Feels really similar to 1999 under Tim Watson

[evertonfc]

Eerily so.

Almost idential...

- Some big years before it
- New rookie coach
- Players fail to put in as required
- Costly losses keep us out of the eight
- Aging list with serious holes
- Only a few star players playing to potential
- Miss the eight
- Supporters still optimistic the team is a premiership force
- Recycled off-cuts valued highly by coaching staff

Just an observation.

[Teflon]

yeah....."just" an observation...a.cr@p one...

[OneEyedSainter77]

Please don't - 2000 was torture for me - i can't bear another 2000....

[evertonfc]

yeah....."just" an observation...a.cr@p one...

...So, we're not allowed to make them?

It's a forum, Teflon. Deal with it. I'm just saying how it appears to me.

[AP Erebus]

yeah....."just" an observation...a.cr@p one...

qtf!

Not much of a similarity... RL has done a few years at a successful club...

I would have thought all losses were costly...

[orange-boots]

Please don't - 2000 was torture for me - i can't bear another 2000....

If we persist with terrible players like Blake, R.Clarke...if we persist with keeping our list full of injury prone has beens, Hamil, Gardiner. If we keep persisting with this dead end strategy it will be very much like 2000.

[evertonfc]

Oh for god's sake, I'm not saying 2008 will be like 2000, I'm just saying the feeling I've got tonight is like the one I had when we missed the finals in 1999.

That's all

[OneEyedSainter77]

lol, i know but just you know.... history has a habit of repeating itself with us doesnt it.

[Teflon]

yeah....."just" an observation...a.cr@p one...

...So, we're not allowed to make them?

It's a forum, Teflon. Deal with it. I'm just saying how it appears to me.

why not just PM yourself if you cant control your emotions after a loss so you have sonmeone to agree with you????

Nowhere NEAR the Watson years - you should see Today Tonight for a gig in the sensationalism dept,.

Talk about overreaction.

[evertonfc]

You're a bit overheated there young fella - we play tomorrow.

Calm down

[Solar]

yeah....."just" an observation...a.cr@p one...

agreed. And thats just an observation of teflons observation of your observation everton.....

It actually has the hallmarks of the cats of 2006 then the saints of 1999. A team that has reached it's limitations and needs tweaking.

If he starts playing dal santo in the back pocket etc. then I will agree that it's timmid mrk2

[meher baba]

Aging list with serious holes

Most of your other comparisons are valid, but not this one IMO. We don't really have an ageing list of the sort we had in 1999: the backbone of our list is in its early to mid 20s.

And we don't have that many holes either. The Watson era brought some extremely curious recruitment decisions of a type I hope we won't see this time.

With the sort of run with injuries that most of the other successful clubs have had in recent seasons, our list would look pretty damn good. We could certainly do with a few more quality midfielders, but that is the most straightforward hole to address.

All that said, I think you are on to something with this comment.

Recycled off-cuts valued highly by coaching staff

The current coaching staff seem to have a much stronger preference for the low skill, hard-working type of player than did the previous regime.

How the posters on this forum used to bag Blake, and question why he was selected. But GT used to drop him from time to time, whereas he now seems to be a permanent fixture. And Attard, Birss and CJ also have featured prominently despite relatively poor skills.

Let's hope this changes in 2008.

[evertonfc]

Can I reiterate, because some still aren't comprehending...

I'm not saying it IS going to be like 1999-2000 - I'm saying it feels like it (like, the empty feeling I get when we missed the eight that year), just like when we went into that Round 22 vs West Coast in 1999 with nothing riding on it - horrible feeling.

[cowboy18]

It's an all too familiar empty feeling after having achieved or shown promise for a couple of years. 1999 is a fair comparison on psyche for both team and supporters.

We had no expectations from 2000-2003, every expectation from 2004-2007 and now... what?

With respect to the make up of the team I'm happier with the spread of potential matchwinners, less impressed with the way we go about our game, bewildered by our inability to step up when matches were there to be won (Dogs, West Coast, Collingwood, Swans) and still hopeful because if there's one thing that's left in this club it's improvement. Heaps of it.

From coach to # 40 on the list - we can get much, much more out of this team.

[evertonfc]

It's an all too familiar empty feeling after having achieved or shown promise for a couple of years. 1999 is a fair comparison on psyche for both team and supporters.

Thank you. Some common sense!

[Saints Premiers 2008]

yeah....."just" an observation...a.cr@p one...

agreed

this off-season is going to be torture however i cannot wait until 2008 comes upon us

[OneEyedSainter77]

Can I reiterate, because some still aren't comprehending...

I'm not saying it IS going to be like 1999-2000 - I'm saying it feels like it (like, the empty feeling I get when we missed the eight that year), just like when we went into that Round 22 vs West Coast in 1999 with nothing riding on it - horrible feeling.

let's hope we end it the same way and thump the tigers!


Seriously, I hope we win still but if we lose, i hope Essendon, brisbane and Freo all win too!

[Oh When the Saints]

I agree evertonfc.

The feeling is sort of similar.

Although 1999 was kind of the reverse ... we started the year pretty strongly, and the died in the arse in the second half.

At least this year we have finished with more success, so I think there is a bit more optimism than 1999 ...

[ausfatcat]

I think we all need to take breath and not post for a week....

It's nothing like 1999.

[evertonfc]

Can people read or do they just make up their minds on what they think they see?

[Carl Mynott]

Eerily so.

Almost idential...

- Some big years before it
- New rookie coach
- Players fail to put in as required
- Costly losses keep us out of the eight
- Aging list with serious holes
- Only a few star players playing to potential
- Miss the eight
- Supporters still optimistic the team is a premiership force
- Recycled off-cuts valued highly by coaching staff

Just an observation.

Good observation evertonfc , i agree with it

[hotdish]

I can see where you are coming from Everton, but they are completely contrasting seasons -

In 1999, we had a solid first half of the season, before losing i think 7 of 8. That was a meltdown...

This year, we never really got going momentum wise.

We are last years Geelong - not going to say we will win 18 games lol, but we will be back in the 8 next year, easy.

[evertonfc]

Personally, I BELIEVE we're going to go up and make the eight next year.

I'm just saying the FEELING I have, right now, is similar to the FEELING I had prior to Round 22, 1999, based on the factors in the first post.

However, as OWTS says, we've finished the year stronger than last year and there is probably more cause for optimism.

Let's hope Ross Lyon does the right things at trade week and at the draft table in getting this club on the right path for the long term. I think if we take a long-term approach, it will give the club a massive, inadvertant boost in the short-term - think about Port Adelaide.

[evertonfc]

At least we've won more games thus far then we did in 2000, but apart from that...

*gulp*

[Dan Warna]

At least we've won more games thus far then we did in 2000, but apart from that...

*gulp*

nice bump everton

it does seem like a talented list that is chronically underperforming.

players playing out of position, incomprehensibly game plan, skills collapsing.

I remember in 99 watching harvey look up for a team mate and finding none in front of him, so kicking backwards.

inconceivable losses, (hawthorn/fooscray similarities? st kilda v collingwood the next week v our form against Geelong?)

switching from breathtaking football to a joke in minutes.

if we lose to melbourne, and the coach and players can't get us over that line in convincing fashion, its the season over at this stage.