AFL 2014 Ladder Predictions

[Aphrodite]

Now I've stumbled across the North & Richmond Boards.

Whose mids are better!

 

[timtamWB]

Cotchin > Swallow
Martin > Ziebell
Deledio = Wells
Ellis = Bastinac
Conca < Cunnington
Vlastuin = Atley
Jackson = Gibson
Grigg < Dal Santo
Foley < Boomer

 

[KillaKanga]

Now I've stumbled across the North & Richmond Boards.

Whose mids are better!

Did you enjoy the Superbowl just a little too much?

 

[Aphrodite]

Did you enjoy the Superbowl just a little too much?

What does the Superbowl have to do with a Ladder Predictions thread!

 

[KillaKanga]

What does the Superbowl have to do with a Ladder Predictions thread!

You're the one stumbling around chief

Now I've stumbled...

 

[Dirty_11]

18 - ST KILDA (What a rabble, McEvoy trade one of the worst things I've ever seen)
17 - GWS GIANTS (It's a long way to the top, good luck Leon Cameron. Mumford & H.Shaw will be important acquisitions)
16 - BRISBANE (Leppa has plenty to do if he wants to clean up Vossy's mess)
15 - WEST COAST (The superstars are cooked, their prime-aged mids all butcher the footy and are too slow for Subi)
14 - MELBOURNE (Roosy's a gun)
13 - ESSENDON (Allegations of PED use is sure to weigh heavily on the mind of any professional athlete, let alone forty)
12 - WESTERN BULLDOGS (Liam Jones & Jarrad Grant are finally turning into something useful. Dogs midfield becoming a powerful unit)
11 - ADELAIDE (I could be underrating them but I cant see Crows making the eight unless Tex wins the Coleman and Dangerfield wins the Brownlow. Pods will be a handy foil for Tex)
10 - GOLD COAST (I'd love to see Gary drag them into their first finals, doubt they can win 12-13 games yet, very dangerous though especially at Metricon)
9 - COLLINGWOOD (If Bucks is smart about it they'll be able to regenerate by the time Grundy is ready to dominate the comp, I think they may linger around the middle for the next couple of seasons)

8 - GEELONG (Didn't rate their off-season, offloading Pods and West in particular raised my eyebrows, those kids would wanna be pretty good)
7 - RICHMOND (Their very best could get them close to the top four, must back up 2013 and make finals again in 2014, missing out altogether would be a huge backward step. Vickery doing anything would help)
6 - NORTH MELBOURNE (Still have huge concerns over how their defence can cope against the massive forwards but the midfield of Swallow, Wells, Ziebell and now Dal Santo should be very exciting)
5 - PORT ADELAIDE (Watch out for Wingard, he's going to be the best player I've seen from that club)
4 - CARLTON (Warnock's development as a bona-fide #1 ruck gives them plenty of flexibility, Henderson, Waite, Walker & Kruezer can now go anywhere anytime)
3 - FREMANTLE (Will go close again if Pav, Sandilands and McPharlin are all available come late September, without them however they can be tamed. Looking forward to seeing how the '13 GF affects guys like Fyfe & Ballantyne in 2014)
2 - HAWTHORN (They lose Buddy but Big Boy McEvoy makes the Hawks more versatile and much harder to stop, they have two genuine gun rucks and their best 22 is now very even all over the ground)
1 - SYDNEY (You can argue it all you like, but fully fit we have the best defence, the best midfield and the best forward line in the AFL. Injuries and complacency will be our only barriers to glory)

Premiers - Sydney
Runners Up - Hawthorn

Leigh Matthews Trophy - Gary Ablett (GC)
Brownlow - Chad Wingard (PA)
Coleman - Lance Franklin (Syd)
Norm Smith - Luke Parker (Syd)

pretty sure McEvoy wanted out

 

[Hawkas1988]

pretty sure McEvoy wanted out

McEvoy definitely didn't want out. Watch any of the videos of him on the Hawks website and he was shocked the trade was going ahead and was sad to leave, he is happy now obviously but he saw himself as a saints player for life

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk

 

[Dirty_11]

Major contenders:
1. Sydney- Should be strengthened by the addition of Franklin and a better season injury-wise. Think it may be their year.

2. Fremantle- One of the very best. Will be there again at the pointy end of the year barring disaster, with the pain of last year's defeat spurring them on.


In the mix:
3. Essendon- Underrated side who will benefit from having Bomber Thompson at the helm and less of the spotlight on them. 2nd half of the season surely won't be plagued by scandals and injuries to key players again.

