AFL greatest team of the decade: You decide the best team since 2010
Thousands of footy fans voted. But who won through in our search for the greatest team of the decade? The results are in. See how your team did and get an insight into what made one of our remaining sides so strong.
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It was a year of “redemption”.
After winning the 2009 premiership and being “smashed out of the finals” by 41 points at the hands of Collingwood in a preliminary final a year later, former Geelong defender Tom Lonergan said the Cats had a point to prove come 2011.
“When you put it into context of the years previous where we won ‘07 and ‘09 and then in 2010 we got smashed out of the finals in the prelim by Collingwood and Gazza (Ablett) moved to the Gold Coast, Bomber (Thompson) finishing up … I think everyone across the industry had written us off,” Lonergan recalled.
“That we’d had our go and it was time for someone else.
“I think the calibre of players and personalities of the team — there was a bit of redemption, I guess. There was a bit of ‘we’ll show you that we’re not done yet’ type of mentality.”
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It manifested in a third flag within five years, the Cats getting the ultimate revenge on the Magpies with a 38-point victory.
That Geelong outfit has been given the nod by Herald Sun readers, edging out the Greater Western Sydney team of 2016 to advance to the quarter-finals of the Herald Sun Greatest Team of the Decade.
It was a side littered with “fantastic players that were just competitive buggers”, premiership player Lonergan said, which proved a key motivating factor.
“The likes of (Matthew) Scarlett, (Paul) Chapman, (Steve) Johnson, (Cameron) Ling, these types, (Joel) Selwood … we had the experience to do it, brought in a couple of new guys that played in the team, myself included, so I was just rapt to be playing in this great team that was a dynasty really,” he said.
But a key pillar proved to be the newest face at the Cattery — then-new senior coach Chris Scott, who led the team, including “a few alpha personalities”, for the first time and to a flag in his first year.
And suggestions by detractors that he had merely inherited the team “couldn’t be further from the truth”.
“His role in that year is understated,” Lonergan said.
“He was the same age as a lot of the guys that were playing, but how he galvanised the group, didn’t make sweeping changes, just slightly tweaked the game plan and fundamentally it was very similar, but he made some fantastic changes that the whole group bought into, and he really knew how to push the buttons of the group.
“He was a breath of fresh air, fresh out of the game, very articulate and we all know he’s got a fantastic footy brain. With the group he had, sure, they’d been there before, but I think it was going to take something … he knew the right way to make sure we got the best out of the group and he did that. I think his role is huge.”
Lonergan — who now works as a talent manager in the NAB League — said the difference between Geelong 2011 and the Giants of 2016 could be put largely down to demographic.
“(GWS) were young, plenty of talent but probably just didn’t have the experience that the Cats did,” he said.
“Which doesn’t mean much in the scheme of things, I think any team can win on their day … it’s just slightly different times in their demographic and the Giants are starting to get up towards that age bracket now.”
MATCH 1 HAWTHORN 2014 V HAWTHORN 2012
MATCH 2 HAWTHORN 2015 V COLLINGWOOD 2011
MATCH 3: COLLINGWOOD 2010 V WEST COAST 2015
MATCH 4 WESTERN BULLDOGS 2016 V RICHMOND 2018
MATCH 5 WEST COAST 2018 V ST KILDA 2010
MATCH 6 HAWTHORN 2011 V RICHMOND 2019
MATCH 7 GEELONG 2011 V GWS 2016
MATCH 8 RICHMOND 2017 V HAWTHORN 2013