Counterfactual: What if we hadn't won the flag in 2016?

I'm a great fan of tremendous TV shows like The Man in the High Castle and Counterpart, which portray different worlds and alternate realities. Let's apply this to the Dogs.

IIRC, we finished 7th in the 2016 H&A season. Say we lost our first final and that was that.

So no mythical stories about Bev winning us our second flag, no mythical stories about all the different players who played above themselves in the the various finals to help us win. No GF. No flag.

We just bombed out in the first final like the previous year.

So what might have changed over the next 2 or 3 seasons if this had happened?

Would we have gone onwards and upwards in 2017 and 2018 and maybe won a flag? Or languished as we did and now Bev would be under pressure?

Would our drafting and trading be any different?

Enter Bulldogs Counterpart. What do you think?

I love PKD books, and want to see the adaptation to MITHC...…...but to the topic. We'd probably have had a better 2017 than we did, marginally, and a similar 2018. So that's three consecutive final series potentially, with a list that was losing experience and rebuilding.

Pretty good story to sell if you're the coach trying to justify hanging onto your job.

This is a counterfactual, so anything goes.

Glass half full: Stringer is a nice person with extreme talent which continues to develop and supports team values, Boyd continues his trajectory up, Clay has two good knees, ditto Libba, Wood continues his stellar form, Collins is the next McGovern etc...

Glass half empty: More injuries than we had, dud recruiting so we don't get say Naughton and Richards, Stringer leaves because he reckons Bev is a prick, other players reckon Bev is a prick and want to leave, Macrae and Bont go to the Bombers...

Given we're out, it's likely a Sydney derby in the 2016 GF (though I'd've given Hawthorn a chance to roll through WCE & GWS into a fifth straight GF) Swans with the experienced heads but they still lost to us, so GWS would've been a massive chance.
At a guess we'd probably make finals in 2017 but not top 4. Does Bob play 2017 again? Do Crameri & Dickson still have injury riddled seasons? I'd blame our lack of pressure from the bye onwards in 2017 down to 'distractions' that would not have been there, so maybe Dahlhaus & Libba are midfield standouts again....
Stringer still leaves given much of his off field would've continued regardless of the club's results - as does Hamling.
We'd probably still get Tim English, but maybe not Naughton or Richards given potential ladder position.

No flag.