Geelong 2008

[Tiger2709]

I hope he altered his tattoo the next year

However it will never be as bad as this

View attachment 126493

Who in their right mind would want that granny F@ckers head on their back?

 

[Procrastinator35]

Kind of like the attitude of Hawthorn players when they were three goals up at quarter time of the 2012 GF and let the Swans kick eight in a row after that?

This Fred is about 2008....However....Touche!

 

[Catatonic Shock]

Thompson's admission hardly came as a surprise.

And as a result, Geelong were ungraceful losers in 2008.

You would think after the round 17 match against Hawthorn that they would go into the GF a little more wary of the Hawks.

Why?
We accounted for you comfortably without I believe half a dozen of our best players.
If anything it enarmoured the belief that the Cats were certainties, wrongly mind you.

 

[SSSSSS]

Pretty simple (and being far too generalised of course), the Cats got together a big group of talented competitive beasts who were natural footballers (as opposed to the "athlete who can play" attitude of the early 2000s) and put them all together with at the time the best run off field team in the game.
Throw in a few draft steals and some father sons who kicked on nicely and you have it.

Pretty much when you got the son of God, the best fullback arguably of all time, one of the GOAT small/medium defenders, the best tagger who can shut someone out and get a load of the ball, a Brownlow medalist and the best 18 year old since Chris Judd you have a pretty good team. I havn't even made mention of Chapman, Kelly, Corey, Johnson etc. Led by a very good coach.

It's once in a lifetime sort of stuff.

Just an A-grade forward from a threepeat. Possibly four.

 

[OneEyedHawk]

You were probably the form side but I wouldn't go so far as to say "far & away", while you won your two finals by 51 & 54, we still won ours by 58 & 29, and we'd won the previous 5 games leading up the finals by an average of 70 points (nothing under 5 goals) after we had a close one against the Hawks. So our form was pretty good. Perhaps some signs were there in the PF where we were a bit scrappy against the Bulldogs in the PF, but we still won by 5 goals.

Bit of a furphy that one.

Take the grand final out of it (a game in which Geelong had 62 inside 50s to 43):

Geelong defeated St Kilda by 58 points in the pouring rain (after being up by 77 points early in the last and letting the Saints kick the last 2.7 of the game) and the Bulldogs by 29 points.

Hawthorn defeated St Kilda by 54 points and the Bulldogs by 51 points.

Sure on raw numbers Hawthorn had the bigger combined margin going in, but "far and away the form side of the finals"? Hard to back that up.

Take the GF (one of three finals games) out of it?? Why would you be doing that when we're talking about who was the better team in the month of September 2008?

Whatever way you slice it, we each played the exact same three teams. With the Hawks having a more than 7 goal positive differential (44 points). Clearly, by far and away....however you want to describe it, we were comfortably the better side during the month of September that year. Won the GF by nearly 5 goals and were far more comprehensive vs the Bulldogs...only vs the Saints were you our equal that month.

 

[Damon_3388]

You would think after the round 17 match against Hawthorn that they would go into the GF a little more wary of the Hawks.

Well, they did lead at every change in that game, without Ablett, Ling and Milburn. Hawthorn were without Crawford, Dew and Young, too, but I don't think that particular game would have really instilled a heap of fear into the Cats.

 

[Catatonic Shock]

Pretty much when you got the son of God, the best fullback arguably of all time, one of the GOAT small/medium defenders, the best tagger who can shut someone out and get a load of the ball, a Brownlow medalist and the best 18 year old since Chris Judd you have a pretty good team. I havn't even made mention of Chapman, Kelly, Corey, Johnson etc.

It's once in a lifetime sort of stuff.

Absolutely, I said I was being simple and generalised.
What made those guys good is exactly what I said above though.
None of those were top picks, a few even were beyond pick 40 so weren't even considered quality kids.
Yet each one to a man HATED losing and was unbelievably competitive.

 

[hawker11]

Why?
We accounted for you comfortably without I believe half a dozen of our best players.
If anything it enarmoured the belief that the Cats were certainties.

Less than 4 minutes on the clock and and Hawthorn were 5 points behind.

Luke Hodge had a rare off night and both teams were missing players from their best 22.

I walked away from that match thinking that your side was not quite the unbeatable force it was projected to be.

I was correct.

 

[Kavliaris69]

Bit of a furphy that one.

Take the grand final out of it (a game in which Geelong had 62 inside 50s to 43):

Geelong defeated St Kilda by 58 points in the pouring rain (after being up by 77 points early in the last and letting the Saints kick the last 2.7 of the game) and the Bulldogs by 29 points.

