2010 Ladder Predictions

[HowBoutThemDoggies]

1. Melbourne
2. Fremantle
3. Port Adelaide
4. Richmond
5. North Melbourne
6. West Coast
7. Sydney
8. Essendon
9. Hawthorn
10. Collingwood
11. Carlton
12. St.Kilda
13. Adelaide
14. Brisbane
15. Western Bulldogs
16. Geelong

Premier: Fremantle
Runner Up: Melbourne
Norm Smith: Jack Watts
Brownlow: Tom Scully
Coleman: Wayde Skipper
Rising Star: Brett Goodes

hoping someone had taken an interest in your lame humour before now champ? wump wump

 

[buddymania]

Bulldogs
Geelong
St Kilda
Adelaide
Hawthorn
Carlton
Richmond
West Coast
-------------
Collingwood
Brisbane
Sydney
Fremantle
Melbourne
Essendon
Port Adelaide
North Melbourne

 

[Football God]

st.kilda- 2 losses for the year? gonna be dominant atleast 2 years in a row as history shows....
collingwood- still only young and only going to get better
adelaide- showed what they can do, and are going to be a powerhouse
carlton- unfortunately, will be better than last year with more experience to the side
geelong- the cracks are appearing
western bulldogs- slipping
hawthorn- will be back in 2010
brisbane- will still be up there, but wont go very far
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
essendon- close.. but not this year
north melbourne- looked good at the end of the year, starting to see benefits
fremantle- always have close losses maybe the tides will turn..
sydney- lost their 2 big forwards this year.. all they got is goodes but he cant be everywhere..
melbourne- improving.. give them bout 3-4 years..
port adelaide- burgoynes a massive loss

premiers- collingwood
runners-up- st.kilda
brownlow- J.Brown .. maybe RICHO if he could get a full year in him.
coleman- J.Brown

Highlights-
-travis johnstone finally caught having drugs
-g.ablett crying after missing chance to win game in dying seconds of match
-john anthony to kick 5 goals in grand final
-harry O to shut down riewoldt in the grand final

 

[Football God]

Dogs, assuming they get B.Hall and keep Lake!
Cats, one more year left in em
Pies
Hawks, assuming S.Burgoyne is there
Brisbane
Adelaide
North
Essendon

West Coast
Sydney
St.Kilda, will win it this year but then be poor next year
Freo
Richmond
Carlton, judd to miss plenty of the year
Port
Melbourne.....something wrong at the dees

the wont keep lake, especially if they get hall.. they cant afford him!

 

[TigerBabe]

Richmond
Geelong
St Kilda
Adelaide
Hawthorn
Carlton
Bulldogs
West Coast
-------------
Collingwood
Brisbane
Sydney
Fremantle
Melbourne
Essendon
Port Adelaide
North Melbourne

 

[Football God]

Richmond
Geelong
St Kilda
Adelaide
Hawthorn
Carlton
Bulldogs
West Coast
-------------
Collingwood
Brisbane
Sydney
Fremantle
Melbourne
Essendon
Port Adelaide
North Melbourne

lol, good one.

 

[AG]

st.kilda- 2 losses for the year? gonna be dominant atleast 2 years in a row as history shows....
collingwood- still only young and only going to get better

I still get what people think when they write stuff like that. Youth isn't a reason for being near the top of the ladder.

 

[Ryan Dixon Webb]

St Kilda
Adelaide
Western Bulldogs
Geelong
Carlton
Hawthorn
West Coast
Brisbane
----
Essendon
Sydney
Collingwood
North Melbourne
Fremantle
Richmond
Port Adelaide
Melbourne


Premiers: St Kilda
Runner Up: Western Bulldogs
Norm Smith: David Armitage
Brownlow: Bernie Vince/Bryce Gibbs/Joel Selwood/Jobe Watson
MVP: Bernie Vince


Stuff that will happen:
- Kurt Tippett, Brendan Fevola, Barry Hall and Lance Franklin will contend for the Coleman.
- Choco will leave Port.
- Essendon, Sydney & Collingwood will all be in contention for the finals in what is to be a great, tight year of AFL.

