Better start preparing for finals then

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"If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself" - Henry Ford

hey, would be awesome if we did but i cant see us making it this year.

wont make the finals.... We'll probably win only about 6 or 7 more games at best for the restof the season...

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James Hird and Essendon* FC - #FOREVERDRUGCHEATS

Didn't we finish 10th in 2004? We will do better than 11-13th. We have a much better group then we did in 2004.

I am sure there is a reason why you think we will beat Brisbane once and then get beaten by them in the return bout.
I think we are more likely to beat Sydney than StK and I always think we are a chance against Nth Melb even tho we haven't beaten them for a while.
I said at the start of the year I would be happy to finish as low as 12th and we are on course for that. Anything above that will be a bonus IMVHO.

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Let slip the Blues of war (with apologies to William Shakespeare) (and Sir Francis Bacon, just in case)

yeah thought we could beat brisbane at the dome but struggle at the gabba

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*(grow - fun - gah)

Yeah but whatabout your whataboutism.

I think its possible, but unlikely we could make the 8.

We would need Judd, Fev, Stevo, Murph & Waite playing full seasons. If Judd really gets going, then its a definite possibility.

Someone mentioned we are better than 2004 - of course we are. WE only won 10 games that year, because we won every close game we had. We actually won as many quarters in 2006.

I think 8-10 wins is likely.

BAHAHAHA .. good work

On a serious note, we won't make the 8 this year but if we could finish with 8-11 wins, I think we could count that as being a successful season.

Finals, Nah we won't make it this year.

All I am looking for this year is to know at the end of it what is our spine. So far it looks as if it will be Jamo=FB, Waite=CHB, Kruiser=Ruck, Judd=Mid, Fev=FF, CHF could be anyone, but no obvious standouts so far.

I have seen nothing special apart from the Collingwood match to suggest we will make the 8.

Look at our wins objectively:

Collingwood - Played brilliant for 4 quarters, totally shut them down. If we play like this week in week out we can realistically make the top 8.

Melbourne - Played 2 good quarters against probably the worst team in the comp, looked shaky for the rest of the match, not a good sign against a bottom side if you want to make finals.

West Coast - Could have buried the match by quarter time, but we have poor skills and decision making which stopped us from doing so. 2nd quarter we were very lucky with some free kicks to get to such a big lead, and we almost screwed it up before steadying late in the match for a character buliding win. Remember, West Coast had no Kerr, Hunter, Priddis, I think they are better exclusions than Thornton, Hadley, Bannister etc. so we were always expected to win.

We are improving, no doubt, but lets be realistic here, we havent shown enough to suggest we make the 8 so far, but definitely have shown we can get around 8 wins for the season and move away from the whole tanking issue and lay the foundations for a real tilt at the finals next season.

I would LOVE to be proven wrong but

Fair post.

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It's never as good as it looks and it's never as bad as it seems.

A fair post, but have a look at our losses

R1 Richmond - Got off to a good start and fell away from there as the lack of fitness from some of our senior players wasnt quite there

R2 St Kilda - Another great start, fitness not quite there yet and we were far too lose through the midfield.

R3 Essendon* - Ahead late in the 3rd Qtr. Screwed by the umpiring on the night.

R6 Adelaide - Ahead again in the 3rd Qtr before we fell away. Down to 2 fit men on the bench inc Browne who was struggling. A lose to a potential Top 4 side is nothing to be ashamed of.

Our midfield is performing much better and we're not giving up as much defensively because of it.

The players are gelling better, there is so much improvement to come as Judd and the rest of the team learn to work together.

The good news is we've been in a winning position in every game and ahead by at least 2-3 goals in all our losses.

We could quite easily be sitting at 5-2. Anything can happen from here on.

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"The ability to speak doesn't make you intelligent." Qui-Gon Jinn 15-05-2005

"there’s more chance of me becoming the full forward for the [Western Bulldogs] than there is of any change in the Labor Party." Julia Gillard 18-05-2010

Absolutely, categorically impossible to pick. There's no absolutes.

