Mike Sheahan's best teams of the past five decades

**Twodogs** · 28-07-2015, 12:09 PM

Re: Mike Sheahan's best teams of the past five decades

No Kelvin Templeton in either the '70s or the '80s make it a joke.

Come on Mike you can do much better than that.

**Twodogs** · 28-07-2015, 12:12 PM

Re: Mike Sheahan's best teams of the past five decades

I really dislike Gary Dempsey (him leaving was THE dog act of all time, never mind Griff or KT-Dempsey was the biggest turncoat ever) but to say that Len Thompson was a better player or ruckman than Dempsey is farcical.

**azabob** · 28-07-2015, 12:55 PM

Re: Mike Sheahan's best teams of the past five decades

Pleasantly surprised C Grant makes the 90's team.

**Go_Dogs** · 28-07-2015, 01:04 PM

Re: Mike Sheahan's best teams of the past five decades

A forward line with D Jarman, Carey, Ablett and Lockett would be hard to match up on, let alone the number of goals you could count on from the interchange bench. Whilst I'm 30 and don't know a huge amount about some of the players, the 80's forward line looks pretty impressive too.

Anyone keen to suggest which side would win out?

**The Doctor** · 28-07-2015, 01:37 PM

Re: Mike Sheahan's best teams of the past five decades

Originally posted by Twodogs

I really dislike Gary Dempsey (him leaving was THE dog act of all time, never mind Griff or KT-Dempsey was the biggest turncoat ever) but to say that Len Thompson was a better player or ruckman than Dempsey is farcical.

agree Dempsey over Thompson. He's still the best ruckman I've seen.

Also Platten over Weightman in the 80's team. Scott West over Kelly in the 90's team. I think there is a case for Barry Hall in the 00's team as well

**Ozza** · 28-07-2015, 01:38 PM

Re: Mike Sheahan's best teams of the past five decades

Originally posted by Go_Dogs

A forward line with D Jarman, Carey, Ablett and Lockett would be hard to match up on, let alone the number of goals you could count on from the interchange bench. Whilst I'm 30 and don't know a huge amount about some of the players, the 80's forward line looks pretty impressive too.

Anyone keen to suggest which side would win out?

Hard to judge one era/decade against another, as the standard and style of footy changes so the next decade always would run the previous decade off their feet. Plus by the 90s, the league was a truly national competition, whereas in the 80s there was still some real quality in the SANFL and WAFL - so I'd lean towards the 90s.

**Happy Days** · 28-07-2015, 01:42 PM

Re: Mike Sheahan's best teams of the past five decades

No Cousins = No buys

**Sedat** · 28-07-2015, 04:20 PM

Re: Mike Sheahan's best teams of the past five decades

Originally posted by Twodogs

No Kelvin Templeton in either the '70s or the '80s make it a joke.

Reckon he would have made either side if his career was exclusively in the one decade. He suffers because he was exceptional in a short period of time in both decades.

Tough, tough job but pretty fair effort by Mike.

**Greystache** · 28-07-2015, 04:27 PM

Re: Mike Sheahan's best teams of the past five decades

Originally posted by Sedat

Reckon he would have made either side if his career was exclusively in the one decade. He suffers because he was exceptional in a short period of time in both decades.

Tough, tough job but pretty fair effort by Mike.

But so was Gary Ablett Junior and he put him in the 2000's. He really didn't have a good season until 2007.

**Sedat** · 28-07-2015, 04:35 PM

Re: Mike Sheahan's best teams of the past five decades

Originally posted by Greystache

But so was Gary Ablett Junior and he put him in the 2000's. He really didn't have a good season until 2007.

Didn't say it was perfect

**Ozza** · 28-07-2015, 05:00 PM

Re: Mike Sheahan's best teams of the past five decades

Originally posted by Greystache

But so was Gary Ablett Junior and he put him in the 2000's. He really didn't have a good season until 2007.

