The Original and the Best 2013 Predictions Thread

[Watsclarkosmob]

While Franklin is in your team you can never rely on goal kicking accuracy

Want to do us favour and take him off our hands then?

 

[vide0n]

1) Sydney
2) Hawthorn
3) Fremantle
4) Adelaide
5) West Coast
6) Essendon
7) Carlton
8) Collingwood

9) Geelong
10) North Melbourne
11) Richmond
12) Brisbane Lions
13) Gold Coast
14) St Kilda
15) Melbourne
16) Port Adelaide
17) Western Bulldogs
18) GWS


Essendon Premiers

Coleman: Pavlich
Brownlow: G. Ablett

 

[ExTasDeeMan]

Willie Nelson will astound his fans by swimming the english channel.

 

[theflea]

Never said there were gurantees. There are always things that can go wrong that you can't predict. Like injuries and players not being motivated or getting along with the coach (it does happen). Yes I did guess Adelaide would go better. They had a very good draw and getting rid of Craigs robot strategy for a more attacking one under Sanderson was always going to improve them. Everyone could tell players like Dangerfield were going to better under Sanderson. Who knew how much better though?

well that was my whole point. the post i answered was just bc it(geelong in the 8) happened for the last 5 or 6 years doesnt mean its definately going to continue to happen.

 

[The Prosecutor]

Hawthorn
West Coast
Sydney
Carlton
Fremantle
Essendon
Collingwood
Adelaide
-----------------------
Richmond
North Melbourne
Geelong
St. Kilda
Brisbane
Gold Coast
Melbourne
Port Adelaide
Western Bulldogs
Greater Western Sydney

Premiers: Hawthorn
Coleman: Franklin
Brownlow: Fyfe

 

[tazaa]

Hawthorn
Sydney
Collingwood
Geelong
West coast
North melbourne
Carlton
Adelaide
Fremantle
Richmond
Essendon
Brisbane
St.kilda
Port Adelaide
Melbourne
Gold coast
Bulldogs
GWS

Geelong is the tough one. They will either finish top 4 Or miss out.
Will post again once draw comes out.

 

[muttweed]

Those who have Geelong finishing below 12th are absolutely out of their minds.

We will be better than 2012 no doubt about it, and we're the only club to have never finished below 12th in our history.

I lol'd at the ladder that had Port above us, and us in the bottom 4

 

[WatWouldCyrilDo]

Those who have Geelong finishing below 12th are absolutely out of their minds.

We will be better than 2012 no doubt about it, and we're the only club to have never finished below 12th in our history.

I lol'd at the ladder that had Port above us, and us in the bottom 4

How do you figure that exactly?

Scarlett retired. Chappy, Corey, Pods, Enright, Stevie J all a year old.

Basically relying on improvement from your younger players to offset the decline of your older players. Given the quality of those involved, that will be no easy task.

 

[Parquet Court]

im prefering to preface my post with the words should

should improve
north - actually really like that side, good balance, just need a couple more avenues to goal and some slick outside work and they should improve
richmond - really have to for hardwick to keep his job, have the weapons and have acquired depth, expecting a finals appearance at least
fremantle - real smoky next season, will be hard to beat anywhere in australia, the physios will be busy for opposing sides after fremantle games
collingwood - the cloke saga over will benefit the team psyche
west coast - will be a premiership fav this season


should slide
sydney - 5 blokes over 30 in their premiership, if they get out on the park regularly then they will maintain, if they have difficulties then they make drop a few places
WB- tough year ahead
Geelong - basing their hopes on a 3rd year player and H Mac to catapult them back to the top 2, will still make finals
adelaide - not alot, but wont be top 2.
Saints - nearing the end of a solid run, could plummet

Stagnate
GCS, GWS - just trying not to get trounced
carlton- dont really like the balance of the side, need a forward or 2
essendon - need midfield support, be interested to see where goddard plays
melbourne - first 22 just isnt that good, neither is the 20 blokes missing out each week
hawthorn - already in good shape
port - getting it together, not next year though, new coach could cause some problems
brisbane - still raw, like port, but just dont see massive improvement

 

[Dwight Schrute]

Why would Essendon stagnate, we should definitely improve, another year for the likes of Heppell, Zaharakis, Hurley, Carlisle, Bellchambers, etc. We have basically no retirees from our best 22 and have just added a great player in Goddard. We should improve and make the eight.

 

[eth-dog]

So North, making no good acquisitions throughout the off-season, with an important member of their side looking around at other clubs and with their best players on the wrong side of 30 should improve? Yet Essendon get a genuine A-Grader and a top 50 draft pick while only losing a surplus small forward should stagnate in their development? If Essendon traded Goddard and pick 48 for Monfries everyone would be calling highway robbery.

