Chooseday Night- Heatley goals Rd 14 1997

[St_Cave]

The thing that stood out most for me re-watching that game was that almost all the players could kick accurately on both feet without hesitation. There wasn't that panic we see today when someone gets caught on there wrong side.

[spert]

...Watching the game also reminded me how bloody talented Joel Smith was. Just a brilliant awareness of what was around him, fantastic poise and class and evasiveness and beautiful kicking on both feet. And it was only a few weeks later he did his knee. He could have had a fantastic career for us had he not done it so badly. A Brownlow or two would not have been out of the question, by any means.

Yep, agree. One of the six most skilled players I have seen for the Saints (the others are Darrel Baldock, Ian Stewart, John McIntosh, Tony Lockett and Nicky Winmar). Although he won two AAs playing at Hawthorn, he was never quite the same player after the injury, but obviously pretty good. It's a pity we didn't have the money (or was it inclination) to match Hawthorn for his year out.

Have to add Graeme Gellie to that list -brilliant skills, until injury cut him down.

[stinger]

Matty Lappin must have weighed 50kg.

Boy we looked good, great running side. Guys like Jones, Brown, Smith, Lappin were playing every bit as well as Wellingham, Sidebottom, Beames last year.

And the pillars- Loewe, Burke, Harvey, Winmar, Heatley. Great days indeed.

Just my second year of footy that I can remember. Oh so lucky

great side....would have... should have won the flag.....injuries to spider and smith cost us badly.....


then we let smith go the hawks,,,delisted brown and traded matty to the scum

....and we still have learnt nothing.....

[Life Long Saint]

great side....would have... should have won the flag.....injuries to spider and smith cost us badly.....


then we let smith go the hawks,,,delisted brown and traded matty to the scum

....and we still have learnt nothing.....

Not to mention the injury to Lazar. Brett Cooke was never up to it unfortunately.

Then we also traded Shanahan.

[stinger]

great side....would have... should have won the flag.....injuries to spider and smith cost us badly.....


then we let smith go the hawks,,,delisted brown and traded matty to the scum

....and we still have learnt nothing.....

Not to mention the injury to Lazar. Brett Cooke was never up to it unfortunately.

Then we also traded Shanahan.

got nothing for either of smith and shanahan.....but we also later got rid of spider ..then hall who played in the grannie that year.........disgraceful really.....

[Dr Spaceman]

great side....would have... should have won the flag.....injuries to spider and smith cost us badly.....


then we let smith go the hawks,,,delisted brown and traded matty to the scum

....and we still have learnt nothing.....

Not to mention the injury to Lazar. Brett Cooke was never up to it unfortunately.

Then we also traded Shanahan.

got nothing for either of smith and shanahan.....but we also later got rid of spider ..then hall who played in the grannie that year.........disgraceful really.....

I thought Hall got rid of us.

[plugger66]

great side....would have... should have won the flag.....injuries to spider and smith cost us badly.....


then we let smith go the hawks,,,delisted brown and traded matty to the scum

....and we still have learnt nothing.....

Not to mention the injury to Lazar. Brett Cooke was never up to it unfortunately.

Then we also traded Shanahan.

got nothing for either of smith and shanahan.....but we also later got rid of spider ..then hall who played in the grannie that year.........disgraceful really.....

Just maybe they were a bad influence on the group. Well the last 2 anyway. Shanahan was just about gone when he left and Smith had huge doubts on his future and was offerred a huge sum by the Hawks.

[dcstkfc]

What was behind us getting rid of Lappin?

[plugger66]

What was behind us getting rid of Lappin?

Pretty sure he wanted to leave.

[dcstkfc]

What was behind us getting rid of Lappin?

Pretty sure he wanted to leave.

Must have been amateur hour if so many of the team from 97 ended up going to other clubs. Hall, Everitt, Lappin, Smith, Shanahan, Winmar, S. Wakelin, D. Wakelin, Sziller, McLaren. 11 of the 34 players that played senior footy that year!

And by 2003, we only had 6 players who played senior footy in 1997 still on the list! (Harvey, Thompson, Burke, Peckett, Hudghton and Jones.)

To put that into perspective, the 97 GF team was younger than the 2004 Prelim Team, and in 2010 we still had 12 guys on the list who played senior footy in 2004.

[bigred]

I still reckon the first half of 1997 was a Joel Smith highlight reel.

