Eastern Rangers
2015 Worsfold Medalist - Rowen Powell
I think two teams will do it in 2009. Richmond and Carlton.
Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
AFLW 2024 - Round 9 - Indigenous Round - Chat, game threads, injury lists, team lineups and more.
It is also a fact that over the last two seasosn they won oly half their games.
Even looking at 2005 in isolation they won only a tad over half their games. Close calls such as the Swans final tend to mislead people into thinking they were a genuine contender. If you dig deeper, and anaylse the season, you will find they were an average team, proved by their reuslts in 2005.
And as I said, flag favouritism means nothing it's all about the results, and the results in 2005 and 2006 show an average team. A team that won about half their games in both years. If idiots want to put their money on Geelong "driving " their price down to flag favourites then that shows how stupid some people are.
Well duh! Of course finals are the be all and end all, because they determine who wins the premiership. But is the team that wins the premiership always the best team? Is the "system" which we use to decide the premiership a system which always, always gives us the actual best team of the year? Of course not.
You are confusing the issue of finals determining the premiership and being the most important games of the year with the issue of whether that very system is THE sysem which gives is the best team of the year? Any system that uses one-off knockout games of football to decide the premiership will NOT always give us the best team of the year. It can't because any upset (and yes upsets do happen in finals) will mean the best team has lost. Injuries and luck, are more likely to have an effect over a shorter time period because of the variables.
Yes, the team that wins will always get to be called premiers, and that is all that matters, but that's not what Im talking about. Any system that concludes with one-off knockout games and gives 8th a chance of being premeirs after playign 4 good weeks of football will not give us the best team of the year every year. Some years it will - not every year.
if you want a true test to who the best team is, use the EPL system. It may be less exciting but there is no dispute that the best team over 6 months will win the premiership.
That is not the case in our system. We use our system because it is more exciting and gives us a dramatic finale to the season. We do not use the system for "fairness."
So when myself and others such as "The Real Comptroller" say that Geelong was not that good in 2005 we are basing it on the whole season. We are not basing it on one narrow finals loss, because we are not naive enough to think that one finals performance is reflectove of how good you are over a season. Yes that finals performance determines whether they (may) win the flag or not, but there comes the issue again - is the system itself conducive to always rewarding the best teams? The answer is, of course, no.
That's why I scoff at people who say "Geelong wasn't that far away in 2005" and using that as a reason to justify their resurgence in 2007. Yes, they nearly made the PF so "officially" they weren't far away, but dig a little deeper and look at their seaosn as a whole and their 2005 wasn't as good as it seemed.
I tend to think their virtual 50-50 2005 season (13 wins, 11 losses) was a precusor to their even worse 2006 season(and we should have seen it coming), but because of their close finals loss to the Swans, many people (such as you) forgot that the Cats were in fact only an average side. If you didn't pay much crednece to that 2005 Swans final as "reason for having a good 2006" maybe you would have seen their crap 2006 comin too. Oh well.... live and learn, my friend.
Port for me.
+1
Clearly underperformed in 2008 - prime candidate.
The teams that usually make this jump are underperforming teams. Neither Richmond or Carlton underperformed.
I think this is a nice bump from Nov 2006 where Dan argues that Geelong were absolutely no chance in 2007
Port for me.
Port (biased as I have been following the pre-season closely than any other before)
other than port, richmond-brisbane would probably be the strongest
whereas i recall you having them penciled in as certainties...
+2
Carlton no chance to make the finals for the reason of Houlihan, Cloke, Fisher, Thornton, Bentick, Simpson, Wiggins, Scotland, Russell and Hampson.
Richmond should with Delidio, Cousins, Johnson, Foley, Cotchin, Tuck, Tambling and even Brown to run through the middle. Potentially the best midfield in the land.
Essendon are a chance on the back of a fit Lucas, McVeigh, Gumbleton, Myers, Houli, Dempsey, Reimers, Neagle and Davey... and the inclusion of Welsh and Prismall mid-season.
Fremantle was the best team outside the eight in 2008 - or at least, should have been. If they can learn to win the close games (they went 0-9 in close games last year) they can make the top four like they did a few years back. The Harvey factor is whats holding them back. Give them a decent coach and the sky's the limit.
don't think that's a bad shout at all. they have plenty of talent.
