Blast from the Past: RFC pics from 1989

[Owl]

Jeebus I joined the navy that year mate lol

[🏅Dooks]

Wowee, things looked bleak in my birth year

Geez 

[Willy]

Jeebus I joined the navy that year mate lol

 

In many ways being born is a lot like joining the navy

[Smokey]

Jeebus I joined the navy that year mate lol

And me the Army!!   

[Owl]

LOL awesome

[mightytiges]

Tim Powell is behind Lambert as they come through the door.

Michael Thomson is the other Tiger in the Phil Egan pic. He played with Essendon before he came across to us.

If I recall correctly we finished 1988 in fine style ....ended up winning 8 games . Beat Carlton for the first time in yonks. Beat Fitzroy by over 100 pts in the final game.

Started 1989 full of hope and dreams - then reality hit ..... We really were the worst team in the comp. The equalivant of what Melbourne is today .

Was at the Fitzroy game. Was peeing down. A night game IIRC. Guys were getting around saying we were contenders for the 89 flag after the game. Pumped! Massive off season. And then.....

Injuries stuffed us up big time that season. We couldn't afford any injuries to the few good footballers we had. The first 7 rounds when we had our best 22 playing, we were reasonably competitive. From memory we were 3-4 and on track for a okay year given the young list we had under KB. Then injuries hit and we barely won a game for the rest of season and finished wooden spooners.

[MintOnLamb]

KB was coach, was he bad or was it the cattle, i remember abusing him on the sidelines amidst a fluryy of thrown membership cards, or was that another year??

[eliminator]

Tim Powell is behind Lambert as they come through the door.

Michael Thomson is the other Tiger in the Phil Egan pic. He played with Essendon before he came across to us.

If I recall correctly we finished 1988 in fine style ....ended up winning 8 games . Beat Carlton for the first time in yonks. Beat Fitzroy by over 100 pts in the final game.

Started 1989 full of hope and dreams - then reality hit ..... We really were the worst team in the comp. The equalivant of what Melbourne is today .

Was at the Fitzroy game. Was peeing down. A night game IIRC. Guys were getting around saying we were contenders for the 89 flag after the game. Pumped! Massive off season. And then.....

Injuries stuffed us up big time that season. We couldn't afford any injuries to the few good footballers we had. The first 7 rounds when we had our best 22 playing, we were reasonably competitive. From memory we were 3-4 and on track for a okay year given the young list we had under KB. Then injuries hit and we barely won a game for the rest of season and finished wooden spooners.

 I think we beat the bears in 1989 with Tim Powell playing a blinder but apart from that I just recall the thrashing we got from Geelong that year. 

[Penelope]

KB was coach, was he bad or was it the cattle, i remember abusing him on the sidelines amidst a fluryy of thrown membership cards, or was that another year??

At the time i never rated him as a coach but in hindsight he rejuvenated the side with kids and set things up for Northey. There was one cracking game against the swans who had a quality midfield with Williams et al and he sent the kids out to go head to head with them,no tagging. great to watch.

I can understand why Kev was so bitter at getting the sack. He did the hard yard in playing kids but never had a chance to reap the rewards.

[the claw]

how many of the players who played finals for us in 95 were there before kb took over or came after him. i think we do northey a disservice if we say kb set it up for him.

northey introduced most of the players in just 3 yrs. he did it by mostly and astutely taking mature players cheaply.rogers, bullus, bond, broderick,dear, gale, charles, wigney, howat, merenda and mcqueen.matty richardson,  tape were others  and i think prescott and kellaway were northeys as well. swooper built plenty in just 3 seasons.
i know the draft back in those days was hit and miss butthese are the first rounders no make it  top 20 picks we had under kb.

87/ lounder 1,  peters 14,
88/ naish 5, francis 19,
89/ banik 1, scott 13, bower 15, wren 18
90/ menegola 16, traded pick 4 for terry keays.
91/ we traded pick pick for odwyer,we traded pick 16 for stevan jackson. we also traded 42 for breman, and to round it out we got pick 49 for michael pickering and 51 for nicholls.

under kb we finished 10th, 14th in a 14 team comp, 11th in a 14 team comp. 13th in a 15 team comp.
under northey we finished 13th15 teams, 9th 16 teams, 3rd 16 teams. then unbelievably could not come to terms with the coach.

 imo if anyone should feel hard done by it was northey.

[Phil Mrakov]

how many of the players who played finals for us in 95 were there before kb took over or came after him. i think we do northey a disservice if we say kb set it up for him.

northey introduced most of the players in just 3 yrs. he did it by mostly and astutely taking mature players cheaply.rogers, bullus, bond, broderick,dear, gale, charles, wigney, howat, merenda and mcqueen.matty richardson,  tape were others  and i think prescott and kellaway were northeys as well. swooper built plenty in just 3 seasons.
i know the draft back in those days was hit and miss butthese are the first rounders no make it  top 20 picks we had under kb.

87/ lounder 1,  peters 14,
88/ naish 5, francis 19,
89/ banik 1, scott 13, bower 15, wren 18
90/ menegola 16, traded pick 4 for terry keays.
91/ we traded pick pick for odwyer,we traded pick 16 for stevan jackson. we also traded 42 for breman, and to round it out we got pick 49 for michael pickering and 51 for nicholls.

under kb we finished 10th, 14th in a 14 team comp, 11th in a 14 team comp. 13th in a 15 team comp.
under northey we finished 13th15 teams, 9th 16 teams, 3rd 16 teams. then unbelievably could not come to terms with the coach.

 imo if anyone should feel hard done by it was northey.

Northey should've got a 5 year deal and we would've made at the least a granny under him. He was a very very good coach  and he was a ****en fruitcake. Something DH is not

[Penelope]

my intent is not to do Northey a disservice, im not saying he didnt do a good job.

But KB cleared out the dead wood and played kids, at the expense of short term success. Whether he would have done as good a job as northey is another discussion entirely, but he never had a chance to reap the rewards from the hard yards.

Gee there is a few honest battlers in your list. Glass half empty types?

Just to clarify one thing. How much blame/credit does the coach take for recruitment? It seems to change.

And yes Northey was shafted too. I've made my feelings about Mal Browns role in this clear, and i've heard whispers BJ was one of the influential supporters backing Brown

[Diocletian]

Don't underestimate Sheedy's role in the Northey debacle - manipulated the dopey hotheaded Brown and egged him on as much as anyone.

[Penelope]

Thats a new take on it to me.

Do elaborate, please.

[The Big Richo]

I think Northey played the biggest role himself.

I've had conversations with a few people who played and worked at the clubs where Northey coached and they say he was a very one dimensional coach.

Essentially it was fire and brimstone, us against them and it was a message that quickly grew stale so he had to keep searching for new motivation.

That meant he would eventually start to turn on his own club administration for material, almost creating blues with people at the club so he could tell his players everyone was against them.

I don't think its a coincidence that he was always successful initially and always seemed to leave clubs suddenly and with a cloud over him.