05-04-2017, 02:52 AM
(05-04-2017, 02:34 AM)PaulP link Wrote:I guess the point I was making is that in the professional era, and in the post-zone era, things like rivalries and arch enemies are old school. I can understand some fans getting into it, but beyond that, it's passé. Our players should be ready to play, irrespective of who the opponent is. And if we need a gimmick for every opponent we play, then something's wrong iMO.
Rob Walls admitted in an interview with Mike Sheahan that most of his rivalry with Essendon was made up, and stemmed mainly from issues with Sheedy.
My head agrees with you on this, but when MM was coaching (and I don't want this to develop into an MM bash fest) he tried to take the emotion out of traditional rivalry games and we seemed to be on the back foot from the get go against teams obviously primed to want to feed on our ambivalence.