Analysis The 2018 premiership is the high point of WC's history

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Cuzz09 said:
I went to the 94 GF and ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT!!

We were a beast of a team that year.

Winning a GF by 80 points is a sign of an epic team.

That defence was ridiculous.

Hart, Brennan, Woosha
McKenna, Jakovich, McIntosh

Ahhhh good old days

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I often feel the 94' flag gets forgotten about, it's certainly hardly ever played on the telly. We destroyed Geelong that day to win the premiership by the margin was incredible. However I agree that 18' is probably our greatest victory it was against all the odds and we worked damn hard to make it happen.
 
They all feel good. I must say 92 felt like something else on many levels-beating the VFL.
The constant replaying of the Sheed mark/block and media hysteria is karma for the Sampi, Judd holds in 05.
But nothing like a come from behind win - the crowd atmosphere was magnificent.
 

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I was thinking last night at work Im so happy that I was alive and a decent age (12) to remember and appreciate our first flag.

I often think what it would be like to be born in say 2000 and the 92/94 flags would feel all ancient and just a record in a book.

I compare it to being a Collingwood/Carlton/Melbourne fan and trying to think what it wouldve been like for those old school flags in the good old days.

Go Eagles

Premiers 1992-1994-2006-2018

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And then Gaff stayed. It's an EAD bonanza all round.

Ya_but_the_quickening_has_to_hurt_like_a_bitch_b147a13a51ad18cbbeec80f1bb35dffd.jpg
 
And now the postscript.

Gaff stays. We reload. We don't just celebrate 2018 and then hope for the best. We reload and go again hard. Sure, Richmond got Lynch and everyone jizzed in their pants. But in the same year, we've re-signed McGovern (the albino crocodile), won a flag without a bunch of stars, then somehow held onto Gaff as well. There's a few things to play out with FAs and possible trades but the experience of winning a flag has further galvanised this group. We should be better in 2019.

And that will be the great test. And perhaps the great payoff.

I remember after we won in 2006. Of course we all had high hopes for 2007. We all expected a degree of natural improvement. We had young guys on the list who were premiership players. Cousins was a little bit older but the other stars in that side were all in their mid 20s. Glass, Cox, Hunter, Embley were all 25. Judd and Kerr were 23. That's crazy. Big Q was 23 at the end of that season, having kicked 60+ goals in a premiership side. The sky was the limit. Ash Hansen was 23 at the end of that season – he was our lucky charm and destined to get better, presumably. We had Waters and Butler who were 20. Wirrpanda, Braun and Stenglein were 27-28, the same as Cousins. They all had good footy left in them. And we'd drafted LeCras, Hurn and Rosa over the previous two seasons. In 2006, we brought in Brown, Mackenzie and Schofield. We could have/should have had a five-year run at it. The talent was there.

Of course, it didn't play out like that. Cousins' issues surfaced at the start of 2007. We won our first six games of 2007 anyway, mostly on the back of Judd playing some truly exceptional football. But then he blew out his groin and we slowed up in the second half of the season. We finished third on percentage, not far behind Port in second. We lost two very tight finals and that was the end of it. Had it not been for injuries and excesses, who knows what would have happened? Geelong were an amazing side that year but I reckon we could have tested them had we been at full strength. Certainly we would have given a better account of ourselves than Port managed. At season's end Judd left, then Cousins got sacked and that sent us into three years of shit. Dark times. We bounced back respectably in 2011-12 but it wasn't until 2015 that we seriously challenged. And even that looked fleeting. Until this year.

I must say, the effect of watching this team this season has turned me around in a way I didn't expect. I think, without really knowing it, there's always been something like a knot of bitterness and angst that built up as a result of what happened after the 2006 win. Subconsciously, it prompted me to leave Australia. I didn't like being close to it. In the years since, when we failed or didn't play the way I wanted, my reactions were basically an echo of how I felt while watching it all go to shit in that post-2006 spiral. After we made a GF in 2015, even after we lost, I had high hopes. That 2015 GF was a decent result in terms of the season overall and I thought we'd improve naturally from there. But we didn't. We were actually pretty shit for most of 2016-17. We were flaky, not helped by Naitanui going down. And now that I think about it, my reaction to that was essentially a conjuring of the events of 2007 onwards. Likewise when we lost from winning positions in the last few years, when we coughed up leads in games we should have won, it took me right back to the years of The Great Disappointment.

