MVP Tommy Boyd - The Boy, The Man, The Premiership Hero

Sentinel

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Surprisingly yes - attending many (multi day) music festivals over the years, the last few years has seen a huge number of people wearing red, white and blue. Meredith last year we seemed to be the most supported team (complete with one of the toilets being decorated as a Bulldogs shrine).
Meredith and Golden Plains might be a bit of an illusion given the festival beanies look identical to ours (red white and blue), but the Bulldogs shrine toilet was a sight to behold.
 

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Mofra

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Meredith and Golden Plains might be a bit of an illusion given the festival beanies look identical to ours (red white and blue), but the Bulldogs shrine toilet was a sight to behold.
Nah they're closer to Fitzroy's than ours - I'm talking the legitimate Footscray and Bulldogs beanies of which there were plenty.
We had a whole pocket of the crowd to ourselves for a solid section on Saturday night - one year on I saw a few familiar faces at Whitten Oval on the Sunday after the GF
 

CaptainMurphy

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Surprisingly yes - attending many (multi day) music festivals over the years, the last few years has seen a huge number of people wearing red, white and blue. Meredith last year we seemed to be the most supported team (complete with one of the toilets being decorated as a Bulldogs shrine).
Definitely the team of Meredith
 

threenewpadlocks

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Without doubt both are overs, but you need to overpay to get young potential stars to your club early from where they were drafted.

I just find it amusing that many other teams' fans including norf were giving us shit for offering a million a year to a young potential stud player when every single club will probably eventually be doing it when the cap goes up.

We and GWS were just a couple of years ahead of the curve.
Can't wait to see the bidding war this year for Nat Fyfe.
And the difference between Boyd and Heeney and Fyfe this year is the limited talent pool for forwards for forward rucks.
Heeney and Fyfe could very well be among the best midfielders in the league, but from a team-wise perspective, you can cover the loss of a gun midfielder. Look at GWS and Treloar. They didn't miss a beat losing Treloar.

On the other hand, you can't cover for the lack of a 200cm KPF, because they just don't exist. Short of having a peak Geelong-esque midfield, you can't win the flag without one. We certainly would not have beaten GWS or Sydney without Boyd. Limited talent pool.

We were never quite bad enough in any one given year, combined with the entry of GWS/GC, to land any of Lynch, McCartin, Boyd, Hogan etc. etc. in the draft. So we went out and made the most of Griffen leaving to buy one with our salary cap room.

Fans of other clubs saying that we overpaid for Boyd - what was the alternative, tanking in any of the years from 2012-14?
 

jdz101

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And the difference between Boyd and Heeney and Fyfe this year is the limited talent pool for forwards for forward rucks.
Heeney and Fyfe could very well be among the best midfielders in the league, but from a team-wise perspective, you can cover the loss of a gun midfielder. Look at GWS and Treloar. They didn't miss a beat losing Treloar.

On the other hand, you can't cover for the lack of a 200cm KPF, because they just don't exist. Short of having a peak Geelong-esque midfield, you can't win the flag without one. We certainly would not have beaten GWS or Sydney without Boyd. Limited talent pool.

We were never quite bad enough in any one given year, combined with the entry of GWS/GC, to land any of Lynch, McCartin, Boyd, Hogan etc. etc. in the draft. So we went out and made the most of Griffen leaving to buy one with our salary cap room.

Fans of other clubs saying that we overpaid for Boyd - what was the alternative, tanking in any of the years from 2012-14?
In terms of value to their respective teams, Bont, Boyd, and Lobb will be the best 3 players in that draft by a long way. Serious daylight between those 3 and the rest.
 

ScragCity

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And the difference between Boyd and Heeney and Fyfe this year is the limited talent pool for forwards for forward rucks.
Heeney and Fyfe could very well be among the best midfielders in the league, but from a team-wise perspective, you can cover the loss of a gun midfielder. Look at GWS and Treloar. They didn't miss a beat losing Treloar.

On the other hand, you can't cover for the lack of a 200cm KPF, because they just don't exist. Short of having a peak Geelong-esque midfield, you can't win the flag without one. We certainly would not have beaten GWS or Sydney without Boyd. Limited talent pool.

We were never quite bad enough in any one given year, combined with the entry of GWS/GC, to land any of Lynch, McCartin, Boyd, Hogan etc. etc. in the draft. So we went out and made the most of Griffen leaving to buy one with our salary cap room.

