Just have to say that AFL is a tough gig.Whether it is as a football side or a critic.who is prepared to stick his neck out on a weekly basis.
Take Carlton for instance, the week prior to the one just gone, the football world was abuzz with excitement about how well they played and how they have turned the corner.What they didn’t take into account was the fact that they played Essendon. Two sides who are cellar dwellers.I think they went over board with their jubilation.The week just gone, they get smashed by a top eight side .A side that has a chance of being top four.Down comes the sky.Every man and his dog are heaping scorn on the team.A tough gig this AFL.
Essendon smashed the previous week by Carlton.They cop a fair dinkum pelting from all and sundry.This week they smash Geelong and out come the slammers from the week before to heap praise on them.A tough gig this AFL.
Take another case in point,the Fremantle Dockers.Sitting four and five after the weekend.No body expected the Dockers to be at an almost even keel at this stage of the season.Their losses have been away, but for the Eagles game.They have away sides that are either in the top four, or eight all except the Giants.But make no mistake , they will be top eight and maybe top four contenders around finals time.And a point that maybe a lot have missed, is that aside from the Eagles losing to Sydney in the opening game of the season, the Dockers have run the Eagles the closest of all other sides that they have beaten.A tough gig this AFL
I write a little skit every week on my FB page.Making predictions as to who will win and lose and why.Hard to get people to respond much except when there is a selection that readers, I assume there are some,who have a crack about my dislike for a side.They come over in droves when their side has a win,but never say well selected when they lose and I have selected them. Ahh a tough gig this AFL.:whistle: :whistle: :whistle:
Anch: I don’t pay any attention to football scribes. Can a critic really be taken seriously if they did not have the Eagles in the 8 before the season. I certainly did and for the three very good reasons below:
they will play half their games in Perth
they had two key forwards and a solid midfield
big NN was coming back
all pretty good reasons to have them in the top eight, I would have thought?
Just another example in regards how poor football scribes have been accross the ages Anch, think about the WAFL at the start of the 1981 season.
Guess, what? The majority of writers did not pick Claremont to make the final four – many of them had Old Easts in instead. How that possible?
[quote=“anchorman” post=148218
But make no mistake , they (Dockers) will be top eight and maybe top four contenders around finals time.
:whistle: :whistle: :whistle:
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You have a highly developed sense of humour, anchor. :lol:
You have a highly developed sense of humour, anchor. :lol:
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I think he was talking about GWS Jack
Not how I read it, mike.
Perhaps anchor could clarify it.
I guess you could take it how you see it.But any one reading it that was reading it with out being a SA, would know what I meant.
There is no way Fremantle will make the top eight.That is just to clarify it for you JS.
Spot on AR I remember those predictions that pre season too.
Seems hard to believe now looking back considering the all conquering Tigers went on a goalscoring rampage that season in waltzing to the flag having only lost 2 games all year (kicked 18.15 123 vs your beloved SU & 13.17 95 vs SF in the losses) but it just goes to show really!
I still say that was the best season of footy I have seen by a side in my time watching footy especially considering the top quality opposition of the day and the players competing against.
BH I agree with all of that. It is good that you remember all of those predictions pre-1981, it was the first time I had seen them in print.Claremont had been as weak as piddle in the previous two seasons, especially in finals, but, in truth, in 1980, the third came on the back of nearly winning the ‘escort cup’. The side was creammed cracked by the time it played EP in the first-semi final. As you said Bease, all of the above were reasons to put the tigers in the four not out of it – laughable.
In 1981, they were superb, against some good opposition, and deserve to be regarded as the best side seen in the state since the 1950s. Interestinglly, though, BH, as you know, they slipped up against Subiaco in round 2; and, as you can imagine, the reviews of the match make for some readding, even today, Rob Benett giving them a right serve for their performance. Forrtunately for Tiger’s supporters, the players seem to have taken the criticism to heart, as they were almost football perfection after that match.
a great era for WA football, Claremont and your beloved black and whites even more.
AR you bring up a good point re the mid week Escort Cup comp.
The poor little modern day afl darlings whinge and whine about having to travel every once in a whilst the tough as nails WAFL boys back in the 70s & 80s would travel East midweek in between their normal fixture games on the weekend!!
Vfl Park Waverley.Hawthorne V Claremont.Either 1978 of 79.The automatic sprinklers turned on midway through the last qtr. Claremont where in front. They had already beaten Melbourne+ Carlton and a SA side.Into the last 4 teams.
The Krakouer’s were killing the Hawks until they deliberately turned the sprinklers on to stop Claremont’s run gtr!
The Krakouer’s were killing the Hawks until they deliberately turned the sprinklers on to stop Claremont’s run gtr!
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There was also a good Sanfl side that went well in 1986-87-88..North AdelaideThat won games in Melbourne under lights and made the final 4 in at least 2 of those years. That team had to really good ruckmen Redden and Parsons,Jarmen Brothers,Mathew Campbell,Darryl Hart and a very solid back line.A physo little rover called Tony Antrobus and a power forward call Grenville Dietrich.
It makes a complete and utter mockery of those buffoons who insist the vfl was far more stronger than the WAFL and SAFL before the wce started up in 1987 gtr
There were many WAFL & SAFL sides that would have destroyed some of the vfl sides of the same era Claremont in 1981 a case in point!
BH and GTR: we should also keep in mind that, besides having to play mid week against supposed better sides from Victoria, they had to play at night, too, inspite of having no expereice of playing in such conditions.
The point that the pro Victorian miss on here is that, the top part of the VFL was only superior to our competition because of the presence of players from WA, SA and Tasmania.