The Aggies win today to claim the Mountain Division title and qualify for the MW Championship reminded me of an event in Aussie footy back in 2008.

The 2008 AFL Grand Final was between my team, Hawthorn Hawks, and Geelong Cats.

The Cats were the Champs in ‘07 and were heavy favorites to go B2B in ‘08, having lost only 1 game in the regular season (a bit like SDSU). The Hawks were a young, developing team who hadn’t won a GF since 1991 so lacked experience in a big final. They came into the match in good form but were clearly the underdogs (a bit like our Aggies).

The Hawks young coach, Alistair Clarkson, in his pre-match address, used an analogy of “stopping the shark’ so it can’t breath and then dies. The Aggies have an opportunity of their own to stop the ‘Aztecs shark’.

Here’s a short video of the 2008 Grand Final. Running time is 11m 10s. The Coach’s address starts at 2m 50s . When you hear him tap on the whiteboard he’s actually tapping on a drawing of a shark!



In a 2-horse race anything can happen on the day and so it proved. The Hawks triumphed and stopped the Cats from going B2B. The Cats did win it again in ‘09 and the Hawks had to wait until 2013 before their next championship, followed by success again in ‘14 & ‘15 for the coveted (and very rare) 3-peat.

Go Aggies!

Sidenote: After today’s game I spoke with Stephen and mentioned my feelings about ‘08. He said that as part of his pre-game warm up today he listened to “Clarko’s shark speech’ - great minds!

Awesome! Thanks for sharing. Our “stopping the shark “ will be keeping their defensive line in check. They look really good. If we can protect Bonner, we have a great chance to win. And now I have a favorite Aussie football team- go Hawks!!


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Mr SB, Welcome to the Hawks family my Aggie and Hawks brother (with all due respect to aggies22!).

That's awesome! Let's hope the Aggies perform against the Aztecs the way the Hawks perform any time they get to the Grand Final. No colliwobbles, please!

Fair dinkum mate! and Good on ya?

When's Australia going to open up to visitors? Is your son able to visit during Christmas?

On a tangent, your son is quite a punter. Plenty of strength, but more importantly, phenomenal accuracy and control. He's put our opponents in seriously bad spots several times this year. I'm very happy we'll have him a couple more years. A great punter can be the margin of victory.

Of course, I'm not telling you anything you don't already know. I'm just letting you know that we recognize it, too.

trevordude wrote: ↑

November 26th, 2021, 11:45 pm

When's Australia going to open up to visitors? Is your son able to visit during Christmas?

Our borders are open now. Things might change with this new Covid variant from South Africa, announced just today. Have to wait and see.

Not sure when the Aggies bowl game will be. Realistically it might be Spring break before he gets back home. He's definitely loving life in Logan!

LKGates wrote: ↑

November 27th, 2021, 12:19 am

On a tangent, your son is quite a punter. Plenty of strength, but more importantly, phenomenal accuracy and control. He's put our opponents in seriously bad spots several times this year. I'm very happy we'll have him a couple more years. A great punter can be the margin of victory.

Of course, I'm not telling you anything you don't already know. I'm just letting you know that we recognize it, too.

Cheers LKG, that's kind of you to say.

Stephen has had another good year. He was a bit disappointed with the touchback today. As you say he prides himself on accuracy and limiting return yards.

I must say I'm in the odd position of being happy with not seeing my son on the tv so often! He's averaging 3.8 punts per game compared to 6.2 last season. Amazing the difference it makes when the offence moves the ball down the field.

The Aggies didn't just "stop the shark", they obliterated it!