Most Underrated Team?

[.Shotties.]

Are you w***ers even aware of how ratings/viewers work and how they calculate the numbers? There is no definitive number of viewers, your statistics are shonky at best.

Feel free to prove them wrong.

 

[vonn]

wtf donners did i not say slash memberships?
im sorry you have hectic inside information into the afl an no one shud argue with u cuz ur just to smart.

no seriously get your head out of ur ass an start insultin the swans tactics once u get some of good ones at essendon that gets u into the top 4.

 

[Pykie]

He kicked 37 goals, big deal.

So you agree our forward line is alot better than yours? Thanks.

You rely on two players for all of your goals, this year showed how bad you went when one was injured. And both are over 30 years of age.

2 out of 3 of our best goal scorers, who would of close to doubled your 2nd highest goal scorers are both 20 years of age! But gee, theres no potential there

Yes, yes it is. You do not have a legitimate target, take out 8 goals Hale kicked against the Cats and its a pretty poor return. Lloyd also played further up the ground in the second half of the year and the reason the likes of Gumbleton and Neagle didn't kick more is because they were injured. North Melbourne were missing only McIntosh from your starting 22 for any significant period.

Why would you take out the 8 goals against the Cats? It was one of the best forward performance's of the year, and showed how much Hale is maturing in that position.


So your relying most of your forward line on Neagle and Gumbleton? Good luck with that, a combined total of 13 league games experience, no wonder the Bombers are up the shit

Gibson is a hack.

Firrito is a solid player, I like the look of Urquhart, Hansen has played his best football pushing forward and Smith is a long way off but shows plenty of potential.

God, id be suprised if you had seen a game of football before....

Hansen played in the backline, he pushed forward because of his aerobic capabilities, to the uneducated (you) it may have appeared that he played accross half forward, but he infact just attacked from center half back....

Of that list, Smith is the least from "long way off", if he plays 22 games next year, he will come close to our Best & Fairest.

How about centre clearances?

You mean like Adam Simpson ranking 3rd in the league at them? Oh yeah, hes finished though right?

Wells is enigmatic, Harris is slower than Watson, Rawlings it purely a tagger, Simpson is finished. I did say Harvey was better than any of our midfielders did I not?

Gee, one word descriptions of each of our players is an intelligent argument on how Watson is better than all of them, well done with that, stumped me

No no, I was just trying to put your best players on the ground at the one time. You really didn't change much in terms of personnel. Sorry mate but that list you have is atrocious. You need decent KPs. We need one elite midfielder.

And to think it couldn't get any worse.................

Our first round picks for the last 3 years have been KPP's, we have close to the best ruck division in the league, and Drew Petrie is one of the best Utility talls in the league......

Yeah, but you lacking one elite midfielder is the reason you have been bobbing off the bottom of the ladder for the last 4 or so years

What ever makes you sleep at night champ.

 

[tin can sam]

You're kidding, right? In the same breath as bagging anyone who jumps on the bandwagon for predicting the demise for the Swans you do exactly the same thing.

It's rubbish that we have no youth coming through. I fully expect Schmidt, Barlow, Currie, Laidlaw, Jack, Smith, O'Dwyer, Bird, Veszpremi and Meredith to play parts in our year barring injury, and all have played less than 20 games, with some not having debuted yet. Murphy will probably debut as well, and Johnston may get a look in as well.

That's potentially 11 players with less than 10 games experience, with Schmidt having played around 15. Not quite a 'no good youth coming through' scenario at Sydney.

with this comment you've proven my point.

Do you expect players who have played less then 10 games to keep you in the 8? No good youth coming through is a bit of a stretch, but you don't have good enough, or experianced enough young players to keep you in the 8.

 

[tin can sam]

Well, it is possible ... but if this was actually going to happen to Adelaide, then this year (2008 season) was the year it should have happened. At the end of 2007 the Crows lost a good many experienced, serviceable players ... the likes of Hudson, Welsh, Torney and Mattner as examples, and Biglands did a knee in the preseason ... and Adelaide had to replace them all in the side. Hart and Perrie had gone, and McGregor was no longer up to it. In 2008 the Crows did just that, they introduced a fair number of fewer-than-ten games experience players into the regular starting 22.

