noosa hawk mad
2 Jun 2008, 12:48
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23793649-5012432,00.html
Patrick Smith | June 02, 2008
HAWTHORN is the last team to fall. After winning the first nine rounds and nudging defending premier Geelong as favourite for the flag, Hawthorn lost to the Bulldogs at Launceston, the Hawks' home away from home on Saturday. The significance? None.
While it was a convincing victory - the Bulldogs won every quarter, resisted a surge by Hawthorn in the third quarter which saw the lead reduced to eight points - sustaining a winning run of nine wins in a row is itself indicative of a superior team.
That it lost to a team that had put together a run of eight undefeated rounds until it fell to North Melbourne in the previous week tells us why it was such an intriguing match. It was the very best of AFL football. The Bulldogs had more tackles - 57 to 38 - and more handballs - 182 to 163 - which Daniel Giansiracusa said yesterday was critical to the win.
The Bulldog mid-fielder/forward said the plan was to break up Hawthorn's zone by drawing players with handballs then kicking over their heads into the forward line. It worked because the Hawks were unable to establish any of their overlapping run. That Lance Franklin was up in the back half chasing possessions suggests how much Hawthorn's game plan had been unravelled.
Yet unless Bulldog coach Rodney Eade has discovered a fool-proof way to dismantle Hawthorn that will be adopted by other clubs, then it would be foolish to try to decipher much from the result.
That Hawthorn got nine wins in a row is a feat of brilliance that one loss cannot diminish.
As the Bulldogs found the week before, maintaining unbeaten runs in modern football is no easy task. Limited lists, fatigue, enervating travel, mental weariness and superior tactics can prove impossible obstacles to overcome.
This century Brisbane won three premierships in a row. In 2001 which saw the first of its hat-trick, the Lions won 16 consecutive games and carried the grand final by 26 points. The following years its best runs of consecutive wins were seven in 2002 and four in 2003.
Port Adelaide defeated Brisbane in 2004 and the Power's run of unbeaten games reached seven which included three finals.
The following year Sydney was premier but could not stretch a winning streak beyond four games. Then West Coast won the flag with two spreads of no more than five consecutive wins.
In 2000 Essendon won the grand final by 60 points and had collected 20 consecutive victories before it lost its only game of the season.
Last year Geelong won 15 in a row before winning the grand final by 119 points. But history will record these teams as two of the greatest in history, as it will the 2001 Brisbane team which was the heart and backbone of the triple premiership side.
Long, undefeated stretches do not guarantee a flag - Port Adelaide won eight in a row in 2003, lost its preliminary final and won the grand final the following year - but they do suggest teams that achieve them are the very elite of the competition.
In the space of eight days first Geelong then the Bulldogs and Hawthorn lost for the first time this season. This might indicate that only the potentially truly great teams can stretch winning streaks into double figures in the game as it is played now.
Thus we come to St Kilda, the club that played breathtaking football to win the first 10 games of the 2004 season, the last victory in that club record stretch was an 18-goal humiliation of Carlton.
Yesterday St Kilda trounced Melbourne at Telstra Dome and has won five of its 10 matches. The club has been picked apart by everybody in possession of a computer or a microphone since its round-nine loss to Brisbane.
Reasons offered for St Kilda's disappointing start were numerous. This column said lack of leadership through the club was a significant factor, others pointed to recruiting and drafting. Another theory held that the Saints have always been overrated and that expectation bore no resemblance to ability. But everybody appeared of the same mind that the window of opportunity that 2004 seemed to push open had been closed abruptly.
Whatever the reason, the club appeared to be just the flickering ashes of a meteor that burnt white-hot in the winter of 2004, the year the Saints lost the preliminary final by one goal to eventual premier Port Adelaide.
The last half of the season had been interrupted by injury with Leigh Fisher, Fraser Gehrig, Brent Guerra, Justin Koschitzke, Matt Maguire, Jason Gram and Max Hudghton absent, hurt or suspended at some stage after the club's flying start - its best in history.
It was the most genuine attempt on the flag since Stan Alves took the Saints to the 1997 grand final. While coach Grant Thomas had the Saints back in the preliminary final in 2005, its moment to make history was gone and after one more finals appearance in 2006, Thomas was replaced as coach.
Thomas, who had predicted during his time in charge that his list would win two premierships in 10 years, is now a media commentator. He would have listened and read with interest, and possibly anger, as the football community dissected his legacy.
So now the Saints are five wins, five losses. Half good, half bad. Yesterday they walloped Melbourne, which has been mostly bad for three seasons.
But there were flashes of 2004. Nick Riewoldt and Koschitzke taking marks, Nick Dal Santo running hard, Luke Ball hunting, gathering.
It is not the 2004 glory again and St Kilda is no Hawthorn, Geelong or the Bulldogs. But a win can either be the start of a streak or the beginning of a stretch of the imagination.