With this 2018 flag, though, that's all gone. That weird baggage that had been there for 12 years has gone. The angst has lifted. I no longer feel like WC as a club needs to correct anything or exorcise anything. There was a desperation that wasn't altogether healthy. That's no longer there. A burden has been lifted.

So having won this transformative flag, what happens next?

Honestly, after we won it, and in those initial days of complete satisfaction, I thought this might be the moment to maybe dial down my investment. Frankly, it takes too much out of me. Just the nervous energy every weekend, and in between weekends. It can't be healthy. It's great when we win, but my word, when things go badly, it really puts me over the edge. The losing I can handle, more or less. But when Naitanui did his knee this year, that was brutal. I felt worse after that than after we lost the 2015 GF and that feeling lasted about a month. That's not a functional way for an adult male to live their life.

So I have to say, I looked at our list and that GF side and thought, maybe this is the last hurrah. It's been great but maybe it's the last go around. Maybe LeCras is at the end. Maybe Naitanui never quite gets back. Maybe JK finishes up soon. Maybe Hurn too. Maybe Gaff goes. Maybe Lycett goes. Maybe this is time to get some distance and not be quite so invested. We won a flag. Now's the time to back away from it. It's OK to maybe not be so hooked on it from here on in, right?

I had actually convinced myself of that.

Then Gaff stayed. And now you're telling me Tim Kelly is coming? And Yeo is about to take the next step, after the one he made already? And The Shue is now another club legend and a skipper in waiting? And JK and Darling are just chiming beautifully and will keep doing that for a while yet? And Redden and Jetta have finally clicked? And Barrass is only 23? And NicNat could be back in July/August? And Cole, The Hacksaw and Sheed are emerging as young leaders, already premiership players? And Rioli and Ryan have played not even 40 games between them? And now Big Vardy has his body right and is ready to rumble? And we've got Brander, Allen, Waterman, Brayshaw, Ainsworth and Petruccelle waiting in the wings? And we only just scratched the surface with our new stadium? What we did to Melbourne is just the beginning? And Bunga? And the Junkyard Dog? And the Albino Crocodile?

Well, when you put it that way, there is no choice to be made. I'm all in again.

I want flags for Naitanui, Gaff and Sheppard. I want the senior players of the 2018 team to stand alongside the 1992-94 group as two-time premiership players. Forget 2006-07 and all that followed. I may as well be 11 years old again. This group has me hooked anew for reasons that are entirely of their own making. They'll make their own legacy and I look forward to the ride, hopefully with marginally more perspective than the last time around. Bring on R1.
 
Candiru said:
And now the postscript.

Gaff stays. We reload. We don't just celebrate 2018 and then hope for the best. We reload and go again hard. Sure, Richmond got Lynch and everyone jizzed in their pants. But in the same year, we've re-signed McGovern (the albino crocodile), won a flag without a bunch of stars, then somehow held onto Gaff as well. There's a few things to play out with FAs and possible trades but the experience of winning a flag has further galvanised this group. We should be better in 2019.

And that will be the great test. And perhaps the great payoff.

I remember after we won in 2006. Of course we all had high hopes for 2007. We all expected a degree of natural improvement. We had young guys on the list who were premiership players. Cousins was a little bit older but the other stars in that side were all in their mid 20s. Glass, Cox, Hunter, Embley were all 25. Judd and Kerr were 23. That's crazy. Big Q was 23 at the end of that season, having kicked 60+ goals in a premiership side. The sky was the limit. Ash Hansen was 23 at the end of that season – he was our lucky charm and destined to get better, presumably. We had Waters and Butler who were 20. Wirrpanda, Braun and Stenglein were 27-28, the same as Cousins. They all had good footy left in them. And we'd drafted LeCras, Hurn and Rosa over the previous two seasons. In 2006, we brought in Brown, Mackenzie and Schofield. We could have/should have had a five-year run at it. The talent was there.

