Yesterday I dug out a tape of the near-equivalent game against Freo from 2003. It was round 13 rather than round 12 but the fact that the opponent was Freo makes it easy to think of as a comparable game.
It is, of course, a noteworthy game in that it was Roos' first in charge. What I hadn't remembered was that it was NOG's debut game.
The main thing that struck me was how different the team was to the one that will run out today. Half the team is different. Gone are three club "champions", two stalwarts who are maybe on the way out, another couple on the perennial injury list and at least one "one-season wonder".
The full list of outs is as follows: Kelly, Dunkley, Cresswell, Nicks, Schauble, Saddington, Fosdike, Doyle, Fixter, Mott, Warfe.
And of the ins, only four were at the club at the time, one of those yet to debut. Five of the 'ins' have made their AFL debut since that day. The list includes one current stalwart who was on the outer at the time, still difficult to believe given what he has achieved since then.
The full list is: Jolly, Ball, Malceski, Bevan, Kirk, O'Keefe, Dempster, Davis, McVeigh, C Bolton, LRT
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