Autopsy Round 16, 2023: West Coast v St.Kilda *WILKIE 100TH*

[stavro#4]

Hell of a lot to play out over the remaining games of the season , we find a solution to our midfield problems and everything could come together.
I hope they realize now that Sinclair needs to start in the midfield , we can't keep playing the same out of form midfielders.
The West Coast game was turned around when Sinclair was moved to the middle and all we need now is someone else to step up.
It was disappointing we never smoked the Eagles but it should spark a few more ideas to fix our problems and Sinclair as a starting mid should be the first change.

Yep Sinclair should go the way of Rory Laird and become a full time mid.

Time to find the next HbF.

 

[George]

But isn’t that what we are doing mate?

You are literally getting everything you asked for.

Finals contention. Building a list. Playing youth. Winning games.

But because we lost to Hawthorn. Struggled yesterday and the last few weeks has been rough.

You are throwing the baby out with the bath water. You aren’t alone FYI. I recognise that.

But I just can’t understand how any of our supporters can be upset with this season. I really can’t.

Quite frankly. We are over delivering 15 games into RTBs second tenure.

I personally wasn't expecting us to drop down with RTB in. We were already a borderline finals side and with all the talk about how much our footy department had improved post Ratts I expected finals this year at a minimum. I had us probably 6th-8th so 5th is better than what I thought but I think it's saying more about the competition than anything we've done. Let's be honest, we've been lucky to hold our ladder position over the last month or two.

Overall I should be happy but it's so bloody frustrating given that I know how good we CAN be as we've shown it at points throughout the year. Close loss against Collingwood, huge win against Essendon, wins against Dogs and Freo when we were undermanned. We were playing a totally different brand of football in the first 6 or 7 weeks and I'm not alone in that opinion, Ross said it himself at the presser yesterday - he's got no idea why we have these dramatic shifts in performance.

At least he's aware of it though and addresses it publicly unlike the coaches we've had in the past that decided to focus on other areas. The inconsistencies in our game is our single biggest issue. Has been for years.

It's not just the Hawthorn loss, it's how we are playing. Totally devoid of any ideas, same dumb football as last year that saw us miss finals after 8-3. It's the rubbish we dished up against North, yes the horrendous loss to Hawthorn, leading by 4 goals against Richmond and getting run over, kicking it down Andrews throat all day against Brisbane, sputtering against GWS. Yesterday was just another chapter in the long line of bog average performances. We should've beaten that Eagles side by 10 goals minimum yesterday, anything other than that are excuses IMO.

I'm just getting more and more frustrated with how we baby our players. How can we be so bipolar over so many years. Boggles the mind. I'm glad that Ross told them at halftime that this was turning into a waste of the last 9 months instead of why not us garbage. At least he recognises and calls out the issues. It's reassuring to me as a supporter to hear my coach call out the issues that I've known for the best part of a decade.

Ultimately we are so much better than what we are dishing up right now. In a year that is so even across the competition we are blowing it with our Jekyll and Hyde behaviour. We should be sitting inside the top four right now, a game clear of Melbourne. I don't buy "We aren't good enough for top four". Beat Hawthorn and we are there. Every year we completely blow golden opportunities and it's what costs us in the end.

We need to be more ruthless on field and it starts with the coaches and leaders.

 

[St Kilda Death]

“Expected scores” for the match were 108 to 56. So West Coast shot the lights out (21 more than the AFL average from where they took their shots from), while we scored 23 less than expected from where we had our shots.

100% they shot the lights out.
No denying we got rattled by both their pressure and scoreboard pressure in the 2nd but we rallied and replied.
12.2 (at 3QT) is an unreasonable return.
Ask Sydney or Melbourne!
Especially where they were shooting from.
Ffs that one campaigner kicked a goal when he was trying to pass it and shanked it.

 

[Saints TV]

SAINTS TV WEEKLY | JULY 03 – Saints TV

SAINTS TV WEEKLY | JULY 03 July 03 2023 The Eagles gave us an almighty scare | Zak Jones stars for Sandy | Dees up next on Saturday night. More Videos

saintstv.com.au

Sent from my iPhone using BigFooty.com

 

[StCicatriz]

I wanted him at the draft. His All Stars game was fantastic, played just like he does now, bustling, head first footy and scoring goals through brute force. He's as refined as a sledge hammer but a maniac swinging one of those will take care of a bunch of pussies with more refined weapons in a confined space and he does his best work in heavy traffic. I reckon willpower takes care of talent in a one on one., SPP has willpower.