Of course, it didn't play out like that. Cousins' issues surfaced at the start of 2007. We won our first six games of 2007 anyway, mostly on the back of Judd playing some truly exceptional football. But then he blew out his groin and we slowed up in the second half of the season. We finished third on percentage, not far behind Port in second. We lost two very tight finals and that was the end of it. Had it not been for injuries and excesses, who knows what would have happened? Geelong were an amazing side that year but I reckon we could have tested them had we been at full strength. Certainly we would have given a better account of ourselves than Port managed. At season's end Judd left, then Cousins got sacked and that sent us into three years of shit. Dark times. We bounced back respectably in 2011-12 but it wasn't until 2015 that we seriously challenged. And even that looked fleeting. Until this year.

I must say, the effect of watching this team this season has turned me around in a way I didn't expect. I think, without really knowing it, there's always been something like a knot of bitterness and angst that built up as a result of what happened after the 2006 win. Subconsciously, it prompted me to leave Australia. I didn't like being close to it. In the years since, when we failed or didn't play the way I wanted, my reactions were basically an echo of how I felt while watching it all go to shit in that post-2006 spiral. After we made a GF in 2015, even after we lost, I had high hopes. That 2015 GF was a decent result in terms of the season overall and I thought we'd improve naturally from there. But we didn't. We were actually pretty shit for most of 2016-17. We were flaky, not helped by Naitanui going down. And now that I think about it, my reaction to that was essentially a conjuring of the events of 2007 onwards. Likewise when we lost from winning positions in the last few years, when we coughed up leads in games we should have won, it took me right back to the years of The Great Disappointment.

With this 2018 flag, though, that's all gone. That weird baggage that had been there for 12 years has gone. The angst has lifted. I no longer feel like WC as a club needs to correct anything or exorcise anything. There was a desperation that wasn't altogether healthy. That's no longer there. A burden has been lifted.

So having won this transformative flag, what happens next?

Honestly, after we won it, and in those initial days of complete satisfaction, I thought this might be the moment to maybe dial down my investment. Frankly, it takes too much out of me. Just the nervous energy every weekend, and in between weekends. It can't be healthy. It's great when we win, but my word, when things go badly, it really puts me over the edge. The losing I can handle, more or less. But when Naitanui did his knee this year, that was brutal. I felt worse after that than after we lost the 2015 GF and that feeling lasted about a month. That's not a functional way for an adult male to live their life.

So I have to say, I looked at our list and that GF side and thought, maybe this is the last hurrah. It's been great but maybe it's the last go around. Maybe LeCras is at the end. Maybe Naitanui never quite gets back. Maybe JK finishes up soon. Maybe Hurn too. Maybe Gaff goes. Maybe Lycett goes. Maybe this is time to get some distance and not be quite so invested. We won a flag. Now's the time to back away from it. It's OK to maybe not be so hooked on it from here on in, right?

I had actually convinced myself of that.

Then Gaff stayed. And now you're telling me Tim Kelly is coming? And Yeo is about to take the next step, after the one he made already? And The Shue is now another club legend and a skipper in waiting? And JK and Darling are just chiming beautifully and will keep doing that for a while yet? And Redden and Jetta have finally clicked? And Barrass is only 23? And NicNat could be back in July/August? And Cole, The Hacksaw and Sheed are emerging as young leaders, already premiership players? And Rioli and Ryan have played not even 40 games between them? And now Big Vardy has his body right and is ready to rumble? And we've got Brander, Allen, Waterman, Brayshaw, Ainsworth and Petruccelle waiting in the wings? And we only just scratched the surface with our new stadium? What we did to Melbourne is just the beginning? And Bunga? And the Junkyard Dog? And the Albino Crocodile?

Well, when you put it that way, there is no choice to be made. I'm all in again.

