Okay, I've been wanting to write this for quite some time now, and I think now is as good as a time as any. This is going to be a lengthy intro, so if you're not interested in this bit, skip ahead. But, this game was so great for me and my group of friends. It was a game that at first, did not involve a whole lot of time to play and have fun, you could just log on, queue up for some sieges, and have a good time. The feeling of accomplishment in the games was pretty good. But, over time we learned quickly that this game has quite a bit of depth to it when it comes to the little things, but it's things that the game does not teach you about, it's stuff you have to pick up from other players. But overall, we were having a good time with it, I can't stress enough when I say were. House Management: It absolutely blows my mind that we can not have a proper management of our house. We need to be able to;

1. Rename ranks to be what we want them to be.
2. Change permissions of ranks as we see fit, it's so stupid that only 3 people can get people in the house.
3. Allow invitations to the house for a proper system of recruitment.

Voice Chat in siege: This is something that I would have thought was a no brainer. Having voice coms while in a siege would be such a massive upgrade and could really turn potential losses into wins. I get this needs to be its own new server, but if larger population games can have a system in place, I have no doubt this game can too.
Bronze Generation: "The key to having bronze, is not losing bronze" is such a stupid thing to have to tell people. There is no solid way of generating bronze for the semi-active player. Full disclosure, this does not affect me, but I'm also premium, have a black dragon unit, and I was able to spend a few weeks with low-level units, roughly 8 hours a day, farming my bronze to where it is now. I also had the time to go out, farm and craft high-level kits, and gather horses for when I run cav. But keep in mind, I had all the time in the world do to COVID, and my friends who have to work do not have that luxury. I know people right now who are so bronze starved they're having to wait to play sieges till after TW due to kit damage. The methods of letting XP pool fill or letting honor fill is stupid, as its a few hundred bronze extra. If you're someone who cant play the game as much as me, has premium, has a merc unit, I could only imagine how much bronze is hurting you. With the game taking away the ability to sell the temp doctrines for thousands of bronze, the generation of it is nonexistent. This grows exponentially when you're towards the "end game" and if you don't constantly run purple units and gold cav, the odds of you having a decent game is very difficult. Not impossible, just difficult.
Cavalry: This has been an on going issue, but its getting worse the higher people level up and start seeing the issues. Cav has to be fixed for this game to continue to grow. A simple way: take them out of sieges completely. They have no place in city battles, and its mind blowing that cav can round corners like a volks wagon Jetta and run upstairs unimpeded and maintain full momentum, it doesnt make any sense. I understand that for the most part, Imperial Pike Guards can stop them, but you need coordination for this on a large scale, and its easier for randoms to cav spam than it is for randoms to stop the cav spam. Historically, it does not make sense to have cav in a city fight. Realistically, they would trip over un-even stones, never round corners like they do, and when they run into a wall, the horse would more than likely die completely. Cav belongs in field battles only, thats what they would have been used for. This also would help the bronze generation for some people, as once you get to a certain point all you see in sieges is cav spam.
Community: The community of this game is one of the worse ive seen in video games. At first it was friendly, but its filled with toxic middle-aged adults who care more about rumors, lies, deception and other snakeish means. And those are just the mid-tier. The other issue is you have houses who have managed to horde some of the best players (Usually just players with the best units @ max) and never leave so real competition never happens. Instead of the community realizing this, the higher-ups just make dumb jokes, memes and attempts to troll the ones under them to "get better" - when in reality the game rewards those who have been playing the longest. Sure, if you're apart of a decent house they can guide you, but everything is so cookie-cutter right now that a casual player can easily be left out to dry. With the lack of real competition with the west merging back to the east (dumbest move the devs ever made was allow transfers that long) now we have mid-small size houses of new players unable to partake in the end-game content unless they outright abandon their house. This community is going to be a big reason why this game's growth will stop.
Overall, the game right now has become extremely stale, with certain bugs still having some units broken, the constant cav spam, lack of house QoL updates and a toxic community, the game isnt bringing the entertainment that it used to. I can deal with the community, but the other issues, are making the game un-fun.

Hi!
TLDR at the end.
I’m not working in automobile industry but always had an interest in cars so I’m lurking here from time to time. I’m not sure if this is the right sub for this question so if it isn’t the case, point it out and I’ll delete my post.
I have a 2015 VW Jetta TDI and it has been the most unreliable POS I ever owned. I will spare you of the details but for scale, my old Dodge Neon was a pillar of reliability and quality compared to it.
Friday, I will have a meeting with the VW dealership to come to an arrangement about the situation since Volkswagen Canada refuse to do anything and says the dealership will solve the issue. The dealership might offer to exchange to car for another but it will certainly not be free.
The thing is, I really love my TDI when it’s not broken. So I might try to get an extended warranty. I will move to another city in a couple months so I will change dealership but I know a VW warranty is valid all across Canada’s dealerships. Do dealers get paid for repairs under warranty or since they sell you the extended warranty every repairs after that is on them? Because if they only get money on the warranty, I might tell them I will go to another dealership for repairs under warranty so it would be a win-win scenario.
TLDR: How does dealerships make money on extended warranty?

Recently got hit by someone running a red light; apparently you can just lie that the other driver ran the light and it defaults to word vs word. So I got nothing, and I’m out a car. Cool.
I’m looking for something cheap and no nonsense, don’t need any cameras, sensors, or anything beeping at me. Im in California. Here’s where I’m making it complicated for myself:
-No SUVs, I want a car.
-I want a manual transmission, my next car in 10 years will probably be electric with no transmission, so I want to enjoy this while I can.
-Would really really really want power to the rear wheels, so RWD or AWD, I could pass on this but would prefer not to.
-Its near impossible to say I would love a station wagon, but at a minimum I need room for a fencing bag in the rear (Think golf bag size)
-I’d like to stay under 30k, but cheaper is always better, under 20k is great; don’t care about luxuries.
-New or slightly used.
-Nice to have, blue or green paint, I’m sick of all these black, silver and white cars.
-Bonus that I’ll never find, a sun/moon roof.
Here’s what I’ve looked at.
-VW Alltrack I like this, but they stopped making it earlier this year. Can’t find a new one. A used stick shift is hard to find, let alone in a color other than black/silvewhite, any experience getting a car from another state? It seems like these are over priced now because of this, I don’t want one with over 20k miles, which currently seems to make this unavailable. I did drive an auto with 6k miles, and it had apparent electrical issues; so not sure about VW reliability.
-VW sportswagen Same as the alltrack, but mostly FWD, so just worse in my view. Still open to finding a manual/AWD model, but again, very hard to do so.
-Subaru CrossTrek I also like this, but it’s borderline a SUV, and the rear is tiny, can’t fit my bag in it without folding down the seats. The interior is hideous, all the fake carbon fiber looks like it was designed by a 12 year old boy. The manual transmission is okay. I really like the AWD. It has no power, but I don’t care about that too much.
-Subaru Impreza 5-Door Same as the crosstrek but cheaper and lower, which is fine. Haven’t put hands on this. Strangely it has a 5-speed instead of 6 in the crosstrek. Not sure if it’s the same awful interior as the crosstrek, want to check one of these out.
-Subaru Outback Much nicer than the crosstrek, but why the heck did they remove the option of a manual? I don’t want to touch a CVT.
-VW Golf Too small
-VW Jetta Decent trunk space, can get with a 6-speed which is nicer than the Subarus. Interior looks nicer than then the Subaru. I have the same VW quality concerns after the alltrack. Really don’t like the FWD. I like how cheap the purchase price is though.
-Subaru Impreza Sedan I haven’t put hands on this yet. But nice and cheap and with AWD. Transmission and looks are worse than the VW Jetta. The Jetta won’t win any beauty competitions, but I think this car is ugly. Not sure if the interior is as bad as the crosstrek. I’d like to drive one of these next.
-Toyota Corolla Stupidly, I have to go up in trim to get the manual, so this is way over priced compared to the Impreza and Jetta. FWD. I’d imagine it’s very reliable. Also, horrible color options from Toyota; choose your shade of monochrome.
-Honda Civic I’ve had a few Honda accords, but no manual transmission from Honda anymore. So no go.
-Audi A4 Allroad Shout out to Audi for no longer offering a manual, of all the companies, I’m disappointed by this the most.
I realize this is a lot, and I’m being picky, but I don’t want to spend over 20k and feel like I’m settling on something.

The folks down at the Austin History Center are slowly scanning archival photos and adding to UNT's Portal to Texas History even in these pandemic times. Among others, there are quite a few new photos of land parade floats from the early Austin Aqua Festivals in 1962 and 63. It's disappointing to see photos like this 1963 Austin Aqua Festival parade float ignorantly depicting Native Americans in a less than flattering light.
But a few of those kids dressed as stereotypical and generic 1960s natives probably had elderly relatives who remembered the time before all the tribes were ejected from this area and probably would have still thought of them as little more than savages. The photo gives context to the times in which it was taken. The Austinites of that era seem to have had less respect for those people who lived here hundreds or thousands of years before the Spanish and French started roaming around here.
As a modern Austinite I don't see why this attitude should be held up. Those were humans who lived here, if even sporadically, and loved the land and the creeks and trees as much or more than you or I. They just called the landmarks different names back then. It is known that some of the tribes who used to live around here were warlike and confrontational with other tribes. My own grandmother was born in Austin in the 1930s and often told me a tall tale about a fictional battle between the Comanche and 1000 Apache warriors in the hills near Lake Travis. (sometimes the battle took place in the area around where we were sitting in traffic depending on grandma's mood) It was a Thermopylae/Alamo-like tale of outnumbered Comanche braves winning the day by running to the hill now known as Commanche Peak and waiting in ambush. But grandma often told some whoppers and that was surely one of them. I've never read about even the scantest evidence that something like that took place here, if even only in oral histories of the tribes involved. But who knows. My point is we really don't know a whole lot about what the people who lived here before everything, and what they did while they were here.
Today I wanted to share some small bit of the real story of these people who lived here when real estate was free if you could keep it from the wild beasts or competing tribes. Because the real story, from what little we know of it, is really just as captivating as Grandma's tall tales were.
On a related note I recently discovered the AustinFound podcast from Michael Barnes and a few other folks at The Statesman. They've been writing the good historyposts on The Statesman's Austin360.com for a while now under the same name and I've referenced them a lot here before. Michael Barnes knows his stuff. He has written a multi-volume book set called Indelible Austin and was one of the people who went on the expedition to look for traces of the 1730 Spanish mission set up somewhere in this area. In episodes 1, 6, and 27 of the podcast he talks about the three main native tribes in this area: The Apache, who considered this area the northeastern border of their roaming grounds and had mostly vacated by the 1800s, the Comanche, who were descended from the Apache (edit: fixed) Wyoming Shoshone tribe long ago in modern Utah and Wyoming and considered this area the southeastern border of their expanding roaming grounds, and the Tonkawa tribe, who were also war like but had a different culture and their own ways. They especially were early victims of the diseases brought by european contact.
One thing I agree with Michael Barnes about is how The Tonkawa, despite having more of a territorial claim to the area Austin is in now than the other two tribes, are under-represented in the old chronicles written down by early white settlers. The Comanche are namedropped in the written accounts of the 1800s quite a bit for their 'depredations' on early settlers. It was the Comanche were the only tribe in this region who, for a time, rebuffed all attempts to subjugate them from Spain, Mexico, and Anglos. But the Tonkawa, on the other hand, being so few in number had to ally themselves with whites against the other two tribes. Because of this they were westernized quickly and assumed a sort of sub-caste in frontier society. Early accounts refer to them as 'Tonks' and talk in exaggerated ways about their cannibalism and wolf-worship. From what I understand the people eating only took place after winning a great battle. The tribe has a website nowadays where you can learn about their culture, their colorful traditional clothing and how it was made, and the Trail of Tears out of Central Texas.
It's not often talked about what tribes were here before the Tonkawa and the Comanche and Apache. It's a topic I'm always looking to learn more about. If you've lived here a while you might have heard of the Leanderthal Lady. Her remains are estimated to be between 10000 and 13000 years old and according to this article was found with buried with a shark tooth. I've also talked about the digs at the Westcave Preserve near Hamilton Pool, and the Levi and Smith Rock Shelters, where evidence of human habitation dates back 10000 years at least. But that brings up the question: Who lived in the area in between then and the time of the Tonkawa? I know there are stories from early settlers about an 'Indian Village' of an unnamed tribe very near the old Santa Monica Springs on the Colorado River but that's about it. Well thanks to some archeological digs over the years when new stuff had been built we know about a few frequent party spots some of the people alive back then liked to congregate in. I've found archeological reports from three separate digs in spots around North Austin, which is fine because the good rock shelters appear to have been in what is now South Austin anyway...
Let's start in the order the reports were made. The first concerns a site where people camped repeatedly over the course of the last 4000 years that today lies in a neighborhood near the intersection of North Lamar and Braker Lane. Back in the neighborhood is a street called Jetta Court. This neighborhood dates back to the mid to late 1960s and when built the area was already known for arrowhead deposits. In the 1980s further digs established the whole area around where Walnut Creek Park is today was once a major habitation area. But back in '68 the home builder company was partially done with the neighborhood and paid for a salvage dig after reports of trespassers "pothunting".
The report from the salvage dig was published in the Bulletin of the Texas Archeological Society, Volume 47, 1976 and is available in the UNT archive. You can read the whole thing if you feel like getting into the weeds. Quoting the abstract and introduction:

During the course of several weekends in 1968 and 1969, students from The University of Texas at Austin carried out test excavations at the Jetta Court site in Travis County, central Texas. These investigations constituted a salvage effort designed to obtain information on this site before it was destroyed by construction activities in a housing development. The terrace deposits at Jetta Court yielded a long Archaic sequence, including a deeply buried occupation which occurred stratigraphically below Early Archaic materials. The results of the excavations are described, and detailed analyses of the lithic debris and faunal re mains are presented.
The Jetta Court site (41 TV 151) is located within the city limits of Austin, Texas, buried in terrace deposits on the west side of Walnut Creek (Figs. 1-3). The site was brought to the attention of the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory (TARL) of The University of Texas at Austin in the fall of 1968 by reports of pothunting in an area slated for a housing subdivision. Inspection of the site by TARL personnel indicated that it should be tested before the planned construction activities were begun.
Excavations, directed by graduate students in anthropology at The University of Texas at Austin, were carried out with volunteer help. Work was done on weekends during a period from December, 1968, to February, 1969. Since the site was unprotected during the week, numerous instances of vandalism occurred. One unit of excavation was eventually ruined, but the others were not seriously damaged. This combination of weekend excavation and weekday vandalism limited effective investigation to stratigraphic testing and backhoe trenching. Exposures of horizontal tracts were not done partly be- cause of fear that it would lead to more extensive depredations on the part of the pothunters, and partly because the site was considerably deeper than was anticipated.
The writers would like to acknowledge the assistance and under- standing of Mr. Cecil Lamour, representing Conann Construction, Inc., in permitting the excavations. His patience with our backhoe operations, in particular, was most helpful.