The Bulldogs will decide the issue next Sunday.
Patrick Smith | June 02, 2008
HAWTHORN is the last team to fall. After winning the first nine rounds and nudging defending premier Geelong as favourite for the flag, Hawthorn lost to the Bulldogs at Launceston, the Hawks' home away from home on Saturday. The significance? None.
While it was a convincing victory - the Bulldogs won every quarter, resisted a surge by Hawthorn in the third quarter which saw the lead reduced to eight points - sustaining a winning run of nine wins in a row is itself indicative of a superior team.
That it lost to a team that had put together a run of eight undefeated rounds until it fell to North Melbourne in the previous week tells us why it was such an intriguing match. It was the very best of AFL football. The Bulldogs had more tackles - 57 to 38 - and more handballs - 182 to 163 - which Daniel Giansiracusa said yesterday was critical to the win.
The Bulldog mid-fielder/forward said the plan was to break up Hawthorn's zone by drawing players with handballs then kicking over their heads into the forward line. It worked because the Hawks were unable to establish any of their overlapping run. That Lance Franklin was up in the back half chasing possessions suggests how much Hawthorn's game plan had been unravelled.
Yet unless Bulldog coach Rodney Eade has discovered a fool-proof way to dismantle Hawthorn that will be adopted by other clubs, then it would be foolish to try to decipher much from the result.
That Hawthorn got nine wins in a row is a feat of brilliance that one loss cannot diminish.
As the Bulldogs found the week before, maintaining unbeaten runs in modern football is no easy task. Limited lists, fatigue, enervating travel, mental weariness and superior tactics can prove impossible obstacles to overcome.
This century Brisbane won three premierships in a row. In 2001 which saw the first of its hat-trick, the Lions won 16 consecutive games and carried the grand final by 26 points. The following years its best runs of consecutive wins were seven in 2002 and four in 2003.
Port Adelaide defeated Brisbane in 2004 and the Power's run of unbeaten games reached seven which included three finals.
The following year Sydney was premier but could not stretch a winning streak beyond four games. Then West Coast won the flag with two spreads of no more than five consecutive wins.
In 2000 Essendon won the grand final by 60 points and had collected 20 consecutive victories before it lost its only game of the season.
Last year Geelong won 15 in a row before winning the grand final by 119 points. But history will record these teams as two of the greatest in history, as it will the 2001 Brisbane team which was the heart and backbone of the triple premiership side.
Long, undefeated stretches do not guarantee a flag - Port Adelaide won eight in a row in 2003, lost its preliminary final and won the grand final the following year - but they do suggest teams that achieve them are the very elite of the competition.
In the space of eight days first Geelong then the Bulldogs and Hawthorn lost for the first time this season. This might indicate that only the potentially truly great teams can stretch winning streaks into double figures in the game as it is played now.
Thus we come to St Kilda, the club that played breathtaking football to win the first 10 games of the 2004 season, the last victory in that club record stretch was an 18-goal humiliation of Carlton.
Yesterday St Kilda trounced Melbourne at Telstra Dome and has won five of its 10 matches. The club has been picked apart by everybody in possession of a computer or a microphone since its round-nine loss to Brisbane.
Reasons offered for St Kilda's disappointing start were numerous. This column said lack of leadership through the club was a significant factor, others pointed to recruiting and drafting. Another theory held that the Saints have always been overrated and that expectation bore no resemblance to ability. But everybody appeared of the same mind that the window of opportunity that 2004 seemed to push open had been closed abruptly.
Whatever the reason, the club appeared to be just the flickering ashes of a meteor that burnt white-hot in the winter of 2004, the year the Saints lost the preliminary final by one goal to eventual premier Port Adelaide.
The last half of the season had been interrupted by injury with Leigh Fisher, Fraser Gehrig, Brent Guerra, Justin Koschitzke, Matt Maguire, Jason Gram and Max Hudghton absent, hurt or suspended at some stage after the club's flying start - its best in history.
It was the most genuine attempt on the flag since Stan Alves took the Saints to the 1997 grand final. While coach Grant Thomas had the Saints back in the preliminary final in 2005, its moment to make history was gone and after one more finals appearance in 2006, Thomas was replaced as coach.
Thomas, who had predicted during his time in charge that his list would win two premierships in 10 years, is now a media commentator. He would have listened and read with interest, and possibly anger, as the football community dissected his legacy.
So now the Saints are five wins, five losses. Half good, half bad. Yesterday they walloped Melbourne, which has been mostly bad for three seasons.
But there were flashes of 2004. Nick Riewoldt and Koschitzke taking marks, Nick Dal Santo running hard, Luke Ball hunting, gathering.
It is not the 2004 glory again and St Kilda is no Hawthorn, Geelong or the Bulldogs. But a win can either be the start of a streak or the beginning of a stretch of the imagination.
The Bulldogs will decide the issue next Sunday.