Opinion Is this rock bottom?

[Lomas]

Rock bottom is when we realise we ain’t winning against 90% of the comp.

Have we arrived yet ?

No, we have won agains two teams, so that’s so that only means 89 odd percent.

 

[Cool Kangas]

 

[Devil Fish]

I'm not convinced we beat Hawthorn this week. In fact, I'd be surprised if we did. The WC game in 3 weeks - flip a coin.

 

[Better Loosen Up]

If you think we've hit rock bottom now, wait until next year if we don't find competent replacements for BMac and Logue!

 

[Event Horizon]

I'm not convinced we beat Hawthorn this week. In fact, I'd be surprised if we did. The WC game in 3 weeks - flip a coin.

It really depends which North turns up. That run of games under Ratten before the bye was some half decent form. The level we showed vs Sydney and Essendon should be enough to win 2 out of 3 at least. But the last two weeks after the bye we just completely hit the wall. Hard to say if it was just the quality of opposition away from home or are we done trying for this season


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[Marstermind]

I'm not convinced we beat Hawthorn this week. In fact, I'd be surprised if we did. The WC game in 3 weeks - flip a coin.

We've won 11 games in 4 years. There is no game where we are entitled to be convinced we'd win. On the evidence of this season, if we bring our best and Hawthorn bring their best, Hawthorn win. We've been better than West Coast (or more to the point, haven't been as bad) but not to the extent that we can rock up there, be 20% off and still walk away with a win.

 

[Mixed Results]

Did people tune out last year?

Two wins. One against a wafl side and one with the biggest disparity in scoring shots for twenty years.

Through sheer luck we avoided a deserved 0 win season. We had the lowest percentage in a decade, and set a record that will stand forever by not getting within 47 points of an opponent for 11 straight games.

We’ve improved a ton this year.

 

[Mav]

we haven't had the first year player injury yet....

 

[Better Loosen Up]

we haven't had the first year player injury yet....

You just HAD to say it didn't you....

 

[Mav]

You just HAD to say it didn't you....

sorry, I'm a realist.

 

[Marstermind]

Did people tune out last year?

Two wins. One against a wafl side and one with the biggest disparity in scoring shots for twenty years.

Through sheer luck we avoided a deserved 0 win season. We had the lowest percentage in a decade, and set a record that will stand forever by not getting within 47 points of an opponent for 11 straight games.

We’ve improved a ton this year.

Agreed. Maybe not 'a ton' but improved.

Yet this year feels equally disappointing. I felt like a grinch with my 6-win bottom-4 prediction compared to some others' hopes. But even my lowly expectations now seem wildly optimistic in hindsight with 2-4 wins and bottom 2 seemingly assured. What's worse, is that I thought we'd maintain a level of competitiveness that the thrashings would be rare and we'd ask serious questions of the better teams. Neither has happened. Brisbane, Port, Geelong, Adelaide and Melbourne all annihilated us. The Bulldogs, Collingwood and Carlton all got 40+ up on us before seriously applying the handbrake. St.Kilda nearly doubled our score and the Suns didn't break a sweat. So there's more than half the games that we've been shot well from home. The percentage is in the mid-60s - that's better but still putrid. No senior player has put his hand up for the new coach and been significantly better and all still make the same stupid mistakes they always have. Wardlaw & Sheezel are what we hoped for, but no other young player from last year has really stepped up. The two wins are by a combined margin of 6 points - one against the only side going worse, the other against a better team but who have looked like they CBF this season. 14 straight losses since then. The coach left on stress leave, one of our few classy players proved himself to be anything but classy off the field, the next ruck hope broke his ankle, our next young key forward broke his leg, our off-season steal from another club did his knee, and the other key pillar in our increasingly dysfunctional backline seems to want to leave. And probably the best two players in the team who are in the right age bracket - Jy and LDU - have been in and out all year with injuries.

Yet, despite all of that...we have improved. Shit.

 

[speedy]

we haven't had the first year player injury yet....

Hopefully we pre-paid our dues on that by drafting 1 & 1/2 injured players. This club has always been innovative.

 

[rickety]

we haven't had the first year player injury yet....

Didn’t we predict this and pay in advance with Brayden George?

 

[Jasemon]

Agreed. Maybe not 'a ton' but improved.