4. Hawthorn- Still a very good team with talent on every line, can't envisage a repeat of 2009. Will begin to fall in 2015 though.

5. Collingwood- In transition but won't fall like many are predicting. Still boast a very good lineup that will be bolstered if anything by their success in last year's draft. Hate to say it but good times ahead for the Pies.

6. Geelong- An unknown in 2014 and could go up or even down a couple of spots. May take a season for us to come to grips with losing so much experience and for 1st/2nd/3rd year players to seriously improve.


Fighting for the last few spots in the 8:
7. North Melbourne- Not sure why their list is so highly rated, but will probably play finals nonetheless. Miss out again and Scott is finished.

8. Adelaide- Gaining Betts, Podsiadly, and a fit Walker strengthens their F50 immensely and should see them improve. Could finish higher if things fall their way but fierce competition may keep them down.

9. Richmond- Overrated, every season 2-3 highly rated teams fall significantly short of meeting expectations and my gut feeling is that Richmond will be one of them.

10. Port Adelaide- May find it difficult with a tougher fixture and being the hunted as opposed to the hunter. Wouldn't worry too much though if I were a Port supporter and this were the case, the future still looks pretty bright.


Next rung below:
11. Gold Coast- Another season from playing finals. Will improve again but not to the extent they did in 2013, might take a year of consolidation from GC before being able to prepare for an assault on September.

12. Western Bulldogs- Showed some serious improvement in the 2nd half of last year and many younger players are about to enter their 2nd/3rd seasons. Should climb a couple of spots in 2014 and finals is possible in 2015.

13. Carlton- Will be one of the big disappointments in 2014. Have an average list that is going nowhere fast and the ship has sailed for them as far as winning a flag goes. Time for Mick to make some changes accordingly otherwise the rot may start setting in beyond this year.

14. Brisbane- Not in for the doom and gloom predicted by many but losing 5 decent young players is still going to hurt their depth whether they're best 22 or not. Took a wrong turn by sacking Voss and it will cost them.

15. West Coast- Average squad and poor depth, which was reflected in some of the beltings they received towards the end of last season. May take a season of semi-rebuilding under Sumich for them to begin climbing the ladder again.


Cellar dwellers:
16. GWS- May not climb the ladder just yet but have them down for 5 or so wins. With younger players entering their 2nd/3rd seasons they'll become a competitive side this year and take their first steps towards becoming a good team.

17. Melbourne- Will also win 5 games or thereabouts and become a more competitive unit. There is finally a light at the end of the tunnel but it may take a year for them to gel under Roos before beginning to rise again.

18. St Kilda- In for a year lean on wins as they embark on rebuilding the club, won't see overnight results in the process. Likely to win the spoon.

not sure why NM list is rated highly? maybe do some homework, start with round 19 last year.

 

[Dirty_11]

Port's wins and losses (in my decidedly non-psychic mind):

Round 1 v Carlton at Etihad Stadium - Sunday March 16 7:40pm (Away) WIN
Round 2 v Adelaide Crows at Adelaide Oval - Saturday March 29 4:10pm (Home) WIN
Round 3 v North Melb at Etihad Stadium - Sunday April 6 4:10pm (Away) LOSS
Round 4 v Brisbane Lions at Adelaide Oval - Saturday April 12 1:40pm (Home) WIN
Round 5 v West Coast at Patersons Stadium - Saturday April 19 5:40pm (Away) WIN
Round 6 v Geelong Cats at Adelaide Oval - Sunday April 27 4:10pm (Home) WIN
Round 7 v GWS Giants at StarTrack Oval - Saturday May 3 2:10pm (Away) WIN
Round 8 v Fremantle at Adelaide Oval - Saturday May 10 1:10pm (Home) LOSS
Round 9 - Bye
Round 10 v Hawthorn at Adelaide Oval - Saturday May 24 7:10pm (Home) WIN
Round 11 v Melbourne at TIO Traeger Park - Saturday May 31 1:10pm (Away) WIN
Round 12 v St Kilda at Adelaide Oval - Saturday June 7 4:10pm (Home) WIN
Round 13 v Sydney at SCG - Saturday June 14 2:10pm (Away) LOSS
Round 14 v Western Bulldogs at Adelaide Oval - Saturday June 21 1:15pm (Home) WIN
Round 15 v Adelaide Crows at Adelaide Oval - Sunday June 29 3:40pm (Away) WIN
Round 16 v Essendon at Adelaide Oval - Saturday July 5 7:10pm (Home) WIN
Round 17 v Richmond at Etihad Stadium - Sunday July 13 1:10pm (Away) LOSS
Round 18 v Melbourne at Adelaide Oval - Sunday July 20 12:40pm (Home) WIN
Round 19 v Collingwood at MCG - Sunday August 3 4:40pm (Away) WIN
Round 20 v Sydney at Adelaide Oval - Saturday August 9 7:10pm (Home) WIN
Round 21 v Gold Coast at Metricon Stadium - Saturday August 16 2:10pm (Away) WIN
Round 22 v Carlton at Adelaide Oval - Friday August 22 7:20pm (Home) WIN
Round 23 v Fremantle at Patersons Stadium - TBC (Away) LOSS