Hawthorn defeated St Kilda by 54 points and the Bulldogs by 51 points.

Sure on raw numbers Hawthorn had the bigger combined margin going in, but "far and away the form side of the finals"? Hard to back that up.

Both our finals were pretty much over at half time. I believe Hawks had the best finals campaign up until the GF. It's not the win margin but
how we won them that made me think we had a 50/50 chance of snatching the GF.

No troll intended but Cats had an awsome season and pretty good finals campaign as well GF aside.

 

[SSSSSS]

Well, they did lead at every change in that game, without Ablett, Ling and Milburn. Hawthorn were without Crawford, Dew and Young, too, but I don't think that particular game would have really instilled a heap of fear into the Cats.

IIRC Hodge just had his firstborn that day or the next and clearly something was on his mind. Was making uncharacteristic clangers everywhere especially a massive turnover going forward that killed any chance of winning that game.

 

[Roby]

Why?
We accounted for you comfortably without I believe half a dozen of our best players.
If anything it enarmoured the belief that the Cats were certainties.

More like four players.

Geelong were missing Ablett, Champan, Milburn and Ling.

Hawks were missing Crawford, Dew, Young, Renouf.

Hodge played terrible and in the round 17 game and later was moved to HB and completely changed the team.

Not to mention Geelong were heavily favoured by umpiring in that game and only could beat the Hawks by less than two goals.

 

[Catatonic Shock]

Less than 4 minutes on the clock and and Hawthorn were 5 points behind.

Luke Hodge had a rare off night and both teams were missing players from their best 22.

I walked away from that match thinking that your side was not quite the unbeatable force it was projected to be.

I was correct.

No team is.
I still believe half of the problem that year was so many sides would come up against the Cats just believing they had no chance to win (that aura of invincibility) so would rest players/not give it everything to win.
That resulted in 1; an inflated view of the Cats form (we had holes, they were just being papered over) and an air of arrogance from everyone around the Cats.
Its a shame from a Geelong point of view because considering the list and the form we probably should have gotten that flag, but when your form is somewhat false and you come up against a bloody good side primed to beat you......

 

[bodazoka]

Probably one of the best Collingwood performances of the decade which is remarkable considering how good you were in 2010/2011.

One of the best team performances I have ever watched.

 

[Furn2]

Why?
We accounted for you comfortably without I believe half a dozen of our best players.
If anything it enarmoured the belief that the Cats were certainties, wrongly mind you.

As I remember it we had you on toast having come back to within 3 points late when a Hodge shank going forward turned it over and you got a goal.

I came away from that game thinking we would get you next time.

 

[The 747]

Oh yay a 2008 thread. Hawk flogs rejoice!

 

[hawker11]

No team is.
I still believe half of the problem that year was so many sides would come up against the Cats just believing they had no chance to win (that aura of invincibility) so would rest players/not give it everything to win.
That resulted in 1; an inflated view of the Cats form (we had holes, they were just being papered over) and an air of arrogance from everyone around the Cats.
Its a shame from a Geelong point of view because considering the list and the form we probably should have gotten that flag, but when your form is somewhat false and you come up against a bloody good side primed to beat you......

Yes, I suppose there may have been elements of this working against the Cats.

The lack of respect for Hawthorn before and particularly after the Grand Final left a bad taste in many Hawthorn supporter's mouths.

Fluke/Stole/Bradbury among other terms from within the Geelong supporter base and the media really came off as sour grapes.

I'd also assume there were media commentators that lost a few dollars by Hawthorn winning the flag.

It wasn't a case of the Hawks winning the wooden spoon the year either side of 2008 and GF winners by 3 points through poor umpiring.

They were genuine competitors that deserved the premiership no less than teams before and after 2008.

 

[Catatonic Shock]

Yes, I suppose there may have been elements of this working against the Cats.

The lack of respect for Hawthorn before and particularly after the Grand Final left a bad taste in many Hawthorn supporter's mouths.

Fluke/Stole/Bradbury among other terms from within the Geelong supporter base and the media really came off as sour grapes.

I'd also assume there were media commentators that lost a few dollars by Hawthorn winning the flag.

It wasn't a case of the Hawks winning the wooden spoon the year either side of 2008 and GF winners by 3 points through poor umpiring.

They were genuine competitors that deserved the premiership no less than teams before and after 2008.

The "elements" were completely self inflicted though.
Bomber pointed to that in the interview, that they as a club were selfish and just wanted to win everything.

On the "Bradbury" tag, I don't think it has anything to do with the actual Grand Final itself but the year (and previous/subsequent) as a whole, there is no doubt the Cats of 2008 had everything to win the flag (the ladder tells a big part of that) so when they then don't instead of breaking down WHY they didn't (or why the Hawks did of course) it is easier for supporters/media to label it a "Bradbury".
In some ways I can agree, but I find it far to simplistic to say you fluked the flag, no team in the history of the sport has ever fluke a Premiership, it isn't like you finished bottom 4.
I will say I think Geelong SHOULD have won the flag in 2008, similar to how the Hawks SHOULD have in 2012, but in a 2 horse race sometimes what SHOULD happen doesn't (and really during finals the Premier SHOULD have been the Hawks, IMO they were the best team of the last month).

edit: I agree with your last 2 sentences aswell.

 

[BEEG]

The thread from Geelong07flag or something like that about how Cats would win and win easily was one of the greatest threads ever

It was bumped for months

 

[Mitchell Madness]

No team is.
I still believe half of the problem that year was so many sides would come up against the Cats just believing they had no chance to win (that aura of invincibility) so would rest players/not give it everything to win.
That resulted in 1; an inflated view of the Cats form (we had holes, they were just being papered over) and an air of arrogance from everyone around the Cats.
Its a shame from a Geelong point of view because considering the list and the form we probably should have gotten that flag, but when your form is somewhat false and you come up against a bloody good side primed to beat you......

I said this for yrs, it makes it hard to gauge for this reason.
Don't forget the cats got the rub of the green for yrs, exhibit a. Tackle on (I think) Scarlett, who throws it and plays for free, geelong hear the whistle and run forward, expecting a free
Instead, it's a hawk free, with multiple targets free
Clearly showed the mentality of the cats with the umps

2. Chapman pacing to the nearest player, umpire calling 50
Any other game or team, the ump tells him to get back behind his mark

3. Cat (ling?) takes the ball when it was oof against the cats, plays on, and the umpire just lets it go

Yes, it's over several seasons, but shows the run the cats got, and contributed to several losses (including the gf), as they were exposed when the call went the other way

 

[SA HAWK]

No doubt the Cats side that year was superior to Hawthorn's but the games between the two were always pretty close and we had a good record against them at the time.

Hawthorn were probably the only side the Cats didn't flog between 07-11.

 

[Procrastinator35]

After the absolute belting you gave us in the QF, I had no doubt whatsoever you'd go on to win the flag comfortably.

Only after we beat you blokes in the manner & way we did....Did I then start to think we could actually do it.....My Geelong supporting newsagent only started to have doubts about 2008 being a walkover, from that point onwards.

We both agreed that Hawthorn, if they maintained that form throughout September, Could beat Geelong!....And we Did!

 

[Handsuper47]

I don't like remembering those years. Bad memories.

 

[kickazz]

Interesting to hear - have not really heard this before.

We have heard how they did not manage players niggles/injuries that year and that they may have been spent by the end - something they fixed in 2009. I suppose just assuming they would win would play into the decision of not thinking about resting players.

It would be interesting to understand details of what Bomber means by "more focused on celebrations" etc. No doubt the monkey was off the back that year and the fear of "losing yet another grand final" may have taken the edge off; but I still find it amazing that they wouldn't have been nervous and went about preparing for the game professionally. As has been said the win during the year over Hawthorn was not massive, and only as far back as 2007 prelim did they have a close call.

Maybe Bomber means he didn't focus enoug hon CLarko's gameplan and how it could get the cats undone? Dunno. Even so, Cats could well have won on the day had they executed their own plan properly. Perhaps focusing too much on the oppo genuinely was not the best approach?

Cats were very good that year - perhaps peaked a bit early, perhaps got a bit arrogant. Both of those things come to mind when I think of the infamous sandwich-eating incident at Subiaco.

 

[BobHawk]

Why?
We accounted for you comfortably without I believe half a dozen of our best players.
If anything it enarmoured the belief that the Cats were certainties, wrongly mind you.

I still remember walking away from that game laughing my head off. Flicking the ball around like they were the Harlem Globetrotters and so much head wobble. A team of complete tossers. The writing was on the wall after that round 17 match regardless of how many outs you had.

PS: You were very, very lucky on 2009 to boot. Luck of the bounce got you home.

 

[kickazz]

PS: You were very, very lucky on 2009 to boot. Luck of the bounce got you home.

Bit off topic, but can't say this is true. Missing Scarlett and Taylor for a half of footy is not what I'd call lucky. Unless you are talking about 2009 GF - in which case Geelong were all over the saints (after luckily not being further behind during second quarter) in the last quarter and arguably should have won by more.