Yet this year feels equally disappointing. I felt like a grinch with my 6-win bottom-4 prediction compared to some others' hopes. But even my lowly expectations now seem wildly optimistic in hindsight with 2-4 wins and bottom 2 seemingly assured. What's worse, is that I thought we'd maintain a level of competitiveness that the thrashings would be rare and we'd ask serious questions of the better teams. Neither has happened. Brisbane, Port, Geelong, Adelaide and Melbourne all annihilated us. The Bulldogs, Collingwood and Carlton all got 40+ up on us before seriously applying the handbrake. St.Kilda nearly doubled our score and the Suns didn't break a sweat. So there's more than half the games that we've been shot well from home. The percentage is in the mid-60s - that's better but still putrid. No senior player has put his hand up for the new coach and been significantly better and all still make the same stupid mistakes they always have. Wardlaw & Sheezel are what we hoped for, but no other young player from last year has really stepped up. The two wins are by a combined margin of 6 points - one against the only side going worse, the other against a better team but who have looked like they CBF this season. 14 straight losses since then. The coach left on stress leave, one of our few classy players proved himself to be anything but classy off the field, the next ruck hope broke his ankle, our next young key forward broke his leg, our off-season steal from another club did his knee, and the other key pillar in our increasingly dysfunctional backline seems to want to leave. And probably the best two players in the team who are in the right age bracket - Jy and LDU - have been in and out all year with injuries.

Yet, despite all of that...we have improved. s**t.

Can I say on behalf of every North supporter out there your words are both stingingly accurate and also worthy of a Stephen King novel I might have read once.

Five years now of horror movie and the numbness is both our reality and a nasty dream. I say to my non North mates, “give me a win, just give me a single win and I will be a happy man”. That’s how lowly my expectations have fallen.

 

[Mav]

Hopefully we pre-paid our dues on that by drafting 1 & 1/2 injured players. This club has always been innovative.

Didn’t we predict this and pay in advance with Brayden George?

The football gods haven't tended to give us to many favors of late.

 

[Masked Avenger]

We hit rock bottom in the moments before we called out Sheezel and Wardlaw's names at last years draft.

It is a sad reflection on the quality of our list, largely related to a woeful band of senior blokes who either can't or won't help our cause, that we grimly hold onto hope on the back of a couple of teenagers.

I'd hate to think where we would be at right now if those two blokes were looking like busts.

 

[Cool Kangas]

I'm not convinced we beat Hawthorn this week. In fact, I'd be surprised if we did. The WC game in 3 weeks - flip a coin.

I’m convinced we won’t come close to beating hawthorn. I’ll be there though.

 

[bengrina]

We hit rock bottom mid way through last year when we lost to the cats by 100 odd points. In Clarko we trust

 

[Cyber_punk]

Did people tune out last year?

Two wins. One against a wafl side and one with the biggest disparity in scoring shots for twenty years.

Through sheer luck we avoided a deserved 0 win season. We had the lowest percentage in a decade, and set a record that will stand forever by not getting within 47 points of an opponent for 11 straight games.

We’ve improved a ton this year.

West Coast actually broke that record 2 weeks ago.

 

[Cyber_punk]

I'm not convinced we beat Hawthorn this week. In fact, I'd be surprised if we did. The WC game in 3 weeks - flip a coin.

It depends which Hawthorn shows up. They've shown at times this year they can dig in and play competitive with half decent sides.

They play at their best, they win.

They take us lightly, we are a small chance.

 

[Mixed Results]

West Coast actually broke that record 2 weeks ago.

The Eagles set a similar record, but their longest streak this year stands at only six.

The fact that the Eagles could only get about halfway gives an indication of how long the record should stand.

 

[scottywiper]

Wete

Did people tune out last year?

Two wins. One against a wafl side and one with the biggest disparity in scoring shots for twenty years.

Through sheer luck we avoided a deserved 0 win season. We had the lowest percentage in a decade, and set a record that will stand forever by not getting within 47 points of an opponent for 11 straight games.

We’ve improved a ton this year.

We're two kicks from a zero win season this year.
And this is a lot of improvement?
Happy times...

 

[speedy]

Did people tune out last year?

Two wins. One against a wafl side and one with the biggest disparity in scoring shots for twenty years.

Through sheer luck we avoided a deserved 0 win season. We had the lowest percentage in a decade, and set a record that will stand forever by not getting within 47 points of an opponent for 11 straight games.

We’ve improved a ton this year.

First year in ages we have had a reasonably healty list, plus the coaching updgrade, and all we have to show for it is a 14 game losing streak? At this rate of improvement we will make the finals in 2049.

 

[Mav]

First year in ages we have had a reasonably healty list, plus the coaching updgrade, and all we have to show for it is a 14 game losing streak? At this rate of improvement we will make the finals in 2049.

Not so speedy, hey speedy.

 

[Mixed Results]

First year in ages we have had a reasonably healty list, plus the coaching updgrade, and all we have to show for it is a 14 game losing streak? At this rate of improvement we will make the finals in 2049.

The rate of improvement that we've seen with our percentage would see us competing for finals in two years' time. At our best, we played a long stretch of football that had a percentage 25% higher than what we achieved last year.

We have that 25% improvement on our best next year and we're in finals.