Since 1999 we’ve seen some dominant teams in the Canterbury AFL like the Cougars of mid 2000’s starring Ben 'Rocket" Nolan, Jamie "Champs" Day and Grant "Ginga" Allison and the Blues of the late 2000’s starring James "Buzz" Bowden, Jason “Chicken” Lanyon, Jason “Ballbags” Hopkins and spearhead Richard Bradley. But there was only 2 clubs that have gone through undefeated and that’s the Burnside Barracudas in 1999 and the Bulldogs of 2009, 2016 and 2017. This fact has been verified by league brains trust Sweaty (he’s an accountant and a quiz master so he remembers facts like these) and Chicken long time captain of McCormack’s Eastern Blues.
We now have a new member joining this exclusive club – The Mid Canterbury Eagles.
So lets compare this undefeated Eagles team of 2020 against the other GREAT teams of CAFL. The old players could chew your ear off over a few frothies and relive the glory days but lets stick to the stats
How do these Eagles stack up?
We’ll have to do some investigative digging to unearth the stats from 1999 but Chicken reports the Barracudas starred many Div 1 rugby and League players like Aaron Whitaker and Glen Coughlan who had played for NRL in Australia, England and the Warriors. These guys thrashed all before them in the CAFL and even when Chicken (Eastern Blues) made a Captains call to have a player count in the third quarter of a game - the Barracudas had all there points stripped from them for having 19 players on the field. They still came back to win and cantered past them by 5 goals for good measure!
Fast forward to 2008 and The Bulldogs had finished 3rd and had been the easy beats since 2006 but they decided to have a crack at the top in 2009. They prepped with a pre-season of 6 months for a 3 month playing season and led by a Strengthening and Conditioning student – Todd Andrews (later to be employed by the Crusaders) they ran up and down the steps of the old QE2 stadium and lifted dumb bells and ran laps around the old Commonwealth Games Stadium till each member was more buffed than Arnold Schwarzenegger. Players like Niki Dow, David Hume, Jason Beck, Stefan Van Gruting, Jacob Skye Thomson, Zac Williams and myself played in the red and black hoops and were tactically coached by Lachlan Keating. Averaging 88 points each game to the opposition 49. The Blues got within 11 points in round 5 but the Dogs prevailed 8.11 59 to 8.0 48. The largest winning margin was 114 points versus the Blues with 18.17 125 to 1.5.
The Grand Final was played against the Cougars starring Neil De Joux, Richie Williams, Alex Devereux and Dave DeCuevas but the Dogs prevailed with the Doc -Jared Kilday kicking 4 goals and legend Nicky Dow being awarded Best on Ground in an emphatic end to an up and coming season. Bulldogs 11.6-72 d Cougars 6.4.40
The Bulldogs have played in the Grand Final every year since their first and had other dominant periods (including an undefeated 2016, there only blemish - a draw with the Eagles) but none more so than the team of 2017 who took all before them with an average score of 110 per game to 21 against. This team was brimming with talent all around the ground and it was hard to find a weak link for the opposition to exploit. Players like Paddy and Kyle Smith, Dale Stevenson, Brad Mavor, Nathan Hayes, Adam Clarke and Toby Foley were apart of a well oiled machine coached by Wayne Sullivan and Zak Williams. The old firm of Jason Beck and Jacob Skye Thomson were joined with a cameo performance from James Stevenson for one game to kick a bag. Averaging a 110 point winning margin –. The biggest winning margin was 129 points versus the Eagles 20.18 138 to 1.3 9 but it was the Blues who got closest with a 53 point defeat in round 9. The Doggies of 2017 finished the season defeating the Blues 2 weeks later in the Grand final 15.22 112 to 2.1 13 and Adam Clarke “Jinxy” being awarded the Nicky Dow for B.O.G.
But the now the perennial also rans – the Eagles have shaken the CAFL upside down. Winning 10 from 10. Nobody saw this BLOCKBUSTER season coming. Well for starters Manager Rick Van Olphen and Coach Adem Manderovic would dispute “nobody saw it coming” statement because they would have - they were doing all the strategic recruiting at trainings and the Australian immigration office. The long serving stalwarts of Sam Traynor, Chris Morel, Liam and Logan have all picked up the pace this year with the return of original legends Andrew Howison and Josh Robles McGill returning from Aussie football. Add in a sprinkling of clover leaves from Paddy Smith and high marking James Southby and you start to see a formation of a solid team. Pour in the youthful talents and healthy stamina like Luke de Roo, Cambell Cleall and Finn Moffat and the Eagles are starting to cook. That alone would have been a competitive group but master recruiters plundered the Aussie stocks by signing the most dominate full forward CAFL has seen since Richard Bradley. 49 Goals to Mark Orr is a new record I am told and he kicked 4 more in the Grand Final. Somehow Aaron Sawers still gets a run because everything he touches turns to goals and then the athletic Lane Skimming is also clever with ball in hand. I could just name the whole team but if these guys are so good what do the stats have to say Sweaty?
Their highest winning margin was 133 points against the Blues in round 1. 22.15 147 to 2.2 14. The closest margin was 5 points against the Bulldogs in Round 9. The Bulldogs playing for a semi-final berth and an Eagles bucks party saw their ranks dwindled with a pulled heart muscle. Eagles hung on though 10.13 73 to 10.8 68 and the Bulldogs missed their first finals series since 2009 by 5 points.
So how do they rank against the other INVINCIBLE teams of CAFL. If we use the classic AFL ladder method of points for and Against it looks like this:
Team
|
Points for
|
Points Against
|
%
|
Bulldogs 2017
|
986
|
199
|
495.47
|
Eagles 2020
|
1109
|
345
|
321.44
|
Bulldogs 2009
|
820
|
338
|
242.60
|
Still not to take anything away for a great season from the Iinvincible Eagles – they’ve had a great season on and off the field and are looking to set up a dynasty. The new players need to look at the scores from past years to see how much this season means to the die-hard Eagle supporters – like Peter Rich.
Get around him Boys.
By Steve Langridge and Rick Van Olphen
Last Modified on 14/12/2020 19:43