 

[Parquet Court]

the essendon midfield is actually shit, its a one man show, maybe two with zaharakis. hurley is ok but not there yet.

goddard will be interesting to see where he slots in, predominantly is a half back/ half forward. so i dont think he will be a massive in, so i think they will still finish around the 9-12 mark again

north will improve, they have a good, balanced side. dont need to acquire all the time, have a great midfield nucleus.

just my opinion though, dont have to get defensive about it

 

[Parquet Court]

So North, making no good acquisitions throughout the off-season, with an important member of their side looking around at other clubs and with their best players on the wrong side of 30 should improve? Yet Essendon get a genuine A-Grader and a top 50 draft pick while only losing a surplus small forward should stagnate in their development? If Essendon traded Goddard and pick 48 for Monfries everyone would be calling highway robbery.

may as well throw a dart at a dart board

 

[eth-dog]

the essendon midfield is actually shit, its a one man show, maybe two with zaharakis. hurley is ok but not there yet.

2 top 10 players in the brownlow, both in the midfield, neither of them Zaharakis.

goddard will be interesting to see where he slots in, predominantly is a half back/ half forward. so i dont think he will be a massive in, so i think they will still finish around the 9-12 mark again

Hird has publicly said he'll be playing midfield

north will improve, they have a good, balanced side. dont need to acquire all the time, have a great midfield nucleus.

With 1 decent player on the outside.

just my opinion though, dont have to get defensive about it

It's called criticism.

 

[muttweed]

How do you figure that exactly?

Scarlett retired.

Tbh you could say he was a pretty big liability this year.

And in hindsight, if he hadn't punched the hobbit in Round 1, we would have won and replaced Collingwood in the top 4.

Chappy, Corey, Pods, Enright, Stevie J all a year old.

I sure hope they're not a year old. You can make an argument that they're getting older, but statistics show that not only they but every single player in the competition is going to be a year older

Chapman will play mainly up forward, where he is still lethal. Just because he's in his 30s doesn't mean he can't mark and kick anymore. Corey will be kicked out of the side by whichever midfielder we decide to bring in - could be Caddy, Horlin-Smith, Stringer etc. Podsiadly is easily replaced with Vardy. Enright has never shown signs of aging so much so that I think he is actually physically incapable of doing so. Stevie J is the least of our problems and is still one of our best players, especially with his newfound versatility. You are kidding yourself if you think he'll be a liability in 2013.

Basically relying on improvement from your younger players

Everyone does. People just like to put emphasis on that fact because we are Geelong and we "can't possibly" add more success.

to offset the decline of your older players. Given the quality of those involved, that will be no easy task.

We've had Scarlett, Wojcinski and Byrnes go. All were pretty mediocre this year. Besides Corey and maybe Chappy, I highly doubt there will be obvious signs of decline from your list of names.

We will have Bartel finally fully fit, Caddy playing an inside mid role, our best running player in Varcoe back, Menzel back in (our third highest goalkicker in 2011), Vardy back in (young gun who we will probably play up forward with Hawkins. Has been likened by many to Nick Riewoldt), inevitable improvement from Selwood, Hawkins, Christensen, Duncan, Motlop, Taylor, Varcoe, Thunt, Guthrie, Murdoch etc, and if we get Hmac and Rivers we will have steady replacements for Ottens and Scarlett.

That vs our outs of Scarlett, Byrnes, Wojcinski and Hogan? Yeah we will be better than we were in 2012. Infinitely better.

People seem to forget we were 2 games from 1st and beat the grand finalists 3 out of 4 times. In all but one of our games this year, we looked like we seriously could have stolen the game, but were left with little to no free forwards (or our forwards didn't kick straight). With the entries Vardy and Menzel (extraordinary marks and straight shooters) up forward and exits of maybe Stokes and Podsiadly, our problem is easily fixed.

I don't see how we can finish below 12th. Our ins vs our outs does not equate to finishing below Port as a poster wrote. It simply doesn't.

 

[eth-dog]

may as well throw a dart at a dart board

Have gotten some pretty talented players in that range recently, Browne, O'Brien, so I'll back my recruiting staff to get us another handy player there. Touted to be a very good top 50 this year, so we'll see where that takes us

 

[Dwight Schrute]

the essendon midfield is actually shit, its a one man show, maybe two with zaharakis. hurley is ok but not there yet.

goddard will be interesting to see where he slots in, predominantly is a half back/ half forward. so i dont think he will be a massive in, so i think they will still finish around the 9-12 mark again

north will improve, they have a good, balanced side. dont need to acquire all the time, have a great midfield nucleus.

just my opinion though, dont have to get defensive about it

Most could make an argument as to why Essendons midfield is just as good or maybe even better than Norths.

