The biggest "What could've been?"

[Hobbes]

What if...the current finals system existed in 1998?

In '98, Adelaide became premiers from 5th...despite losing their first final.

Well, they wouldn't have played their first final against 4th.

(Of course, Melbourne were hot that day. But Blight couldn't be blamed for playing the final system which existed at the time - knowing it would hardly matter re the premiership, you can hardly blame him for not pulling all of his tricks out of the box after half time.)

Back in the day, even 6th was likely to survive a first-up loss.

 

[Golumless]

If Adelaide didn't get greedy, and traded Tippett for Brisbane 1st rounder in 2011.

Now that's a sliding doors moment.

The club would dodge draft sanctions, Triggs job wouldn't be under the intense scrutiny it was from supporters until he finally left, 2012 would be vastly different, and likelihood is Adelaide as a club is still mismanaged to all hell come 2017 instead of club that's grown up in a lot of senses.

 

[RudyBlue]

2011
The semi against West Coast goes Carlton's way.

We play Geelong in a prelim. Beat them 2/3 meetings (iirc) in 09-10 and probably lost to them in 2011 due to a Robbie Warnock shank. A massive Carlton crowd turns out as we progress to the GF.

Carlton vs Collingwood. Huge. Think the Pies would've had our measure though.

The s**t with Ratten and Malthouse in coming years would likely still have happened though.

 

[mick500]

Modra doesn't do his knee in the 97 final and plays in the grand final. And doesn't get dropped for the 98 grand final. And doesn't get traded the next yr.

 

[footyfan1978]

2011
The semi against West Coast goes Carlton's way.

We play Geelong in a prelim. Beat them 2/3 meetings (iirc) in 09-10 and probably lost to them in 2011 due to a Robbie Warnock shank. A massive Carlton crowd turns out as we progress to the GF.

Waite, Kruezer and Gibbs all back for the prelim and grand final.

 

[footyfan1978]

Modra doesn't do his knee in the 97 final and plays in the grand final. And doesn't get dropped for the 98 grand final. And doesn't get traded the next yr.

Leigh Colbert paid the mark against Crows in week two.
Crows out.

 

[Hap Hapablap]

Hmm am I missing anything apart from this quick list:

2013 Draft
Pick 11 - Dom Sheed - over Patrick Cripps (13), Cam McCarthy (14), Matt Crouch (23), Zach Merrett (26)
2014 Draft
Pick 11 - Liam Duggan - over Jake Lever (14)
2016 Draft
Pick 13 - Daniel Venables - over Berry (17), SPP (18)

hardly worse unless i'm missing something...

Go from.2007 onwards.

 

[Topkent]

The draft ones are ******* stupid. Pretty easy to pick the 4 best players every year in hindsight but that's not life.
Melbourne could have Natanui Danger Dusty Lever Kelly Merrett blah blah if they got to pick players in hind sight

 

[RudyBlue]

The draft ones are ******* stupid. Pretty easy to pick the 4 best players every year in hindsight but that's not life.
Melbourne could have Natanui Danger Dusty Lever Kelly Merrett blah blah if they got to pick players in hind sight

Yep.

Can only look back and question if the decision was made the best information at hand.

 

[schmuttt]

In 2006 Melbourne beat 5 out of the other top 8 teams but lost to the 3 win Blues twice, resulting in us finishing 7th with a 13-1-8 record.

What if we didn't drop those two games to Carlton?

End of H&A ladder looks like this:

WCE
Adelaide
Melbourne
Fremantle
Sydney
Collingwood
St Kilda
Bulldogs

Week 1

WCE vs Freo - Freo had it over their neighbors this season
Adelaide vs Melbourne - Our s**t record at AAMI stadium wasn't going to change
Sydney vs Bulldogs - Doggies weren't bad this year but wouldn't beat the Swans up there
Collingwood vs St Kilda - Saints were a very good side in 2006 cruelled by injury, reckon they win here

Week 2

Melbourne vs Sydney - Melbourne matched up pretty well on the Swans 2004-2006
WCE vs St Kilda - Eagles too strong

Week 3
Adelaide vs WCE - This matchup actually occured that September so no reason to go the other way
Freo vs Melbourne - See above

Week 4
Freo vs WCE - Think Freo make it 4-0 against the 2006 Eagles

 

[mike91]

Anthony Morabito. Had superstar written all over him

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[Aramis]

That's not how s**t works. If you had all those blokes you might have lost Lewis Mitchell Franklin or Hodge in a salary squeeze. Dew wouldn't have come in in 08 nor Gibbo Hale Lake etc

It wasn't literal... this is a hypothetical thread based on what COULD have been.

 

[Captain_Bender]

In 2006 Melbourne beat 5 out of the other top 8 teams but lost to the 3 win Blues twice, resulting in us finishing 7th with a 13-1-8 record.

What if we didn't drop those two games to Carlton?

