Paul Couch on Open Mike

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CroftyV1

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Sep 26, 2007
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Was one of the better Open Mikes for sure. Agree with Couchy, '92 was the one out of all those Grand Finals we should have won. If only we'd had someone to throw onto Petera Matera to shut him down, we were a real chance. Remember Gazza kicked the 1st goal of the 2nd half to give us a 3 goal lead, but then it was all Matera. Blighty tried Bairstow on him, but to no avail.
 

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Nov 12, 2002
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Was one of the better Open Mikes for sure. Agree with Couchy, '92 was the one out of all those Grand Finals we should have won. If only we'd had someone to throw onto Petera Matera to shut him down, we were a real chance. Remember Gazza kicked the 1st goal of the 2nd half to give us a 3 goal lead, but then it was all Matera. Blighty tried Bairstow on him, but to no avail.

Not quite. Blight started Bairstow on him, which was half the problem. Seeing as Bairstow a) wasn't a tagger, and b) wasn't a winger, it wasn't quite the most brilliant decision. Matera was only in great form because Blight played Sean Simpson on him in the 2nd Semi a fortnight earlier.

Some enlightening comments though. I didn't realise the 2nd half of the 1995 Grand Final was played on equal terms. I'm sure we were 85 points down in the last quarter at one point.

The one shocker though was his comment about Port Adelaide - 10th-12th best team in 2007? Did you even watch footy that season Couchy? They were absolutely the 2nd best team that year. Easily.
 

goyoucatters

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Was one of the better Open Mikes for sure. Agree with Couchy, '92 was the one out of all those Grand Finals we should have won. If only we'd had someone to throw onto Petera Matera to shut him down, we were a real chance. Remember Gazza kicked the 1st goal of the 2nd half to give us a 3 goal lead, but then it was all Matera. Blighty tried Bairstow on him, but to no avail.

Certainly didn't work. In Blighty's defence, though, did we ever work out any method of curtailing Matera's influence when he played against us?

In my memory, he seemed to virtually slaughter us singlehanded every time we played the Weagles.:(
 
Nov 12, 2002
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Certainly didn't work. In Blighty's defence, though, did we ever work out any method of curtailing Matera's influence when he played against us?

In my memory, he seemed to virtually slaughter us singlehanded every time we played the Weagles.:(

We certainly did. I'll give you two clues - "Peter" and "Riccardi". Who was playing in that Grand Final too.
 
Mine's upstairs. But Devine was one of the players he really rated from that era. He was a huge fan of Denis Marshall as well - just wasn't here for long enough.
Interesting topic for discussion, maybe once the season is over - how do we compare the great Geelong team of 63-67 with the 2007-2011 team, line by line, player by player?
 

goyoucatters

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We certainly did. I'll give you two clues - "Peter" and "Riccardi". Who was playing in that Grand Final too.

Just checked his stats against us. Illuminating.

Played us 24 times. Only topped 30 possessions once ('92 SF).

Only topped 20 possessions half a dozen times.

Only kicked multiple goals three times (twice in the '92 finals series).

And got his (equal) lowest number of Brownlow votes against any club (2!) when playing the hoops.

He also recorded 2 Brownlow votes against the Power. He only played them six times, though.

Seems I was scarred a great deal by very little.
 

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Aug 2, 2012
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Didn't see him (obviously), and I'm wary of automatically thinking the latest is the best. But I'd be struggling to think he was any better than Harry Taylor.

Absolutely classic example of the difficulty of comparing players from different eras.
Each of them was the League's best CHB of their era, but the CHB/KPD's role now is totally and utterly different to what it was then.
Walker was more versatile, regularly playing successfully as a centreman not only for Geelong (in the absence of Lord, Marshall and Closter) but for the Victorian team (so they could fit Peter Steward in).
But, of course, Taylor can also play CHF. ;)
 
Easy one.

2007-2011. 3 premierships is better than 1.
Agree - the 63-67 team underachieved in winning only one premiership. But there were some great names in the team - Polly Farmer (arguably the greatest ruckman ever), Doug Wade (a 1,000 goal full forward), Billy Goggin, Dennis Marshall (superstar), Alistair Lord (Brownlow medalist), John Sharrock, John Devine, John Newman, Bill Ryan, Peter Walker, etc.

It really highlights the greatness of the 2007-2011 team.
 

Farmer2Goggin

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Didn't see him (obviously), and I'm wary of automatically thinking the latest is the best. But I'd be struggling to think he was any better than Harry Taylor.
As Fred said Walker was more versatile and more of a dasher than Harry , probably more of a flanker if he was around these days
In addition to those mentioned strong arguments could be mounted for Dennis Marshall and John Sharrock , magnificent players from that golden era.
Would also love to have seen a footrace between Wojo and Tony Polinelli..........
 
Aug 2, 2012
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As Fred said Walker was more versatile and more of a dasher than Harry , probably more of a flanker if he was around these days
In addition to those mentioned strong arguments could be mounted for Dennis Marshall and John Sharrock , magnificent players from that golden era.
Would also love to have seen a footrace between Wojo and Tony Polinelli..........

Definitely not a KPD these days, there is simply a massive average height, size and weight difference.
Polly Farmer was 191cm, his greatest (but clearly inferior) opponent John Nicholls was 189cm, Ian Stewart the greatest centreman of the '60s was 179cm and kept slamming it down the throat of his CHF Darrel Baldock who was 177cm.
 
Jun 5, 2007
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Yep. That's why I've never been too harsh about Devine, it was a poorly thought out appointment, and he'd spent far too long out of the game. Barassi had less excuse as he was involved the whole time.

Or the older truism for both simply rings true - players make coaches. When Barassi had superstar teams at Carlton and North he won flags, when he didn't at Melbourne and Sydney he won wooden spoons.
To be fair to Barass he has also admitted that he was a bit of a tool back then with this antics.

What you say about players making coaches is true - Roos evidence of that right now. However you still have to push the players' buttons, train them, develop gameplans to suit who you have got, then get them to execute. It's why I thought MM did well early at Collingwood with a good but not great list. Clearly he has fallen away recently, and is now in freefall. S Icke was one player I referenced above who had Barass him at Nth and Melb.
 
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Sep 15, 2007
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Certainly didn't work. In Blighty's defence, though, did we ever work out any method of curtailing Matera's influence when he played against us?

In my memory, he seemed to virtually slaughter us singlehanded every time we played the Weagles.:(
not true. Riccardi had some great games against Matera after 94 and teared the eagles up a couple of times. Unfortunately it just wasn't in finals.
 

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