The 2022 AFL Season Thread

[Cork Evertonian]

I think Carlton are very much the Oakland/Las Vegas Raiders of the AFL. Like Carlton the Raiders were an NFL powerhouse in the late 70's and early 80's, and also like Carlton both teams have had very poor records over the last twenty years.

Luke Sayers and Michael Voss in one year, have brought Carlton from irrelevancy to competitiveness though. With the Raiders coaches and players come and go, but the crappy inept ownership remains the same.

 

[Cork Evertonian]

Brad Scott is the new Essendon coach. If i was a bombers fan (and thankfully i'm not!) i'd have mixed feeling about this.

While his twin brother Chris has won two flags as Geelong coach, the best Brad Scott could do at North Melbourne during his ten years there as coach, was two prelim finals where the Roos were comfortably beaten in.

He couldn't even manage a top four finish during his decade long tenure as North coach either. It'll be interesting to see how he get's on at Essendon anyway.

 

[Cork Evertonian]

Joel Selwood has retired after 355 games for the Geelong Cats. He won four premiership winners medals with the Cats, and he captained the team to their flag win this year. Talk about leaving on a high.

I'd love to see Michael Voss have someone like him in his backroom team. Obviously Vossy has seen it all and done it all, as a player with the Brisbane Lions. None of his assistant coaches though, have actually played in a premiership winning team.

 

[perth_blue]

AFL like any sport has evolved over the years. Partly due to game plan along with rule changes etc.
But every team sport evolves and changes over the years, no doubt it will change up again as we progress.

 

[Cork Evertonian]

AFL like any sport has evolved over the years. Partly due to game plan along with rule changes etc.
But every team sport evolves and changes over the years, no doubt it will change up again as we progress.

It took Carlton a long time to adjust to the salary cap/draft era. I feel we're finally getting around to it now though finally!

Hopefully the Blues after being over 20 plus years in the AFL wilderness, are finally evolving and changing for the better! Geelong and Hawthorn, have been the best run and best managed clubs of the modern era.

Brian Cook who's the current Carlton CEO, played a monumental role in changing the Cats fortunes. He's got a lot to do with their transformation from also rans, into a modern day AFL powerhouse.

 

[Cork Evertonian]

The 27th anniversary of Carltons most recent flag win was a few days ago. I may as well post this to mark the occasion.



There was a lot of question marks about Carlton going into that season. Defeats to Collingwood and the West East Coast Eagles, cost the blues a place in the finals in 1992. They were destroyed by Essendon in the 1993 grand final, and after looking like likely premiers in 1994, the went out in straight sets in the finals to Melbourne and Geelong.

At the time Carltons record of twenty wins and two defeats was the best winning record from a team over a single season, but alas it was bettered by Essendon in 2000 who only lost one game that season. Apart from a few pre season cups we haven't won as much as a sausage since, but you support them through the good and the bad, that's what it's all about really.

 

[Cork Evertonian]

There's a book that's just been released about Carltons 1968 flag win called Barassi's Blues. I'm hoping to import a copy when it becomes available to purchase online. I have a few AFL books that i managed to get online, trying to find a book about aussie rules footy in a book store on this side of the world, is pretty much impossible!

Going back to the book, i think that flag win possibly is underrated by Carltons fans, in comparison to 1970 1972 and 1979. I've watched that final and it was a poor game, but we edged out the bombers to win our first flag since 1947. It was the flag win that got the whole show started.

There was a guy in that team called Brian Kekovich, he scored four goals that day and we beat the Bombers by three points. That was his final game for Carlton. He had to retire due to a problem with his back. If he kept on playing he could have ended up paralyzed. He was the blues leading goalkicker that year as well.

Then you have a guy like Bill Bennett. He played seven games (he played eleven games in total between 1966 and 1968) that season and played in the final, and he was never seen again! He never played for another club afterwards at all. He played his seven games, played in the final, won his premiership medal and that was it! I hope the book can tell us what happened to him, and why was his footy career was so brief.

 

[perth_blue]

Are you based back over in Ireland now?

 

[Cork Evertonian]

Are you based back over in Ireland now?

I've always lived here, they used to show the AFL highlights on tv every week, so that's how i got into the sport. AFL has a small fanbase in Ireland and the UK, mainly from people who lived in Australia for a bit and then returned home, of course you have the Australian folk who moved over here as well. It was Setanta O'hAilpin who got me into Carlton.

There's actually an aussie rules footy competition here, Dublin has a team called the Dublin Demons, and Cork has a team called the Leeside Lions, then there's the Galway Magpies and Belfast Redbacks. AFL footy just isn't as popular worldwide, as the american sports like the NFL and the NBA. It's a pity because personally myself i think it's an awesome sport.

 

[perth_blue]

I've always lived here, they used to show the AFL highlights on tv every week, so that's how i got into the sport. AFL has a small fanbase in Ireland and the UK, mainly from people who lived in Australia for a bit and then returned home, of course you have the Australian folk who moved over here as well. It was Setanta O'hAilpin who got me into Carlton.

There's actually an aussie rules footy competition here, Dublin has a team called the Dublin Demons, and Cork has a team called the Leeside Lions, then there's the Galway Magpies and Belfast Redbacks. AFL footy just isn't as popular worldwide, as the american sports like the NFL and the NBA. It's a pity because personally myself i think it's an awesome sport.

Thought Jimmy Stynes may have been your initial draw

 

[Cork Evertonian]

Thought Jimmy Stynes may have been your initial draw

He was but Setanta is from my home town. All the Irish imports in AFL all played gaelic football, which has some similarities to AFL footy, but Setanta played hurling. Hurling is kind of more like hockey. It has nothing in common with aussie rules footy at all.

 

[Cork Evertonian]

Setanta though was nowhere near as good a player as Jim was. It's really sad what happened to Jim. He is still very much sadly missed. Setanta was a serviceable player for Carlton though. He was no superstar, but as i said earlier Carlton didn't recruit him as a gaelic football player. He was a hurler, and he was a huge loss to Cork there. That Cork team he played on, could easily have won another few all Irelands if he stuck around.

 

[perth_blue]

He was but Setanta is from my home town. All the Irish imports in AFL all played gaelic football, which has some similarities to AFL footy, but Setanta played hurling. Hurling is kind of more like hockey. It has nothing in common with aussie rules footy at all.

Yes, I'm quite familiar with both sports. My heritage is from Cork.

Setanta was a good player, personally my favourite Irish player for Carlton has been Touhy, such a beast of a kick.

 

[Cork Evertonian]

Brett Ratten has been sacked by St Kilda. To be honest i think he was very harshly treated by the Saints. He was treated harshly by us as well, but i'd say that's Ratts final head coaching role now. I'd love to see him back at Carlton as an assistant coach.

 

[Cork Evertonian]

Ross Lyon is back as St Kilda coach. It'll be interesting to see how this works out for both him and the Saints.