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ant555
The Oracle
- May 4, 2004
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It is simple for me. Sides come up the ladder and go back down. St.Kilda where an unlucky bounce away from being a Marvel side winning a flag. Dogs have played in two GF. North have been a basket case for 10 years but did play in a few Preliminary finals. We have been average for 20 years . I am not buying. If you are good enough you win. Also think that narrowing down to just flag winners is actually too narrow.I never said it was about playing more games at the MCG. In fact I've specifically noted that Geelong play there less than us and Hawthorn about the same as us.
It's about the number of games we play at Marvel.
Yes, logically it "shouldn't" matter which is your argument. Yes, I agree logically it shouldn't, but it does and has. In my opinion, it's cultural. We were the biggest and the best, then we moved to a stadium which put a limit on us, which said - without words - that we didn't care about being the biggest and best club. That's how I felt about the move all the way back in 2000 and I think I have a pretty good radar for these things. It just didn't feel right.
In terms of culture it's a hard thing to argue, because culture can't be measured. But imagine the frog in boiling water metaphor, and the frog represents our culture. Basically, the frog doesn't leap out of the water the hotter it gets because it happens so gradually that it doesn't notice. The club makes some bad decisions (the move to Marvel) some other dominoes fall, in response to that and the water gets hotter and hotter and before you know it our culture is stuffed and no one saw it coming , just like the frog.
I brought up earlier the record of non Marvel teams over the last 22 years (14 flags) and marvel teams (one fluke flag from 7th). And I asked at what point does that stop being a statistical oddity and it actually starts being something real? It's surely a big enough sample size now to show that it's not a statistical oddity.
There are 4 Docklands sides. One made a couple of Grand Finals but did not win. Had a draw in one. One did win a GF and calling it a fluke is rubbish. They won their finals. They won it. The other two clubs have been pretty much bog average and it has zero to do with playing under the roof.
You can spin it however you want.