Who is the darkhorse for the spoon in 2016?

benji2

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Realistically it's out of Carlton, Essendon and Brisbane, but the Saints could be a dark horse if they get a few injuries and revert to 2014 form. Not talking bottom 4 at all but I think Freo may slide next year.
 
Everyone rates midfields on two things: Contested Possessions and Clearances. In terms of differential, Essendon was bottom 4 in the former and bottom 5 in the latter. All this while having either a ruckman on one leg or having a bloke average 23 hitouts a game, which is a significant disadvantage, as well as your two best blocking mids in Hocking and Myers play 7 games between them (which was 6 games and about 3 minutes in reality). Add Leuenberger to the side and those two you should see a significant improvement, as seen by the numbers in 2014 when Essendon were top 6 in both categories.

Did Essendon's midfield lack depth this season? Yes, and that's why blokes like Kavanagh, O'Brien and Aylett were delisted and we went with a couple of younger players (like Parish and Francis) and Craig Bird instead. Another year in Z Merrett, Heppell not stranded by himself and forcing Howlett to become a depth mid will all help next year.
 

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Everyone rates midfields on two things: Contested Possessions and Clearances. In terms of differential, Essendon was bottom 4 in the former and bottom 5 in the latter. All this while having either a ruckman on one leg or having a bloke average 23 hitouts a game, which is a significant disadvantage, as well as your two best blocking mids in Hocking and Myers play 7 games between them (which was 6 games and about 3 minutes in reality). Add Leuenberger to the side and those two you should see a significant improvement, as seen by the numbers in 2014 when Essendon were top 6 in both categories.

Did Essendon's midfield lack depth this season? Yes, and that's why blokes like Kavanagh, O'Brien and Aylett were delisted and we went with a couple of younger players (like Parish and Francis) and Craig Bird instead. Another year in Z Merrett, Heppell not stranded by himself and forcing Howlett to become a depth mid will all help next year.

It's simplistic to say everyone rates the midfield on two factors.

The best sides and midfields are those with the best combination of uncontested and contested possession as transition has become the number 1 facet of the game.

Hawthorn's midfield is so good because they have Issac Smith & Bradley Hill on the outside, the likes of Birchall also make them the best transition side in the competition.

Essendon's midfield is very one paced and lacks few players who break lines. Adding a plodder like Hocking does nothing to address that weakness.

Using clearances and contested ball as an indicator of a midfield is simplistic and incorrect.
 
It's simplistic to say everyone rates the midfield on two factors.

The best sides and midfields are those with the best combination of uncontested and contested possession as transition has become the number 1 facet of the game.

Hawthorn's midfield is so good because they have Issac Smith & Bradley Hill on the outside, the likes of Birchall also make them the best transition side in the competition.

Essendon's midfield is very one paced and lacks few players who break lines. Adding a plodder like Hocking does nothing to address that weakness.

Using clearances and contested ball as an indicator of a midfield is simplistic and incorrect.
Our clearance game was the worst it's been since 2010, which means that our outside players had nowhere near the impact they could have done. Most people have Colyer, Fantasia, Laverde and Gleeson in Essendon's best 22, all of whom add pace to the middle group. Essendon's weakness came from lack of winning the pill, which having inside players like Hocking and Myers will definitely help with.
 
Dec 5, 2012
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Carlton are better odds than Black Cavier.
They dont have a foward line and if players do kick goals they get traded.
They need to bottom out for another 2 years then they will start to come back up. Thats not a bad thing Blues fans...before you get all defensive...

My smokey is Melbourne. They should really be pushing for the top 8 next year but their list dosnt do anything for me other than make me LOL.
 
Everyone rates midfields on two things: Contested Possessions and Clearances. In terms of differential, Essendon was bottom 4 in the former and bottom 5 in the latter. All this while having either a ruckman on one leg or having a bloke average 23 hitouts a game, which is a significant disadvantage, as well as your two best blocking mids in Hocking and Myers play 7 games between them (which was 6 games and about 3 minutes in reality). Add Leuenberger to the side and those two you should see a significant improvement, as seen by the numbers in 2014 when Essendon were top 6 in both categories.

Did Essendon's midfield lack depth this season? Yes, and that's why blokes like Kavanagh, O'Brien and Aylett were delisted and we went with a couple of younger players (like Parish and Francis) and Craig Bird instead. Another year in Z Merrett, Heppell not stranded by himself and forcing Howlett to become a depth mid will all help next year.
Wouldn't be relying too heavily on luenberger. Great talent but he spends half of his time on the sidelines with injury.
 
