North Melbourne and the 1990's

[Captain_Bender]

Playing big games away is incredibly difficult, especially in finals. I think there's a good chance we would have won both those games at home, but we'll never know.

Unfortunately it took almost another decade to get rid of that unfair scheduling issue.

in 99 yeah but in 96 you played your first final at Subiaco and anyway you only beat Essendon that year at Subiaco by only 6 points it's fair to say they weren't too far off from beaten West Coast at home

 

[Quinz]

in 99 yeah but in 96 you played your first final at Subiaco and anyway you only beat Essendon that year at Subiaco by only 6 points it's fair to say they weren't too far off from beaten West Coast at home

To be honest Essendon beat us in finals in 1990, 1993, 1995 and 1996 so they might have had the wood over us anyway!

At the risk of further sidetracking though, it's interesting how often the home team has won in matches between Essendon-West Coast. The travelling side has only won 11 times in 51 matches, which seems very low to me.

 

[Captain_Bender]

To be honest Essendon beat us in finals in 1990, 1993, 1995 and 1996 so they might have had the wood over us anyway!

At the risk of further sidetracking though, it's interesting how often the home team has won in matches between Essendon-West Coast. The travelling side has only won 11 times in 51 matches, which seems very low to me.

But how often has the better side of the year played the other away

 

[Quinz]

But how often has the better side of the year played the other away

So from what I could see, the better side (by end of year ladder position) played away 24 times... and won 7. I probably made a mistake somewhere counting that up, but the lower ranked team won far more often.

Bringing it back to the thread title though, I feel that even though North were excellent in the second half of the 90s, that lost flag to Adelaide in 98 seems to cost them a spot in the discussions of the greatest teams in modern times.

 

[Macpotata]

Must be said WCE should have played home in 95 and 96 to the dons, and at home to the Blues in 99. Essendon also beat the eagles in Perth 1995 by 18 points. I think Eagles could have won all those games if they were played at home. Bombers did play the well in Perth in some meetings, even in round 1 1993.

In any case we can only go off what transpired not what should have or what might have been.

 

[Macpotata]

Will also add, Carlton, like in 1991, burst the Eagles bubble in 1999. Came back from about 5 goals down and beat them in Perth. Hamill nailing 5 major. That's when then eagles were flying high pardon the pun. Eagles were undefeated top of the ladder going into round 10. Carlton also ended the eagles big undefeated winning streak in 1991.

WCE looked like premiership material for so much of 1999, then just capitulated.

 

[King Corey]

Good thread in a good spirit Macpotata . Should be more like it.

Carlton in 95 and us in the 90s both summed up a brand of footy I always hark back to and enjoy. Contested, high scoring, strong tall forward lines and hard as nails players on ball and down back.

Brisbane and Geelong are the premiership teams since that played the nearest to that brand hence made for good viewing in spite of my side not being involved.

 

[Augustine]

What amazes me about the 90s is that apart from esentially Fitzroy, Freo, the Bears, Port and Richmond (and to be fair there’s some extenuating circumstances for those team) every team at some point legitimately contended for flags. Im pretty sure that at some point every other team at least made a prelim.

 

[Macpotata]

What amazes me about the 90s is that apart from esentially Fitzroy, Freo, the Bears, Port and Richmond (and to be fair there’s some extenuating circumstances for those team) every team at some point legitimately contended for flags. Im pretty sure that at some point every other team at least made a prelim.

Brizzy were good in 96 as the bears, and in 99 ( diff name but still Brisbane )

Knocked out in prelim to you guys both years.

Brisbane showed improvements in 1993 including that big come from
Behind win vs hawthorn at 3 qtr time. They really come on strong in 1994 pushing premier WCE in Perth during a home and away match losing by only 10 points or so. They were in finals contention in 1994. Made the finals the next year going out in the first round to Carlton, who went on to win the flag and topped the ladder. Only lost by 13 points. Made the finals in 97 also. Brisbane started to develop around 1993 then emerge around the mid 90's and went on to become a super power.

They weren't far off the best in 96 and 99. Look up their results, they were a good team.

