I can finally see why we arnt rated

[giantroo]

Ohh. Its at Etihad.

Do we play West Coast away then?

We play the Crows at AO in round 14, then we have the bye then West Coast at DS in Round 15. These are the two games I think we may drop. The rest I think we will get through ok.

 

[berniemccarthy]

It's funny how a discussion with clear points turns into people flaming me saying we need players winning the Brownlow, Mark of the year, pointless stats etc.

If you're not concerned that we scrape wins against low teams - Melbourne, St Kilda, Essendon prime examples - then similar to meaningless stats the 8-0 is a poor reflection of where we are, and our draw has been incredibly easy

Sydney will be our first real test, I'm glad some posters on here realise someone can have a different opinion to you and follow it up with discussion rather than sarcasm

Sarcasm is de rigeur here. Don't take it to heart. From a long time supporter I agree to a large extent with your view. Our good teams that have won premierships used to bury sides. Seen no evidence of that. That all said I think we have not hit anywhere near our straps. Can't think of a game where we played like we did against Richmond in the EF.

 

[Only Forwards]

Has it occured to you that Mr Despondent may be a pisstake account? Perfect name.

Fair point

 

[NMFC 1811]

Yep

Adelaide in Adelaide
West Coast in Perth
Sydney in Sydney
Sydney in tassie
Hawthorn twice
Geelong once at Etihad
Dogs return match.

Biggest tests yet to come.

All very winnable games.

 

[Only Forwards]

Sarcasm is de rigeur here. Don't take it to heart. From a long time supporter I agree to a large extent with your view. Our good teams that have won premierships used to bury sides. Seen no evidence of that. That all said I think we have not hit anywhere near our straps. Can't think of a game where we played like we did against Richmond in the EF.

First quarter of the dogs game was finalsesque

 

[Hazey1977]

I liked to apply the old proverb; things are never as good as they seem and things are never as bad as they seem to most areas of my life, including footy.

Things could definitely be worse and I feel we've matured as a group and held on to win games that last year we would've dropped.

Things could be better and I'm still of the belief we need to engineer a way to get more legspeed and the combo of Ziebs, Cunners and Swallow could be tweaked somehow. With Wells and Higgins out it felt like our spread suffered. I get the feeling Clarke could become our gut running ball magnet, but we probably won't find out this year.

Whatever your opinion on Brad, he backs himself, the players, his system and the club to the hilt and you have to respect him for that.


Sent from my SM-T715C using Tapatalk

 

[sobo]

We have been lucky Waite has turned it on early. It worries me when he's off, like the last 2 weeks we look a horrible football side. He's the only one to mark the footy. Brown just runs under it or gets pushed out of the contest to easy and Petrie is done is only there to create a contest. Thomas can't kick more then 1 goal a game anymore. And teams just fly outta our forward line with lightning pace we just can't defend in our fwd 50. I hope things change but hawks, Geelong, Sydney, bulldogs, gws, adelaide, westcoast are a fair way in front of us. We have to pick up our game. Will be lucky to win 5 more games, hope I get proven wrong but us North fans just have to face the facts. Our boys only turn up when they feel like it and lack the skill to match the best teams.

 

[berniemccarthy]

First quarter of the dogs game was finalsesque

Agreed but not a whole game

 

[iSmack]

Round 1 vs Adelaide - Down by 27 at half time. Played 2 quarters of decent footy. Lucky to win that.

Round 2 vs Brisbane - Won by 34. Horrid defensive showing. Bears kicked 17 points. Lucky again.

Round 3 vs Demons - Gave up a 47 point lead to win by 5 points. No need to comment. Numbers speak for them selves.

Round 4 vs Dockers - We were the only team to allow these flogs to kick over 100 points this year.

Round 5 vs Sun's - Injury depleted and still took it up to us. Don't let the score flatter you. It's was an even contest.

Round 6 vs Bulldogs - Only complete game of the year. Fantastic 4 quarters.

Round 7 vs Saints - Lucky. Veryyy lucky to win.

Round 8 vs Dons - Gave up a 58 point lead to a bunch of top ups.

Apart from winning games, we've built zero form. Absolutely no consistency.

Premiership contenders execute rubbish teams and battle and scrape through against quality sides.

Teams should absolutely fear an 8 - 0 side. Not play their best games against you. They should be getting the belting of their life.

Sent from my HTC 2PS6200 using Tapatalk

 

[hilly]

hawks, Geelong, Sydney, bulldogs, gws, adelaide, westcoast are a fair way in front of us.

No they're not.

 

[TheKanga]

We have to many nice guys in our team.
Not one is really willing to put their foot on the other teams throat.
We should of won by 100 yesterday

 

[Skarrz]

Our players look like they're waiting for a challenge. I'm not being cocky, its just how I view it at this stage.

This is the dream

 

[hilly]

Here's what matters in football:

Winning games
Winning finals

 

[berniemccarthy]

No they're not.

Agree with Hilly. None a fair way in front. Comp very close. Not sure how your logic deems Adelaide and Dogs as being a fair way in front of us having beaten them. That is truly bizarre.

