My post answers this exactly, I don't know how that is not obvious. I can't explain it any better.Think your going off course here a bit
Fwiw I had us pushing for finals with 7-8 (hardly unrealistic expectations considering the club had finished even higher 2 years earlier with a as young and even less experienced team but most notably everyone at the club from the top down being at a pains to say their youth is no excuse.
Also tho ,why shouldn’t expectations change as performances do as compared to the expected??
To not is virtually counterintuitive to the human psyche required in a competitive environment
As you say we’ve been good enough to be in and around the top 4 all year but now the clubs faltering we’ve clearly become not good enough to even make the eight despite being in their most of the year??
All of sudden it’s all due to our age/experience?
It’s this part I can’t get my head around
Put simply if we miss from here it’s been a hugely wasted opportunity, considering where the team was positioned ,to gain INVALUABLE finals experience and it’s this part that I’m most aggrieved*
*anyways its still not 100 % certain just yet and this years certainly thrown up some surprises so let’s hope there’s one more for freo and we can stay in the 8 come end of the year get to play finals