 

[tazaa]

The 90s were a great decade because probably for the only time in our games history, footballers were played in the 18 positions on the ground that they were initially designed for.
No rolling mauls, no zoning, no mosquito fleet of small forwards or tall midfielders in the ruck.

It's what made the game aesthetically pleasing and a spectacle to watch because it literally catered for all footballers of all shapes and sizes playing one on one contested footy.

 

[ManOfClay]

There was one team that won two flags in the 1990s and played finals in every year of that decade. And it wasn't North.

The true team of the 90s

 

[tazaa]

The true team of the 90s

The Bulldogs image of the 90s

 

[Macpotata]

 

[Macpotata]

 

[Macpotata]

 

[ManOfClay]

The Bulldogs image of the 90s

Yawn. Another troll response triggered by an offended north fan.

 

[King Corey]

Yawn. Another troll response triggered by an offended north fan.

All he had to do was hold up the mirror.

 

[MaddAdam]

Yawn. Another troll response triggered by an offended north fan.

You're turning into the Rita Panahi of BigFooty?

Anyway, for mine the best game of the decade was North v the Dogs at the G on a FRiday in 98, 1st v 2nd, absolute ball tearer of a high scoring match that went down to the wire.

 

[MaddAdam]

Your TRUE failure to capitalise is on memberships.

Given how the Kangaroos dominated the second half of the 90s with one of the most exciting styles of play and with the King during an era when CHF was the most decorated position on the ground, it is an absolute shame on your club that you couldn't convert young kids from then into paid up members today.

Actually we did capitalize on memberships, that decade saved us a club, we would have gone under without it.

If Chief adds some sort of butchers paper and crayon app - for explaining things to posters (often, but not always, Essendon supporters like yourself) who clearly need pretty pictures and big writing of small words to help them understand - I'll go into more detail.

 

[DEVO]

Your TRUE failure to capitalise is on memberships.

Given how the Kangaroos dominated the second half of the 90s with one of the most exciting styles of play and with the King during an era when CHF was the most decorated position on the ground, it is an absolute shame on your club that you couldn't convert young kids from then into paid up members today.

I don’t think we failed, but there wasn’t the immediate increase in memberships that perhaps you associate with success. But what has happened is all the kids that became North fans in the 90’s are now buying memberships and our membership numbers have doubled from a pretty poor 20,000 to more respectable number in the last 10 years.

For all the talent we had in the 90’s I always thought we were one star player away from being a genuinely all time great team. And that player should have been Nathan Buckley, who was originally going to leave Brisbane for North before going to Collingwood. Apparently he chose Collingwood to win premierships. We were a little light in the midfield and he would have made a big difference in some of the finals we lost. May have won an extra premiership or two along the way.

 

[Monkey King]

What a time, special time in my life and in AFL Football. The 1990's.

Was spoiled to watch Wayne Carey and Ablett Snr in the winter and then Warney and McGrath in the summer.

 

[Luv_our_club]

What’s a shame is that we never capitalised with flags. 1994 we were a strong chance, and 98 really should have been ours. But conversely, we kind of nicked 99. 8 straight prelim finals for only 2 flags isn’t the best return. Good times though.

Exactly. Some super fans say Carey carried the team. I couldn't disagree more. North were stacked with talent. And the talent was made up of natural footballers, and hard and mean footballers.

I learnt how to drink watching the Roos with school mates on a friday night under lights at the G. Watching what was happening off the ball was as entertaining, like the intimidating threepeat Lions.

But they should have won more flags. The players had too much fun it seems, and possibly the culture at the club was a bit off too.

 

[Luv_our_club]

Was spoiled to watch Wayne Carey and Ablett Snr in the winter and then Warney and McGrath in the summer.

Off the topic, but I still loved the Windies era of the 1980's more.

 

[Macpotata]

Off the topic, but I still loved the Windies era of the 1980's more.

Unreal. I remember watching them as a 6 year old. The names they had back then.......

 

[Jack Bradley]

Off the topic, but I still loved the Windies era of the 1980's more.

Nah