Fans of other clubs saying that we overpaid for Boyd - what was the alternative, tanking in any of the years from 2012-14?
Bloody fantastic post 3NP
 

bobby2

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And the difference between Boyd and Heeney and Fyfe this year is the limited talent pool for forwards for forward rucks.
Heeney and Fyfe could very well be among the best midfielders in the league, but from a team-wise perspective, you can cover the loss of a gun midfielder. Look at GWS and Treloar. They didn't miss a beat losing Treloar.

On the other hand, you can't cover for the lack of a 200cm KPF, because they just don't exist. Short of having a peak Geelong-esque midfield, you can't win the flag without one. We certainly would not have beaten GWS or Sydney without Boyd. Limited talent pool.
I agree that the Boyd move was right for the club and that forward-rucks are always going to cost more due to their scarcity. However, if our team has taught us one thing this year, it's not to get caught up in the the "you can't win a flag without (insert player type here)" assertions. I've lost count of the number of times I've heard we couldn't possibly win a flag with our current key defensive stocks or that we were too young and needed to wait another year or two for our window. To win a flag, all you need is a bloody good team who stand up in big moments and some good luck.

Yes, Boyd had a huge impact on our ability to win the flag, but that doesn't mean we couldn't have won without him. We actually effectively won the prelim with Zaine as our only key forward because Boyd spent the vast majority of the game in the ruck. Maybe we would've struggled without a ruckman, but a pure ruckman like Roughead could've played that role instead if he hadn't been injured.
 

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I agree that the Boyd move was right for the club and that forward-rucks are always going to cost more due to their scarcity. However, if our team has taught us one thing this year, it's not to get caught up in the the "you can't win a flag without (insert player type here)" assertions. I've lost count of the number of times I've heard we couldn't possibly win a flag with our current key defensive stocks or that we were too young and needed to wait another year or two for our window. To win a flag, all you need is a bloody good team who stand up in big moments and some good luck.

Yes, Boyd had a huge impact on our ability to win the flag, but that doesn't mean we couldn't have won without him. We actually effectively won the prelim with Zaine as our only key forward because Boyd spent the vast majority of the game in the ruck. Maybe we would've struggled without a ruckman, but a pure ruckman like Roughead could've played that role instead if he hadn't been injured.
Theoretically you are probably correct in saying we might have won the flag without Boyd - I'm glad we'll never know! Had Boyd played a poor game in either the Prelim or the Grand Final - we lose. I'm pretty sure about that...
 

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stefoid

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Theoretically you are probably correct in saying we might have won the flag without Boyd - I'm glad we'll never know! Had Boyd played a poor game in either the Prelim or the Grand Final - we lose. I'm pretty sure about that...
yep, but you could say that about 10+ players. Picken, Smith, Macrae, JJ, Dickson, Boyd, Morris, Libba, Wood, Cordy - the list goes on, they all played at their best and if any of them had played stinkers...
 

Substance

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yep, but you could say that about 10+ players. Picken, Smith, Macrae, JJ, Dickson, Boyd, Morris, Libba, Wood, Cordy - the list goes on, they all played at their best and if any of them had played stinkers...
...was Bont our 12th most important player in the finals? Stringer wasn't even top 15. Makes you think about our potential for 2017
 

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yep, but you could say that about 10+ players. Picken, Smith, Macrae, JJ, Dickson, Boyd, Morris, Libba, Wood, Cordy - the list goes on, they all played at their best and if any of them had played stinkers...
That may be true for some of those players - particularly Picken and Smith, but few were as instrumental in our final two games as Tom. For the players you listed, others may have stepped up and a poorer performance may not have had such a negative team impact. There really wasn't anybody else who could have did what Boyd did - rucking effectively and taking big, crucial contested marks.
 
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...was Bont our 12th most important player in the finals? Stringer wasn't even top 15. Makes you think about our potential for 2017
Nah Bont was BOG against Hawthorn, had some HUGE moments against GWS and was bloody handy in the granny. Can't remember how he played in the Eagles game
 

Ozil

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False. The players and Bevo hate him.....
I enjoy the narrative of Tom turning it around as much as anyone, but when did anybody ever say this?

It was said Bevo didn't rate him as a bloke. Doesn't mean he hates him, definitely doesn't mean the players hate him.

Only the GWS losers have said anything to that effect.
 
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