Probably fair enough that little Gazza makes the team though...even if it wasn't until 2007 that he was exceptional. If any player is all of MVP 3 times, wins a brownlow, 3 x All Australian, 2 x premiership and 2 x B&F within that decade - its probably fair enough they get in the side!!

Mike's teams and lists are never short of stimulating discussion, which is good.

**Missing-Dog** · 30-07-2015, 01:51 PM

Re: Mike Sheahan's best teams of the past five decades

Originally posted by Twodogs

No Kelvin Templeton in either the '70s or the '80s make it a joke.

Come on Mike you can do much better than that.

Royce Hart, Peter Hudson, Dermott Brereton and Jason Dunstall are the four players in KT's positions during the 70's and 80's. No shame in sitting just behind those blokes in the history of the game.

**Doc26** · 30-07-2015, 02:39 PM

Re: Mike Sheahan's best teams of the past five decades

I really don't like Mike's choice of ruckman for the 90's.

Although Shaun Rehn was a very fine ruckman and should be recognised as such, a significant period of time through the 90s was lost for him having being cut down with 3 ACLs. IMO this really effected his potential output. He played approx 118 games of 220 games (excl. finals).

My bias is no doubt showing here but Scott Wynd for mine was clearly the stand out ruckman of this decade. Brownlow Medalist in 1992, and the last ruckman to have achieved this honour before it became a midfielders award, and who I recall led many of the lead indicators at the time. A telling measure at the time was for a ruckman to lead the contested ball statistics.

Wyndy was also incredibly durable and courageous for his style of play. He played a total of 194 games throughout the 90s from ~220 games (excl. final appearances).

He was also Captain of our Club from 1994 through to 2000. From memory, North Melbourne and Footscray / WBFC participated in more finals matches than any other team throughout this decade and Wyndy for us was a driving force behind this largely successful decade.

Unfortunately for Wyndy's case, not having premierships under his belt (Rehn particpated in the 97 & 98 flags) skews the result far too heavily towards Rehn and for mine makes this a very dubious assessment.

And a further footnote: When it suits, Mike, inconsistently, can (in this case rightfully) find a place for Robbie Flower on the wing in his 80s team when Robbie was unfortunately left in a team that was never to experience any form of finals success.

**The Doctor** · 30-07-2015, 02:54 PM

Re: Mike Sheahan's best teams of the past five decades

Originally posted by Doc26

I really don't like Mike's choice of ruckman for the 90's.

Although Shaun Rehn was a very fine ruckman and should be recognised as such, a significant period of time through the 90s was lost for him having being cut down with 3 ACLs. IMO this really effected his potential output. He played approx 118 games of 220 games (excl. finals).

My bias is no doubt showing here but Scott Wynd for mine was clearly the stand out ruckman of this decade. Brownlow Medalist in 1992, and the last ruckman to have achieved this honour before it became a midfielders award, and who I recall led many of the lead indicators at the time. A telling measure at the time was for a ruckman to lead the contested ball statistics.

Wyndy was also incredibly durable and courageous for his style of play. He played a total of 194 games throughout the 90s from ~220 games (excl. final appearances).

He was also Captain of our Club from 1994 through to 2000. From memory, North Melbourne and Footscray / WBFC participated in more finals matches than any other team throughout this decade and Wyndy for us was a driving force behind this largely successful decade.

Unfortunately for Wyndy's case, not having premierships under his belt (Rehn particpated in the 97 & 98 flags) skews the result far too heavily towards Rehn and for mine makes this a very dubious assessment.

It's a fair contest Rehn vs Wynd but I think Mike got this one right. Both super players but Rehn was hugely influential in their premiership run. I also think Rehn got on top of Wynd in the 2nd half of the preliminary final of 97 and helped steer the game away from us, unfortunately.

Mike Sheahan's best teams of the past five decades

Mike Sheahan's best teams of the past five decades

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