CC1961 wrote:
Paddycripps wrote:
Can we call this the Stephen Bradbury thread?
Ouch.
Hey, what people tend to overlook is that Stephen Bradbury had GET to the final in the first place;
i.e. he was GOOD enough to win heats, finals, semis etc. so was a worthy contender regardless of what happened in the final.Doesn't matter if others have to 'fall over' we STILL have to do our own job too.
Besides, ill conceived losses to Port & Melbourne and how the hell did we choose to be the only team beaten by Hawthorn in 3 months beats me means we Should have been higher up and safely in place already.
I just did the math before starting this thread and realised that we still had a chance.
So far, it's panning out reasonably.
Anyway, last few games went according to the 'plan' so Round 17 Requirements...PLAN B.Saturday night: GWS to have the slimmest possible win over Melbourne (but no more than 12)
(if Melbourne win we need them to lose to Essendon** in final round)
Sunday:
Carlton over Adelaide by as big a margin as possible (but at least 15 points)
Hawthorn to upset Footscray (if not then Freo has to the following week)
PLAN A.That's right, haven't given up hereMonday:
Gold Coast d Collingwood
Don't give a flying f by how much - % doesn't matter.
But ONE point would be delicious seeing as how Pies have to front up to ladder leaders Port Adelaide in final round.
Peek ahead to Rd.18
If above goes well...
St.Kilda d GWS by as much as possible (but at least 12)
Port d Collingwood
Carlton d Brisbane (by at least 12)
If Plans A & B Both work then we finish 7th and get to play St.Kilda in first week of finals.Followed by the loser of Geelong/Brisbane
None of this is as implausible as many had thought of Freo d Melb, Ad d GWS & Carlton down by 39 points in 2nd Q that just happened in last two days.PERCENTAGE:
GWS are only up by 11 points on For/Agst, Footscray only 3 points.
Sadly, Carlton are still in defiicit by 28.
However, the margins I nominated above rectify this - just, to put us ahead of both GWS & WB
It goes without saying that we really should use the opportunity of percentage building against the bottom team on the ladder. Ya think?
Finals
Maybe start looking at Brisbane's wheels falling off next two games so they drop to 5th, I really don't fancy playing Richmond or WC in Perth if we only manage 8th.
Just on Bradbury, he was 3rd in his heat, meaning he missed out, then the 2nd place was disqualified and he went into the semis. What people forget is he was last in the semi's before 3 fell allowing him to qualify, then the final, of course, they all fell allowing him to win.
It happened more than in the final.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Bradbury"Bradbury took an unlikely gold medal win in the men's short track 1000 metres event at the Salt Lake City 2002 Winter Olympic Games. He won his heat convincingly in the 1,000 m, posting a time of 1:30.956. However, in the quarter-finals, Bradbury was allocated to the same race as Apolo Anton Ohno, the favourite from the host nation, and Marc Gagnon of Canada, the defending world champion. Only the top two finishers from each race would proceed to the semifinals. Bradbury finished third in his race and thought himself to be eliminated, but Gagnon was disqualified for obstructing another racer, allowing the Australian to advance to the semi-finals.[14]
After consulting his national coach Ann Zhang, Bradbury's strategy from the semi-final onwards was to cruise behind his opponents and hope that they crashed, as he could not match their pace.[15] His reasoning was that risk-taking by the favourites could cause a collision due to a racing incident, and if two or more skaters fell, the remaining three would all get medals, and that as he was slower than his opponents, trying to challenge them directly would only increase his own chances of falling.[15][16] Bradbury said that he was satisfied with his result, and felt that as the second-oldest competitor in the field, he was not able to match his opponents in four races on the same night.[17]
In his semi-final race, Bradbury was in last place, well off the pace of the medal favourites. However, defending champion Kim Dong-sung of South Korea, multiple Olympic medallist Li Jiajun of China and Mathieu Turcotte of Canada all crashed, paving the way for Bradbury to take first place and advancing him through to the final.
In the final, Bradbury was again well off the pace when all four of his competitors (Ohno, Ahn Hyun-Soo, Li and Turcotte) crashed out at the final corner while jostling for the gold medal. This allowed Bradbury, who was around 15 m behind with only 50 m to go, to avoid the pile-up and take the victory.[15][16][18] Bradbury became the first person from a southern hemisphere country to win a Winter Olympic event.[19] After a period of delay, the judges upheld the result and did not order a re-race, confirming Bradbury's victory.[20]
In an interview after winning his gold, referring to his two career- and life-threatening accidents,[21] Bradbury said "Obviously I wasn't the fastest skater. I don't think I'll take the medal as the minute-and-a-half of the race I actually won. I'll take it as the last decade of the hard slog I put in." He also said "I was the oldest bloke in the field and I knew that, skating four races back to back, I wasn't going to have any petrol left in the tank. So there was no point in getting there and mixing it up because I was going to be in last place anyway. So (I figured) I might as well stay out of the way and be in last place and hope that some people get tangled up."[22] "
Anyway, we digress.
Login
Register
FAQ
Search