How dramatic. Apparently someone thought there was buried treasure nearby. I wonder what could have given them that idea.. Here's a photo of the site at the time and Here's a map of the dig site with the holes marked. All of this area is built over today.
The dig was done hastily and the vandalism limited the findings. The report goes on describe two burned rock midden sites located within the boundaries of the dig. These were like old campfires that had been repeatedly built over for a number of years during two different eras.
Some further highlights from the report:
Here's a photo of the one of the holes.
There are a couple of photos of some of the lithic projectile points found in the upper, newer rock midden. Here's one. Here's another. And a couple from the lower, older midden. Here's one from the lower and here's another. There are many more photos and charts showing the finds, their classifications, and their locations in relation to one another in the layered deposits. This is how most of the rest of the report goes.
There were many animal bones and shells found in some areas indicating people ate there, or used the site for industry. Here a list of animal species found in the bones they can identify. On the menu: snails, turtles, opossum, coyote, deer, bison, cow, a couple of kinds of rabbits and mice, and strangely gophers. Apparently there used to be gophers around here when the climate favored grasslands over forests.
The distribution of animal bones is nicely charted here in size and age, Category A being the largest animals like bison and Category C being the smallest, such as rats and snails. The report notes that remains of small animals would degrade faster so that might skew the results.
To sum it all up because it's way too long to copypaste, the two burned rock middens at Jetta Court don't contribute a whole lot of new information to the story besides offering evidence that the spot was a place for habitation. I think if I understand it correctly (correct me if I'm wrong) the lower midden dates back over 3000 years while the upper midden dates back about 2000 years. The report talks about not knowing how to classify the artifacts within the archaic period. It recommends further digs in the area but acknowledges that's probably not possible with the neighborhood going up. What the writers didn't know is that just a few years later digs would begin at many different sites in what is now Walnut Creek Park that further expanded the knowledge of that area and its earliest inhabitants.
Moving on to the next site, which lies a little bit east of there at what became the Jourdan-Bachman Pioneer Farm, once an actual farm near Sprinkle now turned into a live action museum exhibit by the city which is beloved by schoolkids on field trips. It turns out that when the farm was built in the 1850s, part of the property contained a much older camp site that was favored by natives a thousand years ago. A report was written in 1994 about a dig in 1983. (PDF warning). The site of the native cultural deposits was at the southern end of the farm. Here is a map of the site in relation to the farm.
The PDF isn't as copypaste friendly as the other UNT article but it's short and I can summarize the findings. It's really more of just an abstract compared to the other long report. It's worth taking the time to read if you can handle PDFs and you're interested in the history of the area at all. In the introduction they describe how the farm was bought by the Heritage Society of Austin in the 1950s and belonged to the City of Austin by 1980 as part of the same deal that established Walnut Creek Park. More than a few digs had been done in the area around there in the early 1980s. It describes 22 different ancient burials found at one nearby site. At the farm site itself there was a deposit of projectile points over a meter thick of most types found in the area during the archaic era.
That brings us to the third site. called Millican Bench. Never heard of it? Me neither. It's a tiny spot just south of The Arboretum today that was obliterated by the construction of Loop 360 in the 1970s. Before the highway cut through the site, TxDot conducted a dig in 1970 and 71 on a small limestone plateau (thus the bench) where artifacts had been reported by the previous landowner. The report on the site dig is another PDF, but it was written in 2003, is very detailed, and will let me copypaste from it. Here's a map of the site showing where it was in the roadbed of modern Loop 360.
Quoting from the introduction:

Located in Travis County, the Millican Bench site(41TV163) was the first archeological site excavated by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT; then Texas Highway Department) as a mitigation effort for highway construction under the requirements of the National Environmental Protection Act of 1966. The excavation was conducted between September of 1970 and February of 1971under the direction of Frank Weir, then of the Texas Highway Department. In August of 2002, TxDOT contracted with the Center for Archaeological Research (CAR) at The University of Texas at San Antonio (Work Authorization#57014PD004) to conduct an inventory and assessment of the archeological collections and documentation associated with site 41TV163, develop possible research questions that could be pursued with the site data, and to prepare the project material for permanent curation. Based on that assessment(Mahoney et al. 2003a), and following consultation with TxDOT, CAR further was directed to produce a final report.This document constitutes the final report on the TxDOT work at 41TV163. Included in this report are a description of the site, excavation procedures, and an analysis of selected components of the data collected over three decades ago.
To report on excavations and analyze data collected over30 years ago presents several challenges. Foremost among these is that if one wishes to avoid a primarily historical perspective, data collected using earlier field methods to investigate earlier theoretical concerns must be molded to address current questions. In this case, the disconnect between the theoretical and methodological considerations that guided the excavation of 41TV163, which appear to have been focused on chronology and cultural history,and current research interests in Texas archeology is exacerbated by the loss of a large portion of the field notes,some photo logs, and some of the artifacts and samples during the intervening years. Nevertheless, in the assessment document (Mahoney et al. 2003a), we identified a series of current research issues that could be addressed using data generated by the work at 41TV163. These include investigating temporal changes in subsistence patterns and changes in lithic technology. In addition, we investigate several aspects of site use during the Late Prehistoric occupation of 41TV163.

So what this is saying is that basically the original field work and notes were lost and they had to reconstruct everything. I guess they thought it was worth it in scientific value to reconstruct or else maybe because it was the forerunner to TxDot's first dig. In any case the findings showed evidence of habitation a bit later than the other sites to the east. The intro continues:

Initially, seven discrete areas, designated A through G, were identified at Millican Bench. Figure 1-2 (the map linked earlier) presents a section of an aerial photo with the sketched locations of these seven areas, along with the Loop 360 center line. The photo appears to have been created at the time of the fieldwork. Area A consisted of a burned rock midden located on a topographic bench. Another probable burned rock midden, Area B, was situated on the slope and creek terrace below the bench.Located just to the west of Area B were two other areas,designated C and D. These appeared to be occupation areas with burned rock and other debris present. Three additional areas, designated E, F, and G, were located across the creek east of Areas A–D. Area E was a burned rock midden that measured approximately four meters in diameter. Area F contained a concentration of occupation refuse with burned rock and chipped stone, while Area G was a broad bedrock exposure containing scattered chipped stone debris.With the exception of Area G, where only surface collection was conducted, all areas (A through F) had some level of excavation. At 41TV163, TxDOT personnel recorded 11features, including a human burial (Feature 10) and a possible structure (Feature 3). In addition, more than 200cores, 1,400 tools, 400 projectile points, and 42,500 pieces of debitage were collected. With the exception of any evidence for Paleo-indian occupation, the 41TV163 materials seem to reflect most prehistoric periods. Collected projectile point types thought to be diagnostic include Wells, Early Split Stem, Early Triangular, Martindale, and Uvalde forms dating to much of the Early Archaic (8000–6000 BP); Nolan,Travis, and a single Andice point, all dating to the Middle Archaic (6000–4000 BP); Bulverde, Pedernales, Williams,Lange, Marshall, Montell, Castroville, Ensor, Frio, Fairland,and Darl forms dating throughout the Late Archaic (4000–1250 BP); and Scallorn points, dating to the early portion of the Late Prehistoric (1250–700 BP). A small amount of historic and/or modern material was also collected, though it is not considered in any detail in this report.

Long story short, this area was frequently visited from about 4000BC-1300AD, mostly toward the latter date, and shows different patterns in habitation indicating the different tribal customs in use at that point. In addition to rock middens and lots of projectile points and rock flakes, an ancient human burial was found. Also many animal bones like the other sites indicating different eating areas.
Well there you have a few stories of the people who lived here before recorded history. I hope one day more local history writers and bloggers can address this topic in more depth than I have time for here today. I know there are a lot of people out there like me who would love to know more. Time is way short so I've got to wrap this up quick. I obviously don't have any related photos from prehistory but have some newly added old Aqua Fest photos from the UNT archive for Bonus Pics today.
Bonus Pic #1 - "Photograph of two people on a mini pool at the Aqua Festival Land Parade event" - August 3, 1962
Bonus Pic #2 - "Photograph of group of people at Aqua Fest event" - 1963
Bonus Pic #3 - "Photograph of the scenery at Aqua Fest event. A child is seen seated wearing a cape and crown. " - 1963

With round 1 in the books, we introduce the new post-race thread. As we discussed in the RiL 2021 post, we're transitioning away from full post-race galleries and looking to you to share your favorite moments from the race. Feel free to share your battles in gif, video, and picture forms, ask some questions, or just give us a recap of your race!
If you didn't save the replay, we'll be providing a copy from each race. It will only be the race portion of the event so if you have anything you want to share from practice, make sure you save the replay!
In a perfect world, this is the area that I would provide a brief recap of the event, but due to a 25 hour power outage, I was unable to attend. Congratulations to Austin Tucker2 on taking the pole by the slimmest of margins over John Patrick and shout out to the top 4 Legends being within .005 seconds of the pole. Giovanni Romano took the Jetta pole over Antonio Alvarez. We had four leaders of the event overall and Romano takes the win in the Jetta class and overall with Alexander Bueler taking the Legends win and ends up as the only other car on the overall lead lap.
We'll see you all next week for Global MX-5 at Oulton Park!
Race Results
Race Replay

Want to race some bangers around laguna seca for 24 hours? Yeah, me too! Come join 24 hours of limes for your chance to win some cash money! https://discord.gg/umq2rDhjkD
You have the choice to drive: Mazda, Jetta, solstice or mustang. $5 entrance fee per team which goes towards the prize money.

The Great Lakes Avengers!

Basic Info: The Great Lakes Avengers (AKA The Lightning Rods, The Great Lakes X-Men, The Great Lakes Defenders, The Great Lakes Initiative) are the 616 mid-west's premier super team! They came together because of a want-ad in a newspaper and have been protecting the greater Milwaukee area ever since. They've saved the world, saved the universe, saved Detroit, and even saved Christmas twice! The core team consists of Mr. Immortal, Big Bertha, Doorman, and Flatman. Different members have been on and off the team over the years, but this respect thread will only cover core members. The team is presented mostly as a joke... but they get the job done! (Not Included: Hawkeye, Mockingbird, Grasshopper I, II, III, & IV, Leather Boy, Squirrel Girl and associated squirrels, and Deadpool. These people either have way more feats when they aren't on the team or died/quit after an issue or in some cases a single panel.)
Sources: West Coast Avengers (WCA) | Avengers (A) | Avengers West Coast (AWC) | Avenger's Annual (AA) | Deadpool (DP) | Thunderbolts (TB) | G.L.A. Misassembled (GLA) | GLX-Mas Special (GLX) | Cable and Deadpool (CD) | Deadpool/GLI: Summer Fun Spectacular (DGS) | Fear Itself: The Home Front (FI) | Great Lakes Avengers (GLAII) | The Thing (TT) | Deadpool 2008 (DPII)

Mr. Immortal

Craig Hollis, AKA Mr. Immortal, is the founder and leader of the Great Lakes Avengers. As his name implies, he's immortal. He dies all the time, but never stays dead. He's an honest hero with some serious emotional issues, and he's probably had more on panel deaths than just about anyone I can think of.

Physicals

• [Agility] Acrobatically descends on some robbers then dodges their first volley. ^WCA46
  
• [Skill/Durability] Lands a hit on Hawkeye then eats a vaulting kick from Mockingbird. ^WCA46
  
• [Agility] Flying kick knocks the gun out of Deadpool's hand and pushes him into a pool. ^DP10
  
• [Agility] Hit by a giant wave and somehow turns it into riding a shark. ^DP10
  
• [Strength] Knocks Captain America down with a surprise hit. ^AWC64
  
• [Durability] Smashed into a tombstone hard enough to crack it. He doesn't seem to die. ^GLA2
  
• [Durability] Swatted across the street and through a window by a living Christmas tree. He doesn't clearly die. ^GLX
  

Powers

• He can interact with an otherwise intangible and undetectable herald of Oblivion. And that guy has given him information he wouldn't otherwise have. ^GLA4
  
• Every time he dies he feels it twice. ^GLAII7
  Here's every time he's died and resurrected:
  
  • Shot multiple times in the gut. ^WCA46
  • Backflips off of a rooftop ledge. ^WCA46
  • Killed by radiation. ^AWC49
  • Burnt to death by original Human Torch twice. ^AWC64
  • Crushed like a fly by Terminus. ^AA19
  • Shot multiple times by Deadpool. ^DP10
  • Exploded by grenades. ^DP11
  • Smashed between two big pieces of stone. ^TB17
  • Shoots himself in the head. ^GLA1
  • Jumps off of a building. ^GLA1
  • Blown up by dynamite, drowned, drank poisons. ^GLA1
  • Shot by a robber. ^GLA1
  • Blasted through by Maelstrom. ^GLA1
  • Impaled through the chest with giant scissors. ^GLA3
  • Impaled by giant candy canes. ^GLA3
  • Has his neck snapped. ^GLA3
  • Choked with a Christmas wreath. ^GLX
  • Shot by Deadpool. ^CD30
  • Decapitated by Deadpool. ^CD30
  • Decapitated by Deadpool again. ^DGS
  • Killed by shurikens to the face by Deadpool. ^DGS
  • Dies of alcohol poisoning from a ray of energy derived from Dionysus. ^DGS
  • Killed by thrown universal remote. ^DGS
  • Buried alive for weeks. Sometimes he suffocates himself to death with a cork in the air hole. He's starved to death at least once. ^GLAII2 He was down there for six weeks and it was to get clean. ^GLAII3
  • Smushed by a giant foot. ^GLAII6

Miscellaneous

• [Skill] Tangles with Jolt for a while. ^TB16
  
• [History] He had a rough childhood. Constantly surrounded by death. He could interact with Deathurge, servant of Oblivion. ^GLA1 It's later revealed that all of his suffering was to prepare him for the intense misery of living forever. ^GLA4
  
• [Intelligence] Tricks a super villain into killing himself. ^GLA4
  
• [Intelligence] Figures out the weakness of some Christmas monsters. ^GLX
  
• [Misc] Downloads music illegally online. ^GLA2
  

Big Bertha

Ashley Crawford, AKA Big Bertha, is the tank of the Great Lakes Avengers. She's a mutant with the ability to massively increase her body fat, making her much tougher and stronger. Her secret identity is that of a super famous and rich fashion model who has stayed in Milwaukee in order to be with her friends and bankroll their super hero team.

Physicals

• [Durability] Falls off of decently sized building, destroying the ground where she lands, and laughs the whole way. ^WCA46
  
• [Durability] Tanks She-Hulk slamming her with a large piece of machinery. ^AWC49
  
• [Durability] Takes fire blast from Original Human Torch. ^AWC64
  
• [Durability] Thrown and driven head first into stone by Graviton. ^TB17
  
• [Durability] Unhurt by smashing metal machine with a metal bending ass smash. ^DGS
  
• [Durability] Bullets bounce off of her and elicit no reaction. ^DGS
  
• [Durability] Takes a hit from someone with her powers, but stronger. ^GLAII6
  
• [Durability] Takes bullets then a punch from Sluggo. ^DPII36
  
• [Strength] Her clapping knocks a man's hat off and causes boom sounds. ^DP10
  
• [Durability/Strength] Tanks a hit from Moonstone then sends her flying into a stone with enough force to break it. ^TB16
  
• [Strength] Lifts a large girder. ^GLA1
  
• [Strength] Jumps to the roof of a decently sized building with Mr. Immortal on her back. ^WCA46
  
• [Strength] Stops a large truck then Hulk jumps away. ^GLA3
  
• [Strength] More huge leaps. ^GLA
  
• [Strength] Punches the head off of a giant robot. ^GLA3
  

Powers

• Restrains Deadpool in her fat. ^CD30
  
• Makes her butt extra fat to block a door. ^FI6
  
• Bounces bullets back with her fat.. ^WCA46
  
• At one point in order to return to normal size she would have to throw up her fat. ^GLA3
  
• Restrains a man by sitting on him. ^GLA4
  

Miscellaneous

• [Base] The group originally operated out of her home, which was very nice and paid for by her lucrative modelling career. ^WCA46
  
• [Transport] Has the finest personal aircraft that money can buy. ^AWC48
  
• [Misc] She eventually abandoned the secret identity and became a plus size model. ^GLAII1
  
• [Misc] She's about 7'6'' tall when powered up. ^GLAII2
  
• [Skill] Successfully fights off four people with copies of her powers. ^GLAII5-6
  

Doorman

DeMarr Davis, AKA Doorman, is a very powerful, though limited, teleporter who joined the Great Lakes Avengers to make a positive change in the world. He sacrificed himself to save the universe and was reincarnated as a servant of Oblivion, collecting the souls of the passed for Death. He isn't super good or dedicated to his job as Deathurge, so he still makes lots of time for the GLA.