you left out the week you win tattslotto

 

[Dirty_11]

McEvoy definitely didn't want out. Watch any of the videos of him on the Hawks website and he was shocked the trade was going ahead and was sad to leave, he is happy now obviously but he saw himself as a saints player for life

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk

possibly, win for you guys though.

 

[Hans_Moleman]

not sure why NM list is rated highly? maybe do some homework, start with round 19 last year.

By "highly rated" I'm talking about the general sentiment ITT (or so it seems) that North are top 4 material. You have a fairly solid list who should improve and reclaim a finals berth, but I'm a tad sceptical regarding the widely-held belief that North are a talented side + likely bolter for 2014.

Not sure what Round 19 has to do with anything BTW. For whatever reason we played some pretty average footy against mid-table sides last year (losses to North, Adelaide, Collingwood, Brisbane and pushed by Carlton, GC, Brisbane at home, Bulldogs).

 

[Hawkas1988]

possibly, win for you guys though.

No doubt it was a great get seeming we had a massive hole if we didn't get a quality ruckman in to replace Bailey but I still think we paid St. Kilda well and they should see some rewards out of it in years to come

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[Stylo]

Do you really have Conca as equal to Cunnington?

Cunnington was 3rd in the AFL for avg 7.1 clearance and E7th in the AFL for avg 13.1 cont poss. Is Conca really at that level?

Yep, rate him very highly. He'll be at least as good as Cunnington, injury permitting

 

[Winter]

Cotchin > Swallow
Martin > Ziebell
Deledio > Wells
Ellis = Bastinac
Conca = Cunnington
Vlastuin = Atley
Jackson = Gibson
Grigg < Dal Santo
Foley < Boomer

Pretty even IMO.

Wells = Deledio.

Also Cunnington was 4th in the league for average clearances and 7th for contested possesions. While Conca is a promising player and a few months younger I would suggest Cunnington has him covered.

 

[Kimbo]

By "highly rated" I'm talking about the general sentiment ITT (or so it seems) that North are top 4 material. You have a fairly solid list who should improve and reclaim a finals berth, but I'm a tad sceptical regarding the widely-held belief that North are a talented side + likely bolter for 2014.

I tend to agree. If you can get all the non-North mob to agree with you, I'd be mighty grateful.

Not sure what Round 19 has to do with anything BTW. For whatever reason we played some pretty average footy against mid-table sides last year (losses to North, Adelaide, Collingwood, Brisbane and pushed by Carlton, GC, Brisbane at home, Bulldogs).

I agree that one game doesn't make a team a 'bolter' for the following season. But mid-table or not, I thought the game was of a high standard and hard fought.

 

[Spanish_Fly]

So let me get this straight, North have a better midfield, forward line, defence and rucks than Richmond, but finished the season with 5 less wins. That's the same difference as between North and StKilda, 5 wins. Yeah that's believable.

 

[theflea]

Yeah as a team we still have a lot to prove but IMO the midfield proved this year we were right up there with the best. Goldstein, Swallow, Cunnington are all top 10 in their position and Ziebell and Wells had better years than 2012. Richmond had a great year but I don't think many (if any) teams are worried about Richmond in 2014

Sent from my Samsung iPhone using Tapatalk 4

See its that last bollocks comment that defies logic. How could you know this and how do you know they aren't saying the same thing about the kanga's? That's just supporter bullcrap.

 

[KillaKanga]

So let me get this straight, North have a better midfield, forward line, defence and rucks than Richmond, but finished the season with 5 less wins. That's the same difference as between North and StKilda, 5 wins. Yeah that's believable.

I don't think North were better than Richmond. About equal considering we smashed Richmond and the anomaly of losing so many by under a goal. Surely you can see that North's year (taking into account more than just wins) was a lot closer to Richmond's than St Kilda's.