Wouldn't be relying too heavily on luenberger. Great talent but he spends half of his time on the sidelines with injury.
I think our ruck strategy is to hope that he and Bellchambers aren't off the park at the same time...
 

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Jones, Viney, Vince, Brayshaw, Tyson, Melksham, Watts, Trengove, Matt Jones and Newton.
Then kids like, Harmes, Petracca, Salem(Here cause more a HBF rate him though) and Oliver.

Watson, Heppell, Goddard, Zach Merrett, Myers, Stanton, Zaharakis, Hocking, Colyer, Howlett and Bird.
Then kids like, Laverde, Langford, Parish and Fantasia.

To say our midfield is up there with the worst is fine but... People in glass houses.
Well, you've completely ballsed that up.

You've left out four of our best young talents in vandenBerg (already a BOG to his name in his first season of AFL), Stretch, Neal-Bullen and Kent.

Melksham will play off halfback and will have pressure to keep his spot.

Matt Jones will be lucky to play one game.

Watts isn't a midfielder.

Bugg and possibly Kennedy will be ahead of Newton.

So in summary: Gawn tapping to Vince, Jones, Tyson, Viney, Brayshaw, Petracca, Trengove, vandenBerg, Salem, Stretch, Neal-Bullen, Oliver, Kent, Bugg, Harmes, Kennedy and Newton.

I know which one I'm choosing.
 
Well, you've completely ballsed that up.

You've left out four of our best young talents in vandenBerg (already a BOG to his name in his first season of AFL), Stretch, Neal-Bullen and Kent.

Melksham will play off halfback and will have pressure to keep his spot.

Matt Jones will be lucky to play one game.

Watts isn't a midfielder.

Bugg and possibly Kennedy will be ahead of Newton.

So in summary: Gawn tapping to Vince, Jones, Tyson, Viney, Brayshaw, Petracca, Trengove, vandenBerg, Salem, Stretch, Neal-Bullen, Oliver, Kent, Bugg, Harmes, Kennedy and Newton.

I know which one I'm choosing.
Leuenberger tapping to Watson, Heppell, Merrett and co? Yeah, I agree :thumbsu:
 
If we're talking Dark Horse, as the OP suggests, than Collingwood, Treloar and Aish certainly will hope. But the club has a number of other glaring deficiencies that they didn't address in the draft.


Otherwise its out of Brisbane, Carlton and Gold Coast for the spoon.
ROFL.
Wishful thinking.....keep spitting in the wind.
 
Bombers would be my pick.

We got smashed with injuries to many key players in 2015, we will improve enough to avoid the spoon.
 
Aug 28, 2015
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Collingwood. Their list has been so over-hyped by their supporters (one in particular who does phantom drafts) and according to their fans every single one of their younger players is guaranteed to be a superstar, or apparently already is. The reality is that they're unproven, have only showed glimpses of potential and are still a long way off becoming half what their deluded supporters expect them to be.

They're the self-proclaimed trade week champions, but while they spent the whole trade period luring AT's girlfriend to Channel Nine studios, they forgot to address their glaring forward deficiencies. If they think adding Jeremy "Highlight Reel" Howe is going to solve their problems up front then they're in for a rude surprise come 2016.

Additionally, their coach has proven to be incompetent and tactically inept. He is steering them towards the bottom of the ladder at an alarming rate and their fans are happy to dismiss this descending as a 'rebuild', whereas most neutral supporters are aware of the bleeding obvious - Bucks is not a coach's a-hole.

The AFL abandoning the sub rule will also force their younger kids to run out games and they'll be exposed regularly by the big boys with massive endurance and they will have a lot of poor second halves, especially in the latter stages of the season. As they stumbled (or tanked as their supporters claim) towards the tail end of last season, we saw the real Collingwood.

To summarise the Pies in 2016:
- A young side with four promising kids (De Goey, Treloar, Adams, Grundy)
- One elite player (the lowest in the competition) in Scott Pendlebury
- A horrible forward line with a past it Travis Cloke and Dane Swan, as well as a young and unproven Darcy Moore
- A defence that will look serviceable at times, but will cop some large goal onslaughts throughout the season (similar to the Richmond game)
- Some disgruntled under-performing players (Sidebottom, Cloke and Reid) that want out due to the club overpaying unproven kids and poor list management
- Standard C-grade players that may emerge to become B-graders (Aish, Crisp, Langdon, Maynard)
- And the duds: Howe, Brown, Fasolo, Toovey, Broomhead, etc.