Physicals

• [Strength] Sends a man reeling with a backhand. ^AWC49
  
• [Agility] Seems to intercept Captain America's Shield throw. ^AWC64
  
• [Agility] Allows a thrown sai to pass through his head. ^GLA2
  
• [Agility] Allows a thrown sai to pass through his torso. ^GLA4
  

Powers

• Lets Dinah fly into a building. ^WCA46
  
• Lets Flatman enter a building. Flatman notes a strange feeling of displacement when moving through Doorman. ^WCA46
  
• Helps the team escape from a destroyed plane. ^AA19
  
• Allows Flatman to strike Abe Jenkins through his armor. ^TB16
  
• Helps save a pet from a car. ^GLA1
  
• People can fall or jump into him while he's not acting as a door. ^A309
  
• Can be forcibly used as a door. ^GLA3
  
• Allows a candy cane to pass through him. ^GLA3
  
• When Deadpool tried to activate his teleporter while Doorman was trying to Door him, it sent Deadpool back in time. ^DP10
  
• Allows Mr.Immortal to pass through a wall of Maelstrom's Proto-Natural Force. But it kills Doorman.
  
• [Powerup] He dies, gets chosen by Oblivion for his connection to the Darkforce Dimension, and made into the new Deathurge. This comes with an amp to his powers and some job responsibilities. Everything after this is post-death. ^GLA4 If he doesn't do his job Oblivion can grab him back to his realm and ream him out. ^GLAII3
  
• His Death Sense allows him to identify a corpse from a very long distance. ^GLX
  
• He can carry a squirrel on his shoulder while passing through a wall. ^DGS
  
• Seems to be able to summon his Deathurge ski poles for practical use. ^FI6
  
• Appears from somewhere through a table. Plus a rundown of his abilities. ^GLAII1
  
• Death Sense allows him to find Mr. Immortal. He then teleports to him and phases Mr. Immortal back above ground. ^GLAII2
  
• Portals himself and a ghost around the world. ^GLAII6
  
• Pulls Flatman out from under a flaming car. ^GLAII7
  

Miscellaneous

• [Misc] Doesn't need to breathe, ^GLAII7
  
• [Misc] He's a class 10 teleporter.... as long as it's to the next room. ^GLA4
  
• [Work/Family] Here's a cute little story about how he earns his father's respect after they're both dead. It also gives a good idea of what his job as Deathurge is like. ^GLX
  
• [Misc] He's about 5'11'' tall. ^GLAII2
  
• [Misc] He's 30.. or 40... ^GLAII6
  

Flatman

Matt, AKA Dr. Val Ventura, AKA Flatman, is the deputy leader of the Great Lakes Avengers and really tends to act as the ribbon that holds the team together. He's played scientist, leader, and general administrative stuff since the beginning. While lighthearted and not super powerful, he's serious about trying to help people and make the world a better place.

Physicals

• [Strength] Throws Doorman. ^DP10
  
• [Strength] Wraps up and throws Zaran. ^GLA2
  
• [Strength] Throws Doorman against a wall. ^GLA3
  
• [Strength] Punches an AIM scientist over. ^DGS
  
• [Durability] Crushed by thrown car but he's ok. ^GLAII7
  

Powers

• Restrains raging Mr. Immortal. ^WCA46
  
• Wraps up and restrains three brainwashed college students. ^AWC49
  
• Temporarily restrains MACH-I and swings him into a cliff. ^TB16
  
• Saves a child from a tornado. ^TB25
  
• Helps unlock a door from outside. ^GLA1
  
• He's almost invisible when standing at the right angle. ^GLA2 And again. ^GLA4
  
• He's always been able to unflatten, but his allies didn't know for years. ^GLAII1
  
• Restrains two bouncers at a super villain's bar. ^GLAII2
  
• Can be used as a slingshot. ^GLAII7
  
• His flat body makes him hard to hit with shuriken. ^DGS
  

Miscellaneous

• [Education] He studied fashion in college. ^DP11
  
• [Intelligence] He can discuss time travel/teleportation issues with Weasel. ^DP11
  
• [Misc] He's gay, and it took him a while to admit it to his friends. He was inspired to come out by Living Lightning. ^GLA4
  
• [Skill] Knows origami-fu and can take a number of forms. ^DGS
  
• [Misc] Filed for Avengers trademark and ended up getting it for the team. ^GLAII1
  
• [Misc] He's about 6' tall, though he appears slightly wobbly here. ^GLAII2
  
• [Misc] He won Ben Grimm's super hero poker tournament! ^TT8
  
• [Misc] Revealed that he dropped out of college and lied about his name and credentials. Unknown if anyone on the team is aware. ^GLAII3
  
• [Misc] Willing to make the sacrifice play. ^GLA2
  

Dinah Soar

Dinah Soar was a founding member of the Great Lakes Avengers. She's some sort of pterodactyl person (alien?) whose origin is never expounded upon. Her voice can only be heard by the one being she decides to bond with, and that person was Mr. Immortal. The two were in love and dating before she died while fighting Maelstrom. Her beautiful voice is gone, but her memory lives on.

Physicals

• [Strength] Keeps Big Bertha and Mockingbird from plummeting to the ground. She can't support them in flight, but acts as a solid parachute. ^AA19
  
• [Strength/Durability] Knocks Original Human Torch out of the air with her 'razor sharp wings' and then takes a hit from him. ^AWC64
  
• [Durability] Hit by a flying rock controlled by Graviton. ^TB17
  
• [Agility] Keeps up with Songbird in flight until she has to dodge beam attack. ^TB16
  
• [Agility] Avoids a gunman's bullets and whips around him a few times. ^WCA46
  

Powers

• Knocks over a few brainwashed college students with a flyby. ^AWC49
  
• Uses her sonic attack to destroy Mockingbird's shield then hits her. ^TB16
  

Miscellaneous

• [Equipment] Has a whistle to communicate with the team. ^WCA46
  
• [Misc] She can only ever speak to one person and has a very long natural lifespan. ^GLX
  
• [Misc] Was killed and never came back. ^GLA1
  

Good Boy

Goodness Silva, AKA Good Boy, is the most recent person to join the Great Lakes Avengers. She's a Detroit native who recently lost her home to a super villain attack that also seriously injured her brother. She, like everyone in her family, has the ability to become her fursona, a giant blue male wolfman. I don't know if she'll be a permanent fixture on the team, but seemed fair to include her.

Physicals

• [Strength] Lifts a police officer with one hand and pins him to the wall. ^GLAII2
  
• [Strength] Lifts someone who has Big Bertha's powers with one arm. ^GLAII7
  

Powers

• She has an enhanced sense of smell. ^GLAII3

Miscellaneous

• [Fight] Fought a pitchfork themed super villain. Fight isn't shown, but she presumably won. ^GLAII1
  
• [Misc] Wolf form is around 7'6'' tall. ^GLAII2
  
• [Misc] Threatened to kill the man who destroyed her home and hurt her brother, but left him alive... if barely. ^GLAII4
  

As A Team

• Some training with Hawkeye and Mockingbird. ^A309
  
• They have a hover craft. ^TB17
  
• They have a Quin-Jetta. ^GLA1
  
• The Flatmobile! ^GLAII1
  
• At one point they had a 40% mortality rate, and after Monkey Joe died they were at 50%! ^GLA3
  
• Fighting some living Christmas trees while Squirrel Girl defeats the real Thanos. ^GLX
  
• The team successfully talks down a struggling super villain and wins back the apathy of an angry mob. ^FI6
  
• They all made it to the final table in Ben Grimm's super hero poker tournament! ^TT8
  
• They were X-Men for a while. ^GLA4
  
• Maelstrom's plan for destroying the universe. This was the greatest scheme the GLA ever stopped. ^GLA3 Here it is taking effect! It is stopped by pressing a big red button. ^GLA4
  

The Great Lakes Avengers are truly Marvel's least respected team. Someone has to take care of crises in the Midwest that aren't big enough for real Avengers to be called in! These guys actually have a solid team, but are held back by lack of drive, lack of opportunity, and generally quiet location. I can't wait for their next appearance, but it's ok if it isn't for a while, Mr. Immortal has to show up at least once before the end of the universe! Let me know if you see any issues or whatever with the thread!

TL;DR – Got creative 'trading' my mature VW lease in for a new Mazda lease. Bought out my VW lease and 'selling' it to Mazda dealer (to get around VW 3rd party buyer restrictions). Waiting for buyout VW title to arrive and Mazda dealer wants me to leave the VW in their possession and sign for the Mazda by EOM.
BACKGROUND OF DEAL
Lease Ending: 2017 VW Jetta (<10k miles)Lease Starting: 2020 Mazda3Location: USA - MA buyer at NH dealer
I have done 3 leases in the past and understand the basics of MF/Residual/no money down. In the past I've always 'traded in' my leases if going to another car company (and have always benefitted from positive equity or had a neutral wash). Early/mid Aug I found a good deal on a Mazda and began negotiating.
Initially I negotiated a lease with Mazda where I would trade my VW in and use the positive equity as down payment. This is my first time attempting to 'trade in' a mature VW lease (ends in Sept) and I was unaware of VW Financial's rules restricting third-party sales (essentially charging any non-VW dealers full market value rather than the customer buyout price – totally fair and within VW's rights but it does mean it's the last VW/Audi I ever consider leasing). Due to the third-party rule a direct trade no longer made sense as dealer would have to pay much more for my VW and it would essentially add negative equity to the transaction.
I got thinking and got my car evaluated by Carvana. They valued my car about $3500 over my buyout cost and I had the savings to buyout the VW title. Financially this was a win/win for me – I could reinvest some of this positive equity as 'down payment' for the Mazda deal (in leu of positive trade equity) and also come out with some cash in my pocket after taxes on the sale. I got in contact with VW Financial and sent a buyout money order. Everything is cleared with VW and I am awaiting the title right now.
Rather than go through Carvana I thought I could simplify things and also give the Mazda dealer a good used car to turn over. I offered them the VW at the same price Carvana quoted me and they agreed to purchase it from me. Again – win-win – they get a profit in a hot used car market and I don't have to deal with remote Carvana pickup (plus I prefer B&M car dealers – you guys are great).
WHERE I NEED ADVISE
Since the end of the month is approaching the Mazda dealer is asking me to come sign for the Mazda. I think this is fair and know incentives/numbers change from month-to-month – also I'd like to help them hit their sales goals for the month if I can. However VW is still processing my title and due to mail slowdown they said I will receive the title by early September.
Mazda dealer is suggesting I drive up – sign for the Mazda3 and sign over a duplicate title on the VW and leave the VW there. They claim they will have ownership of the VW so I can stop insuring it. Then, they're suggesting that once I receive the VW title in the mail I mail it to them and they will then mail me a check for our agreed upon amount (this can happen in person too – the dealership is just an hour away so I think they're trying to be accommodating).
I've worked with this dealer before and they've treated me well as a customer – I'm not feeling pressured I just want to make sure I'm being as smart as possible. I have some caution flags but since this is such an unusual deal I could just be feeling out of my element:

• By leaving my VW there couldn't they 'find' problems with it and change their offer once I'm already on the hook for the Mazda? Or couldn't they back out of the deal on the VW once I sign for the Mazda? What should I ask for – some kind of bill of sale or contract?
• Though they will have a copy of the title – wouldn't I still be the owner of the car meaning if something happens to my VW and it's uninsured the liability is mine.

I told the sales manager I'd be most comfortable doing both transactions at once (side note: unsure if there are tax benefits doing the VW as a trade vs a separate transaction). He said we can wait but he can't guarantee numbers on the Mazda past Aug 31.
What does everyone think?

