10 moments that shaped Geelong Football Club

[David the Cat]

No-one realized it at the time, but Cook's arrival was monumental.

 

[BlightysCats]

Don't know if it's been mentioned but we nearly got kicked out of the league at the end of World War 2 because 5 of the Melbourne based clubs couldn't be stuffed travelling to Geelong so voted to kick us out, it came down to 5 v 5 then North Melbourne's deciding vote to save us from being booted - I'd say that was a pretty big moment.

 

[Seeds]

Chris Scott buying old men rather going to the draft. Will be seen in hindsight as a massive turning point for the club and not in a good way.

 

[Seeds]

Yep. Its forgotten a bit how great a player he was. One of the all time greats. Up there with Carey and Ablett in his time.
We lost 89 by 6 points, lost the 91 prelim by about a goal, had he played for us instead of Carlton in 95 they wouldn't have even made the GF.
I think he would have been the difference in snagging a couple in that era.

We would of been unstoppable in 1993 if we had him in his Brownlow form. Both ablett and Williams were at the peak of their powers that year.

 

[Sttew]

We would of been unstoppable in 1993 if we had him in his Brownlow form. Both ablett and Williams were at the peak of their powers that year.

Who's to say Williams would have remained a one team player? He did play for three teams.

If Williams had stayed at Geelong, would we have ended up with Paul Couch? Unlikely, IMO.

 

[David the Cat]

Yep. Its forgotten a bit how great a player he was. One of the all time greats. Up there with Carey and Ablett in his time.
We lost 89 by 6 points, lost the 91 prelim by about a goal, had he played for us instead of Carlton in 95 they wouldn't have even made the GF.
I think he would have been the difference in snagging a couple in that era.

I despise Carlton more than any other side....but in 95 they finished 4 games clear on top of the ladder after the home and away games, entered the finals on a 13 game winning streak and won both the Prelim and the Grand final by over 10 goals.

I don't think "snagging a couple" wouldn't have been enough!

They were the best side in the competition in 95, as hard as that is to swallow.

 

[Spazz Cat]

Who's to say Williams would have remained a one team player? He did play for three teams.

If Williams had stayed at Geelong, would we have ended up with Paul Couch? Unlikely, IMO.

Can't see why not. It was zones back then. No draft.
He actually wasn't money hungry. He liked Geelong. Got offered 50 grand( which was absolutely massive back then) to go to Sydney, only wanted 50$ more a game to stay at Geelong. We wouldn't pay it. He left more on principle.

 

[SJ]

the irony being is that our team of the century is full of players from the 70s and early 80s dark years. Go figure.

Although not as bad as other clubs:

http://australianfootball.com/articles/view/The+case+for+australianfootball.com/70

Given the lamentable state of affairs outlined above, there is little wonder that other ‘official’ historical initiatives exhibit the same characteristics. The ‘AFL Team of Century’ also turned out to be the ‘Team of the halcyon days’, with some minor concessions to the greats of previous and latter eras. In this case thirteen of the twenty-one selections played senior footy in 1970-71 alone. Not surprisingly there were no representatives who debuted before 1931, except the umpire, the token salute to the first seven decades years of Victorian football! Most senior clubs in Australia followed the trend, and selected their respective teams of the century. On the whole they were marginally better conceived, but the results were still mixed. They ranged from the sublime, the Geelong team, that was truly representative of every era, even the dark ages, to the ridiculous, the Carlton team, which in effect was the ‘team of the half century’. Perhaps the selectors couldn’t think of any pre-war footballers apart from ‘Soapy’ Vallence—after all, he’d been on the World of Sport panel for many years so they had the TV-era validation they needed. Most other clubs managed to fall somewhere in between, but in the majority of cases very good players of the halcyon days were preferred over great players of earlier eras. As a rule in such matters, it seems the 10th best ruckman in the League in 1974 will always trump the best ruckman in the league in 1914. - See more at: http://australianfootball.com/artic...ustralianfootball.com/70#sthash.gr0MOv4w.dpuf

 

[Spazz Cat]

I despise Carlton more than any other side....but in 95 they finished 4 games clear on top of the ladder after the home and away games, entered the finals on a 13 game winning streak and won both the Prelim and the Grand final by over 10 goals.

I don't think "snagging a couple" wouldn't have been enough!

They were the best side in the competition in 95, as hard as that is to swallow.

They definitely were. What if they didn't have Williams though and we did.
They were an old team. Not sure if some of their older players would have stayed on if Diesel wasn't there and they were going all out for a flag.

 

[Seeds]

Although not as bad as other clubs:

http://australianfootball.com/articles/view/The+case+for+australianfootball.com/70

Just shows how biased these multigenerational teams are. Most players get picked from the period that the selection panel most fondly remember.