100%

i remember people talking about his kicking. was massively over-stated. he had improved on it heaps.

we missed a trick not getting him and bolton.

 

[StCicatriz]

Great coaching by RTB yesterday. Listen to his presser, he made the changes to the play which got them back in the game. He knows the boys are having a little dip in form at the moment and aren't playing the way they should be.

Down by around 30 points twice, managed to claw our way back twice and held on for the win.

honestly people can knock ross but what better option is there? there's no senior coach of higher calibre coming.

he's 100% an upgrade on ratten and richo.

atleast we have someone now whos been around long enough to know the bare minimum.

 

[StCicatriz]

We are following a similar trajectory to last year because we have the same issue. Not RTB's fault.

We don't have elite talent to take control of games, so our wins are based off hard work.

When you get to the middle of the season and everyone is tired and sick of training etc, putting in the hard work becomes more difficult and hence we start to struggle. It's probably only 5% off and the players probably don't even realise but that's all it takes.

I know that I start to struggle towards the end of year and need that break at Christmas time.

On Pixel 6 Pro using BigFooty.com mobile app

correct. ross cant rebuild a midfield in half a season and one pre-season. especially with the cultural issues within the senior core.

its not just a question of talent but also attitude. that takes time to turn around.

 

[Saint Shags]

So you either bottom out and draft and hope you build one

You don't need to bottom out to build one.
Bottoming out means spending more than 1 year at the bottom.
We don't have that luxury as a club.

And there are plenty of clubs that have shown you don't need to do that.

He is 23 - coming off a shoulder reco and getting the ball kicked his way by Ross Byrnes and Gresham

Then let's drop them. That would help the bottoming that you want.

 

[L_W_P]

I personally wasn't expecting us to drop down with RTB in. We were already a borderline finals side and with all the talk about how much our footy department had improved post Ratts I expected finals this year at a minimum. I had us probably 6th-8th so 5th is better than what I thought but I think it's saying more about the competition than anything we've done. Let's be honest, we've been lucky to hold our ladder position over the last month or two.

Overall I should be happy but it's so bloody frustrating given that I know how good we CAN be as we've shown it at points throughout the year. Close loss against Collingwood, huge win against Essendon, wins against Dogs and Freo when we were undermanned. We were playing a totally different brand of football in the first 6 or 7 weeks and I'm not alone in that opinion, Ross said it himself at the presser yesterday - he's got no idea why we have these dramatic shifts in performance.

At least he's aware of it though and addresses it publicly unlike the coaches we've had in the past that decided to focus on other areas. The inconsistencies in our game is our single biggest issue. Has been for years.

It's not just the Hawthorn loss, it's how we are playing. Totally devoid of any ideas, same dumb football as last year that saw us miss finals after 8-3. It's the rubbish we dished up against North, yes the horrendous loss to Hawthorn, leading by 4 goals against Richmond and getting run over, kicking it down Andrews throat all day against Brisbane, sputtering against GWS. Yesterday was just another chapter in the long line of bog average performances. We should've beaten that Eagles side by 10 goals minimum yesterday, anything other than that are excuses IMO.

I'm just getting more and more frustrated with how we baby our players. How can we be so bipolar over so many years. Boggles the mind. I'm glad that Ross told them at halftime that this was turning into a waste of the last 9 months instead of why not us garbage. At least he recognises and calls out the issues. It's reassuring to me as a supporter to hear my coach call out the issues that I've known for the best part of a decade.

Ultimately we are so much better than what we are dishing up right now. In a year that is so even across the competition we are blowing it with our Jekyll and Hyde behaviour. We should be sitting inside the top four right now, a game clear of Melbourne. I don't buy "We aren't good enough for top four". Beat Hawthorn and we are there. Every year we completely blow golden opportunities and it's what costs us in the end.

We need to be more ruthless on field and it starts with the coaches and leaders.

I think that we will see some pretty ruthless calls made end of the year.

I don't think the players are being 'babied' rather, Ross is going to keep reinforcing the positivity of our ladder position to try and get the most out of the absolute glut of B grade players we have running around.

