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5 and 4 with close ones against the Aints and Freo. Could just as easily be sitting 7 and 2 with Sydney and West Coke, both of whom we have beaten incidentally. We've also knocked off the other top 4 team in GWS and had the ladder leader by the scruff of the neck with a minute to go.
It's true if we bring the pressure we beat anyone but can it last? Is this our 2006?
It does have a surreal feeling about this season for me. The results show we have beaten 5 of the top 8 sides and like you say we almost pinched one against Freo. We can definitely mix it with the best. I don't think we were this good so early in 2006. This year is definitely a learning curve for such a young team and who knows how far they can go.
We can also lose to anyone it we aren't on our game, which we'll have plenty of opportunities to disprove with our draw straight after the bye.Quote:
Originally Posted by 1eyedog
Good point, given our young list we need to accept fluctuations in form from mental and physical fatigue. We are susceptible to fade outs late and a bit of switch flicking. I'd agree that we have a better list than we did in 2006 but we have a bigger gap in experience as well.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sedat
We're good for now until we lose to Carlton or GCS and then we'll be awful then we'll beat WCE in Perth and we'll be good again.
It's hard for us to accept but we are just about the youngest most inexperienced side in the comp.
That just spells inconsistency.
Just remember that our young and inexperienced players are cutting their teeth against the best in the AFL and beating them and we have quite a few kids in the VFL that are very raw but they are also flying the flag.
With so many of last years VFL winning team now playing AFL, you would of expected Footscray to drop back quite a bit this year, but they are being held up by McLean, Daniel, Hamling, Hamilton, Dale, etc that have all performed very strongly for first year players. Our depth is looking the potential envy of the competition in a lot of areas.
The coach is sending the right messages and the players are responding, it's now just the waiting game.
Hard to believe what we've achieved so far after such a tumultuous off season.. The best illustration of this is Dale Morris. Who would have thought that we would be in a position where 1. Our defence has stood up brilliantly without him and 2. He is not necessarily an automatic inclusion when he is fit and ready.
Absolutely no disrespect to Dale and I'm sure he will get through to 200 games but to even have to consider this scenario is pretty amazing. I think the improvement in our young defenders increases the likelihood that he may call it quits at the end of the year. He's such a selfless clubman I can imagine him stepping aside so as not to block the progress of his younger teammates.
Libba might struggle to squeeze back in if we win the flag :p
Every team we've beaten is above us on the ladder.
Yeah really positive aspect of our wins. As Sedat implies though all the teams we've lost to are below us on the ladder.
That's a bad sign for this week.Quote:
Originally Posted by Happy Days
Well, half of them are but the sentiment is correct. There's no glory in being mirror universe flat track bullies, we should be burying teams like Melbourne and St Kilda if we can do it to actual good sides.Quote:
Originally Posted by 1eyedog
Having played 7 of the top 8 - in the first 9 rounds - it is an excellent effort to be 5-4. Obviously two notable missed opportunities - but we also won two close ones (Sydney & West Coast) to go some way to evening things out.
The season, in terms of taking our chances to play finals, will be largely determined by our 4 games after the bye. Lions/Saints/Blues/Suns. Win all four - and even if we don't beat Port - we would be at 9 wins - with eight games left in the season.
Winning those games (that we should be winning) brings with it the confidence for the more 50/50 games that follow v Cats, Pies, Bombers & Demons.
Of the remaining 12 games, we only play two above us.Quote:
Originally Posted by Happy Days
Same as Carlton.Quote:
Originally Posted by Happy Days
And Gold CoastQuote:
Originally Posted by craigsahibee
It's a September style of play that will stand up if we're on. I'm pleasantly surprised by Saturday, I thought they'd touch us up with their speed and ball movement and am glad to be proven wrong.Quote:
Originally Posted by Happy Days
I'm not surprised we won Saturday, but surprised we're ahead of the ledger.
It's going to be a roller coaster ride in consistency, as it is for GWS and the other young teams
Being a young side isn't an excuse for being inconsistent it's just reality .
After such a great win I listened to a fair bit of discussion about our team on the radio, and a few esteemed judges noted that we have a game plan that is likely to stand up under finals pressure (unlike the downhill skiiers from GWS). And having beaten 5 of the top 8 (with an honourable loss to Fremantle) augurs well for the future.
Still not convinced but if we could iron out our goal kicking I might be.
Young key position players in Boyd, Roberts and Talia standing up or not will make or break us.
It's that kind of season I feel will have. Will be dissapointed some weeks and very happy other weeks. Love our running attacking style game plan but that is difficult to maintain and Bevo might need to have another game plan. We need to slow it down better when the attacking play is used on us.
