Will we make finals?!

[nighthawk]

Saw a similar thing on the Carlton board, and thought it might be interesting to do the same thing here. This is the remaining fixture, and predictions on whether we will win or lose.

Richmond W
Geelong L
Adelaide W
Melbourne W
Carlton ?
Collingwood ?
Sydney ?
Bulldogs ?
Richmond W
West Coast W
Brisbane ?
Saints L
Freo W
Hawthorn ?

So if we count those question marks as 50/50s, and therefore half of them as wins, I count 9 wins all up. That puts us at 13 wins by seasons end, but could be anywhere between 11-15.

What do you think? How many will be needed to make finals this year? Have I been too harsh or too generous to our bombers? Of course any game has the chance to go either way, but this is just for a bit of fun.

 

[The Donners]

Essendon will make the finals.

We are as good as the third best team in the competition, whoever that may be...

 

[lamaros]

Richmond W
Geelong L
Adelaide ?
Melbourne ?
Carlton ?
Collingwood W
Sydney ?
Bulldogs L
Richmond W
West Coast ?
Brisbane ?
Saints ?
Freo ?
Hawthorn L

Pointless exercise.

We should make finals, but working it out game by game like this is a waste of time.

 

[Boucks09]

We just need 12 wins in total. We already have 4 so that means we have to win 8 more games.

It's too difficult to predict which games we may or may not win in 2 months time...too many variables.

If we can be 6-5 at the halfway point I'll be wrapped; especially considering we were 2-9 last year.

But I don't like talking about the F word...it's been too long since I went to one supporting my own team!

 

[SirJimi05]

Realistically we should win 3 of our next 4 games (Richmond, Adelaide & Melbourne) and providing we do we will make the finals.

 

[Winner]

The result of this match will tell us yes or no.

The Essendon of recent will lose to Richmond.

If we win, I will believe we have overcome that and are genuine finals contenders. If we don't win, we will not make the finals.

 

[StealthBomber]

The result of this match will tell us yes or no.

The Essendon of recent will lose to Richmond.

If we win, I will believe we have overcome that and are genuine finals contenders. If we don't win, we will not make the finals.

Completely agree!!

We showed signs there is a new Essendon outfit a few weeks back against the Hawks. Self belief and confidence in each other is what we need to maintain, along with consistent footy playing to our strengths and game plan - speed, speed and more speed. If we can progressively improve our decision making at those speeds we will rise.

Seeing our team has settled with minimal changes to each weeks team will also allow our youngsters to gel and play to eachothers strengths.

We should beat the likes of Richmond, Adelaide and Melbourne in the coming weeks....should; depending on the above mentioned.

 

[Jesse Custer]

As Winner said, lets get passed Richmond first then we'll see.

Games where we are expected to win are the games im not confident about. We aren't a good team yet, we're still developing and this fact is lost on some posters lately i think.

 

[Super Gusto]

Such an important game this week. If we win hopefully we will get a run on and take it up to Geelong and hopefully beat Adelaide.

If we do, we have a chance of slipping into the finals but our last 3 games of the season are going to be tough and our young list may get tired by the second half of the year, so it's a big ask.

 

[daffo]

I think the real question is, why were you on the Calton board?

 

[warney7]

Looks a lot like this thread doesn't it?

With 14 rounds to go, I predict at least another 20 threads on the same topic.

 

[nighthawk]

Haha, oops, my bad. *delete thread*

 

[TimeReaper]

As Winner said, lets get passed Richmond first then we'll see.

Games where we are expected to win are the games im not confident about. We aren't a good team yet, we're still developing and this fact is lost on some posters lately i think.

I agree totally with you Centurion, I think that some posters have been seeing the last 2 weeks only and nothing before that. For me I take it as a game by game senario. We all want to make finals, I think we can do it, but it will be a long hard slog.

 

[coke_zero]

you could lose your next 3. aslong as you beat one of richmond or adelaide you will be in with a shot and you also have some important players coming back.

