Prediction If Luke is Coach can we play finals in 2024

[Optimistic Dog]

Unless we somehow become united with Luke, we get a better game plan and he gets better assistants that he is prepared to listen to I do not see how we play finals. Surely there is some to a lot of truth to what has been rumoured on bigfooty. However, I now convinced he will be staying and not sure how many required players will exit as a result.

My guess is at some stage in 2024 he will get the sack.

 

[geoffjennings79]

Luke who?

I think we actually can, and will, play finals next year under Beveridge.
However I'm not game to predict how much we will lose the elimination final by. I suspect we will have a decent lead at H/T though.

 

[Doggies_13]

Simple answer is no.

Also think if we let him go next year won’t be till end of the season and by then it will be too late to keep a number of players

 

[Planet Dogs]

Unless there is a massive shake-up of the footy department: no
We didn't have a bad run with injuries this year. I don't see the top 8 sides going backward next year. I see big upside with Adelaide, Hawthorn and Goldcoast.

 

[LondonBulldog]

Yes, but it involves tough calls on players and I don't think we have the guts to do it. We as a club and even most supporters live on past glory and past stats. The game waits for no one and it was clear this year who the game has passed. Yet will the dogs do anything about it, maybe a few soft calls yet not the tough calls in my fear. Whispers are there are a few players looking elsewhere (don't get stubborn, like with Dunkley) let them go, turn it into a win and you move on.

 

[AFDogs]

Yeah

 

[Thedogdays_r_over]

Unless there is a massive shake-up of the footy department: no
We didn't have a bad run with injuries this year. I don't see the top 8 sides going backward next year. I see big upside with Adelaide, Hawthorn and Goldcoast.

Agree wholeheartedly. Club needs a clean out of current administration, proven they aren't up to the task. Clean out all assistants for the same reason. Build solid support around the head coach (whomever that may be). Place the right people in the critical off field and on field decision making and support roles.

 

[ringa5]

Fresh air is needed because everyone and everything is getting stale.
Fresh ideas fresh approach to list management,contracting and selection.
Please revitalise the club
Signing off now in search of fresh air.
Go Wallabies !

 

[Foxman98]

The answer is clearly yes,

We lost 7 games by under 15 points and missed out on finals by 2 points.

Will we make any noise in September depending on what happens doubtful but finals are clearly a fairly acceptable outcome

 

[puppaC]

I don’t know what our game
Plan is but if it doesn’t change I think we will finish bottom four. And bevo doesn’t seem to change things up much. We need more speed too.

 

[Gift]

We probably can but if we face anyone good, theyll make adjustments and we will lose whatever lead we have at HT to lose for sure. Its the same thing every time, year after year. Why would it change

 

[_Mike_]

Without addressing key deficiencies with the list, coaching staff, and game plan I expect things to remain status quo

 

[hutchy31]

Will probably be easier to gauge once we know what the footy department and coaching group changes are - if indeed there are any major ones (although we know we'll have at least two new assistants). Even then it's obviously guesswork.

Given all of that, I'm actually fairly concerned that if the performances from the second half of this year are similar in 2024 then we'll struggle to be relevant. We're a long-term injury to one or more of Bont/Libba/Richards/Jones away from a fairly substantial problem imo.

Teams I'd expect to finish above us in 2024:
Brisbane
Melbourne

Teams who will probably finish above us, although wouldn't surprise me if a drop in performance/injury issues etc. affected their season:
Pies
Carlton
Port

Teams who are around the same mark, but have flaws and difficult to trust (we're in this group imo):
Saints
Sydney
GWS
Adelaide
Gold Coast
Freo

Teams who will slide:
Geelong
Richmond

Teams who I think we'll be better than as long as our draws aren't insanely different in terms of difficulty:
Essendon
Hawks (down year for me - progress isn't always linear)
North
WC

I think it's inarguable that we're in that mid-tier group, so need a lot to go right to finish top four under the current regime and equally could drop if we continue on this trajectory and get some bad luck.

 

[Libba39]

With a few adjustments to both coaching staff as well as playing list we can definitely play finals.

These are not excuses but it was a pretty disrupted year for us:

-Loss of our b&f winner and a heart and soul father-son
-having to integrate a true ruck/forward into our set-up
-losing our training base
-Liam Jones

19

Liam Jones

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33

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199cm

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98kg

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Last 5

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9.4

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6.5

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2.9

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4.3

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2.0

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134.5

2star

D

7.6

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6.1

3star

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1.4

1star

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4.1

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1.4

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116.3

2star

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9.4

3star

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7.4

3star

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2.0

2star

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4.0

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2.2

4star

going down with injury after being in AA form.

My biggest worry is not Beveridge but having an ageing list (midfield mostly) and that being compounded by potential loss of B.Smith.

 

[TedDougChris]

Without addressing key deficiencies with the list, coaching staff, and game plan I expect things to remain status quo

Agreed.

The answer is clearly yes,

We lost 7 games by under 15 points and missed out on finals by 2 points.