Maric, Vince, McKay, Tippet, Griffin, Symes, Moran were introduced, and Douglas and Porplyzia (both of whom had quite low games experience) all found regular places in the side.

That was nigh-on half the side turned over, representing a huge loss of experience.

Adelaide finished 5th, just missing the top 4 by a narrow percentage. Understandably, they suffered a serious "wobble" in the second half of the season, but they recovered marginally towards the end.

This year the Crows have effectively lost just one regular (Bassett) and one fringe player (Massie) from the side. Far, far easier to deal with.

Strongly contending for those two places next year will be the likes of Taylor Walker and Patrick Dangerfield ... this does not seem like any sort of a drop off in the playing squad to me.

Finally, all of those players who were in the fewer-than-ten-games-experience category last year will be in the twenty-to-thirty-games-experience-at-the-start-of-the-season category this year. Some of them will get to the 50 games mark by the end of the season.

If Adelaide were actually going to have an abberation year, and finally fall out of the eight due to transition between the older players and the younger ones, then 2008 should have been that year.

2009 will more likely be the year of the revival, the start of the dramatic upswing, if anything, for Adelaide.

Adelaide are the one I'm not confident on not making the 8, I just think they way this could be one down year before a return to the 8.

I like Adelaide though, and you've made some very good points, they could make the top 4 but I just think it'll be a case of close but not there in 2009.

 

[.Shotties.]

with this comment you've proven my point.

Do you expect players who have played less then 10 games to keep you in the 8? No good youth coming through is a bit of a stretch, but you don't have good enough, or experianced enough young players to keep you in the 8.

At this point in time, we don't really need them. Who have we had retire that we haven't replaced?

As I've said before I think the method of gradually blooding young players around the experienced older core is working fine.

 

[The Donners]

It was good enough to be hovering around the top 4 most season.
No, what you really need is to stop talking shit about things you know nothing about.

And of all people from an Essendon supporter!! You're lucky we even reply to you about on field performance.

Hahahaha good one, every team has a down patch and after such an extended run of successful we were bound to have a few years of rebuilding, we will win a premiership before North Melbourne.

 

[Kings Army]

Hahahaha good one, every team has a down patch and after such an extended run of successful we were bound to have a few years of rebuilding, we will win a premiership before North Melbourne.

Few years??? You have not played finals in 08, 07, 06 and 05. 4 years no finals. In 04 and 03 you finished 8th. You have been down for a long long time.

Terrible comment about who will win a flag next. How do you come up with such stupid things. Because Laycock will reach his full potential?

 

[DarwinRoo]

The Donners bay 13 is that way ----->

And your a Man U supporter. Why should anyone be suprised that your a clown.

 

[vonn]

haha darwinroo its actually
<--- that way

 

[SM]

Are you w***ers even aware of how ratings/viewers work and how they calculate the numbers? There is no definitive number of viewers, your statistics are shonky at best.

Memberships on the other other hand actually have a tangible number.

They would clearly use the same method for all Grand Finals, however, meaning that the 2005 Grand Final was still the most watched, no matter what the actual numbers.

with this comment you've proven my point.

Do you expect players who have played less then 10 games to keep you in the 8? No good youth coming through is a bit of a stretch, but you don't have good enough, or experianced enough young players to keep you in the 8.

Youth with experience? Perhaps players like Malceski, McVeigh, Jack, Moore, Roberts-Thompson, Richards, Grundy, Bird and Schmidt, who have all played between 15-100 games?

 

[Papa G]

Few years??? You have not played finals in 08, 07, 06 and 05. 4 years no finals. In 04 and 03 you finished 8th. You have been down for a long long time.

Terrible comment about who will win a flag next. How do you come up with such stupid things. Because Laycock will reach his full potential?

Essendon have been quite a non entity in terms of actual (vying for premiership) competitiveness for quite a while and it seems they are a fair way off it as well. Since the early 80's you've always associated Essendon with a fair bit of success, but in reality they have had a bit of a nothing decade. Don't fly off the handle Bomber supporters, it is more than a fair observation.

 

[mark73]

Hahahaha good one, every team has a down patch and after such an extended run of successful we were bound to have a few years of rebuilding, we will win a premiership before North Melbourne.

Only on sony playstation.

 

[walhawk]

The Roos.
Every year I put $50 on to make the 8 and usually clean up.