Ross is clearly playing the group that he feels can set a standard and get the job done. If we finish 4th-6th that's massive. From there he will prune a little bit and adjust things, mush as he did across 2007 and 2008 before exploding in 2009.

I'll be stunned if the majority of this 22 are lining up for us by round 16 2025.

 

[Cairnsman]

I personally wasn't expecting us to drop down with RTB in. We were already a borderline finals side and with all the talk about how much our footy department had improved post Ratts I expected finals this year at a minimum. I had us probably 6th-8th so 5th is better than what I thought but I think it's saying more about the competition than anything we've done. Let's be honest, we've been lucky to hold our ladder position over the last month or two.

Overall I should be happy but it's so bloody frustrating given that I know how good we CAN be as we've shown it at points throughout the year. Close loss against Collingwood, huge win against Essendon, wins against Dogs and Freo when we were undermanned. We were playing a totally different brand of football in the first 6 or 7 weeks and I'm not alone in that opinion, Ross said it himself at the presser yesterday - he's got no idea why we have these dramatic shifts in performance.

At least he's aware of it though and addresses it publicly unlike the coaches we've had in the past that decided to focus on other areas. The inconsistencies in our game is our single biggest issue. Has been for years.

It's not just the Hawthorn loss, it's how we are playing. Totally devoid of any ideas, same dumb football as last year that saw us miss finals after 8-3. It's the rubbish we dished up against North, yes the horrendous loss to Hawthorn, leading by 4 goals against Richmond and getting run over, kicking it down Andrews throat all day against Brisbane, sputtering against GWS. Yesterday was just another chapter in the long line of bog average performances. We should've beaten that Eagles side by 10 goals minimum yesterday, anything other than that are excuses IMO.

I'm just getting more and more frustrated with how we baby our players. How can we be so bipolar over so many years. Boggles the mind. I'm glad that Ross told them at halftime that this was turning into a waste of the last 9 months instead of why not us garbage. At least he recognises and calls out the issues. It's reassuring to me as a supporter to hear my coach call out the issues that I've known for the best part of a decade.

Ultimately we are so much better than what we are dishing up right now. In a year that is so even across the competition we are blowing it with our Jekyll and Hyde behaviour. We should be sitting inside the top four right now, a game clear of Melbourne. I don't buy "We aren't good enough for top four". Beat Hawthorn and we are there. Every year we completely blow golden opportunities and it's what costs us in the end.

We need to be more ruthless on field and it starts with the coaches and leaders.

All the teams from 5th to 15th are still in the finals race and they are all significantly off the pace, In any ordinary year we would be about 12 to 15th on the ladder. With the exception of the top 4 teams there really is a talent shortage and the quality of footy is woefully bad.

The quality of finals this year will also be poor and we probably won’t see good quality finals type footy until the final 2 weeks. You’d also think there will be some beltings in the first 2 weeks of finals.

 

[StCicatriz]

honestly after seeing it live priorities:
1) full time inside mid with a strong contested side who can break away at stoppage and use the ball well,
2) decent tap ruck,
3) decent winger with good disposal.

we have some good kids coming through. the owens and king synergy was amazing. you can build a side around that with wilkie/battle down back. sinclair.

but we dont have a lot of time.

 

[pebblesofsand]

The way some miserable campaigners carry on,
You would think we aren’t the highest on the ladder we have been at round 16 since 2010.
For the record we were already 9th this time last year.

To paraphrase Basil Fawlty

Listen, don't mention the ladder. I mentioned it once, but I think I got away with it all right.

 

[Saint Shags]

honestly people can knock ross but what better option is there? there's no senior coach of higher calibre coming.

he's 100% an upgrade on ratten and richo.

atleast we have someone now whos been around long enough to know the bare minimum.

Look we got him now so we can't change that.

But I was never sold on this need for an experienced coach coming in.

Plenty of first time coaches proving their worth at present. Clubs have been strong and stuck to their process of giving this new coaches time to learn and build their own culture.

 

[SteeleSaints]

I personally wasn't expecting us to drop down with RTB in. We were already a borderline finals side and with all the talk about how much our footy department had improved post Ratts I expected finals this year at a minimum. I had us probably 6th-8th so 5th is better than what I thought but I think it's saying more about the competition than anything we've done. Let's be honest, we've been lucky to hold our ladder position over the last month or two.

