D.Jarman!
Always find it hard to listen to Brereton when he goes on about his era v now as if he feels his 5 premierships are in some way diminished when we say it's more difficult to win a flag these days.
More teams, equalization, travel, salary caps etc etc.... clearly harder to win now!
Hawthorn of the 80’s succeeded in an amateur, stated league fuelled by steroids, allegedly.
Richmond’s era of success is subject to strict, Olympic standards of anti-doping in what has only recently become a professional, national sport.
Before we even consider the (many) arguments of equalisation, etc., it’s no wonder that Brereton et al. are easily triggered into defending their version of history at every opportunity.
The only Hawthorn era I’d probably aspire to surpassing is Clarkson’s era. However, they did benefit somewhat from suspension of equalisation measures during expansion team introduction.
Geelong’s 2007-2011 era is the greatest to the naked eye for mine. They did have Dank fuelling their training regime, and their coach was investigated for being a massive drug dealer, but there’s no clear asterisk on them.
Brisbane’s era was enhanced by lucky factors and only a semi-professional crackdown on dodgy practises, if that.
Richmond could very well become the first undisputed dynasty of the professional, national competition under strict, Olympic-standard testing for PEDs.
