The '90s

[vast]

There were some ripper marks taken in the 90's you would definitely see a lot more players taking a speccy back then.

Then it died down a bit because coaches wanted their players to play the percentages.

I miss the great 1 on 1 duels and some absolutely freakish players were around back then.

 

[Occidental]

I prefer the 1920's & 30's. We played in 12 GF's in those 20 years, won 6 flags, scores of Leading Goalkickers and Brownlows.
NM, Foots & Hawks were given their shot at the big time, all clubs had their own grounds, they started awarding the Brownlow, players kicked a ton of goals for the first times ..ah the good old days.
Just a pity I wasn't born for a few decades later.

"Remembrance of things past is not necessarily a remembrance of things as they were" M Proust.

 

[Fryman]

In purely aesthetic terms I think the game was at its peak towards the end of the 90's.

There was no kicking backwards, no flooding, no rolling zone, no 80 interchanges a game, genuine 1 on 1 match ups in the middle, full forwards given space.

 

[Rotayjay]

There were some ripper marks taken in the 90's you would definitely see a lot more players taking a speccy back then.

Then it died down a bit because coaches wanted their players to play the percentages.

Modern coaching/techniques have sucked a lot of the flair out of footy. Today it's all about 'forward pressure', clogging up the 50 so no one can take a mark, percentages, GPS data that indicates Star Player X has had 3.8% too much TOG and thus needs to be benched even though he's just kicked a goal ... these are the things that shit me about modern footy. It's more advanced but it's mired in clinical boring crap.

 

[Broken]

Anyway, enough of my memories. What did you love about the 90s? Your fondest memories?

I still had a team in the AFL.

 

[PerfectFooty]

I was born in 94 so i only saw late 90's football on the TV.

However i'm an avid collector of Melbourne Replays from the 80's to now. I've grown up with the modern game and i've watched the 80's, but the 90's is my favourite era to go back and watch out of all of them.

 

[Yellow Feathers]

I was just watching a documentary called "The '90s: The Decade That Delivered", which is basically like the "That Was The Season That Was ..." annual documentaries that ran until the mid-90s, but instead covered the whole decade instead of a single season

I loved this decade because it was more of an "introductory" phase for me, I'd been following and supporting since maybe 1991 but it wasn't until 1994 that I started really remembering and "barracking". Between 1994 and 1999 I was 8-13 years old, so a lot of the things that happened in that period really stick with me because it was part of "growing up".

It would be great to hear some stories and memories from "90s kids" that grew up during this era and started following AFL then. I was born in '86 so the 90s and early 2000s were my schooling years, and I was obviously very influenced and inspired by this time in my life.

Looking back over the years and thinking of AFL in the 2000s and 2010s, the 90s really stand out for me, but again I can't quite tell if it's because I'm biased or because it genuinely was a fantastic decade.

Part of the reason why I think the 90s stands out is because it was when the league made the transition from amateur to pro league. The addition of interstate teams here was obviously very important. You could tell that the quality of talent and everything about the sport was growing.

On that point, I loved the interstate rivalry that existed in the 90s, and I wish that passion returned. It arguably died with Teddy Whitten. These days it's kind of "My club is better than yours" or "My city is better than yours" and it's very bitter and petty in comparison.

The obvious standout from this decade was the "pure" full forward. Lockett, Dunstall, Ablett, Modra,. You'd often see guys like Salmon, Lyon, Kernahan, Longmire kick massive bags of 6+. And of course, Carey. I try to explain to friends and my girlfriend what it was like going to football in the 90s. The best modern day example is probably Buddy, but he wasn't a rarity in the 90s, there was so much pure, perfect talent running around then, guys that could do no wrong and always hit a target, brush off tackles, kick it post high from 60 out. To me Buddy Franklin is the closest thing we get to a 90s forward. That kind of player that puts bums on seats.

The 90s was an okay decade for me Demons, I don't remember much of the 1990 and 1991 finals, but I fondly remembering the ANZAC Day game vs Essendon in 1992, when we led by 8 goals at 3 1/4 time and still lost, and when Sydney won its one and only game of the year against us in 1993. The merger game was massive but I remember not quite understanding the severity of it. I was just thinking of the potential of a Melbourne-Hawks merger and what the team would look like, but I also remember my dead having a "NO MERGEr" banner, which I think is still at home. I was at the merger game -- it's on YouTube here -- and I remember Dunstall kicking his 100th for the year.

I saw Lockett, Ablett and Dunstall kick their 100th goal. I saw Carey go on tears and kick 11 goals against us. I remember a game against Geelong in 1993, Melbourne won by 14 points, but Ablett kicked 11.0 lol

Anyway, enough of my memories. What did you love about the 90s? Your fondest memories?

Great post, mate! Just getting through that first video how. Absolutely awesome.

We're the same age but I can't really remember footy in the early 90s that well. I remember the Eagle's stars (growing up in WA) but not the results of individual games. It all clicked for me in the late 90s.

 

[Rabman]

Defence obviously didn't exist back then.

 

[Scotland]

Everyone quickly forgets that every Grand Final in the 90s was a blow out. The only thing that made a lot of them memorable was the first flags for Eagles and Crows.

Some like 91, 92, 97 and 98 were close but the momentum was all with one team and you knew which way it was going to swing.

