Preview Mini Season - What can we achieve in 2015?

[lukiuslion]

I often find myself losing interest at this stage, I still watch every game and follow each weeks news, But I do so with a certain emptiness, the Bye round brings it on - often we are left a bit depressed by this stage, and as the later rounds grind on, it can be a bit like pulling teeth.

So I decided to try and reignite my passion for 2015, I wanted to set some realistic goals for the back half of 2015, which can hopefully set us up for another big recruiting mission in the off season and a more competitive 2016.

So my hope for the 'Mini season' which is the period that remains for the second half of the year (12 games) is we win 5 games... and... we drop our average losing margin from 50 (which it is now) to 25 points for the remaining games of the 2015 season.

I hope the coaches preach a 'fresh start' and break down some mini season goals in the back half, I actually think if we can avoid massive injuries, we are all set to play some good footy, and I personally couldn't give two hoots about draft positioning, winning games is what this club needs - hopefully starting this Saturday night against the Dogs, I am confident we can win this game.

Id love to hear what others think is realistic and what others hope for the remaining 12 games of the season, I need something to get excited about, the trade/ FA thread is getting way too much of a hammering lately we still have half a season of football ahead.

 

[jackess]

I think we've got to beat a team in the top 8. I might be a bit greedy but I'd also like a close loss. Hopefully no more blowouts.

 

[Elixuh]

Win against Melb, GC and Carlton. I don't know what state we'll find the Suns in come rd 19 but a comprehensive victory against Carlton in rd 20 would be encouraging.

Competitve/win against WB and Geelong

Competitive against Crows, Dockers, Sydney, Hawks and North.

So if we can get 3-5 wins and reduce our losing margin I'll be happy with the latter half of the season.

 

[lukiuslion]

Win against Melb, GC and Carlton. I don't know what state we'll find the Suns in come rd 19 but a comprehensive victory against Carlton in rd 20 would be encouraging.

Competitve/win against WB and Geelong

Competitive against Crows, Dockers, Sydney, Hawks and North.

So if we can get 3-5 wins and reduce our losing margin I'll be happy with the latter half of the season.

Yeah that's about where I am at. If we can escape with 7 wins, and better last year, I would be happy with that.

It is realistic to expect a big lose against the Dockers and swans, but hopefully we can minimise the carnage to an extent, I would hope we could pick off a decent scalp at some stage too, I have my Eyes on that Crows game at the Gabba as one I would love us to set ourselves for.

 

[Schache It Off]

Jeez, the match against the Dockers will be even worse than last year at their ground Bad memories.

 

[SizeMatters]

To beat the Hawks. Anything less and it's a failure.

 

[POBT]

With 2015 being a write-off on so many levels, I'd like to see us aim to win half of our remaining games. That's probably a stretch target but not unachievable, provided we can get our midfield together.

 

[Skoob]

I'll go with the boring answer (one we seem to look for too often) "just signs".
Signs that we are on track. Signs that we have a workable plan, and signs that our players have truly 'bought in' and are working towards a goal.
I think the mid-field in many (some) ways is on its way to being very competitive, but the main focus for our team as a whole is to sort out the hunger and ability to defend. I wouldn't go as far as saying "defence wins Premierships", but while we are working on attacking and the best way to do that, we need a whole lot of work on 'when we don't have the ball'.
Signs that things are coming along are what I want to see.

 

[snooplions]

We won 7 in the back half of 13', and 6 in the back half of 14'. Would back us to win another 6 games with 3 "upsets" against the bulldogs (once), crows (once) and kangaroos adding to the three games we should win against goldcoast, melbourne and carlton.

I put upsets in inverted commas because I don't think they're really upsets when we click into gear and find our collective form. We're not as bad as our ladder position suggests when we we're up and going.

 

[baaaall!]

Would be very happy with 6 or 7 more wins this year.

 

[acuguy]

To be honest, I have missed lions games and turned them off this year. To anyone who knows my love of footy and the club this would seem ******* out of character. We have been sooooooooooooooo bad over soooooooooooooooo many years I think it has taken a massive toll!

So the back half of the season, please, please let's keep Hanley on the field and ffs play Cutler, anyone that gives us hope of a better future, please play!

 

[lukiuslion]

To be honest, I have missed lions games and turned them off this year. To anyone who knows my love of footy and the club this would seem ******* out of character. We have been sooooooooooooooo bad over soooooooooooooooo many years I think it has taken a massive toll!

So the back half of the season, please, please let's keep Hanley on the field and ffs play Cutler, anyone that gives us hope of a better future, please play!

I could never miss a game or turn it off, but I am with you in theory. I have learnt to temper my enthusiasm for wins in the back
Half of the season. They lead to false hope.

I just want some consistency, even though we have strung together semi 'acceptable' amounts of wins over the last 3 years, we have never been consistent. You never know he what you're going to get each week. I want us to do display some consistent efforts, we are ranked so low in almost all the key indicators, i am Also sick of average losing margins of over 50 - id love to see our inevitable losing margin to be somewhere around 20 for the last 12 games.

