- Joined
- Feb 4, 2008
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- Location
- Sanctuary Lakes
- AFL Club
- North Melbourne
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- Manchester United, Newport FC (RIP)
Thread starter
#1
There a similarities to our current on field predicament with the 1988-1992 period.
In that time we came off a terrible finals appearance in which we were thrashed by Melbourne 1997 (WCE in 2012), and we meandered over the next 5 seasons without playing finals and finishing with close to a 50/50 record most years (apart from 1988 where we well and truly sucked).
This current group has some reasonable talent but I am afraid they will never lead us to a flag.
We also had some good talent between 1988-1992 which were coming close to the end of their careers or were deemed not good enough when Pagan hit the ground running in 1993.
In no particular order the current crop who I feel we need to re-assess and possibly trade into the draft / and/ or with other teams (as we are 3-4 years from being a competitive finals team) are as follows:
Adams
Bastinac
Ziebell
McKenzie
Anthony
Jacobs
Tarrant
Mullet
When you consider players such as Larkin, German, McCarthy, Clarkson, Dwyer, R. Smith could not get a regular game under Pagan, it makes you think that the above players would struggle under a new coach who does not have his favourites.
Granted we don't have the Key Forward options such as a Longmire or Carey on our list at present but I really think a different coach with a decent game plan could transform our list just as Pagan did in 1993.
Unfortunately I don't believe our current administration has the balls to make a decision like the board did in pre-season 93 which eventually reaped dividends in the form of the 96 flag and competitive finals appearances in between.
In that time we came off a terrible finals appearance in which we were thrashed by Melbourne 1997 (WCE in 2012), and we meandered over the next 5 seasons without playing finals and finishing with close to a 50/50 record most years (apart from 1988 where we well and truly sucked).
This current group has some reasonable talent but I am afraid they will never lead us to a flag.
We also had some good talent between 1988-1992 which were coming close to the end of their careers or were deemed not good enough when Pagan hit the ground running in 1993.
In no particular order the current crop who I feel we need to re-assess and possibly trade into the draft / and/ or with other teams (as we are 3-4 years from being a competitive finals team) are as follows:
Adams
Bastinac
Ziebell
McKenzie
Anthony
Jacobs
Tarrant
Mullet
When you consider players such as Larkin, German, McCarthy, Clarkson, Dwyer, R. Smith could not get a regular game under Pagan, it makes you think that the above players would struggle under a new coach who does not have his favourites.
Granted we don't have the Key Forward options such as a Longmire or Carey on our list at present but I really think a different coach with a decent game plan could transform our list just as Pagan did in 1993.
Unfortunately I don't believe our current administration has the balls to make a decision like the board did in pre-season 93 which eventually reaped dividends in the form of the 96 flag and competitive finals appearances in between.
