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- #176
There was that big chunk of football in the middle of 2006 where we were not playing good football, but still coming away with wins. That was a huge strength of that side. We almost never blew teams away, but we were never out of a game either.
From round 10 to round 16 we had the 54 point comeback against Geelong, the 44 point comeback against Carlton(!) at home, loss to Port, loss to the Bulldogs, two good but close wins against Hawthorn and Sydney, and then a loss to Collingwood by 37 points.
It's a patch we could have easily gone 0-7 but ended up 4-3.
And then the Adelaide game the week after, which for me was the moment we looked like a premiership team. We went handball crazy and took apart an Adelaide team who were looking unbeatable at that stage. 82 point win. Adelaide at that stage were two games and 52% clear on top of the ladder. They were unbackable premiership favourites and not only did we beat them that day, but we beat them in an away preliminary final.
It's easy to think now that our 2006 team was this super team with the greatest midfield ever, but until we actually won the flag, there were serious, serious doubts on the ability of that forward line and John Worsfold as a coach, and plenty of times during the year it looked like we would get close but not get there. We lost our first final at home FFS.
From round 10 to round 16 we had the 54 point comeback against Geelong, the 44 point comeback against Carlton(!) at home, loss to Port, loss to the Bulldogs, two good but close wins against Hawthorn and Sydney, and then a loss to Collingwood by 37 points.
It's a patch we could have easily gone 0-7 but ended up 4-3.
And then the Adelaide game the week after, which for me was the moment we looked like a premiership team. We went handball crazy and took apart an Adelaide team who were looking unbeatable at that stage. 82 point win. Adelaide at that stage were two games and 52% clear on top of the ladder. They were unbackable premiership favourites and not only did we beat them that day, but we beat them in an away preliminary final.
It's easy to think now that our 2006 team was this super team with the greatest midfield ever, but until we actually won the flag, there were serious, serious doubts on the ability of that forward line and John Worsfold as a coach, and plenty of times during the year it looked like we would get close but not get there. We lost our first final at home FFS.