End of H&A ladder looks like this:

WCE
Adelaide
Melbourne
Fremantle
Sydney
Collingwood
St Kilda
Bulldogs

Week 1

WCE vs Freo - Freo had it over their neighbors this season
Adelaide vs Melbourne - Our s**t record at AAMI stadium wasn't going to change
Sydney vs Bulldogs - Doggies weren't bad this year but wouldn't beat the Swans up there
Collingwood vs St Kilda - Saints were a very good side in 2006 cruelled by injury, reckon they win here

Week 2

Melbourne vs Sydney - Melbourne matched up pretty well on the Swans 2004-2006
WCE vs St Kilda - Eagles too strong

Week 3
Adelaide vs WCE - This matchup actually occured that September so no reason to go the other way
Freo vs Melbourne - See above

Week 4
Freo vs WCE - Think Freo make it 4-0 against the 2006 Eagles

In 2004 Melbourne after round 18 were 14-4 sitting on top of the ladder only to lose their last 4 in a row to drop to fifth and then lose to Essendon by 5 in the elimination final

 

[Luv_our_club]

It wasn't literal... this is a hypothetical thread based on what COULD have been.

i believe if we picked Selwood we would never have got Cyril based on our finishing position.

 

[schmuttt]

In 2004 Melbourne after round 18 were 14-4 sitting on top of the ladder only to lose their last 4 in a row to drop to fifth and then lose to Essendon by 5 in the elimination final

We were 14-4 because we played a bunch of s**t teams in a row, in the last 5 games the only real bad loss was against Carlton (All other losses were to teams inside the 8). We were a much better side in 2006 but bottled it badly in a relatively even year.

 

[Power Raid]

John Butcher

If only he could play footy

 

[PoppedCorn]

09 no toe poke no Hawkins goal post
10 no bad bounce

Back to back


Sigh

 

[Monkey King]

Winning a flag tends to do that.

Unless you're Eddie ...

 

[Angus Young]

What if Moore kicked that shot or Hodge wasn't incorrectly awarded holding the ball in the 2014 prelim. No 3 peat, No 2 peat, Hawks discussed very differently and Port win a premiership as the only team outside the top 4 in the current system without a bye week.

yeah what about the 2 free kicks port got before the hodge one that marched them up the ground...what were they for... lets not worry about them though

what if Angus Morefrees didn't´t get that free in the last quarter in front of goal for front on contact against Gibson when he didn't even touch the little fairy to begin the comeback... u wouldn't of got close

cry and blame decisions all u like just like Saturday but the best team always wins the premiership.

 

[Wallaby]

The draft ones are ******* stupid. Pretty easy to pick the 4 best players every year in hindsight but that's not life.
Melbourne could have Natanui Danger Dusty Lever Kelly Merrett blah blah if they got to pick players in hind sight

Even Hawthorn passed on Franklin (once).

 

[Boxhead_31]

09 no toe poke no Hawkins goal post
10 no bad bounce

Back to back


Sigh

No goal post and you still lose by 7 points

 

[demondavey]

What if Ben Cousins, six months sober and being regularly drug tested, didn't do his hamstring in the third quarter of the 2007 QF against port?

Immediate consequences

- West coast win that game instead of losing by 3 pts to the eventual grand finalist

- With cousins kerr and judd, whose chronic OP benefits from the extra week of rest, west coast dismember north in the PF, and make a third successive grand final, where their experience on the big day easily accounts for untested Geelong on 29 September 2017.

- Mainwaring is not home alone on 1 October 2017, he's in Melbourne covering a fourth eagles premiership for ch 7, and flying back to attend the victory rally at subi.

Geelong would've still won 07. Amazing side.

 

[demondavey]

What if...the current finals system existed in 1998?

In '98, Adelaide became premiers from 5th...despite losing their first final.

Under the new Finals format we would have this;

QF Finals
North v Melbourne - North
WB v Sydney - WB

Elimination Finals
Adelaide v Essendon - Adelaide
St Kilda v West Coast - St Kilda

Semi Finals
Melbourne v Adelaide - ??
Sydney v St Kilda - Sydney

Preliminary Finals
North v Sydney
WB v Melbourne / Adelaide

GF
Could still very well have been a North v Adelaide GF.

Would we have beaten Adelaide in a semi? I think we actually did beat them didn't we? I'll say we could've beaten them and made a preliminary final against WB. Can't see us beating them that year though.

 

[Gydafud]

I've often thought about that and it would have been a logistical/financial nightmare, especially in the 1950s. But it would have been pretty cool. The VFL as Division 1, SANFL as Division 2, WAFL as Division 3 (or swap the two), a united Tassie league as Division 4, NSW/ACT as Division 5 and QLD/NT as Division 6. Bottom two from each division get relegated for the top two of the division below. There would be a much bigger, focused interest in the whole competition as results from each division would affect other divisions. All of the clubs would maintain their own identity and local WAFL (or whoever) game would have got good attendance, more trading/FA, interesting State of Origin matches, etc. There could have been a Tuesday night FA Cup-style knock out league.

I always imagined it more of a national league that exists above the state leagues, and the bottom 3 teams of each state are replaced with the winners of their respective state competitions. Although that could theoretically mean that in an 18 team comp (that is split between 3 teams from each state), if the bottom 12 was 6 SA teams and 6 WA teams, the Vic team that finished in 7th could get relegated. This is too much for me to try figure out this morning.

Promotion from the VFA to VFL would have worked though.

 

[marty36]

If freo didn't trade the pick we wanted for Macleod for Chris Groom


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