Emilio Valdez Mainero met Ramón Arellano at a posada before Christmas 1986 in the Lomas de Aguacaliente neighborhood. Fausto Soto Miller presented the interiors of a Cougar parked in double file, where they pulled to inhale white powder without Lina Literas, the first's girlfriend, knowing. In the passenger seat was Kitty Páez, whom Valdez Mainero had already met at a roast beef from Mexico Institute graduates in Chapultepec. The Mon wore a printed silk shirt and a mink coat, under which he wore a Guadalupano gold medallion; As he got out of the car to return to the party, he showed off some white denim shorts and tennis shoes. Valdez Mainero, who was the son of an austere colonel who had served on the Presidential General Staff, found the outfit ridiculous; However, something in him dazzled him: his insolence was covered by the fear he inspired in the rest of the guests. Soto Miller had warned him that he was crossing the mota to the other side and that his brother was running an organization of gangsters from Culiacán; He didn't say: “The bato is chill”, but he did say: “The bato always invites a few shots of champagne”. The Mon's brother, whom Soto Miller was allowed to refer to only as the Lord, directed the movement to the United States of shipments of up to 20 tons of marijuana a day. After the December anniversary, the heir to the presidential bodyguard began to entertain himself with his clique and, after a dizzying streak of revelry, he decided to work for the Mon. This is how he learned that his brother Benjamín Arellano Félix also crossed cocaine and distributed it in the corridor between San Diego and Los Angeles. The alkaloid was provided by Ismael Zambada García, who flew it from Colombia to the Pacific coast with the help of Amado Carrillo Fuentes, a heavy trafficker who operated alongside Rafael Aguilar Guajardo, leader of the Juárez Cartel.
On May 6, 1987, Ángel Gutiérrez was arrested along with the migration inspector José Barrón and Óscar Páez, Kitty's brother. Gutiérrez had seven days of having returned from Nimes, France, to California, where Julio César Chávez had defended his championship against the Brazilian Francisco Tomás Da Cruz. The DEA identified him as the operator of Javier Caro Payán, Manuel Aguirre Galindo, Jesús Labra Avilés and Benjamín Arellano Félix, who made up the council of leaders of the Tijuana Cartel. While the first three supplied marijuana to the organization, the fourth provided the transportation routes to California. On June 7, undercover federal agents arrested the first of those leaders in Montreal; Police accused Caro Payán of bringing 100 tons of Mexican marijuana into Canada. The San Diego prosecutor's office requested his extradition on September 4, accusing him of handing over $ 650,000 to Barrón for allowing the passage of 13 loaded trucks. Óscar Páez, on the other hand, was sentenced to two years in prison at the Federal Correctional Facility in Phoenix; There he met David Barrón Corona, who had no relationship with the customs inspector, but who recommended his brother to join the cartel's army as soon as he was released. The same day his brother was arrested, Kitty left his San Diego apartment and moved to the Mon house in El Paraíso, a subdivision where the offices of the weekly Zeta were also located.
On June 30 of that year, businessman Jorge Hank Rhon and directors of radio station 91X organized a music festival at the Caliente Racetrack. The Mex-Fest, according to the Los Angeles Times review, brought together 30,000 music lovers from both sides of the border. The concert was headlined by Oingo Boingo, The Bangles and Chris Issak, whom the Mon began to listen to on the recommendation of Soto Miller and whose songs he hummed alone while driving his Porsche Carrera of the year. On the day of the concert Valdez Mainero organized a party on the roof of his house, which was right in front of the stage, across the street from the racecourse. Despite the fact that it was Tuesday and the festival had ended before midnight, the makeshift terrace was packed with wealthy drug addicts living in Lomas de Aguacaliente and Chapultepec. The birote was interrupted at two in the morning by a patrol that came to answer the complaints of the neighbors. Evangelina Casillas Higuera, who was Mon's sentimental partner, heard Valdez Mainero say that people had to withdraw: "There is going to be a big problem with Ramón." She heard shots, ran to the exit and as she was outside she heard that her boyfriend had killed one of the policemen; he went on a raite with Lina Literas and did not see Mon until the next day, when he visited her smiling and hearty. Evangelina asked him about what had happened the night before; and he said: "Nothing, that some guests had gotten angry because the agents covered the concert and it was not possible to see". In her statement to the Southern District Court of California on May 27, 2003, she assured that until then she began to suspect that her boyfriend was engaged in illegal business.
On August 17, a month and a half after the Mex-Fest, Kitty Páez sponsored Ramón's fake wedding with Evangelina. El Mon had bought a fictitious marriage license from a judge at the town hall so that his girlfriend, who was 17 at the time, could leave the Instituto México (her high school), leave her parents' house (which was in Las Palmas, the same division of the school) and move to his in El Paraíso. Evangelina thought her in-laws were from Guadalajara, where she had made a fortune in the construction industry.
The following year Kitty Páez Martínez proposed to the Mon that he sponsor her wedding with Angélica Bustamante González, granddaughter of Alfonso Bustamante Labastida, owner of the Torres de Aguacaliente, and niece of Carlos Bustamante Anchondo, who would become mayor of Tijuana for the PRI in 2010. The in-laws found it suspicious that Kitty, who did not come from a wealthy family, owned a liquor store in Rosarito at 22 years old. However, they consented to the wedding (which was real) in March 1988. According to the chronicle of Anne Marie O'Connor published on July 28, 2002 in the Los Angeles Times, they got the also PRI member Federico Valdés to officiate it, municipal president at the time. At four and a half months Angélica gave birth to a pair of twins.
At the end of the summer, when Kitty was giving birth to their children, Mon and Evangelina went out to party with Valdez Mainero and his girlfriend Lina. They drank at Tillys, a bar on the second floor at the corner of Avenida Revolución and Calle Quinta. On the way out, a policeman stopped the Mon to ask him to please empty the contents of his beer bottle into a plastic cup. "You are not going to tell me where I am going to drink," he replied. The policeman offered him the plastic cup and Valdez Mainero, in anticipation of the inevitable, pulled the women toward the car and said: "Let's go." Evangelina heard a detonation that made her turn towards where the policeman was bleeding, covering the wound in his stomach, lying on the floor in the middle of the fleeing crowd. She saw her husband crawl and get on the motorcycle of the escort who always looked after him from afar. Valdez Mainero took his home. The Mon slept that day at the home of Min. Evangelina could not sleep and shortly before dawn she wondered if she should fear her husband. Months later, Evangelina asked the Mon to speak; This led her to an area in the Chapultepec neighborhood that was not yet urbanized, from where she could see the entire city. Minutes after arriving a patrol came to inspect them; The Mon rolled down the window and shouted: "Eleven eleven", then a police officer approached, answered: "Ten four" and left. The woman asked him what that had meant. The Mon replied that "eleven eleven" was a key to tell the police that he was "from the same team" and, therefore, everything was fine. Evangelina, who had summoned the Mon to question him about what happened at the Tillys and even at Valdez Mainero's house a year earlier, had no need to ask. The Mon revealed to him that his father crossed over to the United States a lot in the early 1970s, where he bought expensive liquors to sell to drug traffickers in Culiacán. That was how his brother Min had made friends with people like Rafael Caro and Amado Carrillo, but also with many policemen who now worked in Tijuana.
The Min transported 10 tons of cocaine per month for the Mayo Zambada from spring 1987 to summer 1988. He received the shipments from Mazatlán at an airstrip in San Felipe and crossed them into the United States in tanks that had previously been filled with propane. The alkaloid had been wrapped in the Colombian jungle with black rubber, like that of the inner tubes of bicycles; Upon arrival in Los Angeles, however, it was vacuum packed and in carbon paper. Arellano Félix's work was painstaking and meticulous. At that time, Mayo paid him $ 1,200 for each kilogram exported and proposed that he not only transport, but also associate with him in the importation and distribution of cocaine in the United States. He asked him to be the best man at the wedding of his daughter María Teresa Zambada Niebla and two years later to baptize his son Serafín Zambada Ortiz.
Ismael Higuera Guerrero, alias El Mayel, who had worked with the Fifth Month and was responsible for the daily operation of the cartel, received the merchandise in clandestine ports throughout the peninsula; Higuera Guerrero, also directed the transit of fishing vessels loaded with cocaine that left Colombia and landed in Ensenada. His brother Gilberto Higuera Guerrero, alias El Gilillo, was in charge of unloading the planes landed on clandestine runways in San Felipe and Valle de Guadalupe, after supervising the transfer of cargo along the Mexicali route. Efraín Pérez Pasuengo and Jorge Aureliano Félix, a former agent of the Judicial Police, supervised the daily operations in the Tijuana plaza.
On Sunday, January 1, 1989, the Min celebrated his two-time friend's 41st birthday at the renowned Club Britania in Tijuana. They were accompanied by Ramón, who was then 24 years old and six years old from working in his brother's business. The celebration was attended by drug traffickers from the rest of the squares and escorted by judges who worked in the administration of Xicoténcatl Leyva Mortera, governor who would be removed from office four days later. Armando López Esparza, alias El Rayo, appeared at the party on behalf of Chapo Guzmán, leader of the Sinaloa Cartel. The first had grown up with the second in the Badiraguato mountains and knew the brothers from when they lived in Culiacán. He used to run into them at Los Rebeldes, the jukebox scrap shop in the Guadalupe neighborhood.
El Rayo arrived at the christening drunk and accompanied by a woman. The policemen denied him entry, claiming that he had no invitation. The insults of Chapo's friend caused an uproar among the agents. Then the Mon went out to the parking lot, identified the Lightning, and heard him yelling. He walked over, drew his pistol, and shot his head off. Although there was no need, he shot her four times again as soon as she hit the ground, splattering blood on the companion's cleavage. Ramón, who was 1.88 meters tall and weighed 100 kilos, threw the body on his back and carried it to the pan of his picop. Then he threw it at the beginning of the road to Rosarito and returned to the party to convince his brother of the need to avoid revenge. Florentino, Rayo's brother, and the rest of the family had to be killed. El Mayo thought it was fine.
On January 1, 1989, Valdez Mainero went to the party that the Lord had organized for Mayo at the Britania Club, above Lomas de Aguacaliente. As he ate, he saw that the Mon got up from the table pissed off and walked towards the parking lot of the room. He was going slowly, but with a hardened jaw. Seeing his employer this excited, Valdez Mainero felt a shameful mixture of empowerment and humiliation: he had sold himself to a narcissist with bizarre tastes who exploded with a kind of lust, the same with which he wasted on motorcycles, clothes and women to his friends. (The price he had to pay was absolute submission.) He silenced the thought by downing his beer in one gulp and followed. Before reaching the door he heard a shot and felt a rush of adrenaline explode in his face. He unsheathed his 9mm Beretta and ran: on the way out he saw a bloody Texan on the floor and next to her boss shooting a man one, two, four times between the legs. Fifteen years later, when he entered the WITSEC program, Valdez Mainero declared that the Mon swore that Rayo López had kidnapped one of his sisters while he was living in Guadalajara. The Min denied this version.
Páez Martínez was not accompanied by his wife at the May party at Club Britania; He also did not see when the Mon shot Rayo in the parking lot, but he did help him plan the death of Florentino López Esparza on February 15, 1989, when Rayo's brother was escorted by municipal authorities before he was admitted to the Culiacán prison. This is how the Kitty followed the roll to the Mon, whom he made compadre despite the fact that he had killed the Nelo and chased Sandra, whom he revered for having taken him off the street and put him in the business. Páez Martínez felt fear and revulsion at the most violent of the Arellano Félix. He believed that he could take him on his own until the summer of 1989 he ordered him to kill the agent of the Public Ministry Miguel Ángel Rodríguez Moreno; Kitty was very fond of the Public Ministry agent, but if he did not break him, the Mon would take revenge against him. "Ramón doesn't give a shit that we're compadres," he told himself in a sudden outburst of obviousness. In November 1989 Evangelina gave birth in the United States. The Mon did not appear at the delivery of his daughter, nor did he limit his campaign of executions. Some of the executions were not authorized by the Min or by his brother Eduardo, who had just arrived from Guadalajara to join the company. Güalín, which is what his brothers called him (Doctor is what the subordinates should call him), was something like the producer of the Tijuana film: he got the properties that would be used as safe houses or warehouses, he negotiated the acquisition of police uniforms , acquired weapons and automobiles for the company. The Doctor also participated in giving the green light to the enemies, which is what they called the permission to kill the rivals of the cartel. Most of the communication between the brothers, at the behest of the Doctor, was exclusively through radio frequency; he assigned himself the code 13 and when he communicated with the Min he announced: "Code thirteen to seventy-seven", with the Mon he said: "Code thirteen to ninety-nine." Gerardo Juárez Biberos, his bodyguard from 1989 to 1997, told the WITSEC program that the Doctor was nervous and apprehensive: "He made this strange noise with his mouth," he said. Every time he failed an execution he coughed and cleared his throat, mortified as if his air were being cut off. When I commented on this statement, the Min was upset and assured that Eduardo had proven to be together with Ramón the bravest of all the members of the company, including his brothers. After being apprehended defending himself with bullets on October 26, 2008 in a house in Chapultepec and being extradited on September 1, 2012, Güalín, as his brothers nicknamed him, was the only member of the cartel who did not testify. against him or anyone.
Evangelina Casillas Higuera did testify on May 27, 2003 against the Minister. In her statement to the Southern District Court of California, she identified her brother-in-law's partners: Chuy Labra, Mayo Zambada, Mayel Higuera and Caballo Aguirre, as well as Amado Carrillo Fuentes and Rafael Aguilar Guajardo. She claimed to know her mother, Alicia, whom she nicknamed Mama Licha, including the siblings who were not involved in the business. Luis Fernando, son of Norma Isabel Arellano Félix, said that she had been involved in the company of her uncles since she was a teenager. Evangelina stated that when Mayo worked with Min, Ramón traveled to Mexicali at the request of his brother. Evangelina was about to give birth, but she accompanied him. The Mon spent the night at a ranch owned by the Mayo and the next day he picked up his wife at the Hotel Lucerna. He did not get out of the car, his clothes were dirty, torn and smelled a lot of sweat. The Mon started the car and told him that as soon as his daughter was born, they would have to move to Guadalajara. In her statement, Evangelina reported that in early 1990, a week after moving in with the newborn, Victoria Barrionuevo visited her. The wife of her brother-in-law Pancho was very angry because she had discovered that her husband was unfaithful to her with Rocío Lizárraga Lizárraga, a puberty of 17 who on February 2 of that year would become Queen of the Mazatlan Carnival. Pancho, who had already entered forty, had withdrawn all financial support to force her to divorce. Victoria was pissed off: he had helped her get off the ground in the drug trade in the late 1970s and that was how Pancho thanked her. Evangelina testified that Victoria ranted about how involved the Min and the Mon were in drug trafficking. He also revealed that the López Esparza brothers were his enemies because Rayo, who was a protégé of Chapo Guzmán, had kidnapped one of his sisters in 1980. The López Esparzas' father ordered the woman's release the following week because he did not he wanted trouble with the Arrellano Félix. However, that did not prevent the Mon from taking revenge nine years later and, consequently, El Chapo had a pretext to fight the place against the Min.
On the morning of February 26, 1990, Benjamín Arellano Félix and Ismael Zambada García were machine-gunned by a commando who was traveling in two Suburban Federal Police. The Min had proposed to meet at the Lavamática Campestre in the Rio Zone, where the Mayo arrived with two bodyguards who occupied the back seats of the armored Grand Marquis that the friend, partner and host, was driving alone. Why should he carry a driver if he was so good at driving?
The Min left the car running, as he always did when he met to discuss business. He saw the vans slow down in the middle of the street and his crewmen get off quickly, pointing semi-automatic rifles at them at half a meter. He pulled the Mayo by the head, yelled at him: "Get down, buddy," and watched as a burst of shots smashed through the bulletproof glass. The guards tried to go out to repel the shooting, but the Min locked the door lock, accelerated in first gear and as he could, he crossed both Suburbans. He maneuvered toward the Fast Track, where they were still followed; he felt the cart buckle as if it were floating on a rough tide, but he stepped on the Marquis, righted it, and managed to lose them in the November 20 neighborhood. There he took the first street to his right, went into a passage and cornered what was left of the boat; the defense was broken and the tires, despite the foam that protected them, were smashed. The four of them came down fast, then jumped a fence; one of the gunmen took Zambada away, the other accompanied the Min to arrest a motorist who heard him in shock: "Take us to the boulevard."
The four met an hour later in the house that the compadre, despite being in Sinaloa, had in the Hipódromo neighborhood. The Min ordered his boys to be brought in and they pulled them all to Playas, where Commander Fulvio Jiménez Turegano lived. Other vans began to follow them as they approached the home, but no one wanted to start another wax bullet. The commander received them with a broken face and took them into the room. The Min told him: "If you want to kill us, we are here so it doesn't get complicated for you." The policeman dropped onto the couch: "I didn't do it, it must have been a mistake." Then there was an uneasy silence. And then he asked for their forgiveness. The Min, then, said goodbye not without first reminding him to be attentive "because here there was only a boss. And, if he didn't understand, he was going to be fucked and the rest of the federals attached to Tijuana.
Three days later, Jiménez Turegano called Benjamín Arellano Félix by cell phone. He offered him a rapprochement with the heads of the other five companies that controlled drug trafficking in Mexico. El Min moved up to two tons of cocaine a day and, together with Labra Avilés and Aguirre Galindo, had managed to weave a network to operate in complicity with officials and politicians on both sides of the border. Surely someone wanted to take over his route.
After the shooting in front of Lavamática Campestre, Arellano Félix spoke by phone with Rafael Aguilar Guajardo, former regional commander of the DFS and now head of the company that operated in Juárez. At first, his counterpart assured him that neither he nor the rest were aware that El Chapo had ordered the attack. None of the leaders wanted to put a finger on him and the Min felt that they were covering up the Sinaloan capo. He remembered the meetings in the lavish bungalows of Acapulco or in the opulent restaurants of Mexico City, where he had been invited and in which he heard the advice of the friendship of this or that to be able to kill him even after learning to work his place. Very soon he gave up seeing them in a group; He looked at them separately, inside his armored Marquis and only when necessary. Because he was also moving cocaine for his interlocutor, he hinted to Aguilar Guajardo that it would be convenient for him to take care of himself, "or do you think they won't look for you after me?" For now Arellano Félix would take revenge against Guzmán Loera, "your compadre, just because he seems to be the least attentive." The next day Aguilar Guajardo called him on the phone to let him know that El Chapo had confessed that yes, that he was the one who had ordered the accounts to be settled. "Sure he got mad because I said he was the least attentive," thought the Min, and then he laughed self-absorbed.
From 1989 to 1992 the Min consolidated control of all transfer routes to California and Arizona. To get the business off the ground even more, he paid a payroll made up of officials from both sides of the border: attorneys and deputy attorneys, federal commanders and state group leaders, members of the Mexican military, and US customs inspectors. Arellano Félix believed that the bites brought order to the plaza, while also offering government officials an opportunity to "truly win". If they committed themselves to facilitating, protecting and promoting the operations of the company, they would earn a remuneration complementary to their salaries more than profitable. Prosecutors, agents, police officers, and soldiers obeyed the Lord's orders: they watched the arrival of shipments of cocaine and marijuana in the Mexicali desert, in the Guadalupe Valley, and on the San Felipe beach. They escorted Gilillo Higuera not once, but every time so that he could take the shipments in peace to the warehouses that the Doctor had acquired in Mexicali.
Every year and a half, when there was a change of directors in the PGR, the Min was introduced to the incoming commander by the outgoing one. The Min gave him $ 500,000 as a welcome gift. The gift was repeated every month, as were deliveries of $ 250,000 to the squad leaders and the director of the Judicial Police. Division directors received regular payments of $ 200,000 every eight weeks. This was the case of Enrique Harari Garduño, former director of the Federal Preventive Police, who was arrested on August 17, 2000. The official would die for unknown reasons four years later, three months after being released from Cefereso. The delegates and sub-delegates of the PGR were the only ones who did not receive a monthly fee, but one-time payments of up to one million dollars. This was the case with Guillermo Robles Liceaga, who was shot on May 1, 2002 while driving through the Interior Circuit in Mexico City; He was ambushed by two Jettas and a motorcycle on his way to the Ministry of Public Security, where he served as director of Mixed Operations. The Min established a similar relationship with high-ranking members of the military, who were paid $ 250,000 a month. Declarations of other witnesses indicate that this is the case of General Alfredo Navarro Lara, who was imprisoned on March 17, 1997, accused of wanting to bribe General José Luis Chávez, then in charge of the PGR, with a million dollars.
According to Páez Martínez, Arellano Félix maintained this bribery model throughout the 1990s. Kitty was busy with Chuy Labra to negotiate with government officials; Mayel Higuera, who was the strategist and coordinator of the transfer operations, connected the Ministry with police and advanced military. El Mayel ended up winning the place that Javier Caro had before his arrest and continued as operative chief until May 3, 2000: at dawn that day he would be arrested "fortuitously" by the army, according to the note published by El Universal. He was drunk and shot a Goat Horn into the air in a house behind the Autonomous University of Baja California, in Ensenada.
The Min's word was the last as to who could or could not cross non-company shipments. The cartel had control of the routes and without the approval of the Lord, the disrespectful risked being assassinated by the narcojuniors. Arellano Félix received a request from Emilio Valdez Mainero in early 1992: Miguel Ángel Bazán Padilla wanted to cross remittances of mota through Tijuana. José Albino Bazán Padilla's brother, captured on April 4, 1985 in Costa Rica along with Rafael Caro Quintero, had bought a ranch in the Eastern Zone to store the merchandise. After dictating the charge for the floor fee, the Min told him: "Go and let him know that he has the approval." When Valdez Mainero arrived at the farm, he noticed that they were unloading about 500 kilos of coca. The narcojunior experienced a heat in his forehead and his pulse quickened; He saw Ramón maddened in his head, pointing his gun with its golden handles. He asked to speak to the boss, who received him in a makeshift hut at the back of the property: "The product is from Amado Carrillo," Bazán Padilla snapped without greeting him. I think that with his permission is enough, right? "
Three days later the Mon passed by him to his house next to the Hipódromo taqueria. She led him to a corner in the La Mesa neighborhood, where a black Grand Marquis picked them up. Already climbed, he noticed that the Min was driving, Ismael Zambada was the co-pilot and in the back seat was a bearded man who he did not recognize. They saw him without greeting him. El Mayo played a recording on the boat's cassette player: Bazán Padilla asked Chapo Guzmán for permission to eliminate the narcojuniors Emilio and Gabriel Valdez Mainero. Then the Mayo put on another recording: Emilio urged Bazán Padilla to desist from moving coca without permission. The Min watched him silently for 30 to 40 seconds. "The only reason these gentlemen have not killed you - (he warned, pointing to the rest) - is the second recording you just heard." El Mayo then intervened: "Whose product is it?" Valdez Mainero stumbled that of Amado Carrillo Fuentes. Suddenly the man in the back seat of the Marquis leaned over and articulated slowly, looking into his eyes: "I am Amado Carrillo Fuentes." Before asking him to get off the Marquis, Zambada informed the narcojunior that he had permission to kill Bazán Padilla. The Mon promised in front of the chiefs that he would help him.
Six days later, a hooded commando, disguised in military uniforms and distributed in three vans, picked up Valdez Mainero. All three were equipped to store Goat Horns and grenades in their rear boxes, in addition to the passengers. The narcojunior recognized the Mon by his high-pitched voice; He did not know who was in the group for the ski masks, with the exception of his childhood friends the brothers Alfredo and Alejandro Hodoyán Palacios; plus Fabián Martínez, another young man from the Mexico Institute who was nicknamed Jaws. They went to a warehouse in La Libertad, where they saw Bazán Padilla and his gunmen get into two pickup trucks. The commando stopped them a block and a half from the warehouse: they pointed their guns at the gunmen forcing them to fall to the ground and yelled at Bazán Padilla to come down slowly because the Commander wanted to talk to him. They put him in the van that the Mon manned with Valdez Mainero. They started off, but the Hodoyán and El Tiburon kept pointing their guns at the gunmen on the ground.
The next morning, while drinking orange juice at the Chapultepec house, the Min read in the newspaper that Bazán Padilla, a member of the Sinaloa Cartel, had been found dead along with a dozen gunmen: federal agents had seized three tons of cocaine and one of marijuana. The Min put down the newspaper without finishing reading the note and got on the treadmill. An hour and a half later, he was seen with Mayo and Amado Carrillo in another armored Gran Marquis, but this time blue. Valdez Mainero arrived at the meeting without the Mon and got on the car waving everyone's hands. He informed them that he had recovered two tons of marijuana from the dead man's ranch. The Min told him: "Keep them, sell them and keep them as a reward."
On November 7, 1992, a day before he turned 40, Benjamín Arellano Félix traveled to Puerto Vallarta to take a vacation while the business was cooling (Fulvio Jiménez Turegano had seized four shipments). El Min landed in a private jet and his brothers Pancho, Mon and Javier arrived separately: one from Mazatlán, the others from Tijuana. All were distributed in three complexes around Playa Las Glorias. El Gualín waited for everyone to arrive to fly with his guards from Mexicali. Fifty of the Min's boys arrived between the 5th and 6th of that month, including Mayel and his brother Gilillo. The Kitty waited to travel with the Doctor. Valdez Mainero had not been invited. The following day, the Min received his second wife Ruth Serrano Corona and their two minor children, who had flown on a plane belonging to their compadre, at the Las Palmas Hotel. Despite the fact that they had prepaid the rooms, the Min told his family that they would not be staying at the hotel; He moved them to a huge bungalow with its own private pier and beach not far from there, where he spent the afternoon with his children collecting shells in the sand.

