> I posted a similar thing in 1999 (re. Jason McCartney) and now seems a
> good time to toss it in again with the Rocca thing (though I think
> Brisbane will win).

> IMHO, Premiership medals should go to every player at the club who
> took the field during the year. This notion that only the 22 on GF day
> are "Premiership players" is just ridiculous. All players contribute
> to premiership success, not just those who are in the 22 on GF day.

> On Monday night, Eddie called Ricciuto a "1998 premiership player".
> That annoyed me. Roo was injured for the 1997 finals, but he was a big
> part of Adelaide getting there. In fact he was one of Adelaide's 2
> all-Australians in 1997. The other was Tony Modra, who did his knee in
> the Prelim. Ricciuto at least got to play the 1998 GF. Modra (like
> McCartney, and possibly Rocca) was a huge part of his team's
> Premiership success but has no medal to show for it. It's a joke that
> relative hacks like A.Keating, Rintoul and Sampson are "Premiership
> Players" because they happened to be fit on GF day in 1997, yet Modra
> is not.

> The usual argument is that giving more medals devalues the Premiership
> medal, or that those outside the 22 didn't contribute on the day. I
> disagree. Hey, if we only give medals to those who only contribute on
> the day, why not take a few more away? IIRC, David Pittman was on the
> bench for all of Adelaide's 2nd half comeback in 1998. No (1998) medal
> for him then? And ditto Rod Jamieson who was injured in the opening
> minutes in 1997? (My Crows bias is coming through here, I'm sure
> there's examples from other clubs).

> I haven't noticed anyone complain that the Brownlow is devalued now
> that it is awarded to those who "lose" the tie-break. And I'm sure no
> "Premiership Players" will begrudge Premiership medals to teammates
> who, for whatever reason, didn't happen to be in the team on GF day.

> If Collingwood win on Saturday, it'd be great if Rocca could still
> come up and get a medal. Cause he'd have contributed a lot more to the
> Premiership than lots of the players on the day.

> --
> Regards,

> Peter Ballard
> Adelaide, AUSTRALIA
> pball...@ozemail.com.au
> http://www.ozemail.com.au/~pballard/