Loved the aggro too. Barry Young was a beast!
Tis the one thing we miss currently atm. The good sides even today have that aura around them, that teams are beaten in the mind alot against them, even before they step out onto the ground, and alot of that comes from pretty much players just niggling the opposition at every oppotunity.
But you look back at that era
2 times Johnno's
Solomon
Wallis
Hardwick
probably a couple of others I've missed, you knew you'd cop a belting with those guys, if you even dared touch one of our players.
Argh the memories.
A lot of that hardness came about as a result of the marshmallow final in 98. Mark Johnson made his debut in 99 and JJ didn't really establish himself due to injury until 2000. Solomon was only a kid in 1999, but in he was a tough 3rd year player by 2000. These 3 along with the older Wallis and Dimma really helped with the toughness and allowed the more skilled players have a greater sense of freedom.
Probably the best game I have ever been to. Carey's goal, spectacular and all the while I just had a feeling of inevitability that he would kick it, then Lloydy's miraculous (seemingly improvised) goal down the other end, almost as if it were a competition between the two of them, which it sort of was.
I think they had a couple of injuries in that match most notably Pike. I actually thought we were good enough to win it all, but I still had my doubts we would have beaten them on the big day (as I am a footballing pessimist). Of course we were really every chance. I think both times we lost a prelim by a point in the 90's we were playing after knowing that norf were waiting for us. I wonder if that was as much of a bogey that maybe on the grandest of stages we thought we may not beat them. This was clearly wiped from my thinking by the 2000 Qualifying Final.
One of the greatest l have ever seen. Second row, first tier of the Southern stand, on the outer wing, perfect possie. Carey's left foot goal from the boundary was superb and no fluke. Likewise Lloyd's soccer goal. From the moment it left his boot there was only one place it was going, right through the hi diddle diddle. l was out of seat and cheering long before the ball crossed the goal line. l also knew we would take everything North had to throw at us that day and we would win. For obvious reasons, l call this game Shootout Mk 2.
Simply glorious.
Yes, I rate this game much better than the comeback game because it had everything:
- Two goal kicking champions in a shootout
- Some argie-bargie wrestling and agro
- High-scoring game
- Real arm wrestle between two sides until the last quarter
- Was a top of the ladder clash between the two obvious best sides... everybody was calling it the GF preview (but we all know how that turned out)