Greetings everybody. The topic I wanted to cover for the History Compendium is inspired by SB Nation's Collapse, a really interesting series on how a sports team or athlete can collapse quickly, and go from a strong team, to a weak one. I don't even follow most of the sports they discuss, but I still find it interesting, as rarely does such a collapse happen due to a single event; normally it takes multiple events to truly make it set in, such as Sega dropping out of the console manufacturing business. And now for a collapse that is particularly painful to me. The Essendon Football Club in 2000 had the greatest season a team has ever had in the history of VFL / AFL. In 30 games (5 pre-season, 22 regular season, 3 finals), they only lost once, culminating in their 16th Premiership flag, an AFL record only equalled by Carlton (VFA and SANFL flags are another discussion). The team was made up of numerous star players such as James Hird, Matthew Lloyd, Blake Caracella, Steven Alessio, Mark Mercuri, Joe Misiti and Gary Moorcroft, and led Kevin Sheedy, who in his 20th season in charge had won his fourth premiership as senior coach. The Essendon 2000 team had a single year of dominance never equalled, and many couldn’t see how it could possibly go wrong from here.
See the bombers fly up, 1993-1999
The seeds for 2000 were sown in 1993. Essendon was a team in transition; after being a strong club in the 1980s, winning the 1984 and 1985 Grand Finals, they lost the 1990 Premiership and many felt like they were due for a lean period, their premiership Captain Terry Daniher retired, and the club thought their best prospect was to blood the kids, and maybe make finals. Instead, 1993 would be one of the most even seasons ever, with Essendon and Carlton finishing top of the ladder with a record of 13-6-1. This was a season so even, that there was just two wins and a draw separating Essendon and Carlton from 7th and 8th placed Collingwood and Footscray. It was in this remarkable season that Essendon would scrape through and win a remarkable premiership, defeating Carlton in the Grand Final. While 32 year old Tim Watson wound back the clock, it was the seven players aged 21 and under, called the "baby bombers", that had people excited. By 2000, Gavin Wanganeen, David Calthorpe and Rick Olarenshaw had moved on, but Dustin Fletcher, Mark Mercuri, James Hird and Joe Misiti were all still at Essendon.
The lean period many had expected never happened; after 1993, the club made finals each season from 1995-2004 (except 1997). The club lost the qualifying and preliminary finals in 1996 by just a point each, going down to a kick after the siren to Tony Lockett in the Prelim. In 1999, they were minor premiers with a record of 18-4, and seemed a lock to the grand final, drawn against Carlton in the preliminary final. Essendon had beaten Carlton in both of their home and away matches with a combined margin of 115 points, and had six more wins in the home and away season. Carlton was sixth place, and many felt that they’d only made it this far due to an unfair fixture, playing against higher ranked interstate teams at the MCG in the finals due to the finals system in place at the time. In the shock of the season, Essendon went down by just one point again, with Dean Wallis getting tackled by Fraser Brown in the dying seconds and allowing Carlton to regain possession. Carlton would be flogged in the grand final by Wayne Carey and Dennis Pagan’s Kangaroos, but many of their fans weren’t that mad; they’d denied Essendon its sixteenth premiership, which would have made them equal with Carlton for the most in the VFL/AFL. Sheedy would force his team to watch the game, a painful lesson in what they had allowed to happen; the team learned.
Glory and fame, 2000-2001
Essendon’s 2000 season is the closest a team has ever gone to been undefeated, losing just one game. In the regular season and finals, they scored 150 points or more six times, and scored over 100 points another 15 times. At no point was Essendon not top of the ladder, and ended Round 22 with a percentage of 159.1. This is the fourth highest percentage a team has ever had at the end of the home and away season since 1945, and has only been eclipsed by Collingwood 2011, Geelong 2008, and West Coast 1991 (fun fact, none of those teams won the premiership that year).
Their only loss of the year came in Round 21, in a game that would prove to be a vision of what football would look like in the future. The Western Bulldogs needed to win the game to be a chance for finals, and their coach Terry Wallace employed a flooding game plan, playing most of his players in defence, and players playing to a part of the field, and not onto an opposing player, which was the norm for most of the games history. This innovative strategy would restrict Essendon’s attack, and was the only thing keeping the Bulldogs in the game. Flooding and zone defence were not commonplace tactics at the time, would become the dominant one in the 2000s, most notably used by Sydney and Collingwood in the 2005 and 2010 premierships. Even then, it was a close match, with Essendon losing 12.9 (81) to 14.8 (92) due to late goal from Chris Grant, following by a kick after the siren from Rohan Smith.
Essendon’s solitary loss meant they still finished top of the ladder, and Matthew Lloyd kicked 109 goals to win the Coleman Medal. Essendon broke records their qualifying final against the Kangaroos, when they kicked 31.12 (198) to 11.7 (73), margin of 125 points; not only Essendon’s highest ever score and margin, but the highest score ever and margin in an AFL final. Essendon in 2000 was so far above their competition that it was practically a forgone conclusion when they defeated Melbourne in the Grand Final 19.21 (135) to 11.9 (75). Essendon’s almost perfect season was capped by a premiership, and Darren Bewick got to retire a winner.
After two strong seasons, much was expected of Essendon in 2001. They were very good, but not as dominant as before. And by not as dominant, I mean they still won their third consecutive minor premiership, with 17 wins, but they were not leagues above the competition anymore; they were ahead of second-place Brisbane on percentage. A massive highlight of the season was their Round 16 game against the Kangaroos, where after being 69 (hue hue hue) points down in the second quarter, they launched a massive comeback, and ended up winning 27.9 (171) to 25.9 (159) in the highest scoring match ever since 1994 (when quarters were shortened form 25 minutes to 20). Whenever I watch a game, I know to switch off when a team gets 70 points in front, because a 69 point comeback is always on the cards.
In addition to being minor premiers again, Matthew Lloyd would win his second consecutive Coleman Medal, with 91 goals. After breezing through their qualifying final against Richmond, they had a massive scare against rank outsiders Hawthorn, but beat them by 9 points. It was here that very worrying signs began to emerge; many of their players were carrying injuries, and their late season form was struggling, as they won just three of their last six games in the home and away season. Their dream of a second premiership in a row went down in flames as they became the first victims of the Brisbane Lions’ threepeat. Essendon was outplayed for most of the game after the first quarter, the abnormally hot day also playing to Brisbane’s advantage, being used to playing in the warmer Queensland weather. More crucially, James Hird, John Barnes and Mark Mercuri were playing injured, and were not able to play at their best. The game was a repeat of the 1990 Grand Final, where Essendon was defeated by Collingwood; both teams were coached by Leigh Matthews, who as Captain of Hawthorn had beaten Essendon in 1983, but lost to them in the 1984 and 1985 grand finals. The final margin of 26 points flattered Essendon, who scored junk time goals after trailing by 39 points.
After the 2001 Grand Final, John Barnes, as well as Michael Long and Dean Wallis, who missed the grand final due to age and injury, retired. As well as this, Damien Hardwick was traded to Port Adelaide. Essendon was struggling to fit their players in their salary cap, and Port Adelaide offered him a three-year deal that Essendon couldn’t match. Hardwick was a key part of Essendon’s defence, and would go on to be part of Port Adelaide’s 2004 premiership.
Justin Blumfield, Chris Heffernan, Joe Misiti, Blake Caracella all would face injury concerns in the 2001 season and afterwards. So five of the players from the 2000 Premiership were already gone, and more were no longer at their best; despite this things were about to get much worse.
They all try their best, 2002-2004
The AFL at the time had a veterans allowance, were players who had been at their club for 10 years had part of their salary not counted to the cap; this allowance was scrapped in 2017 as part of a new CBA the AFLPA agreed to, which saw an increase to total player payments. Depending on the number of veterans, as much as 50% of their salary could be excluded from the cap. The purpose of the veterans allowance was to encourage clubs to retain older players, as well as reward them for long service, but was phased out after Gold Coast and GWS entered, and were unable to have any players qualify. It was also felt that clubs like Geelong were abusing the veterans allowance to keep their 2007-2011 superteam together.
At some point in the 2002, a grave error had been noticed in Essendon’s player salaries; the club was paying over the cap, but assumed it was fair spending in the veteran’s allowance. Much of their team had been recruited and developed over many years, rather than being traded in. However, Essendon had massively miscalculated how much money they were actually allowed to have covered by the veteran’s allowance, and realised that they couldn’t keep all of their stars. Chief Executie Peter Jackson declared that they needed to keep “marquee players James Hird, Dustin Fletcher and Matthew Lloyd”, which let a lot of other players at risk of being traded. Scrambling, they were forced to trade out three of their premiership players; Chris Heffernan to Melbourne, Blake Caracella to Brisbane, and Justin Blumfield to Richmond. Caracella would go on to win another premiership at Brisbane. At the same time, Gary Moorcroft, battling injury issues, was delisted, played one more year at Melbourne, then retired. Replacing them were Damian Cupido, a promising junior player who never reached his potential, and some drafts picks. The club would blow pick 10 on Jason Laycock, who was nowhere near the quality of the players lost. They did have some success with the other player they traded in, Adam McPhee, but one decent player can't replace several important ones.
According to Kevin Sheedy "They didn't want to go, the club didn't want them to leave. But salary cap rules cannot be broken." Assistant coach Robert Shaw would later say “We were around $600,000 over the cap. We had to bring the salary cap down and ultimately Essendon had to sack three premiership stars and ultimately tore the heart out of the club.”
Jackson concluded the trade period with this statement;

“Through this difficult period and in the cool light of day, I’m certain our members and supporters will see that this club has maintained a list that will be more than competitive in 2003. We are in good hands with the likes of James Hird, Matthew Lloyd, the Johnsons, Scott Lucas, Dean Solomon, Danny Jacobs, Adam Ramanauskas, Joe Misiti, Mark Mercuri, Dustin Fletcher, Sean Wellman and others.”