I want flags for Naitanui, Gaff and Sheppard. I want the senior players of the 2018 team to stand alongside the 1992-94 group as two-time premiership players. Forget 2006-07 and all that followed. I may as well be 11 years old again. This group has me hooked anew for reasons that are entirely of their own making. They'll make their own legacy and I look forward to the ride, hopefully with marginally more perspective than the last time around. Bring on R1.
Click to expand...
tl;dr

5z22JAWjLMLaPGst0e.gif
 
Haha, how good is this!!! So much love, pride & boasting :D
I was 10 when we first came on the scene, and our local footy team renamed ourselves the Mount Barker Eagles,
it was such an exciting time to be a young bloke loving your footy - we played at half time once vs the Brisbane Bears at the W.A.C.A.
- Alex Ishenko ruffled my hair as we were running out :relaxed:
I was in my latter years of high school when we won 92 & 94, we were so proud and partied hard,
I had just started a new job a week before the 2005 GF, (still here) and our superviser was a Shockers supporter,
- he couldn't wait to tell us how he knew we wouldn't win, which made the win in 2006 a huge relief more than anything...
But I whole heartedly agree this one was the best, with everything that happened throughout the year, and we just kept finding
a way to get it done.. SO PROUD, and excited for what next year may bring..
LUV YA'S ALL, BRING ON 2019!! :trophy:
 
Cant remember if I wrote this on here earlier but after we beat Melbourne in the prelim i checked the Melb weather for GF day and it said 13 and 80% chance of rain.

I thought hmmm that sucks.

But each day the game got closer the chance of rain kept decreasing and the temp went up a bit and I felt like this is meant to be.

By the time it was game day it was like 15-16 & 10% chance. Only think it had a light drizzle during the game. I feel we play better in daylight and warm weather (prelim conditions)

The weather for GF15 was perfect but Hawks were above the weather.

Anyway just felt we had not just the footy gods on our side last September

Go Eagles


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2018 is the greatest. We were written off by everyone.

I was born in 91 though so I've watched 92 and 94 but obviously not live.

I hosted all my friends for the 18 victory with a lot of pies supporters and no-one backed us in, it was beautiful.
 
Candiru said:
And now the postscript.

Gaff stays. We reload. We don't just celebrate 2018 and then hope for the best. We reload and go again hard. Sure, Richmond got Lynch and everyone jizzed in their pants. But in the same year, we've re-signed McGovern (the albino crocodile), won a flag without a bunch of stars, then somehow held onto Gaff as well. There's a few things to play out with FAs and possible trades but the experience of winning a flag has further galvanised this group. We should be better in 2019.

And that will be the great test. And perhaps the great payoff.

I remember after we won in 2006. Of course we all had high hopes for 2007. We all expected a degree of natural improvement. We had young guys on the list who were premiership players. Cousins was a little bit older but the other stars in that side were all in their mid 20s. Glass, Cox, Hunter, Embley were all 25. Judd and Kerr were 23. That's crazy. Big Q was 23 at the end of that season, having kicked 60+ goals in a premiership side. The sky was the limit. Ash Hansen was 23 at the end of that season – he was our lucky charm and destined to get better, presumably. We had Waters and Butler who were 20. Wirrpanda, Braun and Stenglein were 27-28, the same as Cousins. They all had good footy left in them. And we'd drafted LeCras, Hurn and Rosa over the previous two seasons. In 2006, we brought in Brown, Mackenzie and Schofield. We could have/should have had a five-year run at it. The talent was there.

Of course, it didn't play out like that. Cousins' issues surfaced at the start of 2007. We won our first six games of 2007 anyway, mostly on the back of Judd playing some truly exceptional football. But then he blew out his groin and we slowed up in the second half of the season. We finished third on percentage, not far behind Port in second. We lost two very tight finals and that was the end of it. Had it not been for injuries and excesses, who knows what would have happened? Geelong were an amazing side that year but I reckon we could have tested them had we been at full strength. Certainly we would have given a better account of ourselves than Port managed. At season's end Judd left, then Cousins got sacked and that sent us into three years of shit. Dark times. We bounced back respectably in 2011-12 but it wasn't until 2015 that we seriously challenged. And even that looked fleeting. Until this year.

