While doing some research for a joint article with Tom Viney and Martin Gibson for our Top 3 favourite footy matches, I was watching a clip of the last 15 minutes of the 2009 Grand Final on You Tube. As I sat watching, enthralled with this unbelievably hard fought spectacle, I noticed something about this game.
While it was tight and low scoring (the Cats got up over the Saints 80 to 68) and the Saints were renowned as a high quality defensive side, there always seemed to be forwards at either end of the ground. There was an incredible fight to win the ball around the ball ups, but when it got out there was space to move and, importantly, players forward for the man with the ball to kick to.
While staring in bemusement at this strange anomaly of having the forwards of each team camped predominantly in their respective forward lines, it actually took me a while to remember that, back in 2009, I hated watching St Kilda teams coached by Ross Lyon. I considered his style of play boring. Yet there I was watching a St Kilda team coached by Ross Lyon and I was lost in a sea of reverie at glory days past.