Will we make finals?

[Doggy]

Fox sports has Collingwood as a big finals chance. Derp

 

[hutchy31]

Fox sports has Collingwood as a big finals chance. Derp

Off the back of the Freo win in the wet. Would think the story would be Freo, losing to GC and the pies after beating Geelong away is weird but maybe they're just terrible in the wet.

For any finals chances (including the dogs) coming from outside the eight, obviously they need to replace someone. Who's dropping out? Dees, Lions, Blues look set, and I'd argue Geelong will find a way to get to 13 wins fairly easily. You could talk me into any of the other four dropping out but they've all got a win or two plus a bit of percentage on the dogs and although I haven't looked at all their draws I'd be surprised if their last third of the season is as daunting as ours.

The Adelaide, Port and Richmond losses were all poor - wouldn't surprise me if a failure to win one or two of those and bank early wins ends up costing us at the pointy end. Double ups coming in the second half of the year against GWS, Hawks and Cats I think - might need to win about 5 of those 6.

 

[_Mike_]

iffy at the moment however a run with good form can change that

 

[Libba39]

Just had a look at the fixture.

The second half of the season is pretty brutal.

Away games against Giants, Bris, Salty Swans, and Cats. Home games against Dees, Giants, Dockers and Saints. Play Hawks twice but that is proving to be no easy assignment.

We may really rue our inconsistent form in the first 8 rounds.

 

[Doggy]

Just had a look at the fixture.

The second half of the season is pretty brutal.

Away games against Giants, Bris, Salty Swans, and Cats. Home games against Dees, Giants, Dockers and Saints. Play Hawks twice but that is proving to be no easy assignment.

We may really rue our inconsistent form in the first 8 rounds.

Should beat Freo at home, plastics suck, need to beat Hawthorn twice

Shitney is rubbish I'd back us over them.

Probably need to beat Geelong once and Saints which isn't easy but is certainly possible

 

[TommyD13]

Big win on the weekend and we are in the eight at the halfway point of the season. We should take that given the injury troubles to start the season. Then the second half of the season will test really how good we are. Pick off a few scalps and we are a lock for finals and building nicely.

 

[brmi]

I did the squiggle ladder predictor yesterday and had us finishing 7th and Saints to finish 6th, sets up an elimination final against them.

I think we are every chance to win the next two games heading into the bye at 7-5. A few keys blokes back into the team after the bye and a solid finished to the year, somewhere between 6-8 is very achievable.

We've won a a flag and made a GF from outside the top 4 having to travel all around the country. A bit of luck and we might only travel once during September. I believe we are a massive chance to go deep again, hopefully one better than last year.

 

[ExRoyboy]

I think so, yes. There is only one team who is clearly better than us, and if they lose this year at all I'll be surprised. And then there's Brisbane who I think we could match up against quite well, but they've clearly had a better first ten rounds than us. If we were playing any of Fremantle, St. Kilda, Carlton, Geelong, Sydney or Richmond next week would we really feel that we're miles off them? I don't think so. We've played three of those teams, and realistically ought to have won all three, but kicked ourselves out of the games against Carlton and Richmond.

I agree with you but our goal kicking accuracy is and will always be a problem. It’s wrong to consider it an aberration that will not repeat itself. We were lucky to get away with another poor conversion rate on the weekend when we kicked clear very late, but that could have been another opportunity lost.

This needs to be fixed otherwise we will always be vulnerable and I think it is a lot to do with the kick inside 50 not giving our forwards the best chance as well as just poor goal kicking. This will be the reason we don’t make finals in my view. It’s already cost us at least two games and possibly three. That’s the difference between top 4 and being out of the finals. I suspect we drop at least another one or two in this manner if our history is anything to go by and this will probably cost us a spot in the finals. This team is definitely good enough to make it, but I suspect we fall just short. I hope I’m wrong though and the boys get on a big roll now. Our percentage is at least competitive so we can get close to the teams above us if we win enough games.

 

[Next Waiting]

Off the back of the Freo win in the wet. Would think the story would be Freo, losing to GC and the pies after beating Geelong away is weird but maybe they're just terrible in the wet.

For any finals chances (including the dogs) coming from outside the eight, obviously they need to replace someone. Who's dropping out? Dees, Lions, Blues look set, and I'd argue Geelong will find a way to get to 13 wins fairly easily. You could talk me into any of the other four dropping out but they've all got a win or two plus a bit of percentage on the dogs and although I haven't looked at all their draws I'd be surprised if their last third of the season is as daunting as ours.

The Adelaide, Port and Richmond losses were all poor - wouldn't surprise me if a failure to win one or two of those and bank early wins ends up costing us at the pointy end. Double ups coming in the second half of the year against GWS, Hawks and Cats I think - might need to win about 5 of those 6.

Freo look the most vulnerable to being displaced IMO. Theirs is a tough run home.

