Libbas goal in the 97 prelim

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XXX5

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Possibly, but the bigger selection mistake was playing Romero with a dodgy dislocated shoulder from the semi. He was out of the prelim before half time, so we played the second half down one (key) midfielder. Billy should have replaced Romero, not Brown.

100% correct mate.

Jose went down in a way that clearly showed he should not have been on the park.

For all the terrific things Plough pulled off in ‘97, he was the sole architect of that gut wrenching loss.
 

Timewillcome

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Nice to reminisce. I sat in the Ponsford that day, went to use the facilities when we were well in front, could hear cheers starting while I was away. That was when the comeback started.

From the second level directly behind the goals, it looked a clear goal to me. Players reaction on goal line gives that impression too.

Score review has it existed would have probably shafted us as well, just like the did with JJs clear goal.

At least the Adelaide supporters got some joy, they waited so long, their whole life in some instances.
 

Braybrook Son

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Why do you blokes always bring up ‘97? We wouldn’t have beaten St Kilda anyway in my opinion. Let’s get over it, I have. All was forgotten after 2016. You blokes need to move on
 

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ivan rassmussen

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Why do you blokes always bring up ‘97? We wouldn’t have beaten St Kilda anyway in my opinion. Let’s get over it, I have. All was forgotten after 2016. You blokes need to move on

I'm over it, but St Kilda were highly beatable. In the week of GF, Loewe's sister took her own life and Winmar's father died IIRC, and those two struggled (understandably) with the occasion. Probably any of the other finalists would have beaten St Kilda on the day given their personal circumstances. Jarman was good, as was Macleod, in the GF, but Saints were always going to struggle for composure.
 

ivan rassmussen

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The Romero selection meant we were basically a player down from the get go.
Who goes in with a player that has badly dislocated a shoulder less than a week prior.
WHO F%%%%%ing DOES THAT!

images


And then follows up in 98 by starting Rohan Smith on Matthew Robran, although to be fair, I think our tall stocks were limited by injury, so would have had to play an untried rookie tall...
 

ivan rassmussen

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As someone who was in the stands.. yes. Doesn't change the fact Wallace left Curley on Jarman in the last quarter while Kretiuk sat on the bench.

Not here as a Wallace apologist Ant_ , but I heard a few years later that Kretiuk had a niggle, or there was some reason they didn't want to risk him, so not sure what alternative there was. Maybe Leon Cameron, who'd actually played on Wayne Carey in mid 90s at WO and did a reasonable job by playing in front of him. Between the Romero selection, and Southern and Dima suspensions, we were up against it as it was.
 

hoianbulldog

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Not here as a Wallace apologist Ant_ , but I heard a few years later that Kretiuk had a niggle, or there was some reason they didn't want to risk him, so not sure what alternative there was. Maybe Leon Cameron, who'd actually played on Wayne Carey in mid 90s at WO and did a reasonable job by playing in front of him. Between the Romero selection, and Southern and Dima suspensions, we were up against it as it was.
Didn't Cameron spend most of the second half on the bench in the 98 prelim. Got benched after a coupla stray kicks from memory.
 
Adelaide being the better team cost us the game.

Adelaide kicked 20 odd points in total. It would have been 98' scoreline normally. Conveniently looked over by Dog fans.

I rate 09 and 85 worse.
 

Braybrook Son

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Not here as a Wallace apologist Ant_ , but I heard a few years later that Kretiuk had a niggle, or there was some reason they didn't want to risk him, so not sure what alternative there was. Maybe Leon Cameron, who'd actually played on Wayne Carey in mid 90s at WO and did a reasonable job by playing in front of him. Between the Romero selection, and Southern and Dima suspensions, we were up against it as it was.
Did a reasonable job? Carey had about 18 marks and 3 Brownlow votes that day! Great job
 

ivan rassmussen

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Did a reasonable job? Carey had about 18 marks and 3 Brownlow votes that day! Great job

Up to halftime a midfielder 185cm and 82kg kept Carey goal-less by playing in front of him as his direct opponent. Carey had most of his possessions in the second half, also your stats are from the wrong game. Try again.
 

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Up to halftime a midfielder 185cm and 82kg kept Carey goal-less by playing in front of him as his direct opponent. Carey had most of his possessions in the second half, also your stats are from the wrong game. Try again.

Ivan goes bang!
 

Leon

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I thought it was a goal at the time. But I’ve never forgiven Mark West.



Mark West was one of the reasons we had a match winning lead (or so we thought) in that game.

He only played about 15 games all up from memory but he was almost unstoppable in this game.

Re: Libba’s behind/goal, I think I’ve said it in the 10959 other threads about 1997 along with several other posters but at the time from where I was I definitely thought it was a goal.

I only watched highlights of the game after the 2016 GF and several other things stood out to me:


- The first of our missed chances in the last quarter was when Jose Romero hit the post from a shot on the 50. You can see from this chance that James Cook is all by himself in the goal square, but Jose just doesn’t see him. If he did see him and he passed it, it’s all over - Cookie has 6 and is 40m in the clear.

