Massie, Vance, Livo, Sporn & Wiggins have all failed.

The last home & away game against Geelong in 2001 when Ratten injured his elbow which effectively ended his career. Shortly afterwards Kouta wrecked his knee for the second time followed by the retirement of Silvagni at the end of the season. Our 3 best & most important players "gone" in a period of about a month.

I dont know about you lot but if I had a team that had just had the greatest season ever recorded in the history of the game I dont think I would be thinking about a succession plan - I would be thinking how long and how many flags can we milk out of this team

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If you allow the Government to change the Laws in an emergency
They will create an Emergency to change the Laws

But SB, we didn't milk anymore flags out of that team, and that was because of really poor recruiting decisions. If the Board had set up proper recruiting infrastructure, we would have made better decisions. I mean any St Kilda supporter could have told us (and did) what a waste of space Craig Devonport was, yet we went after him. Mick Mansfiled, Mick McGuane, O'Reilly etc, etc, didn't win us anything. We had been left behind in terms of recruiting infrastructure and therefore made bad decisions that cost us big time. Really, if we had good scouts assessing oppo players, would we have made those decisions, and kept making them. 95 we had a gun team based on big interstate recruiting pre draft kicking in, some good wheeler dealing (by Collo) for Diesel, Harry and Earl and some lucky gets from the U19s - Fraser Brown; Ratts; Kouta; Ang. It was a great season, but good planning would have built a dynasty in the 80s and 90s. Collingwood and Essendon* were way behind us in success, support, wealth, facilities, innovation, infrastructure in the early 80s and caught and surpassed us in most areas since then while we poured money into grand stands that no-one sat in.

na we were doing fine until Pagan walked into the club

or to quote a famous line ' we was robbed!'

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This type of slight is alien in the more cultured part of the world - Walsh. Its up there with mad dogs, Englishmen and the midday sun!

worked well, didn't it.

You're a great strategist Sydney Blue!!!!!!!

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Love Cricket? Love me

Hind sight is a wonderful thing - It took them a while to wake up- 99 would have confused them but they did go to the draft in 2000 with pick4 ,11,16 -Not their fault they turned into duds.

Flags are hard to come by if you have just have a stellar year you want to have a crack at another over the next 2-3 years you would be mad if didn't . It paid off for Brisbane we were just unlucky - brisbane are on the slide now and who knows how long they will take to recover

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If you allow the Government to change the Laws in an emergency
They will create an Emergency to change the Laws

now you are getting it

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If you allow the Government to change the Laws in an emergency
They will create an Emergency to change the Laws

It would be interesting to look at the average age of Brisbane's key players when they won their first flag as against our key players in 95...

Williams
Dean
Kernahan
Bradley
Madden
etc etc etc

At a guess we had a lot more over 30s than Brisbane and their core of superstars were mostly mid 20s.

We [REDACTED] up.

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“When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn't become a king. The palace turns into a circus.”
Turkish Proverb

The hype after the 95 year we had - I dont think anyone was thinking of their age . If you were like most Blues supporters after that year you didn't think we would ever lose again. ( If you know whay I mean)

I thought we would go back to back. But when they missed the finals 97/98 the alarm bells should have rang and probably were but 99 confused everyone. 2000 they did the right thing and got rid of a bloke who was demanding to much money and went to the draft( they did that this year as well all be it as not as good player).

A few wrong decisions plus a few unlucky picks and it all went pear shape.

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If you allow the Government to change the Laws in an emergency
They will create an Emergency to change the Laws

They should have been.

After the 84 Grand Final Kevin Sheedy got up and told his players to take a look around because they'd never play a match of football together again.

There's a bloke who understands that teams change constantly and unless you're constantly blooding new talent you're going backwards.

When all your key players are within a couple of years of retirement it's not that hard to work out where you're headed long term. To bring in more players of the same sort of age or suspect condition (Mansfield, O'Reilly etc) was simply a criminal act.

Hindsight may be useful when making decisions but give me a coach and an administration with foresight and I'll take that first any day.

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“When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn't become a king. The palace turns into a circus.”
Turkish Proverb

I actually remember Parkin saying after 95 that even the Premier needs to change their team by 10% just to keep up with the opposition.

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"The ability to speak doesn't make you intelligent." Qui-Gon Jinn 15-05-2005

"there’s more chance of me becoming the full forward for the [Western Bulldogs] than there is of any change in the Labor Party." Julia Gillard 18-05-2010

Thats only two players

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If you allow the Government to change the Laws in an emergency
They will create an Emergency to change the Laws

...and he never won another flag...

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“When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn't become a king. The palace turns into a circus.”
Turkish Proverb

Before the Elliott regime finished us off by dragging us through the mud, I suggested that we needed to review and restructure our recruiting department after the '95 GF win. This comment was made a few years down the track from '95 and people didn't understand why I said these things. I was given some serious backlash from people about it suggesting that I didn't know what I'm talking about (Elwood can back me up on this).

Now we find that all of our key champion players over the past 5-6 seasons have drifted off into retirement & we are going through a much-needed long and sustained rebuilding campign. When you are as low as you can get, the suggestion of reviewing & restructuring the recruiting process doesn't sound so foreign any more especially when you finally realise that you need a succession plan. Best of all, there has been some positive changes made now (eg Wayne Hughes) but you have to wonder why it has taken so long for it to happen ?? Sheer arrogance & short-sightedness may be one reason ??

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GROUND ZERO + DRAFTING YOUTH = SUSTAINED SUCCESS

Four was pretty good though

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If you allow the Government to change the Laws in an emergency
They will create an Emergency to change the Laws

Not sure that I'd be hanging my hat on anything the guru Sheedy said. His best skill is taking all the credit and none of the blame. He had one of the great sides in 85 and for the next 8 seasons they did nothing apart from being humiliated by the Pies in 1990. And his decision to replace Banfield and Carey with mercenaries like Richo and Raines was probably worse than any recruiting decision the Blues have made.

Sheedy's not someone we need to take much advice from

Just because the guy's a fruit loop doesn't mean he's always wrong Gerry...

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“When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn't become a king. The palace turns into a circus.”
Turkish Proverb

edit...

bloody gremlins...

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“When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn't become a king. The palace turns into a circus.”
Turkish Proverb

Laserkid, go to www.jumpingtheshark.com to gain a full understanding of this bizarre phrase. It's a site where every television series is voted on to identify the ultimate "shark" moment!! Way cool...

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"...that's the thing about opinion - you don't have to know anything to have one..." Andre Agassi commenting on Pat Cash 2004
"...the less you know - the more you believe..." - Bono 2006

While our recruiting was a disgrace at that time, I had no problems with the O'Reilly trade at the time, given SOS was coming to the end of his career, as he'd come off playing some outstanding footy for Freo. Sadly he got a back injury and it didn't work out. As for McKernan, well, he won the B & F, kicked 40 goals as forward as well as carrying our rucks (and forward line) all on his own for most of the year. He was terrific that year. 2003, he, like most of the team, and the current one, couldn't see eye to eye with the coach. We got the last of the best of Corey. Mansfield, on the other hand, was an absolute shocker.

I think the problem since 2002 was discipline, recruiting (Big Jack not coming to terms with the draft and salary cap), and coaches the players did/do not respect, hence a a complete and total lack of committment (except for 2004 & the wizzer). Most of the players of 2002/3 played in the 99 GF and the excellent season of 2000 (13 wins straight) and 2001 so their was no excuse for those two season's performances. Even if we missed the 8 we shouldn't have been on the bottom.