I must say, the effect of watching this team this season has turned me around in a way I didn't expect. I think, without really knowing it, there's always been something like a knot of bitterness and angst that built up as a result of what happened after the 2006 win. Subconsciously, it prompted me to leave Australia. I didn't like being close to it. In the years since, when we failed or didn't play the way I wanted, my reactions were basically an echo of how I felt while watching it all go to shit in that post-2006 spiral. After we made a GF in 2015, even after we lost, I had high hopes. That 2015 GF was a decent result in terms of the season overall and I thought we'd improve naturally from there. But we didn't. We were actually pretty shit for most of 2016-17. We were flaky, not helped by Naitanui going down. And now that I think about it, my reaction to that was essentially a conjuring of the events of 2007 onwards. Likewise when we lost from winning positions in the last few years, when we coughed up leads in games we should have won, it took me right back to the years of The Great Disappointment.

With this 2018 flag, though, that's all gone. That weird baggage that had been there for 12 years has gone. The angst has lifted. I no longer feel like WC as a club needs to correct anything or exorcise anything. There was a desperation that wasn't altogether healthy. That's no longer there. A burden has been lifted.

So having won this transformative flag, what happens next?

Honestly, after we won it, and in those initial days of complete satisfaction, I thought this might be the moment to maybe dial down my investment. Frankly, it takes too much out of me. Just the nervous energy every weekend, and in between weekends. It can't be healthy. It's great when we win, but my word, when things go badly, it really puts me over the edge. The losing I can handle, more or less. But when Naitanui did his knee this year, that was brutal. I felt worse after that than after we lost the 2015 GF and that feeling lasted about a month. That's not a functional way for an adult male to live their life.

So I have to say, I looked at our list and that GF side and thought, maybe this is the last hurrah. It's been great but maybe it's the last go around. Maybe LeCras is at the end. Maybe Naitanui never quite gets back. Maybe JK finishes up soon. Maybe Hurn too. Maybe Gaff goes. Maybe Lycett goes. Maybe this is time to get some distance and not be quite so invested. We won a flag. Now's the time to back away from it. It's OK to maybe not be so hooked on it from here on in, right?

I had actually convinced myself of that.

Then Gaff stayed. And now you're telling me Tim Kelly is coming? And Yeo is about to take the next step, after the one he made already? And The Shue is now another club legend and a skipper in waiting? And JK and Darling are just chiming beautifully and will keep doing that for a while yet? And Redden and Jetta have finally clicked? And Barrass is only 23? And NicNat could be back in July/August? And Cole, The Hacksaw and Sheed are emerging as young leaders, already premiership players? And Rioli and Ryan have played not even 40 games between them? And now Big Vardy has his body right and is ready to rumble? And we've got Brander, Allen, Waterman, Brayshaw, Ainsworth and Petruccelle waiting in the wings? And we only just scratched the surface with our new stadium? What we did to Melbourne is just the beginning? And Bunga? And the Junkyard Dog? And the Albino Crocodile?

Well, when you put it that way, there is no choice to be made. I'm all in again.

I want flags for Naitanui, Gaff and Sheppard. I want the senior players of the 2018 team to stand alongside the 1992-94 group as two-time premiership players. Forget 2006-07 and all that followed. I may as well be 11 years old again. This group has me hooked anew for reasons that are entirely of their own making. They'll make their own legacy and I look forward to the ride, hopefully with marginally more perspective than the last time around. Bring on R1.
Click to expand...
You Sir have summed it up beautifully, I have long held a resentment for that 2006 Premiership team after they tore down my heros of 92 and 94.
THIS team has rebuild my faith and love again for the club.

Great post.
 
Still hard to go past 1992.
Us vs Them
All the obstacles.
The joy as Matera “sets sail for home!”

And that team built an aura that worked so well for them. The best come from behind team. If they hit the front in the last quarter they didn’t lose.
Opposition teams would drop their heads knowing what was coming in these circumstances.
This group though have so much upside, can’t wait to ride the wave!
 






My first question is: how the **** did Brent Staker play 23 games that year? And bloody RoJo.

Feel bad for Jaymie Graham who was solid all year but got forced out during finals.

