Expectations for 2026

[Astro7]

We've added about six new midfielders of varying age, experience and strengths.
Duursma, Lindsay, Robertson, Macrae, Shoenberg, Rodriguez
Then there's Starcevich who can roll through there.
There's Hewett, Hough, Hall, Hutch, Davis, Dewar, Allan, Gross, Grego.
There's Yeo, Kelly, Baker, Graham.
Then there's Harley. That's about 21 midfield options and variables.

You can't tell me there won't be improvement in the midfield (CDT in the ruck mix) and in games in general.
We've added some classy ball users to the back line.
Small forwards need some work - Brockman, Champion, Newton, Williams - then Owies and Long...and Cripps.

Expectations are for an improved midfield and possibly ruck.
To see Waterman back and firing. Yeo same, hopefully not breaking down early in the season. Kelly an enigma, needs to establish a solid consistent role as mid or HF (or spend time in Wafl).
Expecting improvement in game plan and better link up play from backs to forwards.
And more forward pressure to lock it in.
More wins than last year, some exciting passages of play, a surprise or two from players.
To finally turn the corner and see the future.
(is that asking too much?) ((;

 

[garlic munchers]

In summary as compared to 2025:

1. Reduction in time trying to finds takers for eagles tickets due to work commitments, who weren't oppo supporters, 19hrs per every 2nd week;
2. Reduction in times where had no takers for tickets despite offering up incentives like offering to donate cash to the homeless Freo supporters that frequent the off ramp lights at Canning Hwy, 6 games down to 2 games;
3. Increase in win expectations (to clarify, home & season ) from 2 to 5;
4. Serong to get monstered by Devon at least once, Harley at least 5 times and by Yeo 7 times (and that's just the 1st Derby);
5. Owies to kick over a jam tin;
6. Lindsay to cause serious falcon injuries to at least 3 leading forwards who expecting the usual, were looking skywards for a lace up (very high & loopy) pass;
7. Charlie Banfield to start out fantastically by getting the rising star award against WC and then noting that Ross has taught him everything he knows and that Nicky Riewoldt has been a great mentor, only to end up in disgrace as his Banner is found being waved around on Instagram when Nicky's idea of team bonding on a road trip goes pear-shaped and he is caught doing a Rosco to the hot chick in Saints admin;
8. Starcevich finally makes the crowd yelling "Lets go Brandon" a good thing;
9. Where's Wally is finally solved when he found playing in a Blues jumper in Rd.12;
10. Archer Reid has an absolute monster day out kicking 5 goals 10 behinds;
11. Shanahan waves Waterman out of his way in the fwd line;
12. WC regains serious club vibes after .... and to quote the great Dan Boone (apologies to our Mexican supporter base)..... "We were never ever lost, but we will admit to being totally bewildered for several years".

 

[DorothyG]

Beat Freo from 10th place in the first wildcard game

 

[Eastern Rangers]

Very generously i'll say 17th on the ladder with 5 wins @ 85%

• Lindsay the pick of our draftees early.
• Uwland wins the RS
• Shanahan, Lindsay, Williams & Duursma all get RS nominations.

 

[Art OF war]

400% increase in wins.

Competitive at stoppages.

Harley and Jobe playing consistent footy.

Willem to win the Rosing Star medal with ease.

 

[Rowan18]

This stuff is never linear. Few teams go more than 5 seasons without finals. I predict we finish 10th on 11 wins and knock out Freo in a derby final.

 

[Selurs]

This stuff is never linear. Few teams go more than 5 seasons without finals. I predict we finish 10th on 11 wins and knock out Freo in a derby final.

In a similar vein a while back I looked at how long it's been since a team had a "winning" season (i.e. won more games than they lost). Only six current teams have to go back more than one year to find their most recent "winning" season, being Essendon, Melbourne, North, Richmond, St Kilda and us.

Unsurprisingly, North are the worst offenders - now up to 7 consecutive seasons without winning more than they lose. Maybe surprisingly (or maybe not) Essendon are second at 6. We're third at 5. The Tigers are in fourth place with 3, so the numbers suggest that it's hard to go more than a couple of seasons without getting a winning one...but once you start racking them up, it's hard to break out of.

Based on that, I'd be surprised if we break out for a winning season - at least another year for us. Maye next year is the year for North?

Also, as a side note, for those betting on whether St Kilda's crazy trading will help them or not, worth noting they have only "won" a season by more than 2 games once since...2010, the year they last made a GF! So I'd be tipping them for 12 wins at most.

 

[stallon]

I expect to be better than last year but that's not guaranteed.

Disagree

Our midfield and forward line are big worries. If Yeo and Waterman aren't close to 2024 form we will struggle to get 2-3 wins.

