Although we were sitting fourth on the ladder after round 11 in 2009, I think we are streets ahead of where we were this time last year. A winning record of 6-5 isn't great considering we're 7-4 this year and have travelled to Brisbane, and South Australia twice, and played last year's Grand Finallists in the opening half of the year. Take nothing away from our wins against both South Australian teams either; it is not easy to go over to AAMI Stadium and knock off Port and the Crows convincingly.
What I have enjoyed watching this year is the brand of footy we're playing when the team's up and about. When you compare it to St.Kilda style, a Sydney style, or even a Collingwood style, our brand is often exciting and engaging to watch. The brand of footy we play at the moment is what wins premierships. Have spoken to many people who believe that the Blues will win a flag before the Saints do because St.Kilda's game style can be exposed by the faster running teams. We may not be perfect yet, but it is great to see an exciting brand of footy developing into our team.
If I can fault us though, it has been our losses this season that have been quite poor in terms of team performance. In a nutshell, when we're redhot, we are fantastic to watch. But when the team's not switched on, the basic mistakes made on the field make the game almost unbearable to watch.
The Brisbane game was a gallant effort, I know we shouldn't be accepting honourable losses but without Judd and our team structure still to be reconfigured, it was a brave effort to go up there and give the Lions a scare. There was always going to be emotion in the game, and I think in a few weeks we're really well placed to knock them off. We owe them, they've beaten us the last two times now.
The loss to Essendon* (again) hurts, it doesn't matter how many we've lost against them in a row, it will always hurt to lose to a rival. It may be excused that we were without our captain in Judd, and in the early part of the season adjusting to life without Fevola. I think now we'd be in a better position to defeat them next time, seeing as the team's better gelled together and our forward line has a better understanding of each other. Looking forward to playing them next time.
Our round six loss to Collingwood was a hiding, but I don't think the end result necessarily reflected how the team played. Coming off a big win over Geelong the week before, we were always going to be a little shaky. There were some really positive signs to take out of the match, including big Setanta booting 5 against some quality opposition. I feel that after a few wins in a row, we're always due for a loss. I said the same about the Hawks game, and after we'd lost it I knew we were better placed for the period we're in now.
Really looking forward to the next 11 rounds of the year, starting this Friday night against North Melbourne. We are a massive show to be 8-4 after round 12, and it will set us up for our push for the finals.
Despite our dominant opening half of the year, sitting in 5th position, I'm still not yet sold on finishing fourth. We're not quite a top four team yet. My expectations at the start of the year was to make the 8 and go from there. Given everything that had happened, the loss of Fevola, the booze cruise and so on, I felt these were rational expectations, and I never actually believed we would suffer badly this year like a lot of people did. Without adding much more to my pre-season expectations, I expect us to win at least one final.
At the moment though, I'm very happy with the way the team's tracking, and it makes it a lot sweeter that so far they've defied the critics who said we'd be bottom four.
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