Geelong, Brisbane & Richmond all strengthened their squads in the trade period but they are ageing lists too, particularly Richmond and Geelong. I know we say it every year but there will definitely come a point in time where they hit a wall and regress, Richmond it's already started happening, not sure they bounce next year with Hopper and Taranto i think they stay around the same.
Can't see Geelong being as good as last year, Hawkins having career best years post 30 is going to come to an end very soon, plenty of others close to retirement too, key players too (most on here don't rate our post 30 players besides Boak).
Brisbane are stronger on paper but it's hard to work out the impact of this Hawthorn racism scandal will have on them, i think it is actually a bit silly calling them premiership favorites with that still hanging over their heads, it will be disruptive.
Can't see Collingwood being as good as this year next year but they will be around the mark.
Sydney & Melbourne will be in the 8.
Freo are flying under the radar a bit, i like what they've done with their list and it's young and exciting. I feel like they are a genuine threat.
So that is 7 teams i've mentioned, they are all a much better than average chance of making the 8 and if i was to predict this early i would say that 7 plus port will make up the 8.
But i feel like top 4 could be up for grabs next year, not just sneaking in to the 8. We nearly snuck into the 8 this year and we were terrible. Literally all that needed to happen was Dawson missing that shot after the siren and Amon nailing that shot against Carlton or Motlop getting the easier one earlier and our terrible year was good enough for 8.
Can't see Geelong being as good as last year, Hawkins having career best years post 30 is going to come to an end very soon, plenty of others close to retirement too, key players too (most on here don't rate our post 30 players besides Boak).
Brisbane are stronger on paper but it's hard to work out the impact of this Hawthorn racism scandal will have on them, i think it is actually a bit silly calling them premiership favorites with that still hanging over their heads, it will be disruptive.
Can't see Collingwood being as good as this year next year but they will be around the mark.
Sydney & Melbourne will be in the 8.
Freo are flying under the radar a bit, i like what they've done with their list and it's young and exciting. I feel like they are a genuine threat.
So that is 7 teams i've mentioned, they are all a much better than average chance of making the 8 and if i was to predict this early i would say that 7 plus port will make up the 8.
But i feel like top 4 could be up for grabs next year, not just sneaking in to the 8. We nearly snuck into the 8 this year and we were terrible. Literally all that needed to happen was Dawson missing that shot after the siren and Amon nailing that shot against Carlton or Motlop getting the easier one earlier and our terrible year was good enough for 8.