- There is a passage of play when we were still only just in front when Scott West emerges from a clearance on the win in space. Michael Martin is running alongside him like a headless chook instead of providing a shepherd, or ahead him. With no one shepherding, and no runner ahead of him which Martin should’ve been, West gets caught instead of getting an Inside 50 and it’s holding the ball. Absolutely crucial bit of play - was furious at Martin (who I never liked - complete dud) when I saw this

- Its been said before but our players totally lost their heads in the last quarter. Leon Cameron did a kick in, when we were still in front, that went straight to a Crows player. But the most telling bit of play of our players doing crazy things is when the Crows launch an Inside 50 - we are still just in front - and Matt Croft takes a spectacular defensive mark, but then immediately plays on instead of taking his time and looking to control possession. Just total craziness - if we did that, we could have knocked 30 seconds or a minute off the clock and held on. Nothing actually came from Crofty playing on - in fact it leads to the missed Mark West shot - but it is still just total craziness.

- Re: the Mark West shot, because I was up the other end and it had been so long since the game, my recollection of it was that he was about 25m out, he wasn’t, he’s actually just inside 50 on the run. Still a chance he should have nailed but not as falling as I remember.

- Again, been said before but the Chris Grant missed shot after they had hit the front is another face palm moment. If either one of them - Hudson or Grant - provides the shepherd it’s a goal, no question. Again, our players just lost their heads.

- Some people I’ve seen have blamed Wallace for the loss, ie Romero playing injured, not putting someone else on Jarman, not flooding the s**t out of the backline when the Crows got on a roll etc etc. For me, none of these are relevant - I don’t blame him, I blame the players. If one of our chances goes through, or our players don’t have a meltdown and keep their cool, we win the game, we are in the GF and Wallace a week later would likely be remembered as a club immortal and the man who broke the curse and the drought instead of Luke Beveridge. I feel sorry for him in this sense - coming so close to being a legend and then having it stolen away from him. Instead he is remembered as another coach who couldn’t quite get there, along with Grant Thomas, Neil Craig etc who Plough was so much better than.


So there’s another post from me on the 1997 prelim = a day that shall live in infamy.
 
I was living in the USA and had been out that day. Rushed home to my verrrrry slow computer with an even slower dial-up link to find out we were still well in front in the last quarter. Yippee! Then minute by minute saw the lead disappearing with each update ...

Probably just as well I wasn't in Australia at the time. Might have done some damage to the gyprock and the TV screen.
 
- Re: the Mark West shot, because I was up the other end and it had been so long since the game, my recollection of it was that he was about 25m out, he wasn’t, he’s actually just inside 50 on the run. Still a chance he should have nailed but not as falling as I remember.

He had Hudson about 20 mts out all alone, went for glory.
 

Leon

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At least the Adelaide supporters got some joy, they waited so long, their whole life in some instances.



Hope you don’t mind me nitpicking this point.

I was filthy on the Crows for years after 97/98 - not because they beat us, but because of their supporter behavior after both matches. I couldn’t be happy for them.

They literally went out of their way to rub it in - not just being happy at their win, just going up to our fans who were clearly devastated and taunting them.

Not just us too - in the years after I heard from Saints fans who said they did the same thing to them a week later and North fans who said the same happened after the 1998 Grand Final.

So yeah, being happy for the Crows = not really my thing.
 

Draft Pick

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Nice to reminisce. I sat in the Ponsford that day, went to use the facilities when we were well in front, could hear cheers starting while I was away. That was when the comeback started.

From the second level directly behind the goals, it looked a clear goal to me. Players reaction on goal line gives that impression too.

Score review has it existed would have probably shafted us as well, just like the did with JJs clear goal.

At least the Adelaide supporters got some joy, they waited so long, their whole life in some instances.
What ? The club was 7 years old at the time.
 

Urtle

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Still feel sick thinking about it. I was sitting up other end of G
15 yr old at the time, strutted around the southern stand at 3 qtr time like the ignorant idiot I was...ended up suffering from severe abdominal strain due to shock and dropped 4 kgs from not stomaching food for the next week...positive was I had first three days off school and delayed the wrath of school banter :D
 
I was sitting pretty much in line with the angle of the ball coming towards me over the goal post. The ball was curving in an arc from the goal section to the point section which should have meant it was most likely a goal. However, to this day I am not sure whether it was a point or a goal and the side-on view of the clip on YouTube gives us no idea. If you watch Libba's and Montgomery's reactions after the umpire signalled a point, you would conclude that they accepted his decision and were moving to the next play. Not quite the grassy knoll but for us will remain an unresolved mystery forever. The loss that day took me months to get over.
 
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Note to self in ‘85....... don’t cry like a baby after losing whilst sitting in the stands.
Note to self in ‘97.....best sit and cry like a baby rather than punching solid objects.
Note to self in 2016.... win or lose prelim u still have tears whilst sitting in the stands after the game
 

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