 

[Sherrinator]

All wins herein are junk time wins whose sole purpose is to stop us getting a decent draft pick.

 

[baaaall!]

All wins herein are junk time wins whose sole purpose is to stop us getting a decent draft pick.

So you'd prefer that we lose every game for the rest of the season?
Sure, we'd get a good pick, but imagine what that would do to our fanbase?
What about players like Rance and Dixon who we are targeting?
Why would they want to come to a rubbish team?
And what if that high draft pick turns into the next Jack Watts?
Remember, Fyfe was taken at pick 20.
Losing every game from here on would be very bad for the club short term and long term IMO

 

[pulpdriver]

Remaining games
Likely loss: Dogs(ET), Freo, Swans, Cats, Crows, Hawks
In with a chance: Dees, North (G), Suns, Blues, Dogs (G)

4 more wins from that run would be decent for team's confidence but I guess win v losses don't really matter that much for this year. No more blowouts would be great, I'd like 5 or so games where we have our complete midfield playing together, If Leuie can click up forward that would be nice but low odds of that IMO. Cliched but I'd be happy to just be able to get as close to our best team as possible on the field and play some promising footy for four quarters. All we can really ask for or expect at this point. Finish the year with some promise, get a mature KP or two through trade and FA and add a top tier talent draftee and Keays to the list and focus on next year.

 

[lukiuslion]

I'd love to see what Trent west can do up forward.

 

[dlanod]

So you'd prefer that we lose every game for the rest of the season?
Sure, we'd get a good pick, but imagine what that would do to our fanbase?
What about players like Rance and Dixon who we are targeting?
Why would they want to come to a rubbish team?
And what if that high draft pick turns into the next Jack Watts?
Remember, Fyfe was taken at pick 20.
Losing every game from here on would be very bad for the club short term and long term IMO

I can't speak for him but I do agree with his sentiment, especially since he didn't advocate losing (at least not in that post - I'm not sure of his overall position on it). I don't want us to lose, and I definitely don't want us to deliberately lose ala Carlton, Richmond and Melbourne, but every win will be that little bit bitter sweet because it is fairly meaningless in the overall scheme of things and also reduces our chances of getting that top 3 talent. In an immediate sense however, the membership benefits for the following year and culture improvements do outweigh the draft pick. I do dislike that the draft sets up clubs and supporters with such a stupid reverse incentive.

 

[Sherrinator]

So you'd prefer that we lose every game for the rest of the season?
Sure, we'd get a good pick, but imagine what that would do to our fanbase?
What about players like Rance and Dixon who we are targeting?
Why would they want to come to a rubbish team?
And what if that high draft pick turns into the next Jack Watts?
Remember, Fyfe was taken at pick 20.
Losing every game from here on would be very bad for the club short term and long term IMO

Winning is good, but if by winning 7 games against the likes of Saints, Suns etc will mean we have less bargaining power to get a Dixon.

Where will that leave us next year? Still no good forwards and no forward depth. Next minute Carlton are charging back up the ladder and we continue to languish in the mire.

 

[Sherrinator]

I can't speak for him but I do agree with his sentiment, especially since he didn't advocate losing (at least not in that post - I'm not sure of his overall position on it). I don't want us to lose, and I definitely don't want us to deliberately lose ala Carlton, Richmond and Melbourne, but every win will be that little bit bitter sweet because it is fairly meaningless in the overall scheme of things and also reduces our chances of getting that top 3 talent. In an immediate sense however, the membership benefits for the following year and culture improvements do outweigh the draft pick. I do dislike that the draft sets up clubs and supporters with such a stupid reverse incentive.

I wished the top 10 draft picks were a lottery for the bottom 10 teams.

We could pinch a few wins for confidence and still get a good pick for bargaining power. I remember 2013 well where we almost made "top 8" but look how 2014 turned out.

 

[Viceregal]

We have failed to suck sufficiently to get the top top picks ... and when we were in the ball park we got screwed over by compo picks, expansion reservations, and 'draft tampering' ... I wouldn't object to getting a really good pick because our injury list continued to be 'awesome' or our players were just too young to compete properly ... but I want them to try their best and I really don't want to be able to empathise with Melbourne or Carlton supporters ...

 

[Viceregal]

So are we still a mathematical chance of making the finals?

 

[Schache It Off]

So are we still a mathematical chance of making the finals?

Could still win the flag from here...

 

[Sherrinator]

We have failed to suck sufficiently to get the top top picks ... and when we were in the ball park we got screwed over by compo picks, expansion reservations, and 'draft tampering' ... I wouldn't object to getting a really good pick because our injury list continued to be 'awesome' or our players were just too young to compete properly ... but I want them to try their best and I really don't want to be able to empathise with Melbourne or Carlton supporters ...

I think we still sucked. Ran into teams that were fairly injury plagued like Collingwood last year.

 

[lukiuslion]

Well... My hope for am average losing margin of 25 points or less is off to a shocker.

 

[luthor]

Could still win the flag from here...