The Way We Were
I had the 2004 semi final against The Storm recorded and just watched it. Bloody hell! The score was Dogs 43 - Storm 18; and the mix of mental toughness, physical toughness and sheer ability was incredible.
Everyone had a big game but the standouts for me were:
Jonathon Thurston - A 21 yo who looked good and was obviously going to get a lot better. What was the real reason we let him go?
Shifty Sherwin - IMO about the best half back we've had (that's right - including Mortimer). His vision which allowed him to put in a grubber, a chip & chase and select ball runners was incredible. Plus he had the pace to go with it. When he kicked the field goal that made the score 37-18 it was obvious he also had plenty of the "Get that up yer" attitude.
Tony Grimaldi - A non stop lock who had plenty of ability in both attack and defence
Mark O'Meley - Tough as iron bark front rower who displayed top shelf ball skills
Adam Perry - A vertically impaired but built like a brick chook house hooker defended like his life depended on it and always on the ball. He took a 5th tackle kick option that found touch, gained us about 40 metres and put put The Storm back on their line.
We also had Steve Price, Mase and Bobcat in the forwards at or near the peak of their careers. What a forward pack.
But back to 2015... If David Klemmer (who is still very young) cam mix James Graham's attitude with his ability and whatever half - five eighth combo Des selects can do what Shifty and JT did we will be the premiership favourites.
