The biggest "What could've been?"

emuboy

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The country zones were to be roated around every year to ensure that no club could dominate but 2 clubs Hawthorn and Carlton did not want to be rotated because they had the best zones.
Carlton had Bendigo, which was a fruitful country zone for the Blues indicated by the premierships won by the club from the late 1960s to the mid 1980s.

However, something seems to have gone very wrong since then, as the Bendigo Pioneers are the easybeats of the TAC Cup, and this with other country areas in Northern and Central Victoria aligned to the Pioneers. The team has not played finals for over a decade, and has won the wooden spoon many times, most recently this season.

Talking about Carlton, what would have happened if their change of emblem from the Blues to the Cockatoos attempted in the late 1940s been successful? The Carlton theme song might go something like this:

'We are the Cockatoos, we are the famous Carlton Cockatoos. We're the team that never lets you down, we're the only team old Carlton knows. With all the champions they like to send up, we'll keep our end up. And they will know that they've been playing, against the Carlton Cockatoos.'
 

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bigpapagman

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There are many sliding door moments throughout VFL/AFL history that make you think, "What could have been?". From players, to administrative, what are some that stand out in your mind?

Original VFL Park Capacity
Having the train line extended to the stadium and the full plans for the stadium capacity fulfilled, would it be hosting the Grand Final from now on? 150,000 fans packed out in the eastern suburbs could have been possible if the infrastructure supported it. Or would it have been the great white elephant for the VFL?

Promotion/Relegation National League
There was talk sometimes in the 50s to have a national league that incorporated promotion/relegation from the state leagues. Would that have been the more ideal setup to the eventual VFL/AFL transition? Would this have been your preferred method?

Nathan Ablett Retiring
This is just one for cats fans, but a young player with so much potential and promise pulls the plug early on his career. What would it have meant for the Cats group of 2008+ if he was still playing? I always feel it would have made our 2008 campaign a bit better without having to play Lonergan forward.


What else is there?
Nathan isn't retired. He's playing with me in a country reserves Grand Final on Saturday.
 

Golumless

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So basically if they didn't get caught cheating. Maybe if they didn't cheat in the first place....
I don't have a problem with it if we got away with it. Especially considering how rife 3rd party payments have been in the AFL throughout it's history.

Mind you, we had the option to get away with it, got greedy (probably under the delusion we could keep Tippet) then karma smacked us by us getting caught accepting a much lower deal. Of course it changes a lot of variables with how we've gone in the last 5 years seeing how many of our decisions have been linked to draft sanctions.
 

Judd2Sewell

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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.
What if those horrendous fees that Wingard and Monfries were given were correctly called. No momentum shift, no comeback for Port. No scare for the Hawks leading up to the GF.
 

Judd2Sewell

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The biggest one for me:

What if Hawks were trailing in the 13 Prelim when the siren went as Franklin had the ball at the death 30m out straight in front. He didn't hear the siren and passed it to Rioli in the square.
 

ep2018

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What if Geelong held on against Sydney in 2005? They would have gone on to play the Saints who were crippled with injury and then an Eagles team who (still) cant win at the MCG. They could have won the flag.
 

Gydafud

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Thread starter #209
What if Hawks were trailing in the 13 Prelim when the siren went as Franklin had the ball at the death 30m out straight in front. He didn't hear the siren and passed it to Rioli in the square.
From memory, the crowd was so loud because you knew the Hawks had won it at that point going forward. However, woulda been play on and the Cats win.

Luckily for you it's a hypothetical that you'll never have to worry about.
 
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Richmond were never going to beat Carlton in 1980 before Jezza left and shock and the fallout of that.
Richmond flogged Carlton during the finals by 42 and were 65 up at three quarter time there was no stopping Richmond keeping Jezza or not and Carlton had no way of stopping Kevin Bartlett during the 1980 finals series no one did
 

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mickctiger

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Just on VFL Park, my family moved into one of the new housing estates in what was then Mulgrave (the suburb has since been incorporated into Wheelers Hill). My father, in particular, was sold on the promise of a rail extension from Huntindale, along North/Wellington RD, and through to VFL Park.
Anyway, iirc, one of the biggest reasons that the stadium was never fully completed(allowing the Grand Final to be hosted there), was down to Government pressure, from both sides of politics. Both Caine and Hamer(I've been told) we're MCC Members and we're steadfast in following the MCC line in insisting that the Grand Final be hosted at the MCG.
Not that it matters now, but I have always had a soft spot for VFL Park. With a capacity of 75K, and located within the population epicenter of Melbourne, however, I could never see the sense in scraping it.
The money spent on Docklands would have easily funded a proper redevelopment if VFL Park, including providing proper PT
 

SSSSSS

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Six decades of domination
If we didn't kick inaccurately in 2012.

Would we have won 4 in a row or did the pain of 2012 drive the 3peat. Who knows?
 

Substance

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The biggest one for me:

What if Hawks were trailing in the 13 Prelim when the siren went as Franklin had the ball at the death 30m out straight in front. He didn't hear the siren and passed it to Rioli in the square.
If I remember the rule correctly, the game isn't over until the umpire blows his whistle. So I think Rioli would have kicked it before the umpire heard the siren.
 
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