Since 2010
2011 Geelong win then don't return to the big dance until 2020 (and are well beaten, with an ageing list).
2012 Sydney beat Hawks and haven't won one since. We're smacked in 2014, and beaten by a non top 4 Bulldogs team in 16'. Were absolutely obliterated in 22' (one of the most embarrassing GF performances I've witnessed)
2013-2015 = Hawks dynasty. I talked to a Hawks fan who very passionately said "any coach could have won with those generational players". Not sure about that, but their list was amazingly talented.
(also remember Freo, Sydney and Geelong each had several top 4 finishes during this time and didn't get the job done each time).
2016 Sydney, Geelong and Hawthorn finish equal top on wins, and Sydney eventually lose to a 7th placed Bulldogs.
2017 beginning of the Richmond dynasty after major club upheaval.
2018 West Coast pinch one IMO (from Richmond, who got full of themselves, leading to a boil over prelim loss to us), and Collingwood come within 5 points of a flag despite only scraping in to top 4.
2019 Richmond dominate (keep in mind Richmond never play a Victorian team in a GF at the MCG during their dynasty).
2020 Richmond beat Geelong well in the COVID year and Gary Ab Jrs final game.
Richmond decline quickly soon after, and Dimma is gone within 18 months.
2021 Melbourne obliterate Bulldogs in one of the most stunning GF performances. They look like a dynasty team. Have not returned to the big dance since, and have had arguably the most damaging 2 years of any club, culturally, since that point.
2022 an immensely dominant Geelong team belt everyone in their path in Joel Selwood's final year. Miss finals the next year after some retirements. Start this year strong, now who knows where they're at (doing well again, but also lost to GCS by 100 or whatever - doesn't often happen in a premiership year). Given their many top 4 finishes, widely hailed program, coaching and success, and the fact that they have attracted the best free agents of any club (Dangerfield, Cameron, Smith), this is their first flag in a decade (11 years).
2023 Pies are the best team most of the year but have a sputtering end (we got SMACKED by Hawks in late 23' too), and win an all-time great, close Finals Series which left next to no margin for error.
Our flag somehow came despite very few top 10 picks or highly regarded FAs in the past 10 years. We have been exceptionally lucky with Father Son prospects and hitting on some other mid draft targets that have come good.
It also came despite major club culture issues being rectified, including racism, poor contract management, poor coaching and game plan, a president who never shut up (just to name a few).
We had also come through what I'd have called our flag window: 2018(beginning) - 2020. We ultimately got pants'ed by Geelong in 2020 which ended that for us and ushered in a dark 21'.
We were looking down the barrel of a full rebuild. Only hindsight heroes would say they expected us to bounce back and make a prelim (1 point and a bad Papley call off making a GF) in 2022 after how putrid we'd gone out in 2020, and how poor a position our whole club was in in 2021.
Instead, we pinch (or whatever) a flag on perhaps the back end of our flag window with this current group in 2023 (I think if we lost we may have been motivated enough to have another crack in 2024 but you can tell the hunger is not here, and we've been hunted), and now get to do engage in a rebuild with a coach and coaching department full of people who have already transformed our culture.
They've transformed culture and grabbed a flag in the time it takes for clubs to usually only do the first. Can you not remember how bad things were in 2021? Contracts? Culture? Coaches? All terrible. All cooked.
Yet here we are now, the reigning premiers, facing what seems to be a downward slope for a bit, but in a much better position that we've been in before. Yet somehow only three wins out of 2nd on the ladder lol.
The revision of history is only to show that SO many clubs look like they're going to be the next big thing only to (mostly) underachieve thereafter. Since 2010, only Hawthorn and Richmond have bucked that trend. All of Sydney, Geelong, Adelaide, bulldogs, Melbourne, Freo, West Coast have looked incredible in that time, only to have to go and rebuild or sack coaches (etc etc) a short time later.
I'm sure this is just cold comfort. But I think to be jumping in to the sky is falling crowd or saying Mcrae and co are no good is a bit of a stretch. If we can't bounce back to contend the rest of this season or 2025, then I for one (even as a pessimist) am keen to see what Mcrae and our, genuinely, excellent coaching panel can do with this club through a rebuild.
Remembering, most rebuilding premiers do not have a 21 year old top 5 player in the comp to build around.