Carlton no chance to make the finals for the reason of Houlihan, Cloke, Fisher, Thornton, Bentick, Simpson, Wiggins, Scotland, Russell and Hampson.
rubbish, of course they're a strong chance
Based on? Finished 11th in '08 with a full compliment of players to choose from. Judd won B & F and AA (captain) honours and Fev kicked 99 goals.
Where will the goals come from other than Fev? Who are their defenders? Who is their ruckman? .
None of those problems seemed to bother the Sydney Swans who had an undersized fullback, an erratic key forward, a pedestrian midfield and a reject ruckman or two. And won their first premiership in 70+ years.
If their key players stay on the park they could do some good things this year. They certainly cant afford many injuries though, but the same could be said of 3 or 4 sides, especially StKilda and Essendon.
I hardly think Sydney is an appropriate example. They had the personnel to implement the game style Roos constructed to counteract their obvious deficiencies in skill and speed and was at the time unique (St. Kilda have since implemented a similar game plan). Carlton's game plan is not unique, simplistically it is the same as 14 other teams.
Their key players stayed on the park in '08. You haven't answered my questions.
How are they going to improve in their areas of deficiency? IMHO they have neglected to address these problem areas thus there will be little to no improvement in '09.
Hey, I'm not saying top 4 this year for the Blues, as I dont think we'll do that, but all things considered, we SHOULD make the finals...
None of those problems seemed to bother the Sydney Swans who had an undersized fullback, an erratic key forward, a pedestrian midfield and a reject ruckman or two. And won their first premiership in 70+ years.
If their key players stay on the park they could do some good things this year. They certainly cant afford many injuries though, but the same could be said of 3 or 4 sides, especially StKilda and Essendon.
- Stronger ruck division (the addition of Jacobs and Warnock)
- Further depth in an already strong midfield (the addition of Mitch Robinson and a fit Richard Hadley)
- A fit Chris Judd!
- Further development and maturity of the youngsters across the board
- Further developed backline (Bower missed half a year with shoulder prob, Thornton missed games with injury and Jamison was also restricted in the second half of the year with shoulder probs)
- A full season out of Walker / Houlihan / Richard Hadley
- Yarran / Cloke / Kruezer up forward, the latter two were needed more in the ruck last year, but will be freed up more this year. Cloke and Kruez arnt star forwards by any means, but they've shown that they know where the big sticks are when they're placed there.
- The addition of Robert Harvey as assistnat coach can only improve our midfield).
- A coach with a years experoence under his belt...
Hey, I'm not saying top 4 this year for the Blues, as I dont think we'll do that, but all things considered, we SHOULD make the finals...
- Stronger ruck division (the addition of Jacobs and Warnock) Warnock is unproven and injured. Jacobs will not play 1 game in '09.
- Further depth in an already strong midfield (the addition of Mitch Robinson and a fit Richard Hadley) Midfield is not your area of deficiency. Hadley is a dud. Robinson has played 1 NAB Cup game.
- A fit Chris Judd! He won the club's B&F, won the captaincy of the AA, what are you expecting 1 man to do? Again, the midfield is not your area of deficiency.
- Further development and maturity of the youngsters across the board. As with every other club in the competition.
- Further developed backline (Bower missed half a year with shoulder prob, Thornton missed games with injury and Jamison was also restricted in the second half of the year with shoulder probs). Thornton is a dud. Bower is a dud. Jamison is a long way off but has potential to be nothing more than reliable.
- A full season out of Walker / Houlihan / Richard Hadley. Duds. Walker provides excitement/enthusiasm but decision making and disposal is below par. Houlihan is softer than Brent Stanton and Hadley was a frontrunner at Brisbane.
- Yarran / Cloke / Kruezer up forward, the latter two were needed more in the ruck last year, but will be freed up more this year. Cloke and Kruez arnt star forwards by any means, but they've shown that they know where the big sticks are when they're placed there. Laycock kicked more goals than Cloke and the same number as Kruezer... and from 4 less games. Besides the fact it's Yarran's first year, he is not a marking option up forward.
- The addition of Robert Harvey as assistnat coach can only improve our midfield). The addition of Alan Richardson can only improve our youngsters and unlike Harvey has a proven track record of assisting a team.
- A coach with a years experoence under his belt... Matthew Knights.
Hey, I'm not saying top 4 this year for the Blues, as I dont think we'll do that, but all things considered, we SHOULD make the finals...