Just five of the players he mentioned were still at the club just five years later. The club failed to capitalise on the trades; few of the players they drafted in 2001-2006 would be long-term and successful players, and players traded in, such as Justin Murphy and Matthew Allen wouldn’t have much impact. The departing veterans were also exposing the list for what it was; incredibly shallow. Other than the players in the Grand Finals, just three would have respectable careers at Essendon; Damian Peverill, Mark Bolton and David Hille. A fourth, James Podsiadly would be delisted, Essendon having no idea that 10 years later as a mature-aged rookie, he would play in Geelong’s 2011 Premiership (fun fact, you too can purchase this amazing picture of James Podsaidly back when he had hair for the amazing price of $650). A fifth, Ted Richards, was traded to Sydney and would play in their 2012 premiership. The club’s incredible strength in their 1999-2001 era hid the fact that just about half the list was barely AFL qualify, and therefore when the older players left the club or needed breaks from playing, the other half was unable to replace them. The club also neglected in drafting youth, and would spend some of their picks on older players in an attempt to keep the list afloat, most notably in 2001 when they drafted 37 year old Paul Salmon with Pick 50, when future Collingwood leading goalkicker (and much younger) Paul Medhurst was taken by Fremantle with Pick 56.
The pattern was similar in 2003. Steven Alessio and Paul Barnard retired, Danny Jacobs was traded to Hawthorn, and cruellest of all, Adam Ramanauskas was diagnosed with cancer. Fortunately, he did eventually recover, and was able to play more games, but the treatments, as well as a knee injury, affected his playing ability, and robbed the club of a great player during his prime. The exodus continued, and in 2004, Mark Mercuri, Joe Misiti and Sean Wellman retired. In the 2002 season, 20 of the players involved in the 2000 and 2001 Grand Finals were still at Essendon, but by the 2005 season, there were just 10.
In 2002, they finished 5th, defeated 8th placed West Coast, and were defeated in the semi-finals by Port Adelaide. In 2003, they finished 8th, flogged 5th placed Fremantle, but were defeated in the semi-finals, once again by Port Adelaide. 2004 was a repeat of 2003; they finished 8th, narrowly defeated 5th placed Melbourne, but were then defeated in the semi-finals by Geelong. That’s three wasted years, where youth development was neglected in the chase for success, and ultimately, the result was three semi-final blowouts in a row. Infamously, their 2004 elimination final win is their most recent, a 16-year finals win drought that is the league’s current longest. Only Brisbane, who hasn’t won a final since 2009, and Gold Coast who hasn’t even made finals ever since they entered the competition in 2011, have comparable droughts. After Aaron Sandilands retired in 2019, the AFL has no current players who have lost to Essendon in a final. In fact, some mad lad who I am totally not annoyed at has made a twitter account about how lolworthy and memetic Essendon’s inability to win finals is.
But they can’t get near, 2005-2007
The decline the club was in steepened sharply, and the once former powerhouse of the AFL was no struggling on-field, missing finals in all three years. The club’s inability to recruit enough talent was now obvious, as multiple early draft picks were blown on players who would be disappointing for multiple reasons, including injury, poor form, bad development, and flawed drafting strategies;

• 2001 Pick 18: Shane Harvey
• 2002 Pick 10: Jason Laycock
• 2003 Pick 6: Keplar Bradley
• 2006 Pick 2: Scott Gumbleton
• 2006 Pick 18: Leroy Jetta

Players they could have drafted with those picks include Jason Gram, Jay Schulz, David Mundy, Joel Selwood and Shane Edwards. They also picked up Bachar Houli, who would later be delisted and play in two Premierships at Richmond.
In 2005, Essendon not only missed this shot at goal but also missed the finals for the first time since 1997. They were far away from the top teams of the day, Adelaide, Sydney and West Coast, and in 2005-2007, won 21 out of 66 games. Kevin Sheedy’s insistence on drafting tall players meant that the list was slow, and poorly skilled. The consensus with drafting at the time was to take athletes, and train them the skills, the opposite of today, where the best skilled players are picked, then made into athletes.
At the end of 2005, Chris Heffernan returned from Melbourne, but in 2006, Dean Solomon was traded to Fremantle, and Dean Rioli retired. Finally in 2007, the end of an era occurred when Captain James Hird and Coach Kevin Sheedy announced their departures. In their last game together, they launched a courageous effort at defending premiers West Coast, with Scott Lucas kicking seven goals in the fourth quarter to deliver what could have been a miraculous comeback win for the departing legends, but fell short, and were defeated 21.6 (132) to 19.10 (124). As well as Sheedy and Hird, Mark Johnson, Chris Heffernan, Mark Bolton and recent arrival Scott Camporale all retired, and the club looked beyond 2007 into 2008 and the future, a future that had seemed impossibly far away in 2000, but was now here.
A Hardwick in shining armour
When Essendon searched for a replacement for Sheedy, the two final candidates were former player Damian Hardwick, by this stage an assistant at Hawthorn, and former Richmond player Matthew Knights, who was the coach of the Bendigo Bombers reserves team. Hawthorn refused to let Hardwick use any intellectual property that belonged to Hawthorn, which badly impacted his multimedia presentation to the board. As a result, the job went to Knights.
Supposedly, Hardwick planned to institute a hardcore youth policy, trading whatever valuable players the club had left in order to hit the draft, inspired by what Hawthorn had done in his time as an assistant to Alistair Clarkson. This would have led to an extended period near the bottom of the ladder, and the heartbreaking trades of beloved players, but had the club's longterm interests in mind. However Knights, whose presentation claimed that the list was fine and only needed minor retooling, won the board over. Hardwick is currently in his eleventh season as coach of Richmond, and has won two premierships. Meanwhile, Knights’ time at Essendon was a failure, and he would be sacked a year before his contract was to run out. The club did make finals in 2009, despite having just 10 wins, only to get blown away by Adelaide. He ended up arguing with Matthew Lloyd over his role in the team, leading to him losing passion for the game and retiring perhaps earlier than he should have.
Many outsiders felt that Essendon was a club stuck in the past, with their head in the sand of the VFL days, where big clubs like Essendon never had to be terrible for too long, success could be bought, and investing in a youth policy just wasn’t the way. To a club like Essendon, not making finals for three years was unacceptable, and a good reason to sack a coach; indeed, Kevin Sheedy would be sacked after three consecutive seasons of not making finals. It is indeed possible that the club grew impatient with the lack of progress under Knights, which led to a scapegoat culture and the desire to do whatever it took to win, which set the club down the dark path of the supplements saga.
Always striving, 2008 and beyond
The last remnants of the 2000 season would slowly trickle away. Adam Ramanauskas and Jason Johnson retired in 2008, and Scott Lucas and Matthew Lloyd retired in 2009. Mark McVeigh retired in 2011, and finally, Dustin Fletcher, retired in 2015 at the ridiculous age of 40 and having played 400 games, a club record and among the most ever. He was so old that he debuted a month before his teammate Dyson Heppell had been born.
I don’t want this article to go into too much detail about the complete failures that were the Matthew Knights era, the supplements saga that ruined the promising 2012 team coached by James Hird, or the 2016 season where 12 of Essendon’s players were suspended, as I wanted this article to focus on the 2000 Premiership team. What I will say is that Essendon has failed to reach anywhere near the lofty heights they did in 2000, and has yet to win a final since 2004, despite five attempts (in 2009, 2011, 2014, 2017 and 2019), and was even expelled from the finals in 2013, where they would have finished 7th, as part of their punishment for their supplements program. But at least it led to the most Richmond thing Richmond has ever done. Essendon is currently through its longest premiership drought, sitting at 20 seasons as of 2020, with the previous longest being the 19-year drought between 1965 and 1984. The current team, coached by John Worsfold, is a very different one to the one Sheedy left behind in 2007, but has been slowly rebuilding since the supplements saga, and looks to be (finally) in the right track. Much of the squad remained loyal to the club despite the saga, the membership continues to grow, and the club currently has many players that opposition fans would be envious of.
In summary
The club failed to replace the outgoing talent, either with list depth or new arrivals; only the seemingly immortal Dustin Fletcher, Mark McVeigh, Damien Peverill and David Hille would stay longterm, and of the new arrivals from 2001-2006, just 12 would play 100 games or more for Essendon (Andrew Welsh, Adam McPhee, Jason Winderlich, Jobe Watson, Brent Stanton, Ricky Dyson, Nathan Lovett-Murray, Angus Monfries, Paddy Ryder, Courtney Dempsey, Heath Hocking and Alwyn Davey).
Much like Brisbane after their threepeat, the club’s reliance on old hands and veterans would mean that the bottom fell out of the list as they retired or were moved on. The club's inability to see the writing on the wall and invest in youth sooner would cause them to pay dearly in the future. Finally, the game was beginning to move past Kevin Sheedy, and his 27-year tenure as Essendon’s coach was brought to an end. He would return as GWS' coach for their first two seasons, mainly as a mentor to the players and their next coach Leon Cameron, and still remains prominent in the game, but is no longer the coaching force he once was.
The 1999-2001 era was ultimately a disappointment if viewed objectively; in three seasons, Essendon had 62 wins and 12 losses, but just the one Premiership. For context, Hawthorn in 2013-2015 had 61 wins and 15 losses, but won three Premierships in a row. But for Bomber fans, the 2000 season, and its 16th premiership, will always be something to be proud of, and to rub in people’s faces. I suppose the moral of the story is to gloat and be arrogant when you can, because no champion teams lasts forever, even if it seems impossible.
Season to season summary
25 players played in Essendon’s squads in the two Grand Finals.

• 2000 draft – 24 remain
• 2001 draft – 20 remain
• 2002 draft – 16 remain
• 2003 draft – 13 remain
• 2004 draft – 10 remain, last finals win, fewer than half are still at Essendon
• 2005 draft – 11 remain, Chris Heffernan returns
• 2006 draft – 9 remain
• 2007 draft – 6 remain, Kevin Sheedy departs, fewer than a third remain
• 2008 draft – 4 remain
• 2009 draft – 2 remain
• 2012 draft – 1 remains, only Dustin Fletcher is still in the AFL
• 2015 draft – 0 remain

2000 / 2001 Grand Final players

• John Barnes (retired 2001)
• Damien Hardwick (traded to Port Adelaide 2001, retired 2004)
• Chris Heffernan (traded to Melbourne 2002, traded back 2005, retired 2007)
• Blake Caracella (traded to Brisbane 2002, retired 2006)
• Justin Blumfield (traded to Richmond 2002, delisted 2004)
• Gary Moorcroft (redrafted to Melbourne 2002, retired 2003)
• Steven Alessio (retire 2003)
• Paul Barnard (retired 2003)
• Mark Mercuri (retired 2004)
• Joe Misiti (retired 2004)
• Sean Wellman (retired 2004)
• Dean Solomon (traded to Fremantle 2006, retired 2009)
• Mark Johnson (traded to Fremantle 2007, retired 2008)
• James Hird (retired 2007)
• Adam Ramanauskas (retired 2008)
• Jason Johnson (retired 2008)
• Scott Lucas (retired 2009)
• Matthew Lloyd (retired 2009)
• Dustin Fletcher (retired 2015)

2000 Grand Final players

• Darren Bewick (retired 2000)
• Dean Wallis (retired 2001)
• Michael Long (retired 2001)

2001 Grand Final players

• Danny Jacobs (traded to Hawthorn 2003, retired 2008)
• Dean Rioli (retired 2006)
• Mark McVeigh (retired 2012)

I hope people enjoyed this AFL Collapse. I'm keen on possibly writing more, such as Collingwood’s after Mick Malthouse, and Carlton's when Mick Malthouse joined. I also want to know if there's anything innaccurate in the post, or anything I missed that would be useful information to have.

