Guys,

I designed a graph similar to this about 5 or 6 years ago, but being a newbie at the time, I needed assistance from one of the techno savvy guys to post it (Thanks Jars). I thought that it was time to revisit the situation. This time, I have only included 12 Clubs, for a number of reasons. Firstly it was cluttered and secondly it is no point looking at the fortunes of Clubs like Richmond, North, Melbourne, Adelaide and the Suns etc.

The Cycles of the dozen teams that I have included are those who have played Finals footy consistently over the period from 2002 -2011. 7 Clubs were strong/lucky enough to grab at least one flag in this period. Others were Grand Finalists or thereabouts. The main interest from a Blues perspective is to note where the better teams have come from and to also see the up and down nature of some of them; how most have bottomed out and risen fairly quickly. There are a couple of exceptions to this trend of course, particularly the Cats and Swans, but of great interest should be the Lions, Port, Pies and Hawks and Dogs all spending time in the cellar at some point. Naturally I have included the greatest Club in the AFL, so that we can compare our journey to others. The upward swing resembles just about all of them including the Cats and Swans and who finished 9th and 11th, respectively in 2002. Geelong dropped to 12th in 2003, before beginning their rise. The Swans jumped up to the top four straight away and snared that elusive one in 2005. Even though the Pussies jumped up at the same time as the Swans, they dipped again; finishing out of the finals in 10th spot in 2006 and then did the miraculous by winning the big one in 2007.

Why will we be different to the bridesmaids like the Saints and the Bulldogs, who had their chances and blew it? Simply, we have a better list that either of them had when they got to the top reaches of the ladder and of course we have something that they don’t have and that is history of winning the big ones when we get there. I believe that we are a great chance of winning multiple flags, just like the Cats have done and like we used to in our golden eras. Our list is chock a block laden with talent all across the park and the age of our list is well under the average. Kids like Murphy, Gibbs, Kreuzer, Yarran and Robbo could have 4-5 medals by the time that they hang up their boots.

Below the graph you will notice the difference between the squad that we had back in 2002 to the one in training right now. Aside from some old warhorses on their last legs, the quality of that list compared to what we have ready to go to war in 2012 and beyond is streets apart. Make no mistake, this is an emerging dynasty waiting to take the AFL by storm!

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2002:> "In their Masters Chambers
They Gathered for their Feast
They Stabbed us with their Steely Knives
But They Just Can't Kill The Beast!" <2016

THE BLUEBAGGER BEAST IS BAACKK!!

Brizzy

That was the best Xmas present I got this year. I read 2 of the next 3 premierships coming our way from that graph!

Cheers buddy!

Bulldog Shine

You gotta have had too much eggnog, 10! At least 3 straight there the way I reckon it will pan out. Ours for the taking!

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2002:> "In their Masters Chambers
They Gathered for their Feast
They Stabbed us with their Steely Knives
But They Just Can't Kill The Beast!" <2016

THE BLUEBAGGER BEAST IS BAACKK!!

Thanks Brizzy, but a graph is supposed to illuminate, summarise and clarify, not produce seizures

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"They're [REDACTED]'

I ate something like that for dinner last night with bolognaise.

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Let slip the Blues of war (with apologies to William Shakespeare) (and Sir Francis Bacon, just in case)

Jackson Pollock would be proud

I guess coping with the off season can be a bit of a challenge for the hard cases.

(Just kidding BB -- great effort !! )

Could be worse ... could have spent his time doing something relating to politics ...





P.S. Thanks Brizzy every little bit of hope helps

I think it will be a flag or maybe even two with Ratten.

And then it will be a little bit like the Mark Thompson to Chris Scott transition at Geelong.

Another Carlton flag under a rookie coach.

Brizzy is spot on - Once this team goes bang and strings a series of power wins together - you can expect multiple premierships.

We are Cherry Ripe for this to occur.

It could happen anywhere in the next season.

But I think that we will be maybe 7 and 4 - with the big flag winning improvement coming in the second half of 2012

In our case we are staring down the barrel at a bit of an era.

A new Carlton dynasty mirroring that of Geelong since 2007

But of course not a perfect mirror image. - differing in that our time will be without the 44 year wait and the intervening series of multiple losing premiership medallions...

The last Carlton unit that strung power wins together in a season was in 2000 with Kouta.

But as good as it was to watch at the time - that combination had way too many kilometers on the clock and too much engine wear to do much damage going forward...

It was an nostalgic old high performance motor that still revved well - but was clearly in need of a complete rebuild - which of course places us where we are today.

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My Blue Heaven