Our midfield is comfortably better this year, whether we have Yeo or not.

Harley with a proper pre-season, hewett with a full season uner his belt, McCarthy with a pre-season, Hall/Gross an extra year into them, DevRob as a likely starter, etc.

Nobody can justifiably say our midfield is a worry like last year, and we still pushed good teams for long periods of games.

Forward line just adding Waterman back makes it a lot stronger, Ryan will be missed but that should be offset by development of the likes of Shanahan, Archer, and all the smalls we have being a year older.

We lost McGovern, Allen and Ryan. Reid will get tagged and I don't expect any of Duursma, Duff-Tytler or Lindsay to have a big impact in their first year.

Gov and Allen barely played this year, so they were mainly a loss from 2024-2025 contributing to the 1 win season.
Ryan is the only loss from our 2025 squad, and we have brought in Starcevich, Waterman, and hopefully Yeo as players near the top of our squad along with development to the majority of our squad.

You are wrong here again

My guess is 2-5 wins, percentage 65-70%.

6+ wins, 80%+

 

[stallon]

4-6 wins, 50+ goals & rising star for Jobe, 20+ Brownlow votes for Harley.

If there was a market for our wins at 5.5+, Shanahan 20+ goals and Harley 20+ brownlow votes id take it tbh

 

[EagleEgo]

1) Set goals to win games instead of quarters
2) Play more defensively and put a better defender behind the ball/pack (not Dewar)
3) No more handball drill, that will result in silly turnover.
4) Time to aim at top 8 and not high draft pick.
5) There is no excuse not to be the 2025 bottom 4 team to be in the 2026 top 8 (especially North Melbourne has sold their two home games to WA)

 

[BeornJ]

Expectations:

3-5 wins

Hopes:

7-9 wins.




Before 2021 it used to be the case that only top 4 sides (and Freo) stood a chance of beating us at home and how high we finished on the ladder was down to our away form. Barely win any and we wouldn't crack the top 8, win a few and we would play finals, win a lot and we were top 4.

That fortress needs to be rebuilt.

Firstly, we just need to get to a place were only sides in the top 8 stand a chance of beating us at home. Won't happen in 2026 but hopefully we start to see it in 2027.

 

[Tugga27]

Nobody can justifiably say our midfield is a worry like last year, and we still pushed good teams for long periods of games.

Disagree

Our midfield is comfortably better this year, whether we have Yeo or not.

Harley with a proper pre-season, hewett with a full season uner his belt, McCarthy with a pre-season, Hall/Gross an extra year into them, DevRob as a likely starter, etc.

Nobody can justifiably say our midfield is a worry like last year, and we still pushed good teams for long periods of games.

Just can't agree with this.

You're basing all of this on a lot of "If's" IMO.

From last year, we have 1 A grade mid, which is HR.
I agree, he should be better with another pre-season under his belt.

If Yeo doesn't stand up, we're relying on Hewett, who has shown promise and a couple of kids who have a long way to go and some delisted players.

Again, McCarthy may turn out alright.
That's even if he gets selected as a mid.

I think our defence is getting really strong.
The forward line is starting to look ok, especially for talls.

Our ruck and midfield is still the weakest in the comp IMO.

To say "No one can justifiably say our midfield is a worry" is just ludicrous.

 

[Astro7]

I expect to be better than last year but that's not guaranteed.

Our midfield and forward line are big worries. If Yeo and Waterman aren't close to 2024 form we will struggle to get 2-3 wins.

We lost McGovern, Allen and Ryan. Reid will get tagged and I don't expect any of Duursma, Duff-Tytler or Lindsay to have a big impact in their first year.

My guess is 2-5 wins, percentage 65-70%.

Reckon the midfield won't be as impotent as last season, quite the opposite really, won't be stellar but much improved. Harley being tagged not as much, likely to get off the chain more - with a fit and functioning Yeo (while still early days to make a call on him) and Dev, even Starcevich rolling through there. Add Duursma, and a handful of other mids who may or may not get a chance, there's enough to take the heat off Harley.

Harley looks to be in a good space and better shape, lots of friendly banter and competition amongst new buddies, should be improved on last season, along with Hewett and hopefully Hall. Lest we forget, Baker and Graham aren't useless out there, especially regarding pressure.

 

[Astro7]

Our ruck and midfield is still the weakest in the comp IMO.

To say "No one can justifiably say our midfield is a worry" is just ludicrous.

Our midfield WAS the weakest in the comp, not so much anymore. How can you look at our new midfielder input and say there won't be improvement?
I understand there are lots of ifs and buts, it is all speculation of course at this stage.
We have 2-3 solid hard hitters coming in.

