The 90's Decade of Excellence compared to Now

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May 24, 2005
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NMFC was obviously blessed during the 90's & my word, it was an absolute delight to watch it first hand. 1993 to 2000 remains the highlight of my youth for that reason.

In the end, it was simply due to the extreme talent we had on our list being guided by a no-nonsense coach, who knew how to utilise the weapons he had at his disposal.

A perfect example of the extreme talent we had was the 1996 GF - Bell & Simpson started on the bench!!! ON THE BENCH!!!

It seems a lot of posters here over the last decade or two, have been obsessed with pumping up the tyres of the current playing list. Some justified. But a lot of it is totally unwarranted. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder - I get it. But if you want to see NMFC play deep in September, average footballers won't cut it. No matter how nice a guy, or how hard they try. You can carry a couple of them perhaps, but no more than that. Top End/A Grade talent wins you flags. And when you think about it, our list during the '90's was about as good as it gets, and yet we only won 2 premierships.

I was thinking about the lack of decent small/medium forwards that have donned the blue & white over the last 20 years (Lindsay Thomas the exception) and I came across Winston Abrahams highlights package last night:



Do yourself a favour & watch pure class, talent, power, skill, athleticism, balance.... in full flight. This is the sort of talent that wins you games of footy. If we had a player doing this stuff now, I'm not sure Big Footy would cope with the adoration. There'd be a lot of sticky keyboards I'm tipping.

We can all bang on here about how guys like Curtis Taylor, Eddie Ford, Paul Curtis, Spicer, Mahony, Zurhaar, Sleevo etc. can do "some nice things" or how they are "coming along nicely" or how "you like them" blah, blah, blah, but they would be lucky to have 10% of Winston's football talent. Zurhaar maybe 30%. And sure, it may be unfair to compare our current small/medium forwards to a freak talent such as Winston, but that's the sort of talent that we so desperately need.

So hopefully with our recent top end draft picks, we are addressing the severe lack of talent on our list, because until we do that, we won't be competitive, let alone pushing for a flag.
 

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Ordinary players win premierships every year. Oleg Markov? Billy Frampton? Whilst reminiscing about Winnie is nice, he did play in a premiership with Shane Clayton and Shannon Motlop.

The goal isn't to eliminate the ordinary. We have to have the ordinary be settled into a structured, disciplined, mature and fit squad and give them specific roles within that structure. They need to be well coached and need to be surrounded by elite players and leaders. It's been a long time since we had any of those things.

What we do have is simply too many ordinary players and the wrong balance of good players. That's hardly a revelation.

Excellence is mentioned in the heading for want of a comparison between the 90s and now. That's unfair. No one sees excellence as a whole for our list. Better comparing to the late 80s when we had a lot of ordinary players and no elite players yet bunch of those guys became premiership players.
 
NMFC was obviously blessed during the 90's & my word, it was an absolute delight to watch it first hand. 1993 to 2000 remains the highlight of my youth for that reason.

In the end, it was simply due to the extreme talent we had on our list being guided by a no-nonsense coach, who knew how to utilise the weapons he had at his disposal.

A perfect example of the extreme talent we had was the 1996 GF - Bell & Simpson started on the bench!!! ON THE BENCH!!!

It seems a lot of posters here over the last decade or two, have been obsessed with pumping up the tyres of the current playing list. Some justified. But a lot of it is totally unwarranted. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder - I get it. But if you want to see NMFC play deep in September, average footballers won't cut it. No matter how nice a guy, or how hard they try. You can carry a couple of them perhaps, but no more than that. Top End/A Grade talent wins you flags. And when you think about it, our list during the '90's was about as good as it gets, and yet we only won 2 premierships.

I was thinking about the lack of decent small/medium forwards that have donned the blue & white over the last 20 years (Lindsay Thomas the exception) and I came across Winston Abrahams highlights package last night:



Do yourself a favour & watch pure class, talent, power, skill, athleticism, balance.... in full flight. This is the sort of talent that wins you games of footy. If we had a player doing this stuff now, I'm not sure Big Footy would cope with the adoration. There'd be a lot of sticky keyboards I'm tipping.

We can all bang on here about how guys like Curtis Taylor, Eddie Ford, Paul Curtis, Spicer, Mahony, Zurhaar, Sleevo etc. can do "some nice things" or how they are "coming along nicely" or how "you like them" blah, blah, blah, but they would be lucky to have 10% of Winston's football talent. Zurhaar maybe 30%. And sure, it may be unfair to compare our current small/medium forwards to a freak talent such as Winston, but that's the sort of talent that we so desperately need.

So hopefully with our recent top end draft picks, we are addressing the severe lack of talent on our list, because until we do that, we won't be competitive, let alone pushing for a flag.

Feel this is a bit too pessimistic on the whole.
Despite how frustrating this year was, we were a hell of a lot more competitive than 2022. A 15% percent improvement shows that.
Getting Clarko back for a full pre-season now and season next year will be a big help. He now has his own coaching group and removed most of the Noble era appointees.
It also appears the playing group are now finally taking their fitness seriously and we can make some significant gains there.
6-8 wins and a percentage of 80-85, is well and truly possible. And that makes us a competitive side.

Winnie was an out of the box talent, not many around like him now or then.
We have a talented group of mid-sized forwards that all have their best football ahead of them. No out and out freaks like Winnie, but Curtis, Ford, George, Duursma and Sleevo is a handy group. Not forgetting Sheez if he can get up there.

The overall standard has dropped since the 90s. If you can build a talented group, that plays a sustainable game style and get games into them. The rise can be swift
 
Bell and Simpson in 1996 were no where near the level that they would become, either. May as well mention that Boomer was running around in the ressies.
Always feel we really cemented our grip on that game once Belly came on and became involved.
 
Abraham is one of my favourite all time players. Perfect balance and composure. Could kick on both sides and could kick goals from way outside the 50. His injury was a tragedy.
Watching footage of Winston kicking goals off either foot at will must confuse a lot of our current day players.
 
I was at most Victorian home games in the 90's. Was at 1996 and 1999 GF's but couldn't get tickets to 1998. Winnie's explosiveness off one step was incredible. He could do things that others just couldn't. Was a great player to watch in a team of players who all played their roles. A shame his career was cut short. Loved hearing Ross Glendinning on special comments.
 
The 90's team was talented and it had our greatest ever player but our 70's team was something else again.

If we fell one premiership short in the 90's - it was at least that and possibly two in the 70's.

You're spot on - talent wins you premierships.
 
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