 

[Lestat]

I still get what people think when they write stuff like that. Youth isn't a reason for being near the top of the ladder.

Why...don't young players improve as they get older? With more experience? or is it only Colllingwood youngsters that won't immprove?

Tell me, how did we finish top 4 given apparently our older players are no good, and the bulk of our team...who are youngsters are no good, and will probably not improve?

 

[Reg Hickey]

Haven't read the whole thread, but a lot of people over-rating the Pies methinks.

I would expect Saints, Dogs, Cats, Crows and maybe Blues, Bombers and Lions to finish above them next year.

 

[king and i]

Melbourne one spot behind the Lions. Your Dreamin'. Lions top 4, Melb bottom 4. Sorry.

 

[AG]

Why...don't young players improve as they get older? With more experience? or is it only Colllingwood youngsters that won't immprove?

What? If every youngster improved from every draft the term delisting wouldn't exist. Did you think Cloke would improve this year? Clarke? Brown? Goldsack? It's very convenient to just say the young players will improve. Some improve, some will regress. The fact is you won't finish second because you are young, you will finish second because you are a good team and you have a good mix of experience throughout the team.

Tell me, how did we finish top 4 given apparently our older players are no good, and the bulk of our team...who are youngsters are no good, and will probably not improve?

Who said that? Clearly you are good and yes, some players will improve. If Cloke and Medhurst don't improve then they are gone next year. It's your star players in Swan, Didak, Shaw, Davis, O'Brien, Presti, Pendlebury who will have a big say in where you finish. I expect Collingwood to be top 4-6 but it's not due to the date on their birth certificates, it's because over recent years they have a good football team.

 

[Buddysbestfriend]

2010
1. Hawthorn
2. St. Kilda
3. Adelaide
4. Geelong
5. Carlton
6. Collingwood
7. Western Bulldogs
8. Essendon
-------------------------
9. Sydney
10. Brisbane
11. West Coast
12. Melbourne
13. North Melbourne
14. Port Adelaide
15. Richmond
16. Fremantle

premiers: hawks
Coleman: Buddy
brownlow: j selwood

 

[OniAu]

I still get what people think when they write stuff like that. Youth isn't a reason for being near the top of the ladder.

It is in collingwoods case, considering our youngsters have got us into the finals for the past 3 seasons.

Theyve pretty much proven they can handle themselves in the finals with at least 1 win in each of the past few final series. Players like Thomas and pendles have had something like 6 or 7 finals games in 4 seasons. Probably more than melbournes team as a whole.

If it was a melbourne team expecting youth to take them to the top then itd be a joke, they have no finals experience what so ever and havent even gotten close to the top 8 in the past few seasons. Itd have to be an injury riddled year for the pies to drop off that much and finish outside the 8

 

[AG]

Theyve pretty much proven they can handle themselves in the finals with at least 1 win in each of the past few final series. Players like Thomas and pendles have had something like 6 or 7 finals games in 4 seasons. Probably more than melbournes team as a whole.

If it was a melbourne team expecting youth to take them to the top then itd be a joke, they have no finals experience what so ever and havent even gotten close to the top 8 in the past few seasons. Itd have to be an injury riddled year for the pies to drop off that much and finish outside the 8

imo, it isn't the youngsters though. It's guys like Swan, Didak, Davis, Presti, Maxwell, Lockyer, O'Bree etc. The experienced heads that keep the pressure off the younger players. Melbourne don't have the class of those Collingwood players so they have to rely heavily on their youngsters. Too much pressure early in their careers. Chuck Presti and Swan in Melbourne and they'd probably have won 2 or 3 extra games this year.

 

[Ben the Gooner]

Bulldogs
Geelong
St Kilda
Adelaide
Hawthorn
Carlton
Richmond
West Coast
-------------
Collingwood
Brisbane
Sydney
Fremantle
Melbourne
Essendon
Port Adelaide
North Melbourne

Care to explain how that will happen?

 

[StringyDog]

Care to explain how that will happen?

Prob won't be that low, but it is not that unrealistic considering;

Second best player this year behind Watson has walked out on club
3 out of top 4 goal kickers this year are gone
Ruckman coming back from knee injuries are normally very poor for a year or so and prone to doing it again.
Lots of injury prone players on list

 

[Schache It Off]

Anything can happen in between 5-11......

