Projection for 2015

[Bazza Bulldog]

Our best win of the year was against Gold Coast and this was the team:

Liam Picken,Jordan Roughead,Mark Austin
Robert Murphy,Dale Morris,Easton Wood
Sam Darley,Matthew Boyd,Mitch Wallis
Jake Stringer,Stewart Crameri,Jack Macrae.
Luke Dahlhaus,Jack Redpath,Nathan Hrovat.
Will Minson,Koby Stevens,Tom Liberatore.
Marcus Bontempelli,Lachie Hunter,Jason Johannisen.Sub
Mitch Honeychurch.

No Cooney, Griffen, Jones, Gia, Tutt... I think that's one reason we should be optimistic.

Welcome Mick2014 ... fantastic start to your BF posting. An excellent reason to be optimistic. I remember Bob after this game in his column said he looked around and realised whose team this now was (in terms of where the power/influence came from). Whilst GC had lost Ablett the week before this set their wheels spinning.

 

[The Standfield Principle]

In mathematics if you remove a negative it equals a positive. We will improve because we had a coach in 2014 who had no tactical acumen,and the fabric of the team fell apart as the "great communicator" sham ended up in tears.
The same removal of the negative (Primus) helped Port Adelaide go forward as well as Hinkleys obvious skill. McCartney created a culture of low expectations -whilst Hinkley placed no limits on his team. For 2015 we should win 10 games . As a bottom six club we will get a preferential draw and we had the list in 2014 to achieve this.
However after watching three years of tedious football , with no apparent game plan other than swarm around the ball and execute 1metre handpasses to the stationary target - I look forward to those 10 wins coming from seeing the ball kicked into dangerous areas on our forward line where a tall player contests and small forwards run onto the ball knocked into space. This will provide a refreshing contrast to "lob to a spot where our three taller forward all contest ,ball falls to ground, stoppage- that we have endured since 2012.

 

[Gmod23]

I see 6 wins.
We will be better but we will also have fitness issues with our young list.
Coaching will be better, and we will lose many games by smaller margins.
Probably 10 games will be lost where we are within 2 goals at 3 quarter time or later.
2017, those close wins will be turning into wins.

 

[Sharkey66]

We were better this year than our formline and results showed. Due to the divisiveness of the list and coach, and the weird MC selections, we lost games that may have been winnable. It was no mistake that our best games were the ones with a lot of the senior players out.
8 to 10 wins should be achievable next season given a good run with injuries.

 

[threenewpadlocks]

This may sound silly, but I reckon our season is very unpredictable and I can't put a number on how many we can win.
For example, the loss of players like Higgins, Cooney, Griffen, Jones could be bigger than we anticipate, and their seniority and experience is much larger than we think, and we win less games, something like 4-6 games won.

On the other hand, I reckon with the improvement of our young players, if Tom Boyd has a much better year than people think (maybe 40-50 goals), and a new coach shows how much better he is than the old one, we can push for the finals.

I simply do not know how well we're going to be.

 

[Dav1d]

I might want to change what I selected, once I see our fixture

 

[paul scholes]

When you lose that many games of senior experience you generally have a drop .
I think we'll start okay, but generally that many kids there is a drop off.
We've been patient for an eternity, and setting the club up for LONG TERM and SUSTAINED challenge is imperative .
If we win as many games as this year,we've done well.
I think bottom 4 is most likely.

 

[wian]

We should get a pretty favourable draw considering we finished low on the ladder. I think the forward line will be way more functional. Fatigue will hurt us with the kids. Not sure how the backline will hold up

 

[Dannnnnnnnnn]

Based on current 2015 lineups (ie. incomplete) we currently have the lowest median games played in the league at 26.5 (St Kilda next lowest at 27.0) and the 16th-lowest median age at 22.8 years (Gold Coast and GWS at 17th and 18th with median ages of 22.7 and 22.0 respectively). Expectations for improvement should not be high. Obviously this will change when lists are finalised but it does foresee a bit of a bleak year.

 

[TiAn_]

I think the loss of experience will really take a toll as the season wears on and our young list is in for a very tough second half of the year.

Libba/Macrae getting the hardest tag each week is going to be a real challenge for them.

In the right hands I think our forward line can be our biggest improver next year, but I think our midfield is going to have some sustained patches where it is totally dominated and our defenders are under extreme pressure.