The main thing I'm taking away from this thread is that many of us have (totally understandably) bought into the saga of AFL '09 rather than being willing to look at the GF in isolation. It's very tempting, as the way the story gets told, the final result on GF day impacts the way we look at the entire season. Little aspects are blown up with hindsight to support the story by being crux moments. We look to the grand saga, and make the ending fit the story, because all to often the story doesn't fit the ending ('08 and '09), or when it does, it can seem almost anti-climactic ('07... unless you're a Geelong supporter) as it simply fits expectations.StSteven wrote:I don't agree. When you lose a game (not drop one - ie meaning intentionally losing) you focus more on what you have to do to be a winner and aim to improve. Everyone suggested the Ctas won the GF because they were hungry and hurting after losing last year (ie they dropped a game).
Winning H&A is just a means to the finals. I believe we got caught up in the hype of winning straight sets and lost focus on the main game ie GF.
The coaching team at Geelong are to be admired for their approach to last year. Had us and the media all fooled into thinking they were not up to previous standard. They did not lsten to the media.
We need to assert our authority, clinch a top two spot and then get players ripe for finals.
Let's not get excited again about H&A wins and the Nab Cup. If they happen great. We certainly do not want to "drop" a game but losing one to a good or better side will help our campaign.
To me, the sum and total of the actual story is much more pedestrian than issues like resting players, selection, and gameplan/tactics shifts.
The game came down to executing on opportunities. The Cats (especially Chapman) kicked some beauties. The Saints (especially Milne and Schneider) missed some sitters. Overall strategy and list management is not an unimportant piece to the totality of '09, but doing a better job of resting players was not what won/lost the flag. For mine, that actually offers MORE credit to the Cats than a deep analysis of player resting, or the hunger created by a loss in '08, or whether or not St Kilda was at it's best... when I speak to neutrals, the consensus seems to be that what made it a great game was the 2 excellent teams were both playing well enough to win, and it was only decided late.
As this story gets built, we should keep in mind the sheer number of borderline fit players who put their hand up for Geelong. The same risk that allowed them to win the '09 GF probably cost us an elimination final in '06.
My point is this - the only thisng that's sure in Footy are the results already decided. Can we increase our chances by doing a better job of resting players? Perhaps. Should the coaches be looking into it? Absolutely. But in answer to the question of the OP "did it matter?" the answer is no, not really.
But I expect that in the ongoing saga of AFL footy, history will decide it did.