Will we make any noise in September depending on what happens doubtful but finals are clearly a fairly acceptable outcome

What happens if, god forbid, Bont gets injured. We are bottom 4 based on this year if that happens, as our structure and game plan doesn’t stand up.

 

[hutchy31]

Agreed.



What happens if, god forbid, Bont gets injured. We are bottom 4 based on this year if that happens, as our structure and game plan doesn’t stand up.

I don't ever want to see Bont injured, but I would be (morbidly?) fascinated to see how the team played.

Based on the past 6-10 weeks, my guess is it could be North/WC-like in terms of competitiveness. Or maybe some of those who don't work nearly hard enough realise they can't just rely on him and a few others all the time and actually step up. Either way, it would be illuminating.

 

[_Mike_]

What a debbie downer of a season... Failed to meet the expectations of a top 4 spot compounded by depth issues with injuries to key players, players out of form etc

 

[Foxman98]

Agreed.



What happens if, god forbid, Bont gets injured. We are bottom 4 based on this year if that happens, as our structure and game plan doesn’t stand up.

If Bont gets injured it doesn't matter who the coach is

 

[Dogs Rule]

Why do people think things will change next year if he's still at the helm? They won't so stop kidding yourselves.

This is why the head in the sand, look after your mates stuff from Darcy is so delusional. Completely misreading the mood due to blind loyalty. The sort of unprofessional attitude associated with our bad old days.

 

[TedDougChris]

If Bont gets injured it doesn't matter who the coach is

Some teams have made the finals without Bont !!! Eight of them in fact !!

Bont is papering over the cracks in Bevos inability to structure us correctly. A good coach would get more out of our list and setup the list so that it was based around a single player

 

[doggies ftw]

We could but it would be against the grain, we’re trending alarmingly down the ladder

 

[yebach]

If we got Joel Corey

Joel Corey

Age

42

Ht

191cm

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88kg

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Mid

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22.4

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11.5

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11.0

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4.0

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4.1

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CL

3.9

5star

No current season stats available

D

12.4

4star

K

7.8

3star

HB

4.6

4star

M

2.2

3star

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1.6

4star

back as midfield coach.
Matthew Scarlett

Matthew Scarlett

Age

44

Ht

192cm

Wt

94kg

Pos.

Def

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14.8

4star

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9.5

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5.3

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5.0

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1.5

3star

No current season stats available

D

3.8

1star

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3.2

2star

HB

0.6

1star

M

2.0

3star

T

0.8

3star

back as defensive coach.
Got Sav Rocca / Tory Dickson

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Tory Dickson

Age

36

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184cm

Wt

85kg

Pos.

Fwd

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Last 5

D

12.5

3star

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6.9

3star

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5.7

4star

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3.5

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2.9

4star

G

1.6

5star

No current season stats available

D

12.8

4star

K

7.0

3star

HB

5.8

4star

M

3.2

4star

T

3.4

5star

G

1.0

4star

to teach goalkicking.
Pyke and Josh Bruce

17

Josh Bruce

Age

31

Ht

198cm

Wt

97kg

Pos.

D/F

Career

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Last 5

D

11.2

3star

K

6.6

3star

HB

4.6

3star

M

4.5

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2.1

4star

MG

90.4

1star

D

8.9

2star

K

3.5

1star

HB

5.4

3star

M

2.5

3star

T

1.3

2star

MG

90.4

2star

D

11.2

3star

K

5.6

3star

HB

5.6

4star

M

3.6

4star

T

0.8

3star

as forward coaches
Mark Williams as assistant coach.
Lepitch as assistant/ game plan coach.
Cameron as opposition analysis coach.
Then if Bevo listens to them. Then I think we go deep into finals.

Not too much to ask for?

 

[jdz101]

 

[doggie dog]

I looked at our list at the start of the year and fully believed that was a top 4 squad with minimal injuries.
I did not enjoy watching our game plan, players out of their normal positions and Bevo playing his favourites who clearly were not best 22.
To not make the finals with this list, should be a sackable offence.

 

[Norm De Guerre]

Im usually pretty good at twisting and rationalising a narrative to suit my own ends. But Im struggling to build one that crosses the divide between the wtfedness of playing every tall on the list at the start of the year. The understandable, of the first half of the season when we had an injury toll that threatened to completely derail our season. The writing of the ship prior to the bye. And then the capitulation of the team soon after that save for a few games against garbage (Freo & Essendon) or cooked (Richmond) opposition sides on the slide, just turned up its toes against nominally inferior opposition.

That we were playing what was theoretically our strongest sides towards the end just makes my confusion worse.

Beveridge should consider himself lucky that he's at such an insular, risk averse and small minded club. Because no coach should be able to skate past the results of the second half of this season. Safe in the knowledge that he had an expensive 2 year parachute put on him by and administration that thought it knew how to fly a plane after watching a couple of YouTube vids..

So. Save for a massive change in coaching mindset and personnel which is essentially a rehash of last seasons messaging. And a list wide and instant refresh of the playing group.

Then I say no. We're a side about to see a rapid decline.