Prediction 2026 Expectations

[GingerDocker]

 

[Minz]

I have no expectations. I've supported* this team since season