Cousins was amazing. Kerr was also exceptional. But I'm not sure we'll ever have another player as good as Judd in his prime. There will be "greater" players. Someone will play 300 games and win three flags (maybe Yeo!). But I'm not sure we'll ever have another player who was as good as Judd in that purple patch of 70 games in 2004-2007. In that premiership year, he was basically the same age as Dom Sheed is currently, but Judd was already the most dynamic, dangerous midfielder in the comp. Everyone bars up about Oliver, Bontempelli and Cripps etc. But Judd at 22-23 was frightening. The ability to win two-on-ones, and then accelerate out of traffic. It was freakish. Think about this for a second. Everyone bangs on about how Judd was more explosive at WC but had to then become a more contested player at Carlton because he didn't have as much support. In 2006, when Judd was 22 turning 23, playing his 100th game in R8, he averaged 25 point something touches a game (14 contested, 12 uncontested). That's inflated slightly by the finals series, when he won 19, 14, 15 and 17 contested possessions in consecutive weeks. He also kicked 29 goals from 23 games that season and averaged 6.17 clearances and 4.87 tackles per game. Think about the year Yeo has had at 24/25. Judd was two years younger and did it all. Take what Yeo did this year: Judd did it two years younger, winning more contested possession, kicking more goals and winning more clearances. It really was something else.

Also, somewhere down the line, we've forgotten how big a hero Adam Hunter was. He was 25 in that premiership year and finished on 151 games. Was he any less a player than Brett Heady, for example? Darling is 26 now and has played 170 games. If he finished tomorrow, I'm not sure he'd be in front of Hunter.

That's all.
 
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Also this ...



So wait, we were 29 points up just before HT and we held on to win by a point. FMD. I'd repressed this completely. That's way worse than trailing by 30 points in the first term and coming back to win by 5 points.

Armstrong!

Imagine if we still had Beau Waters. He's only 32.

That really was an all-time great individual 1% play by Chick under the circumstances.

Blight and Walls can EAD.
 
Last edited:
Candiru said:
And now the postscript.

Gaff stays. We reload. We don't just celebrate 2018 and then hope for the best. We reload and go again hard. Sure, Richmond got Lynch and everyone jizzed in their pants. But in the same year, we've re-signed McGovern (the albino crocodile), won a flag without a bunch of stars, then somehow held onto Gaff as well. There's a few things to play out with FAs and possible trades but the experience of winning a flag has further galvanised this group. We should be better in 2019.

And that will be the great test. And perhaps the great payoff.

I remember after we won in 2006. Of course we all had high hopes for 2007. We all expected a degree of natural improvement. We had young guys on the list who were premiership players. Cousins was a little bit older but the other stars in that side were all in their mid 20s. Glass, Cox, Hunter, Embley were all 25. Judd and Kerr were 23. That's crazy. Big Q was 23 at the end of that season, having kicked 60+ goals in a premiership side. The sky was the limit. Ash Hansen was 23 at the end of that season – he was our lucky charm and destined to get better, presumably. We had Waters and Butler who were 20. Wirrpanda, Braun and Stenglein were 27-28, the same as Cousins. They all had good footy left in them. And we'd drafted LeCras, Hurn and Rosa over the previous two seasons. In 2006, we brought in Brown, Mackenzie and Schofield. We could have/should have had a five-year run at it. The talent was there.

Of course, it didn't play out like that. Cousins' issues surfaced at the start of 2007. We won our first six games of 2007 anyway, mostly on the back of Judd playing some truly exceptional football. But then he blew out his groin and we slowed up in the second half of the season. We finished third on percentage, not far behind Port in second. We lost two very tight finals and that was the end of it. Had it not been for injuries and excesses, who knows what would have happened? Geelong were an amazing side that year but I reckon we could have tested them had we been at full strength. Certainly we would have given a better account of ourselves than Port managed. At season's end Judd left, then Cousins got sacked and that sent us into three years of shit. Dark times. We bounced back respectably in 2011-12 but it wasn't until 2015 that we seriously challenged. And even that looked fleeting. Until this year.