 

[MR]

Surely you are trolling? Have you no idea?

Not supporting him or anything, but Hawthorn did the exact same thing in 2009. They came 9th after they won the premiership in 2008. Although it was mainly because some of their important senior players retired , you had 5 players over 30 in your grand final and they were all very important to your side.

 

[tazaa]

So North, making no good acquisitions throughout the off-season, with an important member of their side looking around at other clubs and with their best players on the wrong side of 30 should improve? Yet Essendon get a genuine A-Grader and a top 50 draft pick while only losing a surplus small forward should stagnate in their development? If Essendon traded Goddard and pick 48 for Monfries everyone would be calling highway robbery.

Your first two points were reasonable. Who exactly is on the wrong side of 30?
Thompson? Grima? Wells? Swallow? Ziebell? Goldstein? Petrie who is 29?

Oh your referring to Harvey. Fair call.
The funny thing is Sydney won a flag with a plethora of 30 year olds.
And Boomer destroyed your mob in 5 minutes of footy this year too.

But hey wrong side of 30, doom and gloom, finished.

Next you'll tell us all how good the 21 year old Dustin Fletcher is.
Give criticism. But pull your head out of your ass and take off the Napier st goggles before you do.

 

[MR]

Here's what's happening in 2013:

How is my team finishing lower than last year you ask?
The answer: improvement is relevant to other sides, internal improvement is irrelevant if not viewed in a competition-wide context.

1. Fremantle 16 6
2. Hawthorn 15 7
3. West Coast 15 7
4. Richmond 14 8
5. Sydney 14 8
6. Collingwood 13 9
7. Adelaide 13 9
8. Carlton 11 11
9. North Melbourne 11 11
10. Geelong 11 11
11. Essendon 11 11
12. Gold Coast 8 16
13. Brisbane 7 17
14. St Kilda 6 18
15. Western 5 17
16. GWS 4 18
17. Melbourne 3 19
18. Port Adelaide 3 19

I rate this ladder.

For me, I'd swap Collingwood and Richmond. They'll have Ball and Lynch, which will help them greatly. Most other swaps would just be splitting hairs, and I think that Port will finish above the Dees this year too.

Excellent work.

 

[Suma Magic]

Edit - deleted and reposted as my original ladder didn't add up. Didnt move any ladder positions.


1. Fremantle 16 6
2. Hawthorn 15 7
3. West Coast 15 7
4. Richmond 15 7
5. Sydney 15 7
6. Collingwood 15 7
7. Adelaide 14 8
8. Carlton 13 9
9. North Melbourne 13 9
10. Geelong 13 9
11. Essendon 13 9
12. Gold Coast 8 14
13. Brisbane 7 15
14. St Kilda 7 15
15. Western 6 16
16. GWS 5 17
17. Melbourne 4 18
18. Port Adelaide 4 18

 

[Hodge is God]

Edit - deleted and reposted as my original ladder didn't add up. Didnt move any ladder positions.


1. Fremantle 16 6
2. Hawthorn 15 7
3. West Coast 15 7
4. Richmond 15 7
5. Sydney 15 7
6. Collingwood 15 7
7. Adelaide 14 8
8. Carlton 13 9
9. North Melbourne 13 9
10. Geelong 13 9
11. Essendon 13 9
12. Gold Coast 8 14
13. Brisbane 7 15
14. St Kilda 7 15
15. Western 6 16
16. GWS 5 17
17. Melbourne 4 18
18. Port Adelaide 4 18

That would be a great season.
Couple of games from 1-11

 

[Tulip]

Before we go any further:

Could that Geelong supporter up his team any further?

Vardy has played about 10 games, who has compared him to Nick Riewoldt???

The reason people think Geelong will get worse is because the nucleus of the team is in its late 20's and early 30's and will struggle to keep up with faster and more motivated sides like Adelaide, Essendon and Fremantle.

 

[Ironmonger]

Hawthorn
West Coast
Sydney
Essendon
Collingwood
Carlton
Richmond
Adelaide
- - - - - -
Kangaroos
Geelong
Fremantle
Brisbane
St Kilda
Gold Coast
Western
Melbourne
Port
GWS

 

[BigVic]

1. West Coast
2. Hawthorn
3. Sydney
4. Fremantle
5. Collingwood
6. Carlton
7. Richmond
8. Essendon
--------------
9. Geelong
10. Adelaide
11. North Melbourne
12. Brisbane
13. Gold Coast SUNS
14. St Kilda
15. Melbourne
16. Port Adelaide
17. Western Bulldogs
18. GWS Giants

2013 AFL Grand Final: Sydney v West Coast
Premiers: West Coast
Brownlow: Gary Ablett (Gold Coast)
Coleman: Matthew Pavlich