All our ducks lined up

[Throughandthrough]

a, Yes we were awesome and deserved the gold.


But by geez we were lucky, there's literally dozens of things that lined up that help us win the flag in 2016.

I think it's time to talk about them! (This is a safe space, ok??)


NB This thread is meant to be light hearted


I'll start with a few, but there's heaps more. Each of these on their own may have made the difference.

1> WCE beating the Crows in Adelaide in the last round. Changed our position on the ladder (at the time it looked like a very bad thing)
2> That noddy from the Hawks missing the easy kick to win the final v Geelong. If Hawthorn had won we would have had a much harder last few weeks
3>Whatever transpired so that Hamling came from the VFL and played finals.
4>................

[Ozza]

Re: All our ducks lined up

Stevie J gets suspended.
Allir Allir injured
McVeigh and Mills under injury clouds

[LostDoggy]

Re: All our ducks lined up

JJ doing a 10 week hammy allowing him to be well rested come finals time and eventually win the Norm Smith!

[Throughandthrough]

Re: All our ducks lined up

The Swans getting crucified by the umps in the GF

[Topdog]

Re: All our ducks lined up

Stevie J gets suspended.
Allir Allir injured
McVeigh and Mills under injury clouds

Stevie J for me was the big one. We still had more injuries than Sydney for the GF so dont buy that excuse from them.

If the Hawks won in the first week only change would be we played Geelong in the Semi?

[Bulldog Joe]

Re: All our ducks lined up

a, Yes we were awesome and deserved the gold.


But by geez we were lucky, there's literally dozens of things that lined up that help us win the flag in 2016.

I think it's time to talk about them! (This is a safe space, ok??)


NB This thread is meant to be light hearted


I'll start with a few, but there's heaps more. Each of these on their own may have made the difference.

1> WCE beating the Crows in Adelaide in the last round. Changed our position on the ladder (at the time it looked like a very bad thing)
2> That noddy from the Hawks missing the easy kick to win the final v Geelong. If Hawthorn had won we would have had a much harder last few weeks
3>Whatever transpired so that Hamling came from the VFL and played finals.
4>................

That miss cost us the opportunity to smash Geelong, and I have no doubt that we would have done so.

[Topdog]

Re: All our ducks lined up

The bye, we got 4 players back from injury

[bulldogsthru&thru]

Re: All our ducks lined up

Stevie J being suspended was a nice bit of luck for sure. As was having the bye before the finals so we could get some players back - although that was more a reversal of horrible bad luck all year!

But the results of other teams and it's effect on our finals draw? Not sure about that. Nobody gave us a chance to beat West Coast or Hawthorn, so if things fell the other way, we probably would have beaten Geelong and/or Adelaide. The way we played, and the way both Geelong and Adelaide capitulated against Sydney is enough for me. I mean they both got smashed by the swans who we ultimately defeated to win our 2nd flag :-)

And the rub of the green? Firstly, good teams create their own 'luck' in this regard and secondly, we were bloody well overdue for some after '97 and '09!

[Mofra]

Re: All our ducks lined up

We were underdogs in every game so it's easy to overstate the luck factor.

There was one thing I was truly thankful for - GWS went the knuckle for the first quarter of the prelim, completely forgot the ball and focused on the man. A few of our boys wore a few hits (Roberts especially) but kept their head.

[KT31]

Re: All our ducks lined up

Stevie J being suspended was a nice bit of luck for sure. As was having the bye before the finals so we could get some players back - although that was more a reversal of horrible bad luck all year!

Not just this season but every season since our last appearance.
As Wil Anderson said,"16, reverse the course of 61".

[ratsmac]

Re: All our ducks lined up

Nic Nat doing a knee just before finals.

[comrade]

Re: All our ducks lined up

Thursday final gave us a longer break in the 2nd week.
Smith missing after the siren meant we avoided our biggest bogey team.
Adelaide inexplicably losing in the final H&A game shuffled the ladder to our advantage.
Buddy popping his ankle early in the 1st qtr.
Zaine giving Ward the knee of death.

[ledge]

Re: All our ducks lined up

Sacking and signing Bevo the year before was the start of the ducks lining up.
Griffen etc walking out.
Oh and by the way since we started our March last year Sydney have been our bunnies what better team to play in a gf than your bunny. So not only did the ducks line up but the bunny turned up grand final day.

[Bornadog]

Re: All our ducks lined up

The bye, we got 4 players back from injury

This was the biggest advantage - no doubt. , closely followed by playing the first final a day earlier on Thursday and giving us one more days rest.

[LostDoggy]

Re: All our ducks lined up

We definitely had some luck but I don't think our ducks were in a line at all, this was a triumph through adversity down a very difficult path.

Nothing won this premiership but the fortitude of the players and coach.

You can say other results and ladder positions but had we had a choice, no one would have selected the finals run we had.

We had a few players back but we were short a few too. The bye gained us about 4 days really on the first game and a couple on the second. Many players were played under done and/or at risk of re-injury.

We had a great run with umpires but we were first to the ball. The prelim and the granny we sure had the crowd loudly on our side which always helps.

We had to play at three grounds that we had very little good experience on.

I cant find two ducks to line up..