Greetings everybody. The topic I wanted to cover for the History Compendium is inspired by SB Nation's Collapse, a really interesting series on how a sports team or athelete can collapse quickly, and go from a strong team, to a weak one. I don't even follow most of the sports they discuss, but I still find it interesting, as rarely does such a collapse happen due to a single event; normally it takes multiple events to truly make it set in, such as SEGA dropping out of the console manufacturing business. The Brisbane Lions are an interesting case, as they went from being one of the greatest teams ever assembled, to a joke, a team for a long time highly regarded for their meme game and not their on-field performance, and have been mostly terrible ever since their glory days. Unlike many teams, their histoy since their peak has been one of multiple collapses, despite rarely being a threatening team in that time.
The threepeat Lion Kings, 2001-2004
The Brisbane Lions pulled off a threepeat, a remarkable series of Premierships in 2001, 2002 and 2003, with one of the greatest teams ever seen. This was a team mostly assembled in the 1990s through multiple early and priority drafts picks, an increased salary cap to help retain players in thugby heartland, a generous zone that gave them priority access to Queensland and Northern Territory players without needing to draft them, and the 1996 merger of the Bribane Bears and Fitzroy Lions, which gave the merged club their choice of Fitzroy players; while most would be traded out, Chris Johnston, and Fitzroy Father-Son player Jonathan Brown would prove to be star players in a team that included Michael Voss, Darryl White, Simon Black, twins Brad and Chris Scott, Justin Leppitsch, Jason Akermanis and Mal Michael, and legendary coach Leigh Matthews were on top of the football world three years in a row, a feat that hadn’t been achieved since Melbourne in 1955-1957, and has since only been achieved by Hawthorn in 2013-2015. At their best, the Brisbane Lions were one of the greatest teams ever assembled, and discussion continues to this day how they’d fare against other great teams in history. However, the list was mostly made up of older players, who soon see drops in form, or were retired or delisted. Worse, the club’s bonus salary cap space and recuiting zone were taken away, due to influential Collingwood President Eddie McGuire sooking after Collingwood lost the 2002 and 2003 grand finals. Brisbane once again made the grand final in 2004, but failed to replicate Collingwood’s fourpeat in 1927-1930, as they were defeated by Port Adelaide. Retiring legend Alastiar Lynch would spend his last game not winning a fourth premiership, but swinging like an uncordinated giraffe at Daryl Wakelin. At the end of the game, commentator Anthony Hudson said "you could never call the Brisbane Lions losers", but these words would prove to be darkly ironic.
Collapse #1 - After the threepeat, 2005-2008
In 2005, the club missed finals for the first time since 1998. Ignoring 1998, it was the first time they’d missed them at all since 1994, in the Brisbane Bears' eighth season. Many of its star players were no longer at their best, or were retiring. Worse still, many young players had been traded out or delisted recently, including Jason Gram, Des Headland and Brett Voss, who just a few years earlier couldn’t get games due to the strength of the side, but now were sorely missed. The concessions Brisbane had gained had been taken away, and the club was bad, but not bad enough to earn priority draft picks, which at the time were automatically given to clubs who finished with fewer than five wins. The lowlights of the year were losing Michael Voss’ 250th game after the siren to Sydney, and a 139-point loss to St Kilda, their worst ever. In 2005-2008, the Lions were never terrible, but never great, finishing with 36 wins out of 88 matches. Leigh Matthews, unable to keep up with the radically innovating tactics of late 2000s footy, in which the number of interchanges rose, players would flood defence, and the game was no longer played the way it had before, and stepped down as coach in 2008. He would be replaced by threepeat Captain Michael Voss. Voss, then a promising assistant coach, was inexperienced to coaching at the top level, and has since said that he shouldn’t have accepted the job, and should have spent more years as an assistant. It is worth mentioning that he was coaching many players he’d been Captain of only a few years earlier, a similar position to another failed coach, Matthew Primus.
A return to finals, but not for long, 2009
The 2009 season went well for Brisbane; the younger threepeat players were surrounded by a new team of players drafted during or after the threepeat, such as Daniel Merrett, Lachie Henderson, Michael Rischitelli and Daniel Rich, and with their new coach, the club made finals. Despite being 30 points down early in the fourth quarter, the Lions rallied, and won a close elimination final against Carlton due to the fairy touch of then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who was in attendance, and a clutch goal from Daniel Bradshaw. The joy was short lived, as the Lions were defeated by the Western Bulldogs in the semi-finals. Despite having a list of talented players across multiple age groups, the club felt itself in a dire position.
The AFL had announced its plans to enter two new expansion teams, the Gold Coast Suns and the Greater Western Sydney Giants, who would be given multiple early draft picks in the 2010 and 2011 drafts. In addition, they could sign 17-year-old players in 2009 and 2010, and even further, were expected to finish poorly and therefore earn low draft picks in the drafts afterwards. Brisbane was fearful that these drafts would be so compromised that they couldn’t rely on drafting youth to sustain the list while it pushed for finals, and was well aware that their best players, such as Ash McGrath, Jonathan Brown, Simon Black, Jarred Brennan, Luke Power, Joel Patfull and Daniel Bradshaw, were getting old. There was pressure for immediate short-term success to make the most out of these players before they were no longer good enough. This led to a series of fateful mistakes that would help bury the club for the next 9 years.
Collapse #2 - The Fevola Trade and its aftermath, 2009-2012
In the 2009 draft, the club traded in and drafted many older players. Some, like Queenslander Andrew Raines, Matt Maguire and Brent Staker, were decent, while others like Amon Buchanan and Xavier Clarke were complete busts. But the worst decision was yet to come; that same season, Carlton had announced that their controversial star forward, Brendon Fevola, was up for trade. Fevola was a generational talent, recognised as one of the most skilled, flamboyant, and controversial players in the game. His ability to kick goals was matched by his ability to get drunk and make a fool out of himself, and he was repeatedly reprimanded by his club, and after getting drunk on national tv during the Brownlow Medal ceremony, Carlton had enough, and announced that he was up for trade. Brisbane saw their chance; surely, they could trade in Fevola, get him away from the media attention and public strife in Melbourne, and form a power forward combo with Jonathan Brown?
Brisbane made their moves to Carlton, and offered several players up for trade, including Michael Rischitelli and Daniel Bradshaw, neither of whom actually wanted to leave the club, and were told that they were essential to the club, leaving them disgusted when they discovered the truth. Eventually, Brisbane traded their first pick, no. 12, and swingman Lachlan Henderson (the previous year’s Pick 8), for Fevola and a later pick. Henderson would go on for a successful career at Carlton and later Geelong.
The trade was disastrous for Brisbane. In the aftermath, Bradshaw would leave for Sydney that year via the pre-season draft, refusing to sign a new contract with them, and in 2010, Rischitelli and Jarred Brennan went to new local rival Gold Coast, and Justin Sherman to the Western Bulldogs. Fevola, while talented, kept getting into trouble, and had his contract terminated after the 2010 season due to mulitple off-field incidences, ending with public drunkenness and an altercation with the police on New Years day. They player the club sacrificed so much to trade for lasted jut one year, and left a massive $1.6 million hole in their salary cap. The club failed to make finals again, and their 2009 finals appearance was no longer the start of a new dynasty, but an outlier in a 14 year long period of missing finals, and performing terribly to mediocre. This was made worse by the thought that the club, in another universe, would have keep Rischitelli, Brennan, Bradshaw and Sherman, and used Pick 12 on someone like Daniel Talia, Lewis Jetta or Nathan Fyfe.
The period of time in 2010-2013 saw the club finish poorly each year, but due to many of the early picks being taken by Gold Coast and GWS, their picks weren’t as good as they would have been. In 2012, the last year that priority picks were automatically given out, Brisbane finished with just 4 wins, and was given Pick 29; to pick was traded to Hawthorn for Jordan Lisle, who lasted just three years.
Collapse #3 - The go-home five, 2013
The 2013 season was a dismal one for Brisbane, but there were signs that the side still had an amazing potential. Many young players had been recruited with early draft picks since the 2009 season, and some were beginning to show promise. The highlight of this season, and for younger Brisbane fans who can’t remember the threepeat, their highlight as Lions supporters, was the Miracle on Grass, an absolutely mental game where th Lions launched 52-point comeback ate in the game, kicking 8 goals in the last quarter to defeat a still Kennet Cursed Geelong.
Despite signs of promise, it was becoming clear that the culture at the club was horribly flawed. Rumours began to spread of a hard-partying hazing culture, with many centring around Tom Rockliff and Irish recruit Pearce Hanley; both players were very talented, but there were ugly rumours and occasional public flair-ups from these two, with the craziest rumours being that Tom Rockliff shat in Jared Polec’s boots, and supposedly a player was made to drink their own piss. But these are just rumours, so don’t take it as gospel truth. Both players, despite their skill, were not the team players the club needed, and both would eventually be pushed out of the club in trades.
Brisbane is based in Queensland, a state where Australian Rules Football is not overly popular, much the same in New South Wales. Both states’ teams – Brisbane, Gold Coast, Greater Western Sydney and Sydney – have their unique challenges when it comes to developing and retaining talent, as they can’t rely on locals to make up the bulk of their list, but interstate players. As most AFL players are drafted as 18-year-olds, this means moving them away from their homes straight after high school, and homesickness becomes a big factor. While some players will inevitably go for this reason, players will stay at clubs with good cultures and strong teams. Some players even prefer playing for these teams, as there is less pressure and scrutiny and local media, and there is a certain degree of anonymity. Teams like Sydney and GWS formed powerful sides with good cultures in this time period.
Brisbane however lacked this, and the results became clear in 2013, when five of their best young players, four of whom cost first-round draft picks, asked to be traded to their home states. Brisbane was screwed hard; these kids were meant to be the core of a future list, and having them all leave suddenly left a massive hole in the age demographic of their list. Further, future pick trading was not implemented yet, so Brisbane couldn’t get fair deals in the trades; whatever the other club had to offer, they had to accept, and they got no first round picks back.
The go-home-five were Jared Polec (Pick 5, 2010), Patrick Karnezis (Pick 25, 2010), Billy Longer (Pick 8, 2011), Sam Docherty (Pick 12, 2011) and Elliot Yeo (Pick 30, 2011). The loss of Polec, Docherty and Yeo was particularly tough, as all three would become high quality players, and Yeo would win a premiership. It later transpired that Yeo would have stayed at Brisbane if they’d paid him an extra $25,000 per year, but Brisbane refused. Pearce Hanley would tweet out that the players were mummy’s boys. In a funny twist, after Michael Voss and Tom Rockliff ended up at Port Adelaide, Polec was swiftly traded out. Make of that what you will.
The club then made another fatal mistake; thinking that they could lure in coaching genius Paul Roos, who had helped invent the game's modern defensive tactics and brought Sydney to their 2005 premiership (their first in 72 years), and clearly unhappy with Voss’ results, they let him go, but Roos ended up accepting a massive contract at Melbourne, leaving Brisbane with few choices on coach, which led to them hiring Justin Leppitsch, who had also played in the threepeat. Leppitsch's time as senior coach would ultimately be unsuccesful, and he'd last just three seasons, but would later help Richmond win the 2017 and 2019 flags as an assistant coach. Voss has since worked as an assistant coach at Port Adelaide, and has expressed interest for another senior coaching job, but has so far been knocked back.
After the disastrous results of the go-home-five, the club was left scrambling to draft players with less than ideal picks, and was the complete opposite of a destination club. Making things worse was the retirement of club legend Simon Black, who despite being in his 30’s was still one of their best players. The next few years saw many more players depart as the list was almost completely overhauled, and as of the 2020 season, only four players remain from the 2013 season – Daniel Rich, Dayne Zorko, Stefan Martin and Ryan Lester. Of these four, Rich is the only one from their 2009 finals appearance. Many players from their 2013 season remain at other clubs, where some, such as Jack Redden, Ellioy Teo, Sam Docherty, Jared Polec amd Jack Crisp, are best 22 quality. The club's ability to draft talented playes, but inability to retain them, became an ugly pattern.
In 2013, they traded in Trent West and Jackson Paine, both of whom left in 2016. However their draft haul was pretty good, securing (the ironically named) Daniel McStay, Darcy Gardiner and Lewis Taylor. This was soured by their first pick, James Aish, going to Collingwood in 2015.
The Leppitsch years, 2013-2016
In 2014, two of their greatest ever players, and the last holdovers from the Premiership teams, Jonathan Brown and Ash McGrath, both retired. They signed delisted free agent and professional gadget type operator and skater boi Mitch Robinson, and traded in Dayne Beams, whose brother Claye was already at the club. Beams, a very highly regarded midfielder at Collingwood, was from Queensland originally, and sought to play at Brisbane with his brother in order to be close to his sick father. The trade cost Brisbane Pick 5 and defender Jack Crisp, but gave them a quality midfielder. They had a three-way trade with Geelong and GWS, sending out Joel Patfull and gaining Allen Chistensen, a massive gain, and drafted academy player and team dad Harris Andrews. Despite many hoping these trades would allow the club a return to finals in 2015, this did not eventuate.
In 2015, Matthew Leunberger left via Free Agency, and Jack Redden was traded to West Coast, where he became a premiership player alongside Elliot Yeo. They traded in recycled players Tom Bell, Jarred Jansen, Josh Walker and Ryan Bastinac. Walker would be their main KPD and Bastinac a mentor figure for the next several years. Finishing 17th, they used Pick 2 on Josh Schache, who in a cruel twist, would be traded away in 2017 in order to be with his own sick father, leaving the club with little in return. The Brisbane fans desire to get wacky for Schache was for nothing. However, two of their other draftees, Eric Hipwood and Rhys Mathieson, were excellent pickups.
In 2016, the club once again finished 17th. They were one of the only teams to lose to the wooden spooners Essendon, who had 12 of their players suspended for the season and were therefore playing with a heavily compromised list that was barely AFL quality. They suffered their second-worst loss ever, losing to Adelaide by 138 points. Things were so bad that they asked the AFL for a priority draft pick, and were rewarded with Pick 19. But things finally changed, with new behind the scenes staff, and a new coach, Chris Fagan.
Rebuilding 101 - The Dawn of Faganism, 2016-2019
The club set out to target players who were already friends or even brothers, as well as players from regional communities, to avoid them getting homesick and demanding trades home. They set their sights on two first round players, Hugh McLuggage and Jarrod Berry, teammates from regional Victoria. They traded picks 2, 31, 51 and 60 to GWS for Picks 3 and 16, allowing them to grab both players. They also acquired Alex Witherden and **Cedric Cox from regional Victoria, the quartet of players all knowing each other (or in the case of Witherden and Berry, were close friends). They traded old hand, and formerly untouchable, Pearce Hanley and their Priority Pick in a three-way trade with Gold Coast and Port Adelaide, getting Pick 22 and Port Adelaide’s future 1st round pick. They also traded in fringe player Jack Frost from Collingwood, who had little impact. They also drafted Jacob Allison, as well as rookies Oscar McInerney and cult hero Matt Eagles, who was the winner of the show The Recruit.
In 2017, the club languished at the bottom of the ladder and finished dead last, the “highlights” of their season being the greatest advertisement ever made, and their spoonbowl match against North Melbourne, in which the bottom two teams played each other in the last round of the season, the loser finishing last and being rewarded with the wooden spoon; despite many thinking that North Melbourne was tanking, Brisbane lost, and finished last for the first time since 1998. Ending up with Picks 1 and 12 in the first round, Pick 1 was used to draft Cameron Rayner, and Pick 12 was traded to Adelaide for Queenslander Charlie Cameron. They also traded for veteran Hawthorn star Luke Hodge, to play for two more years in a mentoring capacity. The Cameron and Hodge trades were a big deal; for the first time in years, the club was able to target players in other clubs that were highly regarded, and get them to come over. Players wanted to play for Brisbane. They traded for Pick 15 from Richmond, which they used on Zac Bailey, and Tom Rockliff, who had been one of their best players for years and a former Captain, left to Port Adelaide as a free agent, getting the club another first round pick, which they used on Brandon Starcevich. Many felt that he was pushed out of the club, along with Hanley the year before, as part of a culture reset.
In 2018, despite a good percentage, the Lions suffered multiple close losses, and finished near the bottom of the ladder for the 13th time in 14 years. They also suffered their lowest ever score, managing just 2.5 (17) against Richmond's 16.14 (11) in Round 4. However, they made a huge series of trades that would define their 2019 season. Dayne Beams left to return Collingwood, struggling with mental health, his brother having been delisted and his father having passed away, getting Brisbane late first round picks in the 2018 and 2019 drafts. They traded their own first round picks in 2018 and 2019, along with Sam Mayes, in a series of deals which netted them close friends Lachie Neale, one of the best yet most underrated midfielders in the competition, and Lincoln McCarthy, a quality forward whose injury history prevented him from getting the exposure he deserved. They also signed delisted free agent Jarryd Lyons, whose brother Corey was already at the club, traded in Marcus Adams, and drafted Jarrod Berry’s younger brother Tom.
The pieces finally came together in 2019, when the Brisbane Lions shocked the football world by finishing second on the ladder, bringing capacity crowds back to the Gabba for the first time since their glory days. They played an exciting brand of football, with an admittedly easy draw to their low finish in 2018, but had multiple games where they showed that they were a dangerous side again, with the greatest example being their win over Geelong, the minor premier, and the first time they’d beaten them since the Miracle on Grass six years earlier. Despite this impressive run, they lost four of their eight matches against top 8 teams, suggesting that they had made the most of their easier draw. Their lack of finals experience cost them dearly; a home qualifying final against eventual premiers Richmond was marked by Brisbane’s inability to kick goals, and they lost heavily. The next week, against eventual runners-up GWS, was a very close affair, but Brisbane failed numerous times in the second half to mark a ball in their inside 50, with GWS’ defence repeatedly stopping their attempts to get close to goal, and a late goal from Brent Daniels gave them the lead, defeating Brisbane by just four points. But the packed Gabba crowd was not deterred, and as the Brisbane team left the ground, still without a finals win since 2009, they cheered “LIIIIOOOOONNNNS” to the defeated team. Brisbane had failed to win a final, but they had succeeded in making Australian Rules Football big in Brisbane again for the first time in many years. In fact, their Qualifying Final against Richmond had their biggest ever home crowd at the Gabba, with 37,478 people attending.
A collapse, and rebirth
The Brisbane Lions may finally no longer be the basket case they were in 2005-2018, with a much better list, culture, coaching staff and support base than they have in years. The growth of the game in Queensland has led to multiple star Queenslanders now playing in the AFL, with many playing for Brisbane. The Lions seem to have finally turned a corner, but it was a very rough corner; from 2010 to 2019, the seasons after the Fevola trade, the club lost 150 out of 224 matches. The Brisbane Lions are a cautionary tale, of a club putting their eggs in one basket, and allowing the worst culture in the league to fester to its core, but also a story of redemption, a club of friends and in some cases literally brothers who through determination and hard work, turned a corner and returned to finals.
Season to season summary; bold means played finals

• 1997: 8th/16 Qualfying Finals. First season after merger with Fitzroy.
• 1998: 16th/16. Wooden spoon. John Northy is fired, replaced by Leigh Matthews.
• 1999: 3rd/16 Preliminary Finals
• 2000: 6th/16, Semi-Finals
• 2001: 2nd/16, Premiers
• 2002: 2nd/16, Premiers
• 2003: 3rd/16, Premiers. Three Premierships in a row
• 2004: 2nd/16, Runners-up. Four grand finals in a row.
• 2005: 11th/16
• 2006: 13th/16
• 2007: 10th/16, Chris Johnston, the last Fitzroy Lion, retires
• 2008: 10th/16, Leigh Matthews steps down, replaced by Michael Voss
• 2009: 6th/16, Semi-Finals. Only finals appearance from 2005-2018. Fevola trade.
• 2010: 13th/16, Gold Coast limits draft options
• 2011: 15th/17, GWS limits draft options, given a priority pick
• 2012: 13th/18
• 2013: 12th/18, Go Home Five, Michael Voss is fired, replaced by Justin Leppitsch
• 2014: 15th/18, the last premiership players retire
• 2015: 17th/18, turned down for a priority draft pick
• 2016: 17th/18, given a priority draft pick, Justin Leppeitch is let go, replaced by Chris Fagan
• 2017: 18th/18, first wooden spoon since 1998
• 2018: 15th/18,
• 2019: 2nd/18, Semi-Finals, spectacular rise in form, but loses both finals

I hope people enjoyed this AFL Collapse. I'm keen on possibly writing more, such as Essendon's collapse after the 2001 Grand Final, and Carlton's after they fired Brett Ratten. I also want to know if there's anything innaccurate in the post, or anything I missed that would be useful information to have.