Selwood doesn't duck, ball bounces up for Boomer against Blues. Lots of tiny things that are 50/50 in any year all went against us last year. Good teams make their own luck and I hope North are on the other side of the ledger this year.

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[theflea]

If one more post says North are similar to Richmond in 2012 I think I'm going to vomit. We have been a step ahead of Richmond through the entire Brad Scott reign irrespective of last years ladder.


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The Roo's were a year ahead with list management when to 2 clubs got their current coaches. In the last 2 years the clubs have flipped positions and it will be this year that decides if the status quo returns(that the roos are a year ahead, thus go higher on the ladder). If you don't then I think we have gone ahead.

 

[Jay-Z]

See its that last bollocks comment that defies logic. How could you know this and how do you know they aren't saying the same thing about the kanga's? That's just supporter bullcrap.

Just my opinion of course but there would have been a number of teams that were glad we missed the finals. Contrary to that, all of the teams competing for Essendon's spot were licking their lips at the prospect of playing Richmond in the first final. You definitely had a better year than us overall but we were more of a threat to the top teams.

 

[theflea]

Just my opinion of course but there would have been a number of teams that were glad we missed the finals. Contrary to that, all of the teams competing for Essendon's spot were licking their lips at the prospect of playing Richmond in the first final. You definitely had a better year than us overall but we were more of a threat to the top teams.

Completely disagree(on playing us) that's revisionist junk imo . The only club that would have troubled us was our nemesis and that was the blues. If the crows or lions made we would have hammered them as we did during the season. If the roos made it would have been an even contest at the g(remember it was only this year of recent time that a blow out occurred in games between the 2 clubs) but could have gone either way. I would also say we would've been confident playing Sydney at ANZ stadium(big ground) as when we have played on those types of grounds we win(mcg) and the hawks wouldn't have wanted to play us either. So I think that statement is garbage.

 

[Jay-Z]

Cotchin > Swallow
Martin > Ziebell
Deledio > Wells
Ellis = Bastinac
Conca = Cunnington
Vlastuin = Atley
Jackson = Gibson
Grigg < Dal Santo
Foley < Boomer

Pretty even IMO.

These types of comparisons are so stupid. You can switch around the players and completely change the result.
Obviously if you list Boomer and Dal Santo as North's 8th and 9th best midfielders we will win the last 2 but the other 7 matchups will be slanted in Richmond's favour.

For example:
You've got:
Martin > Ziebell
Foley < Boomer
= 1 all

But I could easily say:
Foley < Ziebell
Martin < Boomer
North win 2-0

It means nothing

 

[Jay-Z]

Completely disagree(on playing us) that's revisionist junk imo . The only club that would have troubled us was our nemesis and that was the blues. If the crows or lions made we would have hammered them as we did during the season. If the roos made it would have been an even contest at the g(remember it was only this year of recent time that a blow out occurred in games between the 2 clubs) but could have gone either way. I would also say we would've been confident playing Sydney at ANZ stadium(big ground) as when we have played on those types of grounds we win(mcg) and the hawks wouldn't have wanted to play us either. So I think that statement is garbage.

Like they say, opinions are like arseholes... But we would definitively have been favourites had we played Richmond in the elimination final. You could argue we were a 3-5 goal better side when playing at Etihad this year but we beat you by 10 goals and out played you in every facet of the game.

 

[theflea]

Like they say, opinions are like arseholes... But we would definitively have been favourites had we played Richmond in the elimination final. You could argue we were a 3-5 goal better side when playing at Etihad this year but we beat you by 10 goals and out played you in every facet of the game.

I actually don't have problem that if we played the roos, you would be favorites as you did beat us well this year. I don't dispute that. What I do dispute is that all the clubs fighting for the last place in the finals wanted to play us, as I stated imo(like arseholes ) is incorrect and just a bit of vanilla rhetoric on your part.

 

[Jay-Z]

I actually don't have problem that if we played the roos, you would be favorites as you did beat us well this year. I don't dispute that. What I do dispute is that all the clubs fighting for the last place in the finals wanted to play us, as I stated imo(like arseholes ) is incorrect and just a bit of vanilla rhetoric on your part.

I didn't say wanted to play Richmond...and if I did, that wasn't what I meant... But IMO, they all would have preferred to play Richmond than North. You (Richmond) essentially has the typical bottom half of the 8 year where you consistently beat the teams below you and struggled with the teams above (with the odd exception like the Hawthorn game). On the other hand, we (North) consistently challenged the top teams without 'closing the deal' and then would lose random games against the likes of Gold Coast, Brisbane and Adelaide