 

[Seeds]

I despise Carlton more than any other side....but in 95 they finished 4 games clear on top of the ladder after the home and away games, entered the finals on a 13 game winning streak and won both the Prelim and the Grand final by over 10 goals.

I don't think "snagging a couple" wouldn't have been enough!

They were the best side in the competition in 95, as hard as that is to swallow.

are they the best side though without their best player and their best player in the next best team. Thats two greg williams differences in talent.

 

[Seeds]

Who's to say Williams would have remained a one team player? He did play for three teams.

If Williams had stayed at Geelong, would we have ended up with Paul Couch? Unlikely, IMO.

Whos to say with williams and winning a flag in say 89 that we wouldnt of attracted even higher end talent who wanted to play with a flag winning team? The hypotheticals go both ways.

 

[Farmer2Goggin]

Can't see why not. It was zones back then. No draft.
He actually wasn't money hungry. He liked Geelong. Got offered 50 grand( which was absolutely massive back then) to go to Sydney, only wanted 50$ more a game to stay at Geelong. We wouldn't pay it. He left more on principle.

Maybe not then but I think he acquired that in the move to Carlton - picked up a share in a printing business and renovated his Essendon home to about double its' size.............not sure he payed for much of that

 

[Spazz Cat]

Maybe not then but I think he acquired that in the move to Carlton - picked up a share in a printing business and renovated his Essendon home to about double its' size.............not sure he payed for much of that

Yeah I think John Elliot payed for that.

 

[FISTO]

Round 5 2007

 

[Mad_Hatter]

Can't see why not. It was zones back then. No draft.
He actually wasn't money hungry. He liked Geelong. Got offered 50 grand( which was absolutely massive back then) to go to Sydney, only wanted 50$ more a game to stay at Geelong. We wouldn't pay it. He left more on principle.

Andrew Bews was also offered a deal by the Swans, he was only 35k at Geelong, they offered 150k.
He stayed on IIRC 50k.
Williams was offered about the same aswell but the Cats wouldn't (couldn't?) budge.

 

[Sttew]

Round 5 2007

R5 was massive, but I'd argue R6 was bigger - its difficult to nominate any other game that was more defining, IMO. You could say 3 premierships were spawned by that demolition job over the Tigers. A real sliding doors game. If we'd lost would we have just turned it on next week and gone on to bigger things, or would Geelong have fallen into the usual "promises so much but can't deliver" hole?

 

[SydneyMalakellis]

The 2002 VFL flag.
We hadn't won any silverware since 1963. Seeing all of these youngsters actually win something surely got them a taste of how good it felt. David Mensch thank you for those three last quarter goals!!
There was actual hope for me from then on that we might snag a seniors flag in my lifetime.

 

[GriffACT]

Matthew Scarlett coming to the club in the recent era ... IMO he out of all the players had the biggest say in the turnaround and us becoming a power house

 

[James1970]

I thinkin' of that moment when the guy (or gal) went to the meeting and ventured...

"Ya' know, I'm thinkin' hoops...especially with the dark shorts. And we can match the socks!"

 

[David the Cat]

Whos to say with williams and winning a flag in say 89 that we wouldnt of attracted even higher end talent who wanted to play with a flag winning team? The hypotheticals go both ways.

I wasn't dealing in hypotheticals....anyway..Carlton won and we didn't.

They got their comeuppance when their cheating salary cap breaches were exposed..sent them to the shitter for over a decade....no-one was happier than me when they won the spoon.

 

[Vdubs]

I despise Carlton more than any other side....but in 95 they finished 4 games clear on top of the ladder after the home and away games, entered the finals on a 13 game winning streak and won both the Prelim and the Grand final by over 10 goals.

I don't think "snagging a couple" wouldn't have been enough!

They were the best side in the competition in 95, as hard as that is to swallow.

Good points.
When we played them at Optus, we lost 15-19 to 16-16, 3 points in it, and we easily could have won that. I was there.
I went to that GF thinking we were in the best GF shape we'd been in comparatively, and was shattered by our performance.
We had trounced Dogs and Tigers, no fatigue, fit, in form.
Carlton had also several other close games that season.
But when you analyse like you did, they certainly were the ultimate and deserving champions that year.

 

[Art Vandelay_]

Yeah I think John Elliot payed for that.

He and Madden (then Sports Minister) paid for a lot at Carlton in that era.
But that 1995 flag is so legit now isn't it

 

[Spazz Cat]

He and Madden (then Sports Minister) paid for a lot at Carlton in that era.
But that 1995 flag is so legit now isn't it

Nothing legit about Carlton.
A pokie king pays their way now.
Hate them more than Hawthorn.

 

[Partridge]

Who's to say Williams would have remained a one team player? He did play for three teams.

If Williams had stayed at Geelong, would we have ended up with Paul Couch? Unlikely, IMO.

Couch was already there. He debuted in 1985. He just would have ended up on a forward flank I'm guessing.