorns.
In one of my posts I mentioned that, personally, I didn't like those who attempted to discredit the 2008 win.
The 'campaign' that you mention (and that I coined
Given some of the stuff that I mentioned earlier re : BF's Hawthorn fans undermining Geelong's (more significant) achievements, I can certainly attest to how annoying that is.
You could go back through my history and I never once mentioned 'luck' in relation to '08, let alone 'Bradbury', which was kinda stupid.
The whole BF Cold War is unworthy of the two teams, to be honest, but in many ways it is inevitable and self-perpetuating.
"I well recall.... "
Do you mean when I asked why you'd derail a thread with this nonsense?
Young actually performed surprisingly well in the physical contests and laid two crunching tackles at crucial moments. I never knew know he had it in him.
I dunnoI think it was a later post, but you sure were very keen to waggle a stern finger at anyone who wasted the mods time back in them days !
your string of posts containing nothing more than schoolboy 'memes' & lowbrow mockery has shown you up to be a poor, weak, bad loser mired (yup, mired) in his own hubris. Get over yourself, take a walk, it's nice outside.
is that how it goes ?
Hubris. Contempt can be earned but there is no excuse for Hubris.
Yep lovely image, but the old bean potted the wrong team, do you think? Noting posts such as -'it's okay we didn't mind losing because we like Sydney' I thought hmm, the seeds of doubt are there now, aren't they.
Hmmmm. Obviously I've been made to look like a dill with those comments. Even the wisest man can't be right all the time. It was something said in jest, A throwaway line which has come back to haunt me and cause great pain to various members of my Hawthorn family. Had I known it would cause you such distress, I would've closed down the City of Geelong when I had the chance and sold the land off to Japanese developers.
The GF wasn't about their bottom 6, they were mainly OK. It was about some guys who should be in their top 6, doing their very best to be in that bottom 6 (Lewis, Rough & Birch). Plenty of those guys were just role players, then & now - not missed.
Hawk supporters are the Alan Jones' of the footy world.
They are consummate bullies who dish it out endlessly but squeal like stuck pigs when the boot is on the other foot.