Overall I should be happy but it's so bloody frustrating given that I know how good we CAN be as we've shown it at points throughout the year. Close loss against Collingwood, huge win against Essendon, wins against Dogs and Freo when we were undermanned. We were playing a totally different brand of football in the first 6 or 7 weeks and I'm not alone in that opinion, Ross said it himself at the presser yesterday - he's got no idea why we have these dramatic shifts in performance.

At least he's aware of it though and addresses it publicly unlike the coaches we've had in the past that decided to focus on other areas. The inconsistencies in our game is our single biggest issue. Has been for years.

It's not just the Hawthorn loss, it's how we are playing. Totally devoid of any ideas, same dumb football as last year that saw us miss finals after 8-3. It's the rubbish we dished up against North, yes the horrendous loss to Hawthorn, leading by 4 goals against Richmond and getting run over, kicking it down Andrews throat all day against Brisbane, sputtering against GWS. Yesterday was just another chapter in the long line of bog average performances. We should've beaten that Eagles side by 10 goals minimum yesterday, anything other than that are excuses IMO.

I'm just getting more and more frustrated with how we baby our players. How can we be so bipolar over so many years. Boggles the mind. I'm glad that Ross told them at halftime that this was turning into a waste of the last 9 months instead of why not us garbage. At least he recognises and calls out the issues. It's reassuring to me as a supporter to hear my coach call out the issues that I've known for the best part of a decade.

Ultimately we are so much better than what we are dishing up right now. In a year that is so even across the competition we are blowing it with our Jekyll and Hyde behaviour. We should be sitting inside the top four right now, a game clear of Melbourne. I don't buy "We aren't good enough for top four". Beat Hawthorn and we are there. Every year we completely blow golden opportunities and it's what costs us in the end.

We need to be more ruthless on field and it starts with the coaches and leaders.

It is really frustrating to watch, but now more than ever the games are won and lost through the midfield. Between them both teams scored 13 goals from stoppage clearance, its obvious if you cant win clearances you struggle to win games. Its no surprise that the top 4 sides have the best midfields in the competition, where ours earlier in the year were competitive but have fallen away since. We simply lack midfield class to go with teams with dominant mids, even an out of form Shuey, Hewett and Sheed cut us up yesterday.

Then when we did win the ball and move it forward again our midfield let us down. You only had to look at the number of F50 kicks yesterday by Ross, Byrnes, Steele and Gresham that were just dump kicks forwards and benefitted the opposition more than our forwards. 2 of Ross's kicks were no where near any of our forwards - thats where we get let down. That then brings in the oppostion picking off our forays forward with intercept marks.

The above is why Im so frustrated with Lyon ATM. Crouch has been consistently good, but apart from throwing Sinclair in there he keeps going back to the same defunct group. Lyon and Hayes have shown no imagination whatsoever with the midifield mixes.

 

[stavro#4]

I personally wasn't expecting us to drop down with RTB in. We were already a borderline finals side and with all the talk about how much our footy department had improved post Ratts I expected finals this year at a minimum. I had us probably 6th-8th so 5th is better than what I thought but I think it's saying more about the competition than anything we've done. Let's be honest, we've been lucky to hold our ladder position over the last month or two.

Overall I should be happy but it's so bloody frustrating given that I know how good we CAN be as we've shown it at points throughout the year. Close loss against Collingwood, huge win against Essendon, wins against Dogs and Freo when we were undermanned. We were playing a totally different brand of football in the first 6 or 7 weeks and I'm not alone in that opinion, Ross said it himself at the presser yesterday - he's got no idea why we have these dramatic shifts in performance.

At least he's aware of it though and addresses it publicly unlike the coaches we've had in the past that decided to focus on other areas. The inconsistencies in our game is our single biggest issue. Has been for years.

It's not just the Hawthorn loss, it's how we are playing. Totally devoid of any ideas, same dumb football as last year that saw us miss finals after 8-3. It's the rubbish we dished up against North, yes the horrendous loss to Hawthorn, leading by 4 goals against Richmond and getting run over, kicking it down Andrews throat all day against Brisbane, sputtering against GWS. Yesterday was just another chapter in the long line of bog average performances. We should've beaten that Eagles side by 10 goals minimum yesterday, anything other than that are excuses IMO.

