The Royal Sampler
Floreat Pica, Bitch!
Many people have compared our efforts this year to the 2002 team; I think a more apt comparison is the 2007 team which made the pseudo GF otherwise known as the PF against Geelong, and went down by... 5 points.
That team was also not the best of its year, it featured a great crop of young players coming through with a smattering of the elder statesmen in Buckley (whom we all struggled to see ourselves succeeding without) and Clement.
We had a key injury in Josh Fraser meaning we had to play Guy Richards against Brad Ottens who ended up being the difference between the two sides. Our boys looked at times as if we’d go on with the job but just couldn’t break their backs.
A couple of years later, we’d addressed our main deficiencies and made back-to-back GFs.
That team was also not the best of its year, it featured a great crop of young players coming through with a smattering of the elder statesmen in Buckley (whom we all struggled to see ourselves succeeding without) and Clement.
We had a key injury in Josh Fraser meaning we had to play Guy Richards against Brad Ottens who ended up being the difference between the two sides. Our boys looked at times as if we’d go on with the job but just couldn’t break their backs.
A couple of years later, we’d addressed our main deficiencies and made back-to-back GFs.