I must say, the effect of watching this team this season has turned me around in a way I didn't expect. I think, without really knowing it, there's always been something like a knot of bitterness and angst that built up as a result of what happened after the 2006 win. Subconsciously, it prompted me to leave Australia. I didn't like being close to it. In the years since, when we failed or didn't play the way I wanted, my reactions were basically an echo of how I felt while watching it all go to shit in that post-2006 spiral. After we made a GF in 2015, even after we lost, I had high hopes. That 2015 GF was a decent result in terms of the season overall and I thought we'd improve naturally from there. But we didn't. We were actually pretty shit for most of 2016-17. We were flaky, not helped by Naitanui going down. And now that I think about it, my reaction to that was essentially a conjuring of the events of 2007 onwards. Likewise when we lost from winning positions in the last few years, when we coughed up leads in games we should have won, it took me right back to the years of The Great Disappointment.

With this 2018 flag, though, that's all gone. That weird baggage that had been there for 12 years has gone. The angst has lifted. I no longer feel like WC as a club needs to correct anything or exorcise anything. There was a desperation that wasn't altogether healthy. That's no longer there. A burden has been lifted.

So having won this transformative flag, what happens next?

Honestly, after we won it, and in those initial days of complete satisfaction, I thought this might be the moment to maybe dial down my investment. Frankly, it takes too much out of me. Just the nervous energy every weekend, and in between weekends. It can't be healthy. It's great when we win, but my word, when things go badly, it really puts me over the edge. The losing I can handle, more or less. But when Naitanui did his knee this year, that was brutal. I felt worse after that than after we lost the 2015 GF and that feeling lasted about a month. That's not a functional way for an adult male to live their life.

So I have to say, I looked at our list and that GF side and thought, maybe this is the last hurrah. It's been great but maybe it's the last go around. Maybe LeCras is at the end. Maybe Naitanui never quite gets back. Maybe JK finishes up soon. Maybe Hurn too. Maybe Gaff goes. Maybe Lycett goes. Maybe this is time to get some distance and not be quite so invested. We won a flag. Now's the time to back away from it. It's OK to maybe not be so hooked on it from here on in, right?

I had actually convinced myself of that.

Then Gaff stayed. And now you're telling me Tim Kelly is coming? And Yeo is about to take the next step, after the one he made already? And The Shue is now another club legend and a skipper in waiting? And JK and Darling are just chiming beautifully and will keep doing that for a while yet? And Redden and Jetta have finally clicked? And Barrass is only 23? And NicNat could be back in July/August? And Cole, The Hacksaw and Sheed are emerging as young leaders, already premiership players? And Rioli and Ryan have played not even 40 games between them? And now Big Vardy has his body right and is ready to rumble? And we've got Brander, Allen, Waterman, Brayshaw, Ainsworth and Petruccelle waiting in the wings? And we only just scratched the surface with our new stadium? What we did to Melbourne is just the beginning? And Bunga? And the Junkyard Dog? And the Albino Crocodile?

Well, when you put it that way, there is no choice to be made. I'm all in again.

I want flags for Naitanui, Gaff and Sheppard. I want the senior players of the 2018 team to stand alongside the 1992-94 group as two-time premiership players. Forget 2006-07 and all that followed. I may as well be 11 years old again. This group has me hooked anew for reasons that are entirely of their own making. They'll make their own legacy and I look forward to the ride, hopefully with marginally more perspective than the last time around. Bring on R1.
Click to expand...
Couldn't have worded it better myself, completely relate with what you said about the need to correct or exorcise something in the aftermath of the 07 onwards period, very much feels like a transformative flag, the beginning of a new era which also happened to coincide with a new stadium and a rebranding. The club has been a financial powerhouse for a long time, got back on track culturally and maintained that, and now finally reached the pinnacle of success once again. Feels to me like the club is in a great position to truly enforce its' power over the rest of the competition. The list is in great shape talent and balance wise, great depth who're able to cover the impact of stars, we have plentiful senior leaders and also some potential up and comers, no real cultural or behavioural issues, a great senior coach and assistants who have shown they're able to not only develop an effective gameplan, but also change it up and bring flexibility when necessary.

Win 1 more flag and we equal Hawthorn's 5 AFL flags, from there the sky is the limit.
 
