Most Underrated Team?

[HARKER]

As bitter as it is for me to say it, North are the most amazingly underrated team in the competition.

Sydney and Adelaide a distant but still annoying second.

Neither North or Sydney will make the eight in 2009
We will have the biggest shake up of the eight for some years.
Again, I will say don't be surprised if Geelong slip out as well.
The scenario of a top team dropping form its previous year always looks unlikely until it eventuates and we find all the reasons why this has happened.
a. I feel Geelong are an unhappy team
b. They have little of a forward line going into 2009
c. Backline is getting quite old and may not hold up as years gone by.

Richmond will seriously surprise and St. Kilda to win an unlikely second flag.

 

[HARKER]

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.

I see things as you do Bomba.
We may lose 5 teams from this years eight.
Essendon, Carlton and Richmond have great chances of slipping back in.
Port Adelaide will definitely, with Brisbane and Fremantle as other possibilities.
Yes, I did say Fremantle

 

[DiGwIt]

Carlton are the most over rated team in the comp the media love there lack lustre efforts. At the moment people are tipping them for top 4 and I expect the media to jump on board soon enough. A poll last year on the carlton board had 60% of supporters predicting a top 6 finish.

Id say that was some major over rating.

yer i agree with that i rekon they may just slip into the 8 this year tho.

 

[bellzy]

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...

Really? When did North do this? Did I sleep through it?

 

[Mario the Lothario]

Not confident of being superior but I was impressed we managed to attain 8 wins considering so many things went wrong injury wise,

You weren't Robinson Crusoe mate.

- Nathan Thompson hobbled through 15 games.
- Hamish McIntosh was fit for 2 whole games for the entire season.
- Jesse Smith, BOG in our second semi final win of 2007 over this years premiers, played 2 games for the entire season
- Aaron Edwards played 8 games for the season.
- Andrew Swallow busted his ankle and played 3 games for the season.

These injuries alone cost us 5 goals a match in 2008.

and adding to this one of our greatest ever players retired, we had a new coach, new game plan

The game plan Essendon currently plays is incredibly simple and has no chance of ever delivering a flag to Windy Hill. I believe Knights has them playing this way deliberately due to the inexperience of the Essendon midfield. He will tweak this game plan as the team evolves.

Still, my point is that the current Essendon game plan takes very little football nous to institute.

 

[ronnie1234]

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.

Mmm, i'm also not that confident of the crows breaking into the top 8 next year, considering we have a tough draw next year.

Well anyway, i reckon north, sydney and adelaide are the underrated teams.

 

[Smyth94]

You weren't Robinson Crusoe mate.

- Nathan Thompson hobbled through 15 games.
- Hamish McIntosh was fit for 2 whole games for the entire season.
- Jesse Smith, BOG in our second semi final win of 2007 over this years premiers, played 2 games for the entire season
- Aaron Edwards played 8 games for the season.
- Andrew Swallow busted his ankle and played 3 games for the season.

These injuries alone cost us 5 goals a match in 2008.[/quote]

We played with about 26 players for half the season, the final few games of the season we had to resort to naming a player in the side who had been told the week before he had been delisted, on top of carrying already injured players just to squeeze a team together - don't go there.

The game plan Essendon currently plays is incredibly simple and has no chance of ever delivering a flag to Windy Hill. I believe Knights has them playing this way deliberately due to the inexperience of the Essendon midfield. He will tweak this game plan as the team evolves.

Still, my point is that the current Essendon game plan takes very little football nous to institute.

You've pretty much nailed it on the head there - thats exactly what he is setting out to do.

 

[SweetLeftFoot]

As bitter as it is for me to say it, North are the most amazingly underrated team in the competition.

Sydney and Adelaide a distant but still annoying second.

Despite the fact that you are AFL owned pets who need to play 19 men against good sides to scrape a draw etc etc, I've always thought you guys get a really raw deal because of the way you play.

Ever notice how every sport has people who reckon it is better to play 'attractively' rather than win premierships/titles?