Opinion Realistically...where's your club finishing and why? (Unbiased edition)

[Altum Volantes]

Last - the young players are too young, the old players are too brittle, the mid-age either not good enough or playing a lone hand (Kelly, Oscar)

I can’t see anyone being understandably worse, short of an unexpected year from hell from Richmond/North/Hawthorn/Essendon.

 

[Shanghaistu]

After that woeful practice game against St Kilda underpinned by the dire lack of talent and hard ball commitment on our list, 15th-18th is a lock

 

[BarbieITFC]

Like most Freo fans I'm cautiously optimistic that our young team (17th for average games played) will be a lot better than many are predicting/expecting - but for mine it comes down simply to whether our coach has become less conservative and like many fans I'm not convinced until I see it.

Teams I am 100% certain we will finish ahead of:

• West Coast (finally rebuilding but in for at least three more years of challenging for the spoon)
• North Melbourne (I do think will be better this year, but their defence sucks)
• Hawthorn (so much hype for so little evidence - we played them off the park twice last year with a less experienced team on both occasions)
• Richmond (great team, but as is the natural rhythm of equalisation they will be bottom 6-8 for the next few years)

Teams I am confident we will finish ahead of:

• Essendon (just not enough talent through the spine)
• Geelong (far too dependent on Cameron staying fit)
• Gold Coast (need a season of Hardwick before they start to fulfil potential, but their time is coming)

Teams I we should finish above if JLo has taken the handbrake off just a bit:

• Bulldogs (so much talent held back by a bonkers coach still living off a freak flag win 8 years ago)
• St Kilda (similar to Essendon but with slightly key position players and a better coach)
• Adelaide (will suffer like Freo did last year when confronted with a harder fixture, they are coming, but too reliant on Tex)

Teams we might finish ahead of if we get on a roll, but I'm not confident we will:

• Port (a complete roller coaster of a team - I have no idea how they will go - and I doubt our pre-season game on Friday will make it any clearer because we smashed them in pre-season last year and I thought they were heading for bottom six)
• Sydney (I see us as just behind them in terms of potential and it will be fascinating to see how they go without Buddy)
• Melbourne (a lot predicting they are due a fall and clearly a load of turmoil behind the scenes, but I think they'll go OK)

Teams I am 100% certain will finish ahead of us:
- Collingwood, Carlton, Brisbane, GWS

So, we could make 7th/8th, but I expect more likely 10th/11th. Whether JLo gets another contract will be entirely dependent on game style. I am absolutely certain we have a potential flag winning list in place, we just need another season of games into the 20/21/22 year-olds before our window opens up.

 

[Rabish Binney]

Anywhere between 8th and 12th.

Our backline is a massive worry.

 

[Howard Littlejohn]

No lower than 18th. Probably.
Its also hard to see any higher unless West Coast are filling hospitals for months at a time again.

Wins : zero to five with with the lower limit far more likely than the upper. Five would be a minor miracle, at a guess two because there's always a team or two that throw out a shocker or kick 1.12 in a quarter to lose a game via shank.
Significantly more competitive in the second half of the year than the opening 6-8 games.
Will kick some goals, but bleed many. By far the worst points against in the league, at 2300-2500.

 

[BarbieITFC]

No lower than 18th. Probably.
Its also hard to see any higher unless West Coast are filling hospitals for months at a time again.

Wins : zero to five with with the lower limit far more likely than the upper. Five would be a minor miracle, at a guess two because there's always a team or two that throw out a shocker or kick 1.12 in a quarter to lose a game via shank.
Significantly more competitive in the second half of the year than the opening 6-8 games.
Will kick some goals, but bleed many. By far the worst points against in the league, at 2300-2500.

Based upon last Saturday's scratchie - you would have to be a s**tshow of epic proportions to finish below WCE.

 

[citizen-erased]

After that woeful practice game against St Kilda underpinned by the dire lack of talent and hard ball commitment on our list, 15th-18th is a lock

I think 15th given teams are going past us whilst we're still shifting pieces around trying to work out our gaps.

Suspect we'll be ahead of the hawks, roos and eagles.

 

[Sttew]

Cats, anything is possible except wooden spoon. Realistically, between 5th and 12th. If injuries are contained to a minimum (already Cam Guthrie is out for 8 - 10 weeks with a quad injury suffered 7 minutes into the "match simulation" last week, so not a great start), Cats could surprise, but somehow I don't think they will surprise.

 

[CatToTheFuture]

Our 2020/2022 BnF midfielder is back.

....

 

[Teal Leviathan]

On the fringes of the eight, i.e. 7th-10th. Too much talent to fall over entirely, but we're still stuck with Hinkley and the same game plan that has failed for many years now.

 

[Heaps of fun]

14th to 17th. We're gonna improve but too young to improve that much. The backline also lacks experience, proven talls and will need time to gel. I think we have an exciting young group that are actually ready to turn things around and that could give us some momentum to add a string of mid-season wins that could take us just outside the bottom four. Worst case scenario we're 17th because even in the worst case I think the Eagles will be much worse.

 

[CatToTheFuture]

After that woeful practice game against St Kilda underpinned by the dire lack of talent and hard ball commitment on our list, 15th-18th is a lock

I wouldn't attach much meaning to a preseason match

 

[Tadpole]

Somewhere between 6th and 10th. Defence still needs work - it's not quite as strong as our attacking prowess. Also partly depends on our ability or otherwise to win on the road, and/or close out close games.

 

[Ricmel]

Like a lot of clubs I think Saints could be anywhere from 14th to 3rd. Just a big bunch of contenders this year.

 

[mouncey2franklin]

North

If Larkey stays on the park, 10th to 14th.

Otherwise, 14th to 17th.

 

[TheKanga]

In 2023 we only won 3 games
However we lost 5 games by under 10 points.

I think with our drafting, natural progression of our 2nd years in Sheezel & Wardlaw.
Larkey who is in the form of his life who should be getting even better quality service.
And a focussed Clarko this season.

With a good run with injuries.
I honestly think we can escape the bottom 4 for the first time since 2019.