He was absolutely dominant until doing his knee. Was on track to be an absolute elite half forward IMO.

[AnythingsPossibleSaints]

He was looking like being our version of Darren Jarman. Same height, sublime skills, etc.

[SaintWal]

I think at one time they said " the master(Harvey) and the apprentice (Smith) "

I had always thought that Spider going down was the difference in 97. i remember how good Smith was but that game last night made me realise that his injury was the real difference in 97.

[plugger66]

I think at one time they said " the master(Harvey) and the apprentice (Smith) "

I had always thought that Spider going down was the difference in 97. i remember how good Smith was but that game last night made me realise that his injury was the real difference in 97.

No Smith would have helped us GF day. Spider would have won it for us GF day. A goalkicking ruckman who got possessions around the ground are invaluable.

[stinger]

What was behind us getting rid of Lappin?

no...he didn't want to leave...he was actually horrified.....but he was a bad influence on maxie, aussie and brown.....or so the club thought...one of them had to go...and matty was considered the most expendable.....

[stinger]

What was behind us getting rid of Lappin?

Pretty sure he wanted to leave.

Must have been amateur hour if so many of the team from 97 ended up going to other clubs. Hall, Everitt, Lappin, Smith, Shanahan, Winmar, S. Wakelin, D. Wakelin, Sziller, McLaren. 11 of the 34 players that played senior footy that year!

And by 2003, we only had 6 players who played senior footy in 1997 still on the list! (Harvey, Thompson, Burke, Peckett, Hudghton and Jones.)

To put that into perspective, the 97 GF team was younger than the 2004 Prelim Team, and in 2010 we still had 12 guys on the list who played senior footy in 2004.

i forgot about nicky....one has to remember that these guys played off for the fag ....

[SaintWal]

What was behind us getting rid of Lappin?

no...he didn't want to leave...he was actually horrified.....but he was a bad influence on maxie, aussie and brown.....or so the club thought...one of them had to go...and matty was considered the most expendable.....

I thought, by memory, that Lappin was a mistake, meaning that incoming Watson was horrified to realise that he had been given away at the end of 98. Could be wrong and probably am.

[ralphsmith]

What a fantastic side in 1997. Electric.

How did that group not win a flag.

Joel Smith, an amazing player he would have been but for that horrific knee injury.

Winmar, Harvey, Burke, Loewe, jones, smith.

[stinger]

I think at one time they said " the master(Harvey) and the apprentice (Smith) "

I had always thought that Spider going down was the difference in 97. i remember how good Smith was but that game last night made me realise that his injury was the real difference in 97.

we missed both of them......smith was a hugh loss nevertheless.....i can still see that prick ossie osbourne diving and rolling on his leg.....bit like the goose incident......osbourne should have known better though.....same thing happened to him......geez i was dirty at the time......before he went down, the premiership was in the bag.....we had simply too many forwards to counter...red hot favourites we were too...even missing lazar, spider and joel.....

[SaintPav]

I think at one time they said " the master(Harvey) and the apprentice (Smith) "

I had always thought that Spider going down was the difference in 97. i remember how good Smith was but that game last night made me realise that his injury was the real difference in 97.

No Smith would have helped us GF day. Spider would have won it for us GF day. A goalkicking ruckman who got possessions around the ground are invaluable.

It would have changed all the match ups etc and for example would have probably forced Pittman off Loewe and into the ruck. This was when players actaully played on each other for more than 5 minutes and match ups actually counted for something.

[perfectionist]

...would have probably forced Pittman off Loewe and into the ruck....

Yep. We weren't exposed in the PF to the same deal because Cory McKernan went down in the first five minutes, evening things up. No such luck the following week. In fact, the one injury that Adelaide did get, won them the flag. They were on the way to a big loss in their PF when Tony Modra (very much a one dimensional player) went down. They came back from 7 goals down part way through the second quarter with Darren Jarman up front. The Dogs were robbed of a goal and lost by two points. Same trick with Jarman, alas, worked the following week.

[Solar]

Made a quiet night at the pub go quicker.....

Sheesh people are right, the 97 team had so much more talent then the current one. Imagine that team with a more stable club (ie the last few years when we have started to get used to success). Back then we never really believed just yet.

Loved smith, could have been a top 3 player if he didn't do his knee. How good was buckets! Just fun to watch!

[IluvHarvey]

i forgot about nicky....one has to remember that these guys played off for the fag ....