Saint Kilda
Western Bulldogs
Geelong
Collingwood
Adelaide
Hawthorn
West Coast Eagles
Brisbane Lions
________________
Essendon
Carlton
Port Adelaide
Sydney
North Melbourne
Fremantle
Richmond
Melbourne

 

[Ben the Gooner]

Lovett is not our second best player. Might scrape top 5. We can cope without him - maybe the player who takes his spot in the 22 will try in a final.

Knights can now set up the forward line that he wants. Lloyd and Lucas made his job an awkward balancing act - he couldn't just get rid of them, but on the other hand he didn't want to play them out of the square. I won't pretend that our forwardline isn't worrying, but between Hille, Hurley, Neagle and Gumbleton (and even Laycock if his ankle gets better) there's certainly enough firepower.

We coped without Hille this year, so adding him to the team will improve it, certainly not cause us to drop off.

We've had plenty of injuries, more than our fair share in fact, over the past two years, so we'd have to have an unprecedented number for that to be a negative. Rather, I suspect that as we get bigger bodies, we'll have less injuries. Knights also has said that he'll tone down the attacking side of the gameplan, so there'll be less fatigue, and hopefully less injuries there.

Then you factor in the extra 22 games the likes of Pears got, and the 10+ games for the likes of Hurley (9, but still), Ryder, Hocking, Dempsey etc., and the experience that will come from that, and the signs point to improvement.

 

[Wonaeamirri33]

Melbourne don't have the class of those Collingwood players so they have to rely heavily on their youngsters. Too much pressure early in their careers. Chuck Presti and Swan in Melbourne and they'd probably have won 2 or 3 extra games this year.

Why would we have needed these players to win at least a few extra games this year? All we'd have needed is to have less injuries throughout the season.

Any objective look at the results this year, and at our injury list, shows that.

 

[AG]

Why would we have needed these players to win at least a few extra games this year? All we'd have needed is to have less injuries throughout the season.

Any objective look at the results this year, and at our injury list, shows that.

You don't need them but if you had them you would have won a few more games. Your injury list was big but how many of them were experienced players?

 

[Wonaeamirri33]

A lot of them, from memory mate... although it's a bit tricky to go back through again to retrieve the info about who was injured at what time.

Aaron Davey was the only guy in our squad who played a full season....

 

[Lestat]

What? If every youngster improved from every draft the term delisting wouldn't exist.

Of course all youngsters improve, they improve with experience, they improve with age, they improve as there bodies develop. Its the rate of improvement which differs, and other variables such as skill level, disposal and physical attributes, such as speed and aerobic capacity.

This doesn't mean that all players will make it, however, they still improve.

For example..Cook and Stanley. Now imo both are not and never will be good enough to make it...but have they improved. Of course they have, its just that they are not and never will be good enough. Doesn't mean they haven't improved.

Teams are forced to delist players...afl rules state that each club must delist 3 players per year..hence there will always be delistings.

Did you think Cloke would improve this year? Clarke? Brown? Goldsack?

Players do have bad seasons you know. Yes Cloke was disapointing, yet you seem to disregard the fact that two seasons ago he won our Copeland, dominated a finals series and almost got us into a grand final.

And yes Brown has improved...just that injury and Malthouse's subborness to play Leigh Brown meant that we saw less of him then we would of liked. But he was beginning to take marks, get more involved in the games, whereas last season he was purely defensive..only spoiling and doing little more.

Goldsack..once again has shown improvement in area's. Doesn't have the consistancy yet...this is where his improvement will come from. Clarke obviously spent most of the year with his mind elsewhere.

Vesprami didn't have the best of seasons this year did he? Compared to last year you'd have to say he was a disapointment. However, you wouldn't write him off after one year. Injury...loss of form, second year blues...all have an effect. Youngsters are always going to be up and down.

Has Vesprami improved? Yes...and you'll probably see that improvement next season.

Just because a players output has decreased, it does not mean they haven't improved. There are other variables/factors that must be considered.

It's very convenient to just say the young players will improve. Some improve, some will regress.

