Paul Couch on Open Mike

[Goggin Our Best]

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..........

For what it is worth - I can remember Bill Goggin about 20 years ago - early 90s picked his best ever Geelong team for i think the Sunday AGE

Basically they had a past player each week - at the time - pick their teams best side - eg Tuddenham picked Collingwoods best team etc

Interestingly i can remember Goggin picked Jack Hawkins as the centre half back position - ahead of Peter Walker

Jack Hawkins was a top notch centre half back - and the big advantage he had over Harry Taylor - is that he took the game on - and showed real dash - wasnt uncommon for Hawkins to take 2-3 bounces at top place - a bit like a bigger version of Kenny Hinkley

Hawkins unfortunately had the chronic knee problem - but to show how good he was - i can remember going to a Fitzroy v Geelong game at the Junction oval - it was half way through the season - and Hawkins 1st game for the year ( because of the knee problem) and he was nearly best on the ground - he was sensational

I think supporters can be blinded by Premierships - when rating players - sure you get tremendous joy - but tell me Taylor ( as good as hes been - especially his marking) - when do you ever see him do anything at top pace - everything is slow motion - in a very slow Geelong team

Id go J Hawkins >H Taylor > P Walker for CHB

 

[goyoucatters]

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.

Thanks, Seeds. I did the research (posted at #38 above) and found out that Matera ('92 finals aside) was very average against us.

Will check the stats first next time.

 

[Teriyakicat]

Fred - mature?

Might just be a hint to Fred that he's pretty ripe.

 

[Teriyakicat]

Ripe.

:Oops: oops, I did it again... Glad you had the same thought Now I don't feel so bad for picking on you, Fred.

 

[leorex]

I always thought '95 was the grand final that we should have won

and even more sadly it was the one we embarrassed ourselves

 

[Bobby_]

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.

Sorry to post this as I know it still stings (for some of us) but re-watching the third quarter goals . . . it's comical how much time and space our midfield gave West Coast's who consistently used the same players (Evans, Heady, Kemp) to feed the ball to the likes of Matera, Sumich and Wilson time and time again.



About halfway through the quarter, even Ablett was drifting to the back half to help out due to West Coast's dominance through the center of the ground.
A couple of goals were very flukey but most of them could have been avoided had we switched players around but I'm not even sure the coaching staff did much at all in that third quarter?
Wills didn't have a clue on how to defend but he was incredibly fast. You'd think if you said to him to go and try stay toe-to-toe with Matera, it would at least made a couple of those shots at goal a lot more difficult. As it turned out, Bairstow had no chance once it became a sprint.

5 goals to 1 in that quarter ended our chances unfortunately. As Couchy said, probably the best chance out of all four of winning it that day but they had to have at least broken even heading into the three-quarter-time break.

 

[Seeds]

I always thought '95 was the grand final that we should have won

and even more sadly it was the one we embarrassed ourselves

No Stoneham, Ablett could barely jog by the end of the year, Bairstow and O'Rielly went the year before and Couch and Brownless were also near the end. 92 and 93 should of been our years.

 

[catters05]

I always thought '95 was the grand final that we should have won

and even more sadly it was the one we embarrassed ourselves

I cant split 94/95 for embarrassment in the Grand Finals.

Glad the 90's are such a distant memory now, thanks to 2007/2009/2011

 

[Commando]

No Stoneham, Ablett could barely jog by the end of the year, Bairstow and O'Rielly went the year before and Couch and Brownless were also near the end. 92 and 93 should of been our years.

1993 was the year....
Would have brained all the finalists if we got in

 

[Jhye Clark 13]

1993 was the year....
Would have brained all the finalists if we got in

We brained them all in the preceding 5 weeks.

 

[Episode]

We brained them all in the preceding 5 weeks.

Couldn't agree more. Amazingly 93 was our best chance in that era. Were the form team in a very open season,yet missed the finals on percentage.Unfortunately not good enough in the 4 gf losses, poor discipline,loss of form and injuries resulted in champion players like Couch in that era sadly never winning a premiership medal.