Positives and Negatives of not making the finals

[kerrazy]

Feel free to merge this thread, but I thought it would be a good thread to start seeing we're out!

+
Better draft pick
Players will feel the burn that they just missed out and had a s**t season
Won a bet for Richmond to win
Prevents a bandaid covering what has been a terrible terrible season

-
Miss out on valuable finals experience - is it really that valuable?
See what our team plays like in a finals game (although the essendon game says it all really)

 

[Carbine Chaos]

Given we're going to win today, so the draft pick will be ordinary anyway, I don't see any positives in missing out on finals whatsoever.

 

[kerrazy]

Given we're going to win today, so the draft pick will be ordinary anyway, I don't see any positives in missing out on finals whatsoever.

True, but could still make the difference! Im really hoping that the boys are hurting, it may motivate them even more to play better and not serve up s**t every week. That could be worth more than making the 8 and bundling out in the first week.

Also If we managed to sneak into the finals and beat port, would our draft pick increase to pick 12/13?

 

[Scotland]

The biggest positives are that we won't get pantsed in week one of the finals by Port and that we *shouldn't* get ahead of ourselves thinking 10/11 wins against bottom 10 finishers corresponds to 'not far away' from being a contendre.

 

[Off Tap]

The biggest positives are that we won't get pantsed in week one of the finals by Port and that we *shouldn't* get ahead of ourselves thinking 10/11 wins against bottom 10 finishers corresponds to 'not far away' from being a contendre.

Agree with this. We couldn't even beat a top 8 side this year and just beat up on the weaker sides.

Posters on here thinking that good drafting this year = finals are delusional. Best case we're at least another 2 years away from being semi competitive. With the list we have at the moment (today's side) we will need to bring in another 8 better players to be competitive.

 

[ep2018]

The biggest positives are that we won't get pantsed in week one of the finals by Port and that we *shouldn't* get ahead of ourselves thinking 10/11 wins against bottom 10 finishers corresponds to 'not far away' from being a contendre.

This level of negative posting is not welcome on this forum!!!

Next year we'll win the flag!!!! /westcoastfacebookpage

 

[Underdog]

Agree with this. We couldn't even beat a top 8 side this year and just beat up on the weaker sides.

Posters on here thinking that good drafting this year = finals are delusional. Best case we're at least another 2 years away from being semi competitive. With the list we have at the moment (today's side) we will need to bring in another 8 better players to be competitive.

I think that's rather pessimistic.

Decent drafting with some solid midfield gains and a fit Naitanui could improve us significantly. There's a lot of quality in the team, we're lacking in the midfield and for depth.

If we can get improvement from the likes of Selwood, Masten, Gaff, Shuey, Colledge, Sheed, Tunbridge, Yeo and Wellingham, we could improve significantly. All have improvement in them IMO and/or have displayed better form.

 

[Piss Poor]

Agree with this. We couldn't even beat a top 8 side this year and just beat up on the weaker sides.

Posters on here thinking that good drafting this year = finals are delusional. Best case we're at least another 2 years away from being semi competitive. With the list we have at the moment (today's side) we will need to bring in another 8 better players to be competitive.

Partly Disagree, I don't think we are that far away in fact I think with a good pre season behind us we could be potentially top 4, laugh all you want but we have the pieces, but they haven't been put together yet.
But yeah draft picks won't make a difference to next year, takes 2-3 minimum before young draftee players can make a solid impact in my opinion unless your teams a bottom dweller.

 

[Masto]

In terms of ladder position, 9th is just about the worst place you can finish. You're not getting a high draft pick and your not getting finals experience. The only real benefit is that we get to start preseason early. I doubt we'll even get much of a soft schedule. The only real positives are our improvements on the field.

 

[Jafa]

last year we finished off the season getting destroyed 3 weeks in a row. We where pretty much rock bottom. This year we gave two of those teams a hiding to end out the season and we finished on a positive note. We are miles away from where we where but we are still a far way from where we need to be.

Next year we need to focus on winning those that we should have won this year and keep taking steps forward. I for one are happy that we didn't tank today's game in the never ending pursuit for a better draft pick.

 

[Keys]

Agree with this. We couldn't even beat a top 8 side this year and just beat up on the weaker sides.

Posters on here thinking that good drafting this year = finals are delusional. Best case we're at least another 2 years away from being semi competitive. With the list we have at the moment (today's side) we will need to bring in another 8 better players to be competitive.

We finished 1 game out of the 8 and were competitive for long periods against Sydney, Fremantle, port, essendon and Richmond who all finished in the 8. Geelong were the only team this year to really get hold of us and to a lesser extent north and hawthorn

I don't think we are at the level of the top 4 but to suggest we could make finals next year isn't fairyland stuff

 

[dajesmac]

It is a good thing we didn't make the finals because...

