Toothache?

I'm waiting with bated breath to hear about the success.

Yeah, way to take that out of context.

My point was that achieving the top four next season isn't a foregone conclusion, and moreso at this stage, a case of teams dropping out of it, rather than teams forcing their way in.

Unlike Hawthorn who have Roughead and Stratton back next year, we have no real x-factor to say "because of this we'll be top four next year".

Thing is with top 4 next year is that there's not a lot of downside in the four teams above us.

Eagles should improve.
Hawthorn will improve with a few players back from injury.

Geelong won't improve, but will they lose that much? Milburn and Mooney will retire but have effectively been phased out. Less than 50/50 on Wocjinski/Hunt retiring.

Collingwood would need a lot of bad luck. They win the flag, I assume Tarrant goes, maybe Davis as well. Not a lot of squad depth, but to slide to fifth?

Not a lot of upside for us in the way of natural development, no major list changes I would assume either..

Gut feeling is that if we get rolled by 8th, they won't renew. Which would be a terrible kneejerk decision.

We win our first and get done in Perth, I reckon a one year deal awaits.

14.5 wins will see Ratten re-signed no matter what's been said earlier this year and no matter what might happen in the remainder of our season.

I'm happy for Ratts to stay on next year, by all means.

But a September loss to Essendon* would be UNACCEPTABLE.

I'm happy for Ratts to stay on next year, by all means.

But a September loss to Essendon* would be UNACCEPTABLE.

Eagles are a couple of injuries and a proper fixture away from bottom 8.....

Jamison went down for a large chunk of our season and Waite too. I think Jamison means more to us than Roughead does to the Hawks. Kreuzer should get better... Robbo, Curnow, Yarran and even Gibbs should improve, Watson may have a breakout year... While you are right in the fact that Collingwood and the Hawks won't be going anywhere, I think we have the capacity in us to go up yet another level. The problem will be whether we take the challenge up or let the opposition intimidate us or bluff us into some silly moves.