I thought hooker did a great job on brown once he moved on to him. A couple of times his fellow defenders should of helped him out but didn’t. Hooker ripped into Francis at one point right near me for not coming in over the top and spoiling
Not having a crack at you personally here - but I have seen this line or variants of it rolled out ad infinitum on here - and I reckon it’s a rubbish line of argument. If anything the fact that he delivered a flag and a GF appearance with players like Rowan Jones, Mark Seaby, Sam Butler & Steven Armstrong (who?) with Ash Hansen holding down CHF is a minor miracle.
I don’t disagree with that take but the famous midfield is spoken about as though they were the best ever and I’m sure in some schools of thought they should’ve delivered more than one.
Might impact on Wooshas thinking was all I am suggesting. Could be shaping his mid to long term plans for this group.
That west coast team had a seriously crap forward line for a team that went back-to-back GFs. But yes, cox, judd, kerr & cousins…OMfreakinG they were good.
And consider half the team where chasing pink space ships it becomes even more impressive.
We could easily say sheedy underperformed 99 - 01; both clubs won one, lost one and pis$ed another up the wall with a brainless finals effort. Worsfold got them a 3 year window and got something out of it.
And the granny he lost was against the biggest cancer in football in Paul Roos.
He may or may not be off the pace with the game 15 years later but to say he ar$ed it in is a big stretch, especially considering the quality at the end of the list (butler et al), that narcissistic holier than thou little germ Judd and four players who faced criminal convictions for their off field lifestyles plus the weight of a state on his head, he should have been canonised.
Our defensive setup and work rate is much better this year than last. Our forwardline is even more dysfunctional than last year though. Our younger group are starting to take over and impact the team each week as well and that is definitely an improvement.
But I look at how we play verses how the Lions are going and I wonder how they can and yet we can’t when we are, allegedly, at a point when we should be better.
He got stuck into Hurley too at one point after Brown took a grab. I love Hooker so so so much. Attended the Brendan Goddard school of letting people know when they’ve ballsed it up.
Once people hit 30 and there are exceptions - athletes are much slower to recover from hard knocks and falls. Even though the recovery science these days is much more advanced. Not everyone is a Peter Burgoyne.
Enjoy watching Hooker and Hurley play, I hope they are at Essendon long enough to get a premiership medal around their neck. A couple of years and the team needs to develop and click in that time. Everyone says premierships are hard to win, I think they have BECOME harder to win.