As Eels players and fans drown their sorrows, they may be cheered by the indisputable fact that You Gotta Lose One To Win One. But is this really the case? Looking back at the last three years we see that yes, it is! Melbourne, Manly and before them Melbourne all lost the previous year's grand final decider before winning the following year.
Going back to the start of the NRL though, how many teams were powerfully buoyed by grand final defeat within the last, say three years?
Year YGLOTWO?
1998.....NO
1999.....NO
2000....NO
2001.....NO
2002.....YES (2000)
2003.....NO
2004.....NO
2005.....NO
2006.....NO
2007.....YES
2008.....YES
2009.....YES
2010..... ???
So that’s 4/12 YGLOTWOs, one of which was a loss more than one year ago. Eight times, ascent to the NRL Throne was unpropelled by previous pain. And eight times, the fiery flames of Grand Final failure were never to be doused. Only 33% of positives means League Blog says a big fat no to this theory. However, if it consoles the losers, so be it.
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Pleased to see YGLOTWO debunked. I think there is a time and a place for YGLOTWO, it does depend on the curve or wave that the team is on. If a team comes from nearly nowhere such as Tigers or Panthers earlier in the noughties then they can take that last step apparently without trauma. On the other hand Manly in recent times were a side showing steady improvement each year, making the GF was a step and YGLOTWO applied to them. Ditto Storm this year, if they did not have the experience of losing last year they may not have been so focussed, so they too are a YGLOTWO team.
ReplyDeleteHowever, as you showed, it would be most unusual if YGLOTWO applied again next year so don't waste your money on the Eels next year. 2010 will definitely be an owtolgy year (opposite of YGLOTWO).