Peace out.
2011 Geelong win then don't return to the big dance until 2020 (and are well beaten, with an ageing list).
2012 Sydney beat Hawks and haven't won one since. We're smacked in 2014, and beaten by a non top 4 Bulldogs team in 16'. Were absolutely obliterated in 22' (one of the most embarrassing GF performances I've witnessed)
2013-2015 = Hawks dynasty. I talked to a Hawks fan who very passionately said "any coach could have won with those generational players". Not sure about that, but their list was amazingly talented.
(also remember Freo, Sydney and Geelong each had several top 4 finishes during this time and didn't get the job done each time).
2016 Sydney, Geelong and Hawthorn finish equal top on wins, and Sydney eventually lose to a 7th placed Bulldogs.
2017 beginning of the Richmond dynasty after major club upheaval.
2018 West Coast pinch one IMO (from Richmond, who got full of themselves, leading to a boil over prelim loss to us), and Collingwood come within 5 points of a flag despite only scraping in to top 4.
2019 Richmond dominate (keep in mind Richmond never play a Victorian team in a GF at the MCG during their dynasty).
2020 Richmond beat Geelong well in the COVID year and Gary Ab Jrs final game.
Richmond decline quickly soon after, and Dimma is gone within 18 months.
2021 Melbourne obliterate Bulldogs in one of the most stunning GF performances. They look like a dynasty team. Have not returned to the big dance since, and have had arguably the most damaging 2 years of any club, culturally, since that point.
2022 an immensely dominant Geelong team belt everyone in their path in Joel Selwood's final year. Miss finals the next year after some retirements. Start this year strong, now who knows where they're at (doing well again, but also lost to GCS by 100 or whatever - doesn't often happen in a premiership year). Given their many top 4 finishes, widely hailed program, coaching and success, and the fact that they have attracted the best free agents of any club (Dangerfield, Cameron, Smith), this is their first flag in a decade (11 years).
2023 Pies are the best team most of the year but have a sputtering end (we got SMACKED by Hawks in late 23' too), and win an all-time great, close Finals Series which left next to no margin for error.
Our flag somehow came despite very few top 10 picks or highly regarded FAs in the past 10 years. We have been exceptionally lucky with Father Son prospects and hitting on some other mid draft targets that have come good.
It also came despite major club culture issues being rectified, including racism, poor contract management, poor coaching and game plan, a president who never shut up (just to name a few).
We had also come through what I'd have called our flag window: 2018(beginning) - 2020. We ultimately got pants'ed by Geelong in 2020 which ended that for us and ushered in a dark 21'.
We were looking down the barrel of a full rebuild. Only hindsight heroes would say they expected us to bounce back and make a prelim (1 point and a bad Papley call off making a GF) in 2022 after how putrid we'd gone out in 2020, and how poor a position our whole club was in in 2021.
Instead, we pinch (or whatever) a flag on perhaps the back end of our flag window with this current group in 2023 (I think if we lost we may have been motivated enough to have another crack in 2024 but you can tell the hunger is not here, and we've been hunted), and now get to do engage in a rebuild with a coach and coaching department full of people who have already transformed our culture.
They've transformed culture and grabbed a flag in the time it takes for clubs to usually only do the first. Can you not remember how bad things were in 2021? Contracts? Culture? Coaches? All terrible. All cooked.
Yet here we are now, the reigning premiers, facing what seems to be a downward slope for a bit, but in a much better position that we've been in before. Yet somehow only three wins out of 2nd on the ladder lol.
The revision of history is only to show that SO many clubs look like they're going to be the next big thing only to (mostly) underachieve thereafter. Since 2010, only Hawthorn and Richmond have bucked that trend. All of Sydney, Geelong, Adelaide, bulldogs, Melbourne, Freo, West Coast have looked incredible in that time, only to have to go and rebuild or sack coaches (etc etc) a short time later.
I'm sure this is just cold comfort. But I think to be jumping in to the sky is falling crowd or saying Mcrae and co are no good is a bit of a stretch. If we can't bounce back to contend the rest of this season or 2025, then I for one (even as a pessimist) am keen to see what Mcrae and our, genuinely, excellent coaching panel can do with this club through a rebuild.
Remembering, most rebuilding premiers do not have a 21 year old top 5 player in the comp to build around.
Peace out.
