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Carlton weren't as good in '99 and you know it. If you want to talk about adjoining years then about about '01 when we beat you twice, and you threw the Round 22 game because you were too chickenshit to face us in a QF?
As I said already, the Round 20 game was a good indicator - the teams were practically neck and neck in a finals atmosphere game yet Carlton could not keep up because they had 2 down on the bench in the final quarter. Things may have been different if the injuries didn't happen.
You can say it til' the cows come home, doesn't make it any less incorrect. Carlton not keeping up had nothing to do with injuries, interchange rotations in 2000 were far lower than today and had far less impact on the game. That game was, like the prelim, an indication that Carlton could keep up for a while but weren't good enough to match it for 120 minutes.
You are lying if you are going to claim to not be the least nervous if Carlton were fielding a fit team for the GF.
Wasn't the slightest bit worried. Faced and defeated a fit Carlton earlier in the year, and it's not like facing Carlton in a GF held any great fear for many of that team.
They were much better than Melbourne for most of the year. Carlton were the only team that year anywhere near capable of stopping Essendon in the big dance. Someone mentioned earlier than in a 49 game stretch, you guys only lost 6 games. In 3 of those games, it was Carlton who beat you.
Yes, those matches in 2001 had significant relevance to what occurred a year earlier.
Do you know how hard it is to win a game of football with two men down? Especially against quality opposition?
In 2000 it was nowhere near the issue it is now, bench rotations were significantly lower. Carlton lost that night because they weren't good enough.
At least you had all your bench rotations, so no, it doesn't cancel anything out.
So the R20 game was a good indication of what a fully fit a Carlton side would have done, but Essendon missing their best player that year and having their second best player injured is irrelevant. Dig up son, dig up.