Shoutout to i_am_a_bush for the title
and an equally big shoutout to /westcoasteagles for helping me achieve my life long dream of posting
/Westcoasteagles | Westcoasteagles.com.au
Motto: “We’re flying high”, “The west is ours”, “Friends, Family, Flags”, “Where we’re going we don’t need draft picks”
Established: 1986
Home ground: Optus Stadium
Premierships: 1992, 1994, 2006, 2018
Finalists: 1988, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019
Wooden spoons: 2010 ☹
2019 Leading Goal Kicker: Jack Darling (59)
2019 John Worsfold Medallist: Luke Shuey
Captain: Luke Shuey
Leadership group: We don’t announce our leadership group until the last possible second but it’s reasonable to assume it looks something like this; Lukey Shuey (c), Jeremy McGovern (vc), Josh Kennedy (vc), Andrew Gaff, Nic Naitanui
AFL Coach: Adam Simpson
AFL Assistant Coaches: Adam Simpson (Head Coach), Gavin Bell (Head of Development), Luke Webster (Forwards), Nathan Van Berlo (Midfield), Jaymie Graham (Backs), Daniel Pratt (Stoppages), Adrian Hickmott (WAFL Head Coach & Development), John Wardrop (Opposition Analysis), Chance Bateman (Forward Development), Matt Rosa (Midfield Development)
AFLW Coach: Luke Dwyer
AFLW Assistant Coaches: Andrew Embley (Midfield), Michelle Cowan (Forwards), Ryan Turnbull (Ruck & Key Positions), Andrew Di Loreto (Backs), Brady Grey (Structure & Skills)
Chairman: Alan Cransberg
CEO: Tevor Nisbett

2019 Summary

With big expectations, come big disappointments. We were always thereabouts for finals all year and certainly never looked likely to miss, but certainly never looked likely to actually do anything else.
A round 1 loss to Brisbane was a shock, but Brisbane was good now so that’s okay.
Then came a 42 point loss to Port at home which was concerning. But that was in the wet which we don’t play well in.
Then complete dismantlements at the hands of Geelong (foreshadowing) and Sydney effectively signalled our intent to make up the numbers in the finals.
Not even going to mention round 23. Fuck Hawthorn.
What went wrong? Who knows. We had all the same players (Even injured NicNat again!), but the over-confident assumption that adding Gaff, Sheppard and NicNat to a premiership squad never paid off.
Gaff & Sheppard had amazing seasons but our previous contested possession woes crept back in, leading to an unsurprising inability to control and run out games which teams were able to take advantage of some times, and sometimes not.
Losing Rioli during the finals series was also a big blow as we’ll likely not have him for the whole year, and then who knows what the WADA sanction will be on top of that.
Overall, following up a flag with an unglamorous semi-finals exit rightfully feels underwhelming.
Season Highlight: Grand Final Re-Match
We were back on our shit with a comfortable win over Collingwood at the MCG in round 3. The Pies were looking for revenge and were again denied by some guy from Karlgoolie named Dominic Sheed.
Collingwood would, however, remember this for later in the season.
Honourable mention: 2.19, Elimination Final win.
Season Lowlight: Falling out of the top 4 after losing to Hawthorn in round 23
Seriously, fuck Hawthorn.
Honourable Mention: Losing by a point to Collingwood, aforementioned Cats and Swans dismantlings, Rioli’s gatorade adventures

Off-Season List Changes

OUT: Chris Masten (Good night sweet prince ;_;), Patrick Bines (????), Fraser McInnes (;________;), Brodie Riach (????), Kurt Mutimer, Matthew Allen, Keegan Brooksby.
IN (Traded): TIM KELLY!!!!!!!!! (For pick 14, 24, 33 + 2020 first round)
IN (Drafted): Callum Jamieson, Ben Johnson, Anthony Treacy (Rookie), Mitch O'Neill (Rookie)
IN (Supplemental draft period): Jamaine Jones, Nic Reid

2020 Fixture

Games of note:
Round 1 v Melbourne @ Optus Stadium
We might end up breaking them again.
Round 3 v Geelong @ Optus Stadium.
The new Kelly gang faces the old Kelly gang
Round 4 v Port @ Adelaide Oval.
Good Friday game!
Round 5 v Richmond @ Optus Stadium.
Grand final preview, maybe?
Round 7 v Fremantle @ Optus Stadium.
What’s the derby win-streak record?
Round 13 v Essendon @ Optus Stadium
Our marquee mid-season, thursday night at Optus stadium game against Essendon game
Round 14 v Richmond @ MCG.
Grand final preview, maybe?
Round 18 v Fremantle @ Optus Stadium
What’s the derby win-streak record?
Teams we play twice:
Richmen, Port Adelaide Pear, Colliwoo, geel ong, Fremantle

Expectations for 2019

Count_Critic

On paper we should bounce back with Kelly, fit Nic Nat, JK with a pre-season and arguably the best midfield but there's more to it than that.
Last season there was something more than simply personnel bothering us that's hard to put a finger on. Very few times did we maintain our standards and play our best footy regardless of what the opposition were doing. Also likely had a lot to do with being the hunted and teams gearing themselves up to take on the premiers.
But with all those pieces I mentioned being added there's no reason not to expect top 4 and a real crack at another Premiership. The list is still in a great age bracket and mostly unchanged from 2018. Rioli is a big loss, he was starting to become a really significant player with a lot of impact. But at the same time we hadn't come to rely on him yet so we should manage ok.

FXDC1991

I’m excited, TK should be the missing piece we need for the midfield. Loss of Rioli will be interesting to see
Something that needs to change: START finishing games off. Like seriously just pull a big dick move just keep going and annihilate the scoreboard, make the other team suffer.. but instead our lads would hit 3qtr time (or earlier) and relax. Annoying.
To paraphrase myself from the 2019 preview ~ MY BALLS ARE MOIST

(Go back and check the 2019 preview, he did indeed say his balls were moist)
Nixilaas

Bringing in Tim Kelly should make the loss of Willie Rioli a little easier to cope with and this expectation should be high with top 4 and even a flag not out of the realms of possibility.

Players to watch

Nixilaas

First on my list is Jarrod Cameron, made an impact in his first few games last year and with Willie Rioli’s spot now up for grabs it’s not hard to see Jarrod Cameron really making a run at it, very quick and good goal sense and has massive upside

i_am_a_bush

Bailey Williams: Had a very good year in the Wafl and is ready to play seniors football. Would not be surprised if he plays round one.
Jarrod Brander: Going into his third year he has played three games, all bad losses in subpar stadiums (Sydney, Brisbane and Geelong). Expect to see him in Launceston in round 6.
Francis Watson: Very impressive in his first two games last year. Has been training the house down, and probably deserves first look at the seventh defensive spot in the team.

Players on notice

i_am_a_bush

Nathan Vardy: After a very good first two seasons, capped off with a flag, Vardy regressed badly in 2019, falling behind first year Williams in the pecking order. A big year is needed to get back into the team regularly. Out of contract.
Tom Cole: A breakout 2018 capped off with flag, meant Cole was safely in the best 22 going into 2019. But a terrible season has seen him overtaken by Nelson, Watson and Rotham. Has three years on his contract.
Brayden Ainsworth: Quite possibly the worst kick in the league, in the team that relies on footskills the most. Out of contract, and I fail to see any way he gets another.

Concerns for 2020

Eram19
The Naitinui Conundrum

The idea of Nic Naitinui tapping the ball down to a midfield of Kelly, Shuey and Yeo sounds idyllic on paper. The major issue is, as always, getting Nic Nat on the park – he played five games in 2019, and would’ve only been fit for three if the team hadn’t made the finals. But even when he is healthy, Naitinui’s ideal game time is usually around 60%, with the eagles mostly choosing to bench him and conserve his energy rather than resting him forwards. This has implications for the team’s rotations, with other players having to pick up the slack by spending more time on the ground. Injuries, especially early-game ones, have a comparatively higher effect on the eagles’ ability to run out games when Naitinui is playing. The Eagles would, of course, much rather have Naitinui fit for the entire season than not. But his inclusion requires the team to be structured around him, necessitating a backup ruckman who can rest forwards (at the expense of an extra midfielder). It makes the team very tall; having two ruckmen and three tall forwards/defenders in the same team can work, but is less than ideal for rainy conditions.
Throughout 2019 West Coast were forced to get creative with their ruck setup; the Hickey/Vardy combination used early in the year wasn’t working, and by the time Naitinui returned, Vardy had already been dropped to the wafl. However, Tom Hickey isn’t really the ideal backup ruckman – his strength lies in using his endurance to run out games and wear down his opponent - he simply can’t accomplish that if he’s only rucking for 40% of the game. Hickey was serviceable when resting forwards, able to take some strong contested marks, but was often let down by his set-shot accuracy. Vardy, more of a natural forward, would seemingly be a better fit as Naitinui’s sidekick; the tag-team of Scott Lycett and Nathan Vardy helped win the Eagles a premiership. But Vardy had a horror year in 2019, struggling for form, plagued by injury and dogged by controversy. Oscar Allen was employed as the backup ruck for Hickey once Nic Nat went down again with injury. However Allen, a third-year player, is a pinch hitting option at best, being undersized in the ruck at 192cm. Bailey Williams is another potential option for a forward/ruck backup, but is only coming into his second year and is still untried at AFL level.
It still remains unclear as to who Naitinui’s ideal backup will be in 2020, with Hickey still the current frontrunner on form. It’s a complex problem that Adam Simpson will need to solve in order for the eagles to succeed.

The Midfield Mix

The Eagles’ 2018 premiership was in no small part due to the midfield group lifting as a collective. With no Nic Naitinui in the ruck & no Andrew Gaff on the wings, the core group of Shuey, Yeo, Redden, Masten and (of course) Sheed all found another gear to go to in the finals series. But in 2019, the Eagles never really figured out the right balance for this group after Gaff came back into the mix. Hutchings and Masten were in and out, sometimes with Hutchings on a wing instead of tagging, and both seemed to struggle for impact the more the season wore on. Gaff wasn’t quite as damaging after his return, and while Sheed had a brilliant start to the year, he once again found himself being pushed out onto the forward flank towards the season’s end. The onball group never quite clicked in 2019 as it had the previous season, often relying on patches of individual brilliance from Shuey or Yeo, and struggling to reverse momentum swings when the team started getting outmuscled at stoppages.
If you had to pick one player to bolster West Coast’s side for 2020, Tim Kelly is pretty close to the perfect fit; pure class through the midfield, an excellent user of the ball, good in contests, damaging up forward. The Eagles paid a heavy price for Kelly in terms of draft picks, with good reason, having learned their lesson from the failed trade the year before. So where does Tim Kelly fit into the puzzle? Obviously, he walks right into the best 22. Masten’s delisting has left a spot open, but even so it probably means more time on the wing or forward flank for Sheed and Redden, positions where they have struggled for impact in the past. Both are by far at their most effective when playing as mostly inside mids. Hutchings was moved into the forward line late in 2019, playing defensive roles on Saad and Stewart in the finals with very little impact (having returned from successive hamstring injuries seemed that to be limiting his running ability). Who makes way if the Eagles need Hutchings to go back into the midfield and tag?
It will be up to Adam Simpson to figure out the best way to optimise the talent he has at his disposal in 2020’s midfield group. There are plenty of examples of star midfielders being traded into teams and struggling for impact (most recently Gibbs in 2018 and Beams in 2019). Is Tim Kelly the final piece of the puzzle, or will he upset the apple cart?

Help, My Willie is Gone

It’s saddening, but we may well have seen the end of Willie’s career. The worst case scenario for him is a 4 year ban. If he returns from that, he’ll be 28, as a player known to struggle with staying in shape, having been unable to train with any AFL or state-level clubs for multiple years. At any rate, he’s unquestionably out for at least 2020. Rioli is a rare kind of player, able to produce something out of nothing in a way few players can, and his talent will be almost impossible to replace without a collective lift from the forward line. With Dan Venables still suffering from concussive symptoms, West Coast’s small forward stocks have taken a hit. Brady Grey and Nick Reid, both currently in the Eagles’ WAFL team, are the frontrunners for the final list spot in the SSP. Neither would likely be much more than a depth option for 2020.
With hindsight, Jack Petrucelle’s 2019 breakout year couldn’t have come at a better time. With no Rioli or Venables in the frame, Petrucelle is almost a certainty to line up in round 1 alongside Cripps and Ryan, injury permitting. Jarrod Cameron broke through for a handful of games last year, impressing with his tackling pressure and two consecutive bags of four goals. Cameron should get plenty of opportunities in 2020, having improved his fitness considerably over the summer. Mark Hutchings was deployed in attack throughout the latter half of 2019 (when uninjured) as a defensive forward, tagging the opposition’s most dangerous rebounding defender. Brendon Ah Chee has been played on the forward flank in the past as well, and provides another potential option as a slightly taller link-up player. Young aspiring midfielders such as Brayden Ainsworth, Hamish Brayshaw, Xavier O’Neill and Luke Foley will likely have very limited midfield opportunities in 2020 with the addition of Kelly; they would all do well to put their cases forward for a spot in the forward line, should the chance arrive. If (and unfortunately it is still an ‘if’) Dan Venables can overcome his ongoing concussive symptoms, he’ll be fighting it out with those above for his old spot back.
None of these players individually will come anywhere close to fully replacing Willie Rioli. Liam Ryan and Jack Petrucelle made great strides last year but both will need to take the next step in 2020. Jarrod Cameron is still raw but could bring back some of that missing x-factor, while Hutchings may need to continue reinventing himself as a defensive small forward, given the squeeze for midfield spots.

Kings of the Big Game?

Concerning for the Eagles in 2020 is the number of talls who are coming off interrupted preseasons into 2020. Jeremy McGovern, Tom Barrass, Oscar Allen, Tom Hickey, Nathan Vardy and Josh Rotham have all either had post-season surgery or are recovering from offseason injury niggles (it feels weird not including Josh Kennedy and Nic Naitinui in that group). Having both McGovern and Barrass, the team’s two most important key defenders both fighting to be ready for round 1 is far from ideal for the eagles’ defensive structure. All of the above players are potentially very important to West Coast’s 2020 hopes, especially so if Kennedy or Naitinui need to be rested during the season.

The Cliff

Josh Kennedy. Shannon Hurn. Lewis Jetta. Will Schofield. All of these players were in the best 22 for the finals last year, and all are now the wrong side of 30. Nic Naitinui and Luke Shuey are both turning 30 this year. The eagles have heavily invested in Tim Kelly, sacrificing their draft hands for the next two years. If this group is going to win a second premiership, the time is well and truly now. The list isn’t lacking in young talent, but the Eagles will need to face the reality of life without all of the players listed above very soon. Hurn and Jetta in particular are vital to the current gameplan, using their kicking skills to break lines and bypass opposition zones while transitioning out of defence. The decline of Josh Kennedy has been largely offset by the emergence of Jack Darling, but filling Kennedy’s shoes will be a big ask for Waterman, Allen or Brander once the veteran retires. The premiership window is open now, and may remain open if the transition goes flawlessly. But much like Geelong, 2020 will be West Coast’s best chance to capitalise on a number of their stars still being around, as the cliff approaches.

forgetthelies

My concern is whether our game plan (precision kicking and ball movement) can stand up for long enough periods. When we play well (first quarter against Richmond) we’re unstoppable; but that game plan needs everyone to be exactly on song. When the going gets tough and the game turns into a contested arm wrestle we’re not at our best. It requires a lot of effort and I just wonder as some of our players with elite kicking (Hurn and Jetta) get older whether we can keep up that game plan for long enough.

Best 22

Kindly provided by i_am_a_bush
FB: Hurn, Barrass, Duggan
HB: Sheppard, McGovern, Jetta
C: Gaff, Yeo, Redden
HF: Cripps, Darling, Ryan
FF: Allen, Kennedy, Petruccelle
R: Naitanui, Shuey, Kelly
I/C: Sheed, Hickey, Watson, Cameron
Emer: Waterman, Nelson, Hutchings, Williams
Predicted Ladder Position:
Top 4