Geelong were two goals up at half time in 1992. Just played a better side.

Some GFs may have been blow outs, but then so was 2007, 2010 replay, 2014 and 2015 and some of the close ones weren't enjoyable to watch.

Other than two tight EFs, 1992 was a finals series of one sided games. 1994 on the other hand had a blow out GF but four absolute nail biters. Geelong's path the GF was incredible.

 

[Scotland]

I also loved the 90s. Like the OP I was born in the mid 80s so the 90s were my first memories following footy.

I miss traditional footy, played in lines with one on one contests. Modern footy is too much like rugby, and with 36 players on the field and no offside it's not that great to watch. It's not all bad, but I just don't get excited about stoppages inside 50 with 30 players around the ball and goals out the back.

 

[StevenwellerHFC]

People can make the silly back in my day comments, but it's very obvious the game was superior in the 90s.

 

[frenchconnection]

Here we go, yet another excuse for the 'things were so much better in the good old days, my mind is trapped in a timewarp' drones to come out from their stinking, festering holes.
I attended my first game of Australian football in 1975, and have been going non-stop since. Footy was great in the 70s and 80s, it was great in the 90s, great in the 2000s and it's still just as great, if not more so, now. Just for slightly different reasons, as the game changes and evolves.
It'll be great in the 2030s too.

My Brother who used to be a football fanatic and absolutely loved football in the 80's and 90's, however today has given up watching AFL as in his words "it's become too much like rugby and bores me shitless". He really misses the man on man duels - eg Carey v Jakovich. I still go and watch AFL but as I sit up one end (2nd tier) when the play is down the other end you can't see much, which is why I make sure I take my radio so I know what's happening. I also however prefer football back in the 90's as it was more interesting to watch, and also the commentary was better as well!

 

[frenchconnection]

In purely aesthetic terms I think the game was at its peak towards the end of the 90's.

There was no kicking backwards, no flooding, no rolling zone, no 80 interchanges a game, genuine 1 on 1 match ups in the middle, full forwards given space.

How I miss those days!

 

[Yellow Feathers]

I didn't realise that Dermy & Carey were such thugs! They make Bugg look like a saint. But violence was cool back then?

Horse Longmire at 19, WTF? Insane.

 

[Bardo State]

Kids grew up with plugger, Gaz, Carey, Dunstall kicking bags of goals and were proud to don their number on their jumpers. These days kids are forced to watch a hybrid game of ice hockey soccer and rugby which is a tackle and handball athone. Do you think Little Johnny and little Sally want to wear Scott Selwood's number on their back because he got 16 tackles in a game??


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No, but I'm sure there are plenty walking around with Joel Selwood, Lance Franklin, Luke Hodge, Nick Riewoldt and Scott Pendlebury's numbers because they're bloody good players.

 

[Bardo State]

One on one contests all over the ground.
Free flowing open play.
Hardly any stoppages.
Hardly any umpire intervention.
Rules that actually made sense.
Low goal posts.
Goal umpires that weren't mutant robots who have the same exact goal signal down to the exact millimetre.

I do miss it.

Free kicks are almost half of what they used to be.

 

[Crowbots are dead]

Football was way better then today's game

Did you have another team that you followed in the nineties ?

 

[Crowbots are dead]

In purely aesthetic terms I think the game was at its peak towards the end of the 90's.

There was no kicking backwards, no flooding, no rolling zone, no 80 interchanges a game, genuine 1 on 1 match ups in the middle, full forwards given space.

97 98 was the peak

 

[The Blue Baggers]

Lockett, Carey & Ablett snr at their prime all in the one decade.

That's 3 of the top 10 players of all time in a decade that makes up 7% of the total history of the VFL/AFL game.

The 90's were unique no matter how you cut it.

IMO, it is only historically rivaled by the 70's.

Add Dunstall , Kernahan , Modra , Sumich , Rocca , Salmon most clubs supporters had a gun forward to follow !!

 

[The Blue Baggers]

Free kicks are almost half of what they used to be.

True but there is a lot more ball ups

Personally I think they need to pay more frees to assist with breaking up the packs

The biggest problem with today's game is there are too many players around the ball , too many tackles & no space for the players to show their skills

 

[Brend81]

I loved the 90s and as a dees supporter it's a bit of a what if decade, I am convinced with a bit of luck we could have pinched a flag
If Schwartz never did 3 knees
If jakovich actually took it serious he was a freak
Lyon had a stuffed back
But I remember 1998 smashing Adelaide in our 1st final then going to other side of the draw and copping nth Melbourne in prelim, the footy was great to watch back in the 90s Carey ablett Lockett best players I have seen they had such a presence when watching them live

 

[Cudi_420]

I still had a team in the AFL.

Lol Awks...

 

[shaqsuns]

Did you have another team that you followed in the nineties ?

Of coarse I did, but I would rather see my team win 15 wooden spoons in a row and have the game go back to it former glory then sit through another season of this rolling maul crap.


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[bresker]

I was pissed for most of the 90s so I can't tell you whether it was any good. And after all the drugs I did in the 2000s that's hazy too.

Live in the moment

 

[Franc de Borges]

Not a patch on The Electrifying 80's as a show.

On a side note, it's amazing to think that just 20 years ago a tactic like Pagan's Paddock actually worked, and teams would just go, "ah well, he's a gun so what can you do".