 

[Forward Press]

Our midfield WAS the weakest in the comp, not so much anymore. How can you look at our new midfielder input and say there won't be improvement?
I understand there are lots of ifs and buts, it is all speculation of course at this stage.
We have 2-3 solid hard hitters coming in.

Still the weakest. The only proven elite talent is Yeo (and he's possibly perma-injured now). Harley is not top line (yet) and the rest are all unproven.

Which other side in the competition do you think has a weaker midfield than ours?

On topic - I expect us bottom 4 still, hopefully with more than one win this time. The rebuild is on the right track, there were plenty of green shoots this year. I think best we can hope for is 16th.

 

[Tugga27]

Our midfield WAS the weakest in the comp, not so much anymore. How can you look at our new midfielder input and say there won't be improvement?
I understand there are lots of ifs and buts, it is all speculation of course at this stage.
We have 2-3 solid hard hitters coming in.

I expect improvement on what was the worst midfield in the comp last year.

Not sure who these are.

Yeo being fit is massive for us.

 

[Altum Volantes]

What I hope and what I expect are 2 different things haha

Expect - 4-5 wins, Bottom 2 (potentially last). Yeo breaks down, APA and Young flop, Starcevich injured early. Dursmaa does well, CDT unsighted, Harley levels up.

Hope - 6-8 wins, clear of bottom 2, Yeo bounces back, APA and Young fill key roles, Starcevich recruit of the year, Dursmaa does well, CDT cracks a few games, Harley levels up. Extension for Mini. Good Vibes at club.

 

[Elite Pete]

6 wins.

Harley BnF winner
Hewett and McCarthy top 5.
Dev top 10 in the BnF.

Bo Allan cements his spot.

WAFL finals.

RS noms
Bo, Jobe, Duurs, Lindsay, Gross.

AA squad
Harley and Waterman.

 

[unty11]

Wildcard and then the fairy tale.

In all seriousness just get off the bottom and play decent footy no drubbings would be nice scare a few big teams.

 

[Astro7]

I expect improvement on what was the worst midfield in the comp last year.

Not sure who these are.

Yeo being fit is massive for us.

Yeo, Dev, Starcevich.

 

[Westend]

6 wins

Yeo to retire mid season

Waterman 40 goals

Reid 18 Brownlow votes

 

[Forward Press]

Yeo, Dev, Starcevich.

Starcevich isn't really a midfielder and Dev played 6 games in two years.

I appreciate your bullishness but we aren't going to be mixing with the better midfields for a while yet.

 

[Tugga27]

Yeo, Dev, Starcevich.

Starcevich isn't a mid and Dev was delisted.

If that's who we're going to rely on, we'll be in trouble.

 

[Ilkka Sinisalo]

5) There is no excuse not to be the 2025 bottom 4 team to be in the 2026 top 8 (especially North Melbourne has sold their two home games to WA)

Top 8 in a 23 game season typically requires about 13 wins; last year it was 15. That's up around record territory improvement. This list is a bit old but here are the largest single-season improvements:



Brisbane also improved by 11 wins from 2018 to 2019 and the Crows by 10 wins last year. 1997 Melbourne were probably the worst team on this list with 4 wins and a percentage around 60. 1998 Brisbane were also wooden spooners but with a significantly better percentage (75) in a season that included 5 wins and a draw.

So yeah I guess nothing is impossible but you are talking about extraordinary improvement in one year from a team that ranks among the worst teams in recent AFL history (and while there were injuries last year, I wouldn't say that it was anywhere close to 2022 or 2023 for the club).

I'll say 4-5 wins and a percentage in the high 60s, and much better vibes for the future with some good young players taking a step forward and a feeling like there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

WAFL team will also be much more competitive.

 

[daddy_4_eyes]

Players

• Harley to be a genuine A-grade mid, with consistency across 4 quarters & across the season. Top line players generally start performing to that level by season 3 (Judd won a Brownlow in his 3rd season).
• Duursma being best 22 from day 1.
• Ginbey AA squad selection
• McCarthy AA squad selection
• Hewett adds consistency with a full pre-season.
• Waterman top 10 in Coleman race
• Mini to be more ruthless with selection. Best 22 because you're good, not because you're on good coin (looking at Owies & Kelly)

Onfield

• Rising to become a mid-table team (not finals) rather than guaranteed bottom 2 side, as the injection of Starcevic, Young, Yeo, Waterman, Dev, Macrae & Schoeberg on top of maturity of 3-4th year players allows us to be AFL standard.
• More consistency in executing game plan, rather than just odd bursts bookended by ineptitude.
• Address the centre bounce issues. No more training drill-like easy exits by the oppo mids, either win it ourselves, lock it up or force sideways/snap kicks.

WAFL

• Finals is a minimum. We have a squad big enough to field a 100% AFL listed team + spares + Ash Johnson.