Yes...over one season some youngsters may regress, however, over a career all young players will improve. The question is will they improve enough?

The fact is you won't finish second because you are young, you will finish second because you are a good team and you have a good mix of experience throughout the team.

If we finish second (and I don't believe we will) the improvement will come from our youngsters. Wellingham/Beams/Sidebottom will need to improve enough to push out players like O'Bree and Johnson. Dawes will need to stand up and provide an option up forward. Dick needs to get stronger, and more consistent. Anthony will need to better his 50 goal effort this year. And yes, Cloke and Medhurst will need to regain there form...they've done it before, no reason to believe they can't do it again, unless of course you believe they are one season wonders?

And most importantly...we need to keep fit. Injury can be and often is the difference.

We know what we will get from Swan/Didak/Davis etc, etc...its the youngsters who need to get better? Will they improve enough to get us a premiership...probably not, however, I don't see how you can believe that they won't get better.

Who said that? Clearly you are good and yes, some players will improve. If Cloke and Medhurst don't improve then they are gone next year.

Cloke is like 22..playing at CHF. Think your being a bit harsh writing him off at such a young age. You trying to tell me that if Cloke has another season like the past, that you wouldn't have him at the swans?

Medhurst has played injured most of the year. Should of been dropped weeks ago to regain form and confidence in the VFL..one of many selection type mistakes we've made this season.

It's your star players in Swan, Didak, Shaw, Davis, O'Brien, Presti, Pendlebury who will have a big say in where you finish.

Pendlebury/Shaw/O'Brien are all young and still have room for improvement, and are already integral parts of our team. Beams/Sidebottom have just completed there first seasons, and Anthony is 21, has kicked 50 goals in his first full season. It is not unreasonable to expect all to improve.

Its not the fact that they are young which makes me think we'll improve..its is the fact that they are young, and have already contributed to our cause...far more then most players at the same age at other clubs.

I expect Collingwood to be top 4-6 but it's not due to the date on their birth certificates, it's because over recent years they have a good football team.

I think we'll be vying for top 4 again, and will probably end similar to this year (3rd/4th)...either way, I don't think we'll ever win a premiership with Malthouse coaching..but thats a topic for another thread.

 

[Lestat]

imo, it isn't the youngsters though. It's guys like Swan, Didak, Davis, Presti, Maxwell, Lockyer, O'Bree etc. The experienced heads that keep the pressure off the younger players. Melbourne don't have the class of those Collingwood players so they have to rely heavily on their youngsters. Too much pressure early in their careers. Chuck Presti and Swan in Melbourne and they'd probably have won 2 or 3 extra games this year.

O'Bree? Lockyer?

Lockyer had an ok season but O'Bree has been horrible. It is our 'O'Bree's'/Lockyer/Johnsons' who though having been good servants of the club, are holding us back.

Pendlebury has this season by far been our most important clearance player...and he is 21. How many players have peaked at 21.

Thomas is ridiculously underrated here, and still has heaps of room for improvement. Will he ever be a super star? Who knows...probably not, but he is far better then he is given credit for, and yes, he will improve.

Anthony is 21..I'll ask again, how many AFL players have peaked at 21 (disregarding those cut down by injury of course)

And SideBottom/Beams. How many 18 year olds have been BOG in a final in there first season (SideBottom). Do you honestly believe that these players won't get better?

I think you are overrating our older players and underrating our youngsters. Even without improvement, players like Pendlebury/O'Brien/Cloke (even with his horrible season) are far more important to our structures/performances then O'Bree/Lockyer/Johnson. Losing the former 3 would of hurt our season far more then the latter.

Collingwood have far better youngsters then Melbourne, and far more. And when I say youngsters..i'm not talking about players who are in the reserves and haven't even played yet..I'm talking about players under 21 who are already contributing immensely to a team which made top 4.

 

[Kappa Tau]

1. Hawthorn
2. Carlton
3. Bulldogs
4. Collingwood
5. St.Kilda
6. Adelaide
7. Geelong
8. Brisbane
----------------------
9. West Coast
10. Essendon
11. Sydney
12. Melbourne
13. Richmond
14. North Melbourne
15. Fremantle
16. Port Adelaide