Dr.SHERRIN wrote:
Quote:
IIRC, Sticks said that if Mots didn't have the accident his skill, demeanour & presence on the field could've/would've resulted in Carlton winning another flag or two in the era from 86 - 96. Big call, but he was that good.
He said it, but I'm not too sure if it would have occurred. In 1986 we were beaten by a far superior Hawthorn side with Mots playing a lot off half-back. By the time 1990 came around we were a pretty average team and with the Adelaide Crows being given the licence that year to join the competition in 1991, I have no doubt Mots would have been a high priority. No one knows what would have happened. Had he stayed - perhaps 1993-94 he could have made a big enough difference, and perhaps that was what Sticks was alluding to. Sadly, we never saw the best of Peter Motley - only glimpses of what was to come.
In '86, Mots (like Sticks, Braddles and Dora) was in his 1st season - and he was named in our best players in that year's GF. I feel sure that Mots would have been a star of the competition in the late '80s and early 90s. I'm not sure either that his presence would have resulted in another flag (although he would have helped us come VERY close to back-to-back flags in '87-'88), but there's no doubt that we would have been a better team during that period with him, and it wouldn't have surprised me if he'd won a Brownlow or a Norm Smith along the way....