I'm just getting more and more frustrated with how we baby our players. How can we be so bipolar over so many years. Boggles the mind. I'm glad that Ross told them at halftime that this was turning into a waste of the last 9 months instead of why not us garbage. At least he recognises and calls out the issues. It's reassuring to me as a supporter to hear my coach call out the issues that I've known for the best part of a decade.

Ultimately we are so much better than what we are dishing up right now. In a year that is so even across the competition we are blowing it with our Jekyll and Hyde behaviour. We should be sitting inside the top four right now, a game clear of Melbourne. I don't buy "We aren't good enough for top four". Beat Hawthorn and we are there. Every year we completely blow golden opportunities and it's what costs us in the end.

We need to be more ruthless on field and it starts with the coaches and leaders.

You don't need to bottom out to build one.
Bottoming out means spending more than 1 year at the bottom.
We don't have that luxury as a club.

And there are plenty of clubs that have shown you don't need to do that.





Then let's drop them. That would help the bottoming that you want.

I gave 2 options. You highlight one.

The option I actually said - was that I had written this year off with no expectations aside from 1.

Ross to clear out those he didn’t think could deliver us a flag.

If that meant finishing 18th so be it. If it meant we finished second and move people on. Same applies.

You fixate on this current season. RTB was given a 4 year deal. It would take time. It took 18 months before we saw genuine improvement last time and still it took dropping star players.

Then we witnessed 09/10.

Poor start cost us top 4 in 11’.

Then you saw Ross take a shit Freo to the cusp of a flag.

I’m comfortable in this being a process. In the up and downs and it cutting fan favourites like Gresham to progress.

A few of you are upset we didn’t smash the eagles by 60+ points. You can’t actually see the learning and development occurring before your eyes.

The fixation on losing to hawthorn and falling across the line against the eagles is perplexing.

 

[George]

The way some miserable campaigners carry on,
You would think we aren’t the highest on the ladder we have been at round 16 since 2010.
For the record we were already 9th this time last year.

People are frustrated because it's quite obviously how we are playing that is concerning. You'd have to be stupid to look at the ladder and ignore everything else. "Yep nothing to see here we're 5th" is nonsense.

 

[Tom12]

Can Steele be given a week off? Or in the seconds?

 

[BrutThough]

Who does he push out though?

A fit Hayes takes Caminiti's spot without hesitation.

 

[The Punter]

There's a coaching strategy piece here that no one wants to talk about.

Either find a new way to win football games

OR

Do what everyone else does to win football games, just better

So with our questionable midfield, do we wait for them to get better, or try to design a method to win with our midfield?

 

[stavro#4]

People are frustrated because it's quite obviously how we are playing that is concerning. You'd have to be stupid to look at the ladder and ignore everything else. "Yep nothing to see here we're 5th" is nonsense.

It quite fairly was a game of 2 halves as it has been for about 6 weeks with us.

2 good quarters. 2 shit ones.

That’s a concern. But there is a lot of improvement being made and still to make.

We have been good value for “5th” thus far.

 

[Tom12]

You know both things can be true.

Ross and co will have the off season to start shaping the list and figuring out how we progress moving forward. This isn't a finished product.

But our effort yesterday was not good enough, don't get it twisted. Eagles may have had to respond, it may have been away - it doesn't really matter we are so much better than them and should have put them to the sword. We didn't, and honestly we probably deserved to lose.

 

[phantom13]

I personally wasn't expecting us to drop down with RTB in. We were already a borderline finals side and with all the talk about how much our footy department had improved post Ratts I expected finals this year at a minimum. I had us probably 6th-8th so 5th is better than what I thought but I think it's saying more about the competition than anything we've done. Let's be honest, we've been lucky to hold our ladder position over the last month or two.

Overall I should be happy but it's so bloody frustrating given that I know how good we CAN be as we've shown it at points throughout the year. Close loss against Collingwood, huge win against Essendon, wins against Dogs and Freo when we were undermanned. We were playing a totally different brand of football in the first 6 or 7 weeks and I'm not alone in that opinion, Ross said it himself at the presser yesterday - he's got no idea why we have these dramatic shifts in performance.

At least he's aware of it though and addresses it publicly unlike the coaches we've had in the past that decided to focus on other areas. The inconsistencies in our game is our single biggest issue. Has been for years.

