What If - Post 2006

[Son_Of_God29]

Hi All ,

Just wanted peoples opinions of where you think our club would be if Brian Cook and Frank Coasta and sacked Bomber during the review of the club post the 2006 season.

Having looked over some of the older threads from Big footy in 2006 there were suggestions that the now two time premiership coach should have been fired and replaced...there were a number of suggestions for a new coach including:

• Clarkson
• G.Hocking
• Pagan
• Daryn Creswell was even mentioned

Supporters of the club said that a number of players were either past it or not going to improve Past it: Ling, King, Ottens.
Or Havent really improved: James Kelly, Josh Hunt, Steve Johnson. Also players like Mackie

How wrong we all were but my Question is had we gone with a New Coach in 2007 would players like Kelly and SJ have been traded and would we have won a Single Premiership in the 2007-2011 period.

The club may still have drafted J.Selwood in 2006 Draft but you never know if Clarkson had been coach we may have ended up with Mitch Thorp
Would Stevie J have been trade to Collingwood?

Would the club have kept the faith with Hawkins ?


Having been a fan of Bomber until recently i am so glad that the review found the bomber was the right man for the job and the rest as they say is history


Feel free to Tell me exactly what you think?

 

[SJ]

I was wrong about a lot of things, that's all I know. Although at the time I was right about a lot of things too (i.e. things needed to change, and they did).

But I learnt a massive lesson in not writing players off too early.

 

[Son_Of_God29]

SJ you are so right I think we were all to quick to right off players like Lingy and Otto as well as a lot of the core group, I remember there was a petiton go around KP in mid 2006 asking for Bomber to be sacked.....I couldn't sign it and a lot of people around we were saying stay the course we will be fine

All i can say is thank god i didn't sign it cause i would never have forgiven myself

 

[SJ]

Honestly I would say almost our entire list (bar maybe Scarlett and Selwood) were generally written off by this board at one stage or another.

There is a lesson there.

 

[James1970]

Emotion and luck plays a major part in all this. Keep in mind, many of us had never tasted the sweet nectar of that final victory, and during that hellish 2006, it looked like we may never do. The club was in a funk, and we started to get a little desperate. The greatest things the club did was the review, then getting Balme, then having faith and judgement in the decisions they made.

 

[jim boy]

Who knows? Sacking Bomber wasn't a toss of the coin decision. It was a considered decision reflecting the professionalism of the administration. For Bomber to have been sacked would be to say the administration lacked the professionalism. To say they lacked the professionalism would be to say that Frank Costa didn't have a highly developed business acumen. To say that Frank Costa didn't have business acumen mean that the club would have folded circa 2001. Which means we wouldn't have been able to sack Bomber.

 

[Ashb23]

I remember hoping Richmond beat us in that now infamous game in 2007, as I thought it would be the final nail in Bomber's coffin! How wrong I was.

When you think about it, 2007 picked up where 2006 left (for the first 5 games).

So glad I was wrong - and so wrong. I will say though, my mate and I always thought we had the talent, so I wasn't necessarily into clearing the deck (and I always said Ottens was not the forward answer we were looking for - but would be great in the ruck). JUst didn't have faith in the coach...

 

[ATSAM]

Still would have won the premierships in 07 and 09. Might have won 08 and 10 as well

 

[Goggin Our Best]

I thought there was a fair chance Bomber would be sacked -but after the last game of the year in 2006 against Hawthorn -it was such a lack luster effort -if you could call it an effort -that i was convinced he would be sacked. What i heard was both Wade and Andrews -the 2 ex players on the committee wanted him sacked -they had run out of patience -but got outvoted -however as a bit of a square off Balme got the football managers job -because he was a premiership team mate of Andrews at Richmond.

In all due respect -unless we had got a total idiot -i still think we would still have had multiple flag success.

 

[Geelong_Sicko]

Who knows? Sacking Bomber wasn't a toss of the coin decision. It was a considered decision reflecting the professionalism of the administration. For Bomber to have been sacked would be to say the administration lacked the professionalism. To say they lacked the professionalism would be to say that Frank Costa didn't have a highly developed business acumen. To say that Frank Costa didn't have business acumen mean that the club would have folded circa 2001. Which means we wouldn't have been able to sack Bomber.

Great Scott!! A paradox in the space-time continuum!!!!

 

[Cheshire Cat]

When you consider that Grant Thomas who at least took the Saints to the finals that year, was sacked, I'm just thankful we weren't as trigger happy. If I recall majority of the players were behind Thompson at the time. So no doubt a new coach would've unsettled things even more and its hard to see how we wouldve won the 2007 flag with a new coach with new ideas.

It is so interesting when you think back to 2006, because invariably individual performances reflect team fortunes. We were criticised heavily that year for having a slow midfield. Guys like Kelly and Ling were in the gun. Steve Johnson was painfully inconsistent. Remember the speculation about im being trading to Collingwood - what a nightmare that couldve been. Josh Hunt was ridiculed for that head ducking incident. IMO, all of these were at risk if Thompson left then.

 

[Son_Of_God29]

When you consider that Grant Thomas who at least took the Saints to the finals that year, was sacked, I'm just thankful we weren't as trigger happy. If I recall majority of the players were behind Thompson at the time. So no doubt a new coach would've unsettled things even more and its hard to see how we wouldve won the 2007 flag with a new coach with new ideas.

It is so interesting when you think back to 2006, because invariably individual performances reflect team fortunes. We were criticised heavily that year for having a slow midfield. Guys like Kelly and Ling were in the gun. Steve Johnson was painfully inconsistent. Remember the speculation about im being trading to Collingwood - what a nightmare that couldve been. Josh Hunt was ridiculed for that head ducking incident. IMO, all of these were at risk if Thompson left then.

Speculation about SJ being traded to Collingwood was complete truth @ end of 06 there was a deal made for a trade but his knee failed the medical- the same knee that would come back and bit the pies in 2011 gf - have serious love for that man and wat he has done over the last decade

 

[Ashb23]

Speculation about SJ being traded to Collingwood was complete truth @ end of 06 there was a deal made for a trade but his knee failed the medical- the same knee that would come back and bit the pies in 2011 gf - have serious love for that man and wat he has done over the last decade

Think you'll find it was his ankles that failed the medical - sounds better when you say knee though