 

[bOmBeR_BoY1]

Tommorow night is going to prove so much. If we can get up and win, then it's fair to say we may need to reassess our goals towards perhaps a spot in the lower part of the top 8 - a loss tommorow will all but end those hopes. We need to focus on tommorow before any other games coming up - it's going to be a tough one.

Watching the second half of Bendigo training today and seeing the likes of Welsh, Reimers, Laycock, Skipworth, Hurley & McVeigh all out their training and looking good - I'm pleased with where the side is heading.

 

[bomberstomake8]

do we have to start these threads?

no one really has any idea at this point, essendon are that inconsistent at the momment its way too hard to say.. this weeks game really worries me.. and we need to make sure we bring players back at the right time, carrying half injured players into the side can have a huge affect on the outcome of a game.

we are definately a chance, but its way to early to tell either way.

 

[Enki]

Maybe.

 

[sen entertainment bloke]

Richmond should be a win tonight. Depending a bit on the mood of the umpires, Geelong is ours for the taking the following week with a four quarter effort.

With 6 indigenious players, would be dissappointed to lose tonight, particularily now that the opponent seemingly has a playing group fracture and Bowden can't do walk throughs, etc.

Adeliade fifty fifty, Melbourne will be a loss I reckon.

 

[Burzum]

If we lose tonight we don't deserve to play finals.

 

[ghostdog]

If we lose tonight we don't deserve to play finals.

I concur with the above sentiment...

we might still make finals though.

 

[nighthawk]

Richmond should be a win tonight. Depending a bit on the mood of the umpires, Geelong is ours for the taking the following week with a four quarter effort.

With 6 indigenious players, would be dissappointed to lose tonight, particularily now that the opponent seemingly has a playing group fracture and Bowden can't do walk throughs, etc.

Adeliade fifty fifty, Melbourne will be a loss I reckon.

Wait... so Geelong is ours for the taking and Melbourne will be a loss???

I think that Geelong will come out firing next week. They've been given a clear message from the bulldogs that they're not untouchable, and next week they'll want to come out strong and smash us.

Or, i suppose the alternate view is that they may have had a small seed of doubt sowed into their minds, and that they'll stress a bit if we manage to put any pressure on. But who am I kidding, it's Geelong!

 

[Mad Bomber Sean]

Impossible to say if we will make the finals or not, but I hope so.

IF we can beat the Tigers, Crows and Dees in the next four weeks we have a decent chance.

But our team is very young & small, could perhaps fall away further into the season.

With more experienced players ready to come into the side I hope that Knights doesnt upset the team balance though by making wholesale changes. Each player needs to earn his position through performance.

 

[GoDons]

Essendon will make the finals.

We are as good as the third best team in the competition, whoever that may be...

Being good enough isn't the issue though, it's about being consistently good enough.

If body's hold up, we'll probably be there. Ryder's going to need some meaningful support in the second half of the year, and we can't expect Jobe to have 18 contested possessions every week, others are going to have to help him out.

I think a lot rests on the successful return of the guys coming back through Bendigo this week and next plus Fletcher. The team we've got right now is exciting, but they're not going to hold up consistently over the next 14 weeks.

 

[GoldenboyHird_5]

Even if we do go in 7-5 with 10 to go, the task will still be extremely difficult.

We'd have to win at least half of our games from 13 and onwards. 2007 showed us that that has proved to be a massive hurdle for a team that still had a firing Hird.

i don't like our chances against the Crows and if we DON'T get to 7-5, it's curtains.

As much as I have faith in the team, I just cannot see them winning any more than 5/10 games. Even with the talent about to return.

 

[kelvin_sheedy]

If we win tonight then we'll be certain finalists unless we balls it right up.

We have some tricky games like 2 trips to Perth against bottom 4 sides. They should be automatic wins but we know it's very hard to win over there.

The North loss could be a killer as they are a rabble and eeked out a win against a naive outfit.

Every side is beatable in the run home bar Geelong next week. With some sides calling it a season we might be gifted a few wins.

No margin for error tonight.