 

[sobo]

No they're not.

Right now they are, hopefully the last half of the yr we switch on and treat it like finals footy because over the last 2 yrs we've played our best footy in finals our skills pick up aswell. So far I've never seen us turn the footy over like we have been

 

[Only Forwards]

Premiership contenders execute rubbish teams and battle and scrape through against quality sides.

Is Sydney a premiership contender?

They just lost against the tiggers who have been complete and utter shite.

 

[sobo]

Watch Cunners play everytime we play the best sides he's a bull and want to be best. We play the shit sides and his attitude is horrible he looks like he doesn't want to be out there. It's annoying

 

[Skarrz]

Here's what matters in football:

Winning games
Winning finals

Winning the Brownlow, winning Mark and Goal of the year, winning grand final sprint, winning Tissots, getting nicknames from BT like Big Boner Brown

This thread went better than expected, thought it would be boring until we play Carltank on here

 

[Only Forwards]

Agree with Hilly. None a fair way in front. Comp very close. Not sure how your logic deems Adelaide and Dogs as being a fair way in front of us having beaten them. That is truly bizarre.

Adelaide lol

Adelaide are 4-4.

Just like Carlton.

 

[iSmack]

Is Sydney a premiership contender?

They just lost against the tiggers who have been complete and utter shite.

I rate the tigers as being 30 times better than the bombers.

Do me a favor, and watch a Sydney game and see how they go about their business.

Sent from my HTC 2PS6200 using Tapatalk

 

[shinboner magic]

Our first half of the season is crap - so a team that's 8/0 will get better.

That sounds nice

 

[TommyVercetti]

Round 1 vs Adelaide - Down by 27 at half time. Played 2 quarters of decent footy. Lucky to win that.

Round 2 vs Brisbane - Won by 34. Horrid defensive showing. Bears kicked 17 points. Lucky again.

Round 3 vs Demons - Gave up a 47 point lead to win by 5 points. No need to comment. Numbers speak for them selves.

Round 4 vs Dockers - We were the only team to allow these flogs to kick over 100 points this year.

Round 5 vs Sun's - Injury depleted and still took it up to us. Don't let the score flatter you. It's was an even contest.

Round 6 vs Bulldogs - Only complete game of the year. Fantastic 4 quarters.

Round 7 vs Saints - Lucky. Veryyy lucky to win.

Round 8 vs Dons - Gave up a 58 point lead to a bunch of top ups.

Apart from winning games, we've built zero form. Absolutely no consistency.

Premiership contenders execute rubbish teams and battle and scrape through against quality sides.

Teams should absolutely fear an 8 - 0 side. Not play their best games against you. They should be getting the belting of their life.

Sent from my HTC 2PS6200 using Tapatalk

Luck comes from hard work. Remeber in 2013 when we lost a bunch of games by under 10 points. I'd like to think that we beat the Saints the final few minutes because the boys had so much experience at it and knew how to win it.

Winning big is great and all but how often are finals decided by big margins. It's typically tight. Take Hawthorn they won 3 games by 3 points. If if came down to a close finish who's more likely to win Hawthorn or West Coast.

 

[Only Forwards]

I rate the tigers as being 30 times better than the bombers.

Do me a favor, and watch a Sydney game and see how they go about their business.

Sent from my HTC 2PS6200 using Tapatalk

But they were 1-6 prior to yesterday.

By the logic of this thread the premiership contender in Sydney should have belted them.

 

[Firestarter]

Is Sydney a premiership contender?

They just lost against the tiggers who have been complete and utter shite.

Richmond always have those two to three games that cause mass media orgasms before they fall on their faces.

 

[Devington]

We have been lucky Waite has turned it on early. It worries me when he's off, like the last 2 weeks we look a horrible football side. He's the only one to mark the footy. Brown just runs under it or gets pushed out of the contest to easy and Petrie is done is only there to create a contest. Thomas can't kick more then 1 goal a game anymore. And teams just fly outta our forward line with lightning pace we just can't defend in our fwd 50. I hope things change but hawks, Geelong, Sydney, bulldogs, gws, adelaide, westcoast are a fair way in front of us. We have to pick up our game. Will be lucky to win 5 more games, hope I get proven wrong but us North fans just have to face the facts. Our boys only turn up when they feel like it and lack the skill to match the best teams.

We've matched it with, and then beaten, Adelaide and the Western Bulldogs. We can only beat the teams we play, and so far we've beaten all of them. I can understand being worried about certain things, because our wins haven't all been convincing, but this is a team that made two prelims in a row on the back of beating the majority of the contenders while dropping games to lower clubs. We've played badly, but we haven't dropped diddly squat. IMO we have yet to see how we match up against the contenders (if you don't include Adelaide and WB) and I personally find it hard to pass judgement on that aspect of our game until we do.

There is some seething negativity around here at the moment, and while the cause of it is generally valid some of the conclusions drawn seem out there. Labelling us as worse than X,Y, Z when we haven't even played them, saying we've peaked as a list, all types of madness. We're 8 and 0 and on top of the ladder!. We haven't lost a single game yet. Maybe hold off until we do before writing us off.