When we are good, we are very, very good and when we are bad we are pretty ordinary. That being said, of the games we lost I was more disturbed by the capitulation to Melbourne and the brain-fade out against the Saints than the loss to Hawthorn. The Freo game was one that got away. Overall, we are a fair bit ahead of where we were last season but, like a lot of Forum members, I am wanting to see us string a few wins together: when we perform consistently and convincingly over a period of time THEN i will be fully convinced that we are well along the road to building a team that, given the breaks with injuries, can become a serious contender. Until that time I'm going to suspend my judgement. Beating Port Adelaide away will go a long way to convincing me that we really ARE going places and those places are all a long way north of where we've been wallowing for too long.
We gotta learn to win when we go in as warm favourites.
Speaking of discussion on the radio. There was an excellent interview with Bevo, pre game on Saturday (a few hours before the game) on ABC Grandstand that went for about half an hour. Its on the Audioboom app - and well worth a listen. Some of the areas have been covered by Bevo before in other interviews, but overall it was very good to hear about his coaching philosophies and lessons learnt so far.Quote:
Originally Posted by Flamethrower
When the bodies of our players are right, we've shown we can match it with anyone (bar Hawthorn but the Freo performance makes up for that I think). However, not only are inconsistent performances from inexperienced players to be expected, but I don't think we can back up after physically being smashed (and also physically smashing) the likes of Freo and the Swans.
Fortunately, most of our opponents aren't going to hit us as hard as those two did, and we have the bye coming up. Unfortunately, less experienced bodies tire as the season progresses, though Bevo looks like he's becoming a bit more pro-active in resting the youngsters and we seem to have good (if also very young) depth.
When we're too tired or just a bit off our game for another reason, we look sloppy in attack and our defensive structures break down enough for the opposition to slice through us almost at will. You'd have to think that will happen a few more times this season, but we also have plenty of improvement in us as well, so here's hoping that we can go further than in 2006 :)
Morris must be thinking - great, just as Im about to retire, we suddenly discover 'team defence'Quote:
Originally Posted by always right
I think a few issues stand out to me as being major areas we need to fix before we have a game or list that can stand up to finals pressure.
Goal kicking accuracy, outside pace (both offencive and deffencive) and genuine small defencive cover are areas that require immediate attention for mine. I can see in years to come us being belted by outside run on which small forwards can capitalise, and unfortunate small to medium sized defenders who are mid-paced having to cope with quick transition out of our forward line after a point. It's a nightmare waiting to happen.
It's great some commentators are this week suggesting we have a game that can stand up to finals pressure. I for one am not going to pay attention to that sort of thing for a while. The same commentators were talking up the Roos as premiership contenders after one or two performances last year and this year, and they'll do it again prior to the year being done with.
We will be better than good make no mistake. For Bevo to implement team defence and to get the players to buy into the manic pressure within 6 months has been amazing. Add that to the significant improvement from our fringe players,list management over the past 5 years and having Murphy help steer the ship we are in the best shape than we have ever been.
We're going to finish the season on 13 wins but miss out on finals on percentage to our nemesis Adelaide Crow eaters.
I've just done the AFL ladder predictor. Collingwood will finish 10th below us, Richmond 12th. 5th GWS, 6th Port, 7th Norf.
http://www.afl.com.au/ladder/ladder-predictor
Quote:
Originally Posted by BornInDroopSt'54
I can't do it! Augggggghhhh!
Thanks for that.. Saves me having to go to any more games.Quote:
Originally Posted by BornInDroopSt'54
Can you also work out the tattslotto numbers for Saturday night?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mantis
Even if we get to eighth spot we'd have to go to GWS to play.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 30Quote:
Originally Posted by Mantis
You're welcome
Give us the URL for that predictor would you please? I do believe though that the combo 1,2,3,4,5,6 has as much chance as any other combo.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mantis
Given we win the games we should, that's what the predictor produced. I have us beating the Pies but no one else presently above us. I predicted GWS to beat us in the return match.
Well that's just weird. I just did it and we finished a game clear in 4th position.Quote:
Originally Posted by BornInDroopSt'54
No probs with that better than going to Perth (which we may have to do if we win). As an aside, does anyone else on here think they we can beat anyone anywhere if we bring our best?Quote:
Originally Posted by Twodogs
We really do need our best side every week. If you look at our losses they have all occurred when we have had injuries to at least two players, either before a game or during.Quote:
Originally Posted by 1eyedog
If we bring our " men of mayhem" play every week and sustain it for 4 quarters, we are very competitive and can match it with the best.
Agree with this. We still need to develop more consistent performances across the whole team. The exceptions have been Wood Picken Murphy Dahlhaus and Matthew Boyd all now experienced players. We cannot afford to have for example a proven ball winner like Macrae playing in the VFL. Stringer and Crameri IMO need to become more reliable as their influence in attack is necessary if we are to become more competitive. The move of Roughead onto the ball has been a winner as has the emergence of Roberts and Hamling as key defenders. Wallis and Bontempelli need more support in the midfield where games are won or lost for us to be a genuine force.Quote:
Originally Posted by bornadog