The Run Home

[JayJ20]

Remaining games:

Brisbane (ES) 80-20 -8
Collingwood (MCG) 60-40 +37
St Kilda (ES) 50-50 +61
North Melbourne (ES) 60-40 +27
Bulldogs (ES) 50-50 -30
Carlton (MCG) 60-40 +8
Adelaide (ES) 50-50 -43
Gold Coast (Metricon) 50-50 +33
Fremantle (ES) 60-40 +15

How do you see it going? Barring any injuries, all of our remaining games are very winnable. There are a lot of genuine 50-50 games in there as well. I've bolded the 5 games that we should genuinely aim to win if we are going to make finals. That's probably the base if we are serious. I might even call it non-negotiable. Then we'd need to win 2 of the other games if we're aiming to comfortably make the finals, preferably the St Kilda and Bulldogs games as they are direct competition. 6 wins will probably get you in though.

With our form over the last month and a half, I feel like we are ready to take the next step to start winning consistently. 8 out of 9 games in Melbourne will give us that consistency. The aim was always to peak in the second half of the year because of the circumstances surrounding our list and fixture in the first half. If we achieve that consistency, we're good enough to qualify for a home final and look at winning our first final since 2004.

With an even competition comes upsets. Any of those teams on their day are capable of beating us. Currently, we're in better form than all of our remaining opponents, so we need to take advantage of that.

I'll update the progress as the season goes along

 

[Kakkle]

St Kilda, Bulldogs, North Melbourne, Carlton games should be uh, interesting times around here.

I'm going to be overseas for these games, and I can already envision what the boards will be like when I check in from time to time -

 

[Mootsy]

This is where a win against the Swans would have put us in the top 5 and feeling pretty good...

The loss meant a drop of 4 spots and completely out of the 8...

Now it means a completely desperate attempt to hopefully win more games than lose in a season where many teams are playing great football..

 

[TheGrizz]

I reckon the OP is probably close to the mark. I see us going 11-11 or 12-10 as I am more bullish on our chances against St Kilda.

 

[DapperJong]

Mate I'm like 20 kms from work I'm driving

 

[Loonerty]

I think 6 wins is a good mark to hit. The Dogs are very beatable, as are St Kilda. Adelaide, who knows. We could catch them on a bad day like other teams have. Gold Coast, eh. Think in Melbourne we'll be okay against them.

 

[Bunk Moreland]

Should be aiming to win all them

 

[JayJ20]

This is where a win against the Swans would have put us in the top 5 and feeling pretty good...

The loss meant a drop of 4 spots and completely out of the 8...

Now it means a completely desperate attempt to hopefully win more games than lose...

Our ladder position looks worse than what it actually is. We're still only a game outside with a better percentage than St Kilda and West Coast. The rest of our competition have tougher fixtures than us, including many "8" pointers. We only really have 2 against St Kilda and Bulldogs.

Maybe this loss will spark consistent 4 quarter efforts that we otherwise may not have had.

It was already very obvious in the Sydney game that we learnt a lot from the Richmond loss. In the first 3 quarters, we were getting beaten in almost exactly the same way as we were against Richmond. In the last however, we managed to break the game open and play it on our terms, which we weren't able to do against Richmond.

Look at it this way. This is not a sprint. It's a marathon. Any lesson we learn can be used to put together a successful season

 

[Mootsy]

Should be aiming to win all them

yeh but, reality and all that..

 

[JayJ20]

I think 6 wins is a good mark to hit. The Dogs are very beatable, as are St Kilda. Adelaide, who knows. We could catch them on a bad day like other teams have. Gold Coast, eh. Think in Melbourne we'll be okay against them.

We're playing Gold Coast away

 

[Loonerty]

We're playing Gold Coast away

So we are.

...I think we'll still be okay.

 

[VelvetSledge]

Got us down for 27 wins from our remaining games, with a percentage of 4964.53%.

Joey to kick 70.

 

[sameolds33]

Remaining games:



How do you see it going? Barring any injuries,

I'll update the progress as the season goes along

Injuries! That's a huge unknown which will fundamentally determine every result from now on - both for us and for our opposition. I'm going with Eth on this. Every game is winnable.

 

[boncer34]

Mate I'm like 20 kms from work I'm driving

I'm 8km's and a 10 minute drive.

 

[DapperJong]

I'm 8km's and a 10 minute drive.

Not bad. Sounds like not much traffic.

 

[TheBrightSide]

Strangest season ever, I have no idea how it will turn out. It will get very interesting though!
Only 2 more televised games which is disappointing (possibly 3 but unlikely)

 

[ghostdog]

If we can take our current form into the Adelaide game we'd be a genuine chance. Would be awesome for the confidence of the group going into finals time.

 

[ghostdog]

Strangest season ever, I have no idea how it will turn out. It will get very interesting though!
Only 2 more televised games which is disappointing (possibly 3 but unlikely)

I hope GWS choke in the finals. That's all.

 

[Jesse Custer]

I'll go out on a limb and say take nothing for granted. Remember Carlton early in the season. As usual I have nfi

 

[IHurley]

Adelaide will still have plenty of ups to go along with their downs but we are playing signficantly better footy than every one of the other teams we play. The only teams playing consistently better footy than us right now are GWS and Melbourne (Sydney, Adelaide and Geelong are about on par).

It's a funny season and injuries could derail any team but if we don't make it from here in the form we are in we will have done poorly.

 

[Lance Uppercut]

I checked the draw on Sunday and at this point there is not a single game I will not be extremely confident of winning. That's not to suggest I think we will win all of them, but it honestly wouldn't surprise me if we did. We've done the hard yards now. Very few teams in the 8 remain and we've done just about all of the arduous travel.

 

[eth-dog]

Honestly I can see us winning all 9. Don't think it'll happen but I can see it.

It also wouldn't surprise me if we only win 3 though

 

[Rack Watts]

Impossible to predict.
Essendon and Essington are too closely related. Ask the final 5 mins on Friday.

 

[Whispering_Jack]

Have the potential to go 8-1 or 3-6. It's much fun being and Essendon/Essington fan for the last 15 years.

 

[tesla1962]

Reckon we will learn a lot about the team over the next 5 weeks. I remember when Bomber coached the team he lamented not being able to find 'the' switch to consistently get the team to do whatever it was they were coached to do. I must admit I am pretty optimistic that this time around it will be different for a whole range of reasons.