So it is looking like we are going to be fighting for a place in the bottom half of the 8. We simply aren't up to the standard of the top sides so top 4 seems very unrealistic.

So we are basically fighting it out with teams around us ... and interestingly we have all of these teams in the next 8 weeks, so the next 8 weeks will make or break our season...

WB week 11
Syd week 13
Ess week 15
GC week 16
Freo week 18

Wins against top teams like Melb and Coll would be a bonus but I don't think we have much chance of winning such games.

Strap yourselves in folks, those 5 games above are coming up and are all important.

That's the reality paddy. We are fighting for a spot in the 8, at the level we are playing, and maybe where our list is at, certainly not Top 4.

One week at a time. Things can change after each week goes by

Whether player form improves, or injured personnel return, or Game plan changes to engage the 18 on the ground to play to our advantage.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

Carlton have 4.5 wins on board

Green we should win adds 5 wins, to give us 9.5 wins

Yellow teams fighting for Finals spot. Must win 5 out of 5 of those. That's tough.

Therefore must beat Dees or Pies at least once each of the 4 games. (not scenario again)

Bulldogs
Colonwood
Sydney
Dees
Effendope
GCS
Hawks
Freo
Port
WCE
Colonwood
Saints
Dees
GCS
GWS

Based on current form, it looks really tough to make the 8, but its highly possible.
Starts this week. Have to dig deep and remember the pain of round 22 and 23, and why we ended in that spot.

IMO, Cerra is the only player who has improved this year. possibly Newman (till Cameron got hold of him out the back)

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

Look at our list and it's age profile and we are in the window. If we stay relatively injury free and don't make finals with a minimum win one this year is a failure

I think so.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

Reckon I'd have the GC game in Qld in yellow and Freo in yellow too.
Maybe I got less confidence than you do.

Conversely it won't take 14.5 wins to make the 8

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░L░I░N░K░I░N░B░I░O ░

We have GWS in Melb as our last game, guess that's better than playing Coll at the G like last year

Wonder if our half win will come in handy at the death

God how depressing , how far have we fallen, that we hope to squeeze into the 8

Fallen? To sneak into the 8 we need to rise

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Orandum est ut sit mens sana in corpore sano. Fortem posce animum mortis terrore carentem, qui spatium vitae extremum inter munera ponat naturae, qui ferre queat quoscumque labores.

Look, I have a feeling the blistering start last year (right up until the first C'wood match) got everyone overrating our list.

Our list is middle-of-table.

We have some stars at the top end, but we fall away very quickly. A better system, improved structure and a few more "ins" will improve us marginally.

But any talk of "top 4" was premature and plain wrong. We're a mid-table list.

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Orandum est ut sit mens sana in corpore sano. Fortem posce animum mortis terrore carentem, qui spatium vitae extremum inter munera ponat naturae, qui ferre queat quoscumque labores.

Agree. Some of us got a bit carried away over summer on the proviso that a better run with injuries would make a world of improvement.

Unfortunately we've still had a pretty shit run with injuries. And even if we'd had an awesome run, it's not much good if your system can't keep up with the comp.

The other thing supporters do over preseasons, & we all do this, is we get so drawn in by our own list that we forget other clubs are improving theirs. Brisbane Melbourne Geelong off the top of my head, all improved theirs markedly.

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#DonTheStash

The way we’ve played this year, and really since the bye last year, makes it difficult to even see us as much of a chance for finals. That’s not to say we can’t make it, we can, but we haven’t played at the required level so far this year.

The draw against Richmond now looks pretty average.
The win against Geelong was of course our best but also occurred in the context of an 0-3 start for Geelong, which included a loss to GC. Play the game at the G this week, who really thinks we win? Personally I don’t
GWS performance was scratchy at best but maybe ok in hindsight given GWS have been plucky.
The North performance was very average. Everyone is belting them and we couldn’t
The WCE performance doesn’t mean much given how they’re going. We get a tick for that game but it was never going to be the barometer of whether we’re a top 8 side
The barometer of that has been the games against top 8 teams and contenders in Brisbane, St Kilda and Adelaide. All have been bad failures. Dismantled easily in all 3 games.

We can make the 8 but it’s going to require an uptick on the form we’ve seen so far this year and the back end of last year. 8-11-1 over the past 20 games.

I swear to god our supporter base has become toxic.

Disagree.
I think we have an excellent list.
Every team has a bunch of journeymen.
The problem is the game plan doesn’t enable them to play a role. Look at the Saints - a bunch of no names and average players until this year when suddenly these same players know their role and are prepared to play them.
The least of our problems is our list - I reckon most coaches would kill for our list. The problem is how we are using them.
No team will have 25 superstars. Every team has C graders.
PS. No one had Geelong finishing in the top 4 at this time last year. I’m not saying we are at that level - we’re not. BUT, they changed their game plan and started winning. Maybe we can too.


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I think we got "unlucky" with when we played Richmond (at their strongest) and Norf (Good Friday game, still riding the new coach dead cat bounce).

But we got lucky with when we played Geelong (premiership hangover) and probably WC (everyone injured).

It's why I'm loath to do the ladder predictor.

Fair assessment.
In any event, I think par for the year is to win a final.
Less than that and a few things will need to change. I’d be looking first at assistant coaches, particularly forward line and backline assistants. And I’d strongly look at a Mark Williams type goal kicking expert.
We have a week to turn it around and we’ll know within 4 weeks.


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All bar two games we have fielded a younger and less experienced team this year than our opposition
the games we didn't was WC and Crows games even then we were only plus 6.2 games and plus 3.7 games

the side we put out on friday night had an average of 24.4 games less experience than the Lions and if Zorko and Rich had of played it would have been worse

We have 4 players with more than 150 games - ED Cripps Saad and now Doc
Brisbane had 7 - Collingwood played 8 - Geelong 9 Melbourne 8
We had 7 players with less than 50 games under their belt on Friday night

Now when it comes to knocking our team - I am the chief Knocker of the world but we do not have the age and experience profile to match it with the best at the moment

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If you allow the Government to change the Laws in an emergency
They will create an Emergency to change the Laws

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

It was only 2 years ago the Saints List was ahead of our in terms of age and development. They fell from being 8-2 like us, to fall one game behind us, and their coach was sacked. We should have beaten them but for bad kicking during that period they scored 4 goals after our 3 misses and bloody turnovers.

We were tested and pantsed against Crows and Lions. Embarrassed.

Turnovers killed us, but game plan is being questioned by fans, like you and the media experts, because we are doing well with most metrics.

We will improve. We have 10 stars other teams would love to have, but we have them. The glass is half full.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue