http://www.blueseum.org/tiki-index.php? ... +Thorogood

Wish there was a TC in 1976!

Would not have been too many coaches sacked with a 64% winning ratio!

http://www.blueseum.org/tiki-index.php?page=coaches

_________________
|♥♥♥♥♥♥| http://www.blueseum.org |♥♥♥♥♥♥|

I think word got around that Thorogood was bad to the bone, so they made him get a haircut and get a real job...

He missed out on coaching a Grand Final side by a point !!

But Ian Stewart was the heirachy's preference.......that went well.

_________________
The problem with Socialism is, you eventually run out of other people's money.

We were chronic under achievers during the mid 70s - in particular 75, 76 and 77 - where we really had the best list and teams on paper - but were never able to put it together at the end of the season.

A lot put this down to the 73 Grand Final where we never recovered from the belting we took from Richmond - others put it down to the fact that John Nicholls relaxed training regime (after Barassi) made our group too soft when it counted.

Thorogood just wasnt able to get the best out of them when it counted and Ian Stewart was a disaster as no-one respected his harsh and abrasive style.

It took Jesaulenko's tough do as I say not as I did approach (his training regime was brutal) to get the best out of this list.

Jezza was able to get away with it because the playing group revered him and were prepared to walk over hot coals for him.

_________________
"Hence you will not say that Greeks fight like heroes but that heroes fight like Greeks"?

Winston Churchill

It was a Rohrt that he was coach in the first place. Boom tish!

Have you heard Jimmy Buckley's story about his first game aged 16? At half-time against the Doggies, Thorogood said "You're playing like a pack of sheep...you're just following everyone around the place...show some initiative". The players began to walk back up the race for the 3rd quarter when they heard weird noises being made behind them...it was Thorogood bleating 'Baaa...Baaa....baaaaaaa'

Ok - they lost the match - but that's pretty weird don't you think? Bundled out in 2 games in the finals after finishing on top with a 16-5-1 record...many 'old-timers' reckon 1976 was the year that got away because the club had the best team in the comp, but a coach who just couldn't get through to that team.

The good thing about 1976 was that Collingwood won their first wooden spoon!

_________________
"Hence you will not say that Greeks fight like heroes but that heroes fight like Greeks"?

Winston Churchill

Great thread and nice parody. I strongly doubt the Carlton Football Club will let Ratten stay on as Coach if he proves himself as not a long term Coach by not taking us to the finals within a timeframe he & Swann would have already talked about.

I wasn't around for the 70s, what an era!

Imagine if we were a bit more disciplined and had better coaches in those days...

1973 - i've read players say they thought we were better than 72.
1980 - another great team fell over in the finals - Percy <<<< Jezza

and the mid-70s

Oh well, 70 and 72 were upsets, and 2 of the greatest GF wins in history They forged the Carlton mystique.

For me the years that got away were 88, 93, 94 and 2000. Three of those years absolute champion teams won the flag, but we fell over and didn't even make the Granny. 93 the Dons had more fresh young talent but if a Carlton supporter had been a little less ethical and a little more loyal (the Daniher centre square analysis fax), we may have snuck home.

Agree with AGRO -THOROGOOD -not brutal enough a bit of a gentlemen -we kept losing in the wet because although highly skilled we were not tough enough -70s team of the Blues was like the Geelong team of 90s -carlton team underachieved more but didnt have a hard enough edge

yep, and those soft finals performances gave that tosser tom prior (sports editor of the HUN) to perpetuate the "carlton is soft" mantra even when we were winning flags against big-bodied, tough teams like hafey's pies and richmond. tom prior, a mad Essendon* supporter (remind you of anyone??), was so successful in spreading that message that to this day we have never received due recognition for winning 3 flags in 4 years.

prior would always say that the blues were susceptible to any team who would sustain physical pressure / intimidation for 4 quarters ... as though the old VFL comp was full of teams who could

he never praised us for our ability to soak up the pressure and then crank things up a gear or two and burn the opposition away ...

did his best to disrupt our 1982 GF preparations by releasing a story that parkin would be leaving carlton for collingwood. i can still recall him saying that he strongly doubted parkin could inspire carlton to the "herculean effort required" to beat red-hot favourites richmond.

the flog came out of retirement in 1989 to take out a full saturday sports lift out centre-spread to delight in our bottom placing after round 6.

back to thorogood ... he described the players as a bunch of primadonas after the 76 PF loss. i must admit to crying after that game. we had been scintillating in claiming top spot only to go out in straight sets. we had sooooo many chances in the last qtr of that PF but blight just kept repelling us. seemed that swan mckay and walls were continually having shots from "80 yards out" (as mike williamson would put it) that were just falling short.

we missed the finals in 77 (only the 3rd time and last time that happened in the 70s) and thorogood was gorn (we had been in the five for all but the last round!).

as stated above, a very frustrating period!!

_________________
... an eagle flew out of the night. he was something to observe, came in close i heard a voice, bending stretching every nerve, had to listen had no choice ...

Unfortunately that was pretty accurate. We lacked the killer instinct in the mid 70's. With a decent coach we could have won in 1975 and 1976.
Thorogood was supposed to be a 'nice guy', but we were very fragile. We needed something else.
Mind you, having Big Nick pull the plug when he did didn't allow the admin a lot of choices. Thorogood had been employed to coach the 2nds. Therefore we went for the Devil we Knew.