Prediction: 14th to 18th
 
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If we're talking Dark Horse, as the OP suggests, than Collingwood, Treloar and Aish certainly will hope. But the club has a number of other glaring deficiencies that they didn't address in the draft.
Great post. I just wrote a more in depth assessment of something similar. It seems a lot of people outside of Collingwood don't rate Collingwood. No surprise there though.
 
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Well, you've completely ballsed that up.

You've left out four of our best young talents in vandenBerg (already a BOG to his name in his first season of AFL), Stretch, Neal-Bullen and Kent.

Melksham will play off halfback and will have pressure to keep his spot.

Matt Jones will be lucky to play one game.

Watts isn't a midfielder.

Bugg and possibly Kennedy will be ahead of Newton.

So in summary: Gawn tapping to Vince, Jones, Tyson, Viney, Brayshaw, Petracca, Trengove, vandenBerg, Salem, Stretch, Neal-Bullen, Oliver, Kent, Bugg, Harmes, Kennedy and Newton.

I know which one I'm choosing.

You just listed a lot of names here, I could do the same. And I'm purely talking about next season.

Petracca hasn't played a game yet
Trengove hasn't played for a while
Stretch, Neal Bullen, Oliver, Harmes, Kennedy and Bugg = Laverde, Langford, Parish, Edwards, J Merrett and Bird. Unknowns plus haven't played for the club so who knows where they fit.

Your best 6 Vince, Jones, Tyson, Viney, Vandenberg and Brayshaw don't beat Watson, Heppell, Hocking, Myers, Zaharakis and Z.Merrett.
 

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Collingwood. Their list has been so over-hyped by their supporters (one in particular who does phantom drafts) and according to their fans every single one of their younger players is guaranteed to be a superstar, or apparently already is. The reality is that they're unproven, have only showed glimpses of potential and are still a long way off becoming half what their deluded supporters expect them to be.

They're the self-proclaimed trade week champions, but while they spent the whole trade period luring AT's girlfriend to Channel Nine studios, they forgot to address their glaring forward deficiencies. If they think adding Jeremy "Highlight Reel" Howe is going to solve their problems up front then they're in for a rude surprise come 2016.

Additionally, their coach has proven to be incompetent and tactically inept. He is steering them towards the bottom of the ladder at an alarming rate and their fans are happy to dismiss this descending as a 'rebuild', whereas most neutral supporters are aware of the bleeding obvious - Bucks is not a coach's a-hole.

The AFL abandoning the sub rule will also force their younger kids to run out games and they'll be exposed regularly by the big boys with massive endurance and they will have a lot of poor second halves, especially in the latter stages of the season. As they stumbled (or tanked as their supporters claim) towards the tail end of last season, we saw the real Collingwood.

To summarise the Pies in 2016:
- A young side with four promising kids (De Goey, Treloar, Adams, Grundy)
- One elite player (the lowest in the competition) in Scott Pendlebury
- A horrible forward line with a past it Travis Cloke and Dane Swan, as well as a young and unproven Darcy Moore
- A defence that will look serviceable at times, but will cop some large goal onslaughts throughout the season (similar to the Richmond game)
- Some disgruntled under-performing players (Sidebottom, Cloke and Reid) that want out due to the club overpaying unproven kids and poor list management
- Standard C-grade players that may emerge to become B-graders (Aish, Crisp, Langdon, Maynard)
- And the duds: Howe, Brown, Fasolo, Toovey, Broomhead, etc.

Prediction: 14th to 18th

Yep, people carry on about our dysfunctional forward line this year with young Daniher learning the ropes and the entire team under a mental dark cloud....but the pies arent that much ahead of us with multiple firward line options.

Cloke is gone. Absolutly gone. It was so plain to see. An Elliot and Swanny combo isn't going to get them to a pre-lim. They need someone else and hide Travvy somewhere...Moore?

That puts them in the same place as us. Dealing with Young U22 players as key tall forwards.


Dees have Hogan- a genuine star who will lift that club from the depths of hell, but them winning games depends on an improved defence line.

Saints have...Roo boy.

Carlton have nothing.

Brisbane have bugger all too.

6 teams there plus GC and possibly the fall of Fremantle and there's a a whole bunch who could be waving the spoon.
 
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