It's not just the Hawthorn loss, it's how we are playing. Totally devoid of any ideas, same dumb football as last year that saw us miss finals after 8-3. It's the rubbish we dished up against North, yes the horrendous loss to Hawthorn, leading by 4 goals against Richmond and getting run over, kicking it down Andrews throat all day against Brisbane, sputtering against GWS. Yesterday was just another chapter in the long line of bog average performances. We should've beaten that Eagles side by 10 goals minimum yesterday, anything other than that are excuses IMO.

I'm just getting more and more frustrated with how we baby our players. How can we be so bipolar over so many years. Boggles the mind. I'm glad that Ross told them at halftime that this was turning into a waste of the last 9 months instead of why not us garbage. At least he recognises and calls out the issues. It's reassuring to me as a supporter to hear my coach call out the issues that I've known for the best part of a decade.

Ultimately we are so much better than what we are dishing up right now. In a year that is so even across the competition we are blowing it with our Jekyll and Hyde behaviour. We should be sitting inside the top four right now, a game clear of Melbourne. I don't buy "We aren't good enough for top four". Beat Hawthorn and we are there. Every year we completely blow golden opportunities and it's what costs us in the end.

We need to be more ruthless on field and it starts with the coaches and leaders.

Good post.

The only real thing ive disagreed with on this thought line is that we should be playing finals this year and that was more based on the idea that
1- Playing finals when you cant win the flag is a bit pointless
2- Wed likely have a little regression while players adjust to Rossball and hes inevitable list changes

But what ive been saying all along and youve articulated here is, we need to see improvement and a strong brand of footy. We had it, now weve lost it and that is cause for concern. As you also point out, Ratts always looked pretty lost when it went south, Ross seems to have some resolve about it.

Were 5th and the rainbows and sunshine crew are banging that drum but how many of them were certain of a win yesterday? How many of them are certain we will beat the Hawks and the Roos? Two teams that both got done by 10 goals+ on the weekend.

Were so horrendously inconsistent that you just cant have faith we will get it done.

 

[George]

I gave 2 options. You highlight one.

The option I actually said - was that I had written this year off with no expectations aside from 1.

Ross to clear out those he didn’t think could deliver us a flag.

If that meant finishing 18th so be it. If it meant we finished second and move people on. Same applies.

You fixate on this current season. RTB was given a 4 year deal. It would take time. It took 18 months before we saw genuine improvement last time and still it took dropping star players.

Then we witnessed 09/10.

Poor start cost us top 4 in 11’.

Then you saw Ross take a s**t Freo to the cusp of a flag.

I’m comfortable in this being a process. In the up and downs and it cutting fan favourites like Gresham to progress.

A few of you are upset we didn’t smash the eagles by 60+ points. You can’t actually see the learning and development occurring before your eyes.

The fixation on losing to hawthorn and falling across the line against the eagles is perplexing.

Yeah again it's not an opinion based on a loss against Hawthorn and a disappointing win against West Coast, it's 8 weeks of poor form, starting 8-3 and missing finals the year before, dramatic shifts in performance week to week or game to game over the past 6 or 7 seasons. This is what this list has produced.

 

[stavro#4]

There's a coaching strategy piece here that no one wants to talk about.

Either find a new way to win football games

OR

Do what everyone else does to win football games, just better

So with our questionable midfield, do we wait for them to get better, or try to design a method to win with our midfield?

The obvious answer is play Sinclair as a genuine mid and not to turn the tide in there

 

[George]

Good post.

The only real thing ive disagreed with on this thought line is that we should be playing finals this year and that was more based on the idea that
1- Playing finals when you cant win the flag is a bit pointless
2- Wed likely have a little regression while players adjust to Rossball and hes inevitable list changes

But what ive been saying all along and youve articulated here is, we need to see improvement and a strong brand of footy. We had it, now weve lost it and that is cause for concern. As you also point out, Ratts always looked pretty lost when it went south, Ross seems to have some resolve about it.

Were 5th and the rainbows and sunshine crew are banging that drum but how many of them were certain of a win yesterday? How many of them are certain we will beat the Hawks and the Roos? Two teams that both got done by 10 goals+ on the weekend.

Were so horrendously inconsistent that you just cant have faith we will get it done.

Agree with all that except playing finals and not winning a flag as pointless. Invaluable experience to a group that hasn't tasted much of what finals footy is like. If I had to choose 100 times to play finals or get better draft picks I'd go finals every single time.