...

 

[Smotie]

Its a mediocre question. There are no positives or negatives of it.
You either are good enough to win a flag or there is no point making the finals. Talk about finishing 7 or lower is pointless.
We are a long way from winning a flag so there is no point making finals.

 

[steve hucka]

At least this season will go down as a mediocre season that it was, Not a success because we made finals !!

 

[Underdog]

Its a mediocre question. There are no positives or negatives of it.
You either are good enough to win a flag or there is no point making the finals. Talk about finishing 7 or lower is pointless.
We are a long way from winning a flag so there is no point making finals.

By your theory, anything outside the top 4 is pointless.

I disagree, I think there is value in finals experience. However, missing the prospect of finishing 8th and getting smashed by Port doesn't particularly bother me.

 

[Keys]

Its a mediocre question. There are no positives or negatives of it.
You either are good enough to win a flag or there is no point making the finals. Talk about finishing 7 or lower is pointless.
We are a long way from winning a flag so there is no point making finals.

2002-04 were such wasted years

 

[Off Tap]

We finished 1 game out of the 8 and were competitive for long periods against Sydney, Fremantle, port, essendon and Richmond who all finished in the 8. Geelong were the only team this year to really get hold of us and to a lesser extent north and hawthorn

I don't think we are at the level of the top 4 but to suggest we could make finals next year isn't fairyland stuff

We had a pretty soft draw this year playing only the Dockers twice this year out of all the top 8 sides. I wouldn't imagine that this will be the case 2 years in a row. Not to beat a top 8 side is a pretty bad statistic too.

I agree we might make the finals next year if all goes well but we're still a level behind sides 6th - 8th.

 

[Scotland]

Finals experience would be beneficial if we had come home flying - but if we're honest we didn't. I certainly don't prefer 9th to 8th, but I don't think we would've got near Freo or Port had we finished 8th.

We won 5 out of 7 beating Brisbane, Collingwood on the slide, Adelaide on the slide, Melbourne and Gold Coast on the slide. We lost to Richmond (8th) and Essendon (7th). Our finals charge was as much about other teams slipping up than it was us playing a bit better footy.

 

[dajesmac]

Its a mediocre question.

You have dropped the word 'mediocre' at least two dozen times today.

How you managed to describe his question as 'mediocre' is to me a bit weird.

 

[Smotie]

2002-04 were such wasted years

Have we got Judd cousins Kerr cox and co in our side ??

 

[Smotie]

You have dropped the word 'mediocre' at least two dozen times today.

How you managed to describe his question as 'mediocre' is to me a bit weird.

I did explain it. We did finish ninth.

 

[Seadog]

Its a mediocre question. There are no positives or negatives of it.
You either are good enough to win a flag or there is no point making the finals. Talk about finishing 7 or lower is pointless.
We are a long way from winning a flag so there is no point making finals.

I would have thought an extra opportunity to bag Priddis would have been appreciated by you.

 

[Smotie]

I would have thought an extra opportunity to bag Priddis would have been appreciated by you.

Nah. No need he supplies 22 games a year for that. Enough to make me throw up.

 

[eagles rule]

Finals experience would be beneficial if we had come home flying - but if we're honest we didn't. I certainly don't prefer 9th to 8th, but I don't think we would've got near Freo or Port had we finished 8th.

We won 5 out of 7 beating Brisbane, Collingwood on the slide, Adelaide on the slide, Melbourne and Gold Coast on the slide. We lost to Richmond (8th) and Essendon (7th). Our finals charge was as much about other teams slipping up than it was us playing a bit better footy.

Gee I thought WCE were flying home 5 out 7 is not too bad , you can only beat the teams that are put in front of you plus we had our share of injuries too missing Selwood ,Yeo ,Rosa ,Waters ,Hutchings and Lecras at times from our best 22 .
Beating a full strength Adelaide in Adelaide was a major turning point in the players belief that they could finally play the way Simmo wanted the team to play that much looked obvious too me.

 

[John Dawh]

2002-04 were such wasted years

They were good years because we were on the up and when Judd destroyed triple premiers The Lions at the GABBA we all knew we had a team that might go the distance.

Unfortunately that's not the case right now. I think we're close but sceptical that the club will make the hard calls to put us into that "we can win a flag with this team" position.

My concern if we made it to 8th was that if we beat Port, we could potentially finish 5th and land draft pick 14 (we really need a high draft pick this year). Furthermore, we might develop some sort of notion that we're already in the flag window.

We didn't beat a single top 8 side this year. Everyone knows it's the midfield. I hope Simmo can take a risk and hard calls because the improvement left in Shuey, Gaff, and Yeo won't get us a flag.

I have no problem whatsoever missing the 8. 8th or 9th, not really much difference in the wider scheme of things.