There have been a few times...

[Bornadog]

Re: There have been a few times...

The one year that really frustrated me was 1999. We had come off consecutive prelims, added silky quality in Winmar to the squad, and then barely lost a single game by more than a couple of goals all season. We ended up 15-6-1 for the season, in 4th place, and having convincingly beaten or ran close all 3 teams ahead of us (we hammered eventual premier North by 7 goals at the MCG during the season when Granty outshone Carey and kicked a big bag). Then we pissed this down the drain on that infamous windy Friday night against West Coast in the first week of the finals, consigning us to a road trip to Brisbane and straight sets elimination. Just a terrible finish to what was brewing as a special season. .

People forget how good we were in 1999, it was a great season with the three amigos terrorising everyone. 5ft nothing and the football world was running scared.

We really stuffed up the finals.

[Sedat]

Re: There have been a few times...

I've never really got over that night.

Neither have I. The 1997 prelim shattered me but this match angered me about as much as any game in our history for the reasons you alluded to and also for our terrible inability to adapt to the conditions on the night. The footage of Mick Malthouse having seizures and fits in the coaches box that night made me sick. Of course Alastair Lynch rubbed it in the following week with the choking gesture at Westy - filthy finish to the season.

The irony is that under today's structure, we would have played the Bombers in a qualifying final in the first week with a guaranteed double chance and a guaranteed home final the following week had we lost - Essendon only beat us by less than a kick on a Friday night at the MCG mid-season while they were hammering just about everyone else in the competition that season.

[Bornadog]

Re: There have been a few times...

We smashed West Coast that night - 60 more possesions than them. It was the only time I've ever truely felt shafted by an umpire - Gavin Dore.

That was the night Todd Curley pushed Wirapunda in the back inside the centre square and while the umpires were changing positions the 2nd umpire set the mark on the 50m line - they accidentally gave WC an old fashioned 15m penalty. Wirapunda's kick cleared Scotty Wynd on the goal line by inches.

Granty also took a hangar on Jakovich (in the wind, too) and got a free against him for high contact - with his knee on Jakovich's head!

Granty and Jakovich were pushing each other face-to-face as a high ball came in and Huddo jumped across the front of them and marked 20m out - Granty got a free against him for shepharding.

Crofty got done for holding the ball after being driven into the ground in WC's goalsquare. Not only was it a clear in-the-back, the ball had spilled through for a point anyway.

We lost by 5pts.


I've never really got over that night.

Don't forget how many times West Coast crept up on the mark and the umpire didn't pull them back. There was a particluar one in the last quarter when we marked inside the 50m arc, but some how the WC player was standing on the mark, outside the arc.
You may recall from that game on, the bulldogs made sure they marked the spot with their foot every time and ensured the umpire agreed.

[ledge]

Re: There have been a few times...

Was Bull Mason one of the trainers? For a while there he would occupy the trainers seat in the Drill hall pocket next to Vinnie Barnard. We used to joke that if any of our players got hurt at that end of the ground, they would be recovered before Bull or Vinnie would get to them. Bull was a big man who wasn't so agile across the turf and I think Vinnie may have been around when Tom Wills wrote the rules in draft form.

Yep that was Bull, he and his dad are life members.
In the 80s the trainers used to drink at the Powell Hotel, had their own corner at the bar.
Good bloke but i was scared shitless the day I asked to marry his daughter.
Apparently Bull was a pretty good sportsman in his day.

[Bulldog Revolution]

Re: There have been a few times...

Great post, TCD, when you watch the highlights of that 1985 side it is a pretty awesome unit and for a guy like myself who was young at the time I probably didn't fully appreciate just how powerful Edmond was and how good the Cordys were, and we had some great players with young legs in there prime Royal, Wallis, Hawkins, McLean and McPherson

1985 and 1997 are the two of my lifetime that really got away. 1997 would have been perhaps the greatest turnaround the modern game has ever seen - it's still an open festering wound for me.

[Sockeye Salmon]

Re: There have been a few times...

Great post, TCD, when you watch the highlights of that 1985 side it is a pretty awesome unit and for a guy like myself who was young at the time I probably didn't fully appreciate just how powerful Edmond was and how good the Cordys were, and we had some great players with young legs in there prime Royal, Wallis, Hawkins, McLean and McPherson

1985 and 1997 are the two of my lifetime that really got away. 1997 would have been perhaps the greatest turnaround the modern game has ever seen - it's still an open festering wound for me.

92 was a bigger waste. Paul Dear breaking Fossies leg cost us a premiership, I have no doubt about that at all.

97 was one of those years when no-one deserved it. Any other year Adelaide would have come about 4th and we would have been 6th. I don't think we were particularily good but it was one of those flags that you might just pinch.

[Sedat]

Re: There have been a few times...

92 was a bigger waste. Paul Dear breaking Fossies leg cost us a premiership, I have no doubt about that at all.

Fossie or not, I reckon the only way we could have won the flag in 1992 was to completely avoid the Cats in September. They well and truly had our measure during the early-mid 90's. I would have been confident against any other finlaist that year with the exception of the Cats.

[Bulldog Revolution]

Re: There have been a few times...

92 was a bigger waste. Paul Dear breaking Fossies leg cost us a premiership, I have no doubt about that at all.

97 was one of those years when no-one deserved it. Any other year Adelaide would have come about 4th and we would have been 6th. I don't think we were particularily good but it was one of those flags that you might just pinch.

You obviously believe we would have beaten the Eagles then, who were a good step ahead of Geelong

[Sockeye Salmon]

Re: There have been a few times...

You obviously believe we would have beaten the Eagles then, who were a good step ahead of Geelong

We smashed them at WO in round 21, so yeah, I reckon we would.

And I don't for a second think Billy Brownless would have done a number on Fossie like he did on Barry Standfield.

[Twodogs]

Re: There have been a few times...

Fossie or not, I reckon the only way we could have won the flag in 1992 was to completely avoid the Cats in September. They well and truly had our measure during the early-mid 90's. I would have been confident against any other finlaist that year with the exception of the Cats.

I dont know about that. They smashed us in the ruck and at clearences late in that season but I would have liked a crack at them with a fit Scott Wynd in the team. No way would we have been beaten in the midfield as badly then.

[Sedat]

Re: There have been a few times...

I dont know about that. They smashed us in the ruck and at clearences late in that season but I would have liked a crack at them with a fit Scott Wynd in the team. No way would we have been beaten in the midfield as badly then.

Even if we were at full strength, some dud would have slipped free and run amok against us - they always do. It would have been some fringe player like a Russell Merriman or a Leigh Tudor!

[westdog54]

Re: There have been a few times...

People forget how good we were in 1999, it was a great season with the three amigos terrorising everyone. 5ft nothing and the football world was running scared.

We really stuffed up the finals.

One of my fondest memories as a Bulldogs fan came in that season, ironically enough against West Coast.

It was Round 21 at Optus Oval, a win would have guaranteed us a home final. We were playing magnificently to half time, we'd kicked 11.2 (5 Straight at Quarter time) and seemed to be cruising. West Coast replied with a 5 goal to 3 3rd quarter and it was game on.

The last quarter was one of the most frustrating, excrutiatingly close quarters of football I've ever experienced live. We kicked 1.6, they kicked 2.2. It seemed for all money that we were going to be pipped at the post. The siren sounded, with us leading by two points. The Heatley terrace erupted.

I was 16 at the time, and I remember the bloke next to me (I was at least a foot taller than him) picking me up in a big bear hug as 'Sons of the West' belted out over the dodgy Princes Park PA.

Great day at the Footy.