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The What If thread

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Oh, my dearly beloved Collingwood brothers and sisters, why do we do this to ourselves?

‘66, (what if Wayne Richardson …)
‘70, (what if McKenna / Tuddenham …)
‘77, (what if Phil Carman …)
‘79, (what if the boundary umpire …)
‘02, (what if Anthony Rocca …)
’11, (what if Ben Reid …)
’18, (what if … <choose your own adventure>)

… and they’re just the top tier simple obvious ones.

Do not do this to yourself. For the sake of your mental health, unsubscribe to this thread and forget it ever happened …
 
What if Taylor Adams nailed that shot on goal in the last minute of the 2018 GF.
Yep. He had more time than he thought. Oh the endless agony. We have never won a close grand final. Never. Unless someone can drag up a win from the 1920's which was a century ago.
Every single GF that we have played in which has been decided by a ten points or less, we have lost.
 
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Oh, my dearly beloved Collingwood brothers and sisters, why do we do this to ourselves?

‘66, (what if Wayne Richardson …)
‘70, (what if McKenna / Tuddenham …)
‘77, (what if Phil Carman …)
‘79, (what if the boundary umpire …)
‘02, (what if Anthony Rocca …)
’11, (what if Ben Reid …)
’18, (what if … <choose your own adventure>)

… and they’re just the top tier simple obvious ones.

Do not do this to yourself. For the sake of your mental health, unsubscribe to this thread and forget it ever happened …
What if a back pocket had not ignored an explicit order not to move past the centre line from the great Norm Smith in 1964? Even though Compton won the flag for Melbourne, Smith refused to speak with him after the game and never forgave his rebellious act.
True story.
 
The only silver lining you can take from it. We have been competitive in losses against some top teams. Encouraging for next year at least
 

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Where would we be if we’d won the games we lost by 3 goals or less?

The question isn’t about where we’d be on the ladder - it’s 5 games so we’d be 9 and 5, sitting 6th on the ladder. Ironically, the 3 teams (sitting 3rd-5th) above us would also be 9-5 instead of 10-4.

The question is about where would we be deemed at as a footy club whilst sitting 6th on the ladder - a slight improvement on last year’s 8th place finish. Still disappointing after a GF in 2018 and regressing the next 3 seasons, or still technically thereabouts, fighting it out for another top 4 spot.

Would the current crop be deemed as good enough to content?

FYI, those 5 games I’m talking about are:
- 12 points v Freo last weekend.
- 10 points v Cats, our last loss prior.
- 1 point v Port, week before that.
- 1 point v Lions, Round 3
- 16 points v Dogs, Round 1
I’d have Essendon and GWS as games that got away instead of WB and Geelong. A middle side would win 2-3 of the games we dropped, a top side 4-5.

I don’t think it would change internal views of where the list is at, but it may shape recruitment. Externally perhaps the pressure wouldn’t have been as great. The query for mine is whether an extra couple of wins would have saved Buckley.
 
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What if the succession plan was not agreed on. Would we have still won the flag?

Likely but even then that is speculative, from the moment Ed got MM to the club, the team trajectory went up - dipped after a crack with a less than list in 02 -03 (which is basically the same as the spoon side of 99).

From 07 onwards it was looking a long time contender, by the time the premiership year came around, the trajectory went to a point that it had a dynastic look and feel to it.

A team that was the 2nd youngest ever to win a flag with the 2nd highest percentage ever in the history of the comp is hard to argue against that.

So my question is reverse to you, would we have not won the flag if the succession plan was not agreed on? Would we have more flags? Waiting for your what if.
 
What If the Umpire heard the siren at VFL Park Collingwood v North Melbourne night grand final.

Was at that game, as a 10 yo it was more heart break I didn't need after the 77 and 79 losses. That got compounded with that year and then the year after. Tease after tease after tease.
 
Likely but even then that is speculative, from the moment Ed got MM to the club, the team trajectory went up - dipped after a crack with a less than list in 02 -03 (which is basically the same as the spoon side of 99).

From 07 onwards it was looking a long time contender, by the time the premiership year came around, the trajectory went to a point that it had a dynastic look and feel to it.

A team that was the 2nd youngest ever to win a flag with the 2nd highest percentage ever in the history of the comp is hard to argue against that.

So my question is reverse to you, would we have not won the flag if the succession plan was not agreed on? Would we have more flags? Waiting for your what if.
The club was at a crossroads in 2009. Many were calling for Mick to be let go. The succession plan was in some ways a compromise. Had Mick been simply re-signed, and Bucks allowed to walk to North, we may still have won the flag. Would you take the risk and change the succession plan?

In my opinion, the succession plan and the flogging we got in the Prelim, gave the club the impetus to go out and recruit Jolly and Ball. Without these guys we don’t win in 2010.
 

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Succession plan implemented 2012, fractured playing group. 10 Years, no flags, Buckley now gone.
Failure.
Implemented in 2010 with Buckley coming in as assistant coach.
Flag.
Torpedoed by Malthouse in 2011.
No flag, fractured playing group.
 

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The What If thread

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