And for 2009, the Hawks.
As if Geelong are going to beat us in the finals. People have forgotten how comprehensively beaten they were in the GF. We should be outright fave for the flag not 2nd behind the the Cats.

 

[SM]

Actually I'll split it up for you:

0-50 Games: 20 (Barlow, Bird, Brabazon, Currie, Grundy, Hannebery, Heath, Jack, Johnston, Laidlaw, Meredith, Moore, Murphy, O'Dwyer, D. O'Keefe, Orreal, Schmidt, Smith, Veszpremi, White)
51-100 Games: 6 (Bevan, Buchanon, Malceski, Playfair, Roberts-Thompson, Shaw)
101-150 Games: 5 (Ablett, Jolly, Mattner, McVeigh, Richards)
151-200 Games: 5 (O'Keefe, C. Bolton, Fosdike, Kennelly, Kirk)
201-250 Games: 5 (Barry, J. Bolton, Crouch, Goodes, Hall)
251-300 Games: 1 (O'Loughlin)

In the 0-50 category of 20, 9 haven't debuted, leaving 11 who have played, of which 5 have played less than 10 games, leaving 6 who have played from 11 (Barlow) to 32 (Moore). Of that 20 I expect, barring injury, all of them to add to their tallies in 09 except Hannebery, Heath, and perhaps Brabazon. Thats 17 players with some form of experience for 09, nearly an entire team. Add in youngish players like McVeigh, Malceski, Bevan, Jolly, Mattner and that's still a good team once the top end (O'Loughlin, Hall, Crouch, Barry, Fosdike and Kennelly) retire next year.

 

[The Donners]

Feel free to prove them wrong.

You don't know much about our judicial system do you!

They made a statement it's up to them to prove it right. They've provided no proof bar a practical survey whereby select % of members of the community watch their regular programming and those portion of viewers are rating, multiplying to deduce the number of viewers of each television program. Such surveys are bias and thus contain no objectivity.

 

[The Donners]

What ever makes you sleep at night champ.

16 premierships to 4... 1 premiership every 6.8 years to North Melbourne's 1 premiership every 21 years... that certainly helps a lot!

I've seen 4 premierships, I've seen us miss the finals only 6 times in 28 years, now watching Essendon's team rebuild for only the 4th time. I'm confident our young players will develop to the level necessary to win a premiership by 2012 and continue to have a sustained period of success, hence I'm patient, North Melbourne supporters are impatient, the membership numbers do not lie. Do you believe North Melbourne will win a premiership in the next 5 years?

 

[Zvim]

Because I think we have a better team with far more improvement ahead of us than North Melbourne:

Essendon

FB: Hurley Fletcher McVeigh
HB: Myers Ryder McPhee
C: Reimers Watson Dempsey
HF: Lloyd Gumbleton Monfries
F: Davey Neagle Lucas
Foll: Hille Prismall Houli
Inter: Jetta Stanton Lovett
Laycock

North Melbourne

FB: McMahon Gibson Thompson
HB: Urquhart Firrito Power
C: Wells Simpson Harding
HF: Hansen Petrie Edwards
F: Thomas Hale Campbell
Foll: McIntosh Pratt Harvey
Inter: Jones Rawlings Watt
Lower

That is awesome, Smith doesn't even make the side. I think the only thing that is certain is your knowledge of the North side isn't that great which brings into serious doubt your ability to rate the future prospects.

Full back is likely to be Obst, Grima or Thompson.
Small defenders likely to be Pratt and Harding.
CHB likely to be Hansen, maybe Petrie if Hansen goes forward.
Medium/Tall defenders from Smith, Urquhart, Firrito and Gibson

Forwards we are likely to see Hale, Josh Smith and Tarrant as the main tall forwards. Hale only played about half of 2008 at FF as he had to ruck a fair bit after McIntosh was injured. Campbell, Thomas and Ross will continue with the small forward roles. Edwards/Jones/McMahon will have to contest for the medium forward position.

Versatility here is the key. Hansen and Petrie can go back or forward, Hale can ruck well.

Our weakest area in 2008 was the midfield. It may be improved depending on if Ziebell makes that early transition, guys like Smith or Wells who were used sparringly in the middle this year might play more of a role there next year.

