Neil Craig on the couch

[Elder van Berlo]

quite the opposite surely. we played and beat the best teams when it mattered. Geelong/StKilda/Doggies & North Melbourne.

who did we avoid in either year?

Not to mention that we were top after round 19 in 1997, and 2nd at a similarly late stage (can't remember when exactly) in 98, before dropping late games due to Blight/Craig 'tapering'. There is no way that 4th and 5th accurately represent where we were at over the course of those seasons.

In 97, we were the best team, and showed as much in the finals. In 98, I reckon North were probably better than us, but we got them on the day. I'm inclined to think that we were second best to WCE in both 05 and 06, but didn't get the performance/little bits of luck we needed that we arguably got in 98 to lift the cup despite not being the best side.