Candiru said:
But I'm not sure we'll ever have another player who was as good as Judd in that purple patch of 70 games in 2004-2007. In that premiership year, he was basically the same age as Dom Sheed is currently, but Judd was already the most dynamic, dangerous midfielder in the comp. Everyone bars up about Oliver, Bontempelli and Cripps etc. But Judd at 22-23 was frightening. The ability to win two-on-ones, and then accelerate out of traffic. It was freakish. Think about this for a second. Everyone bangs on about how Judd was more explosive at WC but had to then become a more contested player at Carlton because he didn't have as much support. In 2006, when Judd was 22 turning 23, playing his 100th game in R8, he averaged 25 point something touches a game (14 contested, 12 uncontested). That's inflated slightly by the finals series, when he won 19, 14, 15 and 17 contested possessions in consecutive weeks. He also kicked 29 goals from 23 games that season and averaged 6.17 clearances and 4.87 tackles per game. Think about the year Yeo has had at 24/25. Judd was two years younger and did it all. Take what Yeo did this year: Judd did it two years younger, winning more contested possession, kicking more goals and winning more clearances. It really was something else.
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Peak Judd was the best player I have ever seen. I was so pissed off when he left, reeked of a captain fleeing a sinking ship, called him Judas for years, but I've mellowed somewhat over the years and I'm so glad he earned life membership this year. I love that he still sticks up for us in the Vic media too.

An absolute West Coast (and AFL) legend and I feel privileged to have seen him dominate in the blue and gold, culminating in the 2006 premiership.
 
It does feel a little bit like this year is the making of the Eagles as a football club.

I got on board as a youngster in the 90s and whilst I never bought into the "franchise" bullshit that Victorian's bandied about, it did feel like there was a bit of a corporate methodology in the way the club went about it. This was probably led by Mick Malthouse more than anything as he is very much a straight down the line sorta guy. I remember going to an after match function in the late 90's in Sydney - I would've been a young teenager - and it was a very structured and formulated affair. The players came in, the coach and captain said their bit on stage, and off the went back to Perth.

Fast forward a few years - I would've been a young adult now - and it was very much the same. I went to one function after a match in Sydney in 2003 (?) and the players were whisked away before anyone could say boo.

I always loved the club but must admit to feeling a bit of a disconnect between fans and club for huge chunks of the above period.

Fast forward to 2010 and 11 when I was living in Melbourne and I went to a load of games, watched the guys train multiple times and the group always hung around, signed autographs and took photos with youngsters. The difference in vibe around the group was completely contrasted to earlier experiences. And this was before Simpson took over the coaching role and he seems to have only extended this feeling - culminating in the now famous friends, family, flags motto.

I have been abroad the last few years so I actually haven't seen the Eagles live since Simpson took over so I certainly couldn't comment on the off field connection the players have with the supporters but it feels like that would have only gotten stronger in recent times.

An underrated thing that happened was the Return the Wings campaign. If that campaign was run 10 years ago I don't think it would've been successful (disregarding for a moment, the increased impact social media has in 2018). The club and the players feel so much more connected with the fans and that was even before coming home with 2018 flag.
 
The Passenger said:
An underrated thing that happened was the Return the Wings campaign. If that campaign was run 10 years ago I don't think it would've been successful (disregarding for a moment, the increased impact social media has in 2018). The club and the players feel so much more connected with the fans and that was even before coming home with 2018 flag.
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This. 1000 quintillion percent.
 
Candiru said:
Also this ...



So wait, we were 29 points up just before HT and we held on to win by a point. FMD. I'd repressed this completely. That's way worse than trailing by 30 points in the first term and coming back to win by 5 points.

Armstrong!

Imagine if we still had Beau Waters. He's only 32.

That really was an all-time great individual 1% play by Chick under the circumstances.

Blight and Walls can EAD.
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I was thinking about the paralells between 06 and 18 last night when re-watching the game. In 06 we were like Collingwood in 2018, but managed to hold onto the lead.

Amazing that both premierships involved a team blowing out early and a great suspenseful chase as the other won tried to come back.

Also incredible that 3 of our last 4 GF have been decided by less than a goal and we've won 2 of them. Imagine if we'd won none? We'd probably have some stigma over us like the Colly-wobbles.
 

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