Guys like Lower, Riggio, Swallow and Greenwood didn't have a lot of game time in 08, with some of the older guys retired like Grant and Sinclair I think it gives us the opportunity to put in more genuine midfielders into the main group.

Guys that had very little time in 08 or weren't around such as McIntosh, Smith, Tarrant and maybe even a kid like Ziebell could add significantly to our potency in 09.

I don't know and don't care where Essendon is at, but I think North as a team in 2009 should be stronger than the 07 and 08 side and this year we were pretty good against the good opposition, just sucked on the road and against sides we dropped our guard against.

We don't have to make the same kind of improvement as Essendon because the Bombers needs to make a significant improvement just to get to top 8 quality. We are already at that level, we just need to just improve enough to go from top 8 to top 4. Given our performances against Hawks, Dogs and Cats this year and given the caliber of listed players we have had to do without then I think it is well within our grasp to make the top 4 in 2009 if the whole side plays well and we are not plagued with key injuries.

 

[bomba4eva]

Essendon is underrated by many and shall surprise them by making the top 8. Windy Hill has received some of the best kids over the last few years due to our low finishes. They are now all receiving plenty of game time and are set for a sustained challenge at the top for a number of years.

I think Collingwood is very overrated and may drop out of the 8 and that Sydney, Adelaide and the Kangaroos will all fall out of the 8.

 

[Godfrey Jones]

Sydney

 

[SM]

Not by Collingwood. They have no need to underrate or overrate us.

 

[bomba4eva]

We don't have to make the same kind of improvement as Essendon because the Bombers needs to make a significant improvement just to get to top 8 quality. We are already at that level, we just need to just improve enough to go from top 8 to top 4. Given our performances against Hawks, Dogs and Cats this year and given the caliber of listed players we have had to do without then I think it is well within our grasp to make the top 4 in 2009 if the whole side plays well and we are not plagued with key injuries.

You don't have the same room for improvement because of your continued mid-table finishes which leave you in limbo with early finals exits and mediocre draft picks. We've had 4 long years in the bottom 5 and hence have got plenty of the top end talent on our list. Sure you had some impressive wins this year but you also copped a few thumpings with Round 1 being quite notable. The Roos aren't going anywhere and continued mediocrity poses massive problems for the future of your club.

 

[DarwinRoo]

You don't have the same room for improvement because of your continued mid-table finishes which leave you in limbo with early finals exits and mediocre draft picks. We've had 4 long years in the bottom 5 and hence have got plenty of the top end talent on our list. Sure you had some impressive wins this year but you also copped a few thumpings with Round 1 being quite notable. The Roos aren't going anywhere and continued mediocrity poses massive problems for the future of your club.

Mediocre draft picks? I have never heard so much rubbish in my entire life.

Do you honestly beleive that after the first 4 picks of each round in the draft that the rest of the players are ordinary?

You cant seriously think that the bloke picked at 1 is garaunteed to be a superstar but the bloke picked at 9 is a hack and as you call it mediocre. Even the Premiership team gets to pick a player in the first round which effectively means that they still have a chance to pick up one of the 16 best youngsters in the country.

Round 1 was about as notable for us as Round 22 was for you.

 

[Pykie]

16 premierships to 4... 1 premiership every 6.8 years to North Melbourne's 1 premiership every 21 years... that certainly helps a lot!

I've seen 4 premierships, I've seen us miss the finals only 6 times in 28 years, now watching Essendon's team rebuild for only the 4th time. I'm confident our young players will develop to the level necessary to win a premiership by 2012 and continue to have a sustained period of success, hence I'm patient, North Melbourne supporters are impatient, the membership numbers do not lie. Do you believe North Melbourne will win a premiership in the next 5 years?

But hey, your only 1 elite midfielder away from the flag arn't you?

According to you the Bombers are up there in every position


Theres no need to preach to the holy, North has been one of the most successful sides of your lifetime.

It must really hurt.

 

[DarwinRoo]

But hey, your only 1 elite midfielder away from the flag arn't you?

According to you the Bombers are up there in every position


Theres no need to preach to the holy, North has been one of the most successful sides of your lifetime.

It must really hurt.

Yeah its strange that. Apparently we need KPP's and they need a midfielder but didnt Essendon draft a KPP with their first pick and North draft a midfielder.