You can't suggest that a young team which seems to have turned the corner and getting better by the game, with a sprinkling of stars , a Coleman medallist and injuries to some key players who will come back in the 2nd half of the season can't improve as the season progresses.

I still believe the Blues, on current form, with some fair and reasonable umpiring, (let alone some of their injured players taking the field), could have won against the Tigers, Bumbers, Adelaide and Saints.

There have been no disgraced performances; just a lapse of concentration or just young kids tiring because they weren't quite ripe at the beginning of the season.

This team has upside.

Anything can happen.

I don't care whether they make the finals or not; but I for one, wont be surprised one bit if they do. In fact I can't see them missing if they continue to develop and gel at the rate they have been.

I'm so proud of the kids,, they have already exceeded my expectations.

I can't wait till Leuenberger or JK come to their 'true' nesting ground in 2009; Princes Park.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

One thing I will say - sometimes young teams can rise very quickly.

We'd need a lot to go right for us, particularly injuries, but we have a bit going for us;

1) Strong leadership
2) A handful of proven match winners (well..... two anyway)
3) Belief
4) Quality kids who are prepared to back themselves, and more importantly are supported in doing so

Essendon* 1993 comes to mind. Not that I am saying we'd win a flag - 1993 was an exceptionally weak year. Maybe Collingwood last year is a better example. The point being though - sometimes when a group of kids get on a roll, they start feeling bulletproof and don't feel the pressure a team with more experience can.


This isn't to say the team doesn't have cracks, these have been discussed at length in other threads. Just to say that sometimes a group of kids can rise a lot quicker than it would appear they are capable of, if the conditions are right. To me - this seems one of those years, outside of Geelong and Hawthorn I think the next 10 teams are very even and we could beat any of them in any given week home or away.

In that environment, a team with genuine belief in each other can go a long way, and I think this is a team primed to meet a new challenge each week to see how they measure up. Each of the games we have lost to this point have seen us in a position to force a win. Now the boys know they can win, they may be able to take advantage of those opportunities more often - Friday is a case in point.

Nothing would surprise with these guys this year.

Bring this post up again if we are 3-17, but I have a feeling the wheels are turning our way a bit quicker than we anticipated. If we win our next 2, suddenly 5-4, with a bunch of talented young kids who don't know their limits, the 8 is definitely on.

If we win our next couple of matches against Brisbane and Freo I might start to entertain the thought of finals.....in the meantime I predict 8-10 wins.

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There is no footy god

I'd agree with most of that Grro - I think we should beat Port at least once this year though. And I hope you're right about the Saints - like I said during the game thread, I think it is important to beat these teams that have started thinking of late that they can't lose to us.

As for the toughness of the run home - who would have thought after round 1 that we'd be wanting to play WCE twice in a season??

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Now stalking Carlton on Twitter and Facebook!

We've done ok against Port recently. Smashed them the first time last year, had to tank to let them win the second time after leading at 3/4 time for the 8 goal deficit, and , for what it's worth, we beat them in the pre-season. They're not a "hard at it" side and very beatable. Always feel a chance against the Bullies and the Roos too. A few wins in the middle and we see our side in a completely different light and suddenly the "lose" games seems winnable as the side improves and gains confidence.

Hope we're not playing for a finals spot last match because I think Hawthorn will win the flag.

Predicting never always works out that well. That's why we go sh1thouse in tipping competitions

A win is a win is a win as they say. Win a few irrespective of how it's done and teams seems to really gain in confidence and lift. The thing is we West Coast as a good side should. Even despite the bad 3rd qtr we won very well.

Havent you heard? Its a sign of a good team that we can win when we are playing so poorly

Interesting to see that most have written us off against the doggies - I think we match up well against them and should be in with a decent shot at it