 

[CarnTheScray]

Just open the roof at Marvel when we play Freo and we should win.

 

[Foxman98]

We play currently:
18th
6th
14th
13th
2nd
7th
5th
1st
6th
4th
14th
13th

Realistically that's 2 games against teams that are going very well then 5 games against teams already below us and 5 games against teams in a similar position to us. We need to win 3/5 to have a chance and beat the teams below us

 

[ScragCity]

To be honest, I think the top 8 is set now. We're a game and 10 percentage points behind Sydney and Richmond and the second half of our draw is much harder than the first half. It's sad because at our best I think we are better than half the teams in the 8, but we have blown our season with an abysmal start.

 

[Doggy]

To be honest, I think the top 8 is set now. We're a game and 10 percentage points behind Sydney and Richmond and the second half of our draw is much harder than the first half. It's sad because at our best I think we are better than half the teams in the 8, but we have blown our season with an abysmal start.

Hardly... Fremantle have a hard run home and we should beat them at home as well.

Yeah it wasn't a great start but it's certainly not over and giving up is really silly

 

[Sentinel]

Bookies have us right now at about an even chance ($1.90 on TAB, $2.00 on Sportsbet).

 

[Virgin Dog]

To be honest, I think the top 8 is set now. We're a game and 10 percentage points behind Sydney and Richmond and the second half of our draw is much harder than the first half. It's sad because at our best I think we are better than half the teams in the 8, but we have blown our season with an abysmal start.

This is assuming we're the quality of a 5-5 team. If we can get anywhere near the form we had for the majority of 2021, we're a top 4 side. Playing like that rest of the season has us making the 8.

Personally I think we struggle a bit until Bruce is able to hit form (which may come too late), and inconsistency will probably result in us hitting 9th/10th to finish the season, but I do feel a top 8 finish is absolutely a realistic prospect. The performances of the last few weeks are infinitely better than our performances in the first month

 

[Doggy]

This is assuming we're the quality of a 5-5 team. If we can get anywhere near the form we had for the majority of 2021, we're a top 4 side. Playing like that rest of the season has us making the 8.

Personally I think we struggle a bit until Bruce is able to hit form (which may come too late), and inconsistency will probably result in us hitting 9th/10th to finish the season, but I do feel a top 8 finish is absolutely a realistic prospect. The performances of the last few weeks are infinitely better than our performances in the first month

Needs to be remembered we play a few of those we could take the positions of .. ie Fremantle, Shitney, maybe saints, Geelong

 

[ScragCity]

Hardly... Fremantle have a hard run home and we should beat them at home as well.

Yeah it wasn't a great start but it's certainly not over and giving up is really silly

I'm not advocating "giving up." I expect the coach and players to continue trying to win, and I appreciate their efforts. But I'm a realist and I don't see them making finals. You also had a go at me before the season started because I didn't think we would make top four...

 

[X_box_X]

I reckon we start favourite in our next three... IF we win them, the ladder could look like this

 

[doggies ftw]

I reckon we start favourite in our next three... IF we win them, the ladder could look like this

View attachment 1413195

Quite possible, Adelaide loss soooo costly

 

[Doggy]

Quite possible, Adelaide loss soooo costly

No point crying over it now... get it back against some of the better teams

 

[Deadly Darcy]

We’ll go deep. Keep JUH going for a few more weeks in the 2’s and then unleash him with both Bruce and Naughts around him. Bont back into the centre, a fit English…. I always felt we would come into the finals with a tailwind after a tough start to the year.

 

[ScottyDogg]

heck…just had a look at our last 8 rounds. You would be hard pressed to choose a harder run home.

Regardless, if we stay healthy and keep building momentum I think we will **** some of these teams up and make finals.

If we somehow end up finishing in the top 6 it will have been some season.

 

[ScottyDogg]

We’ll go deep. Keep JUH going for a few more weeks in the 2’s and then unleash him with both Bruce and Naughts around him. Bont back into the centre, a fit English…. I always felt we would come into the finals with a tailwind after a tough start to the year.

Another reason to play Sweet or Martin when fit. Must keep English fit for the run home and finals. Playing him one out each week is a recipe for burn out long before finals.

 

[Ash1337]

We’ll go deep. Keep JUH going for a few more weeks in the 2’s and then unleash him with both Bruce and Naughts around him. Bont back into the centre, a fit English…. I always felt we would come into the finals with a tailwind after a tough start to the year.

Bruce wont be back in 2 weeks at senior level. He's going need some match fitness with no preseason and no games.

 

[RedWhite&Blue]

Bruce wont be back in 2 weeks at senior level. He's going need some match fitness with no preseason and no games.

He has featured in all the training videos and he looks to be running at full tilt.
Can anyone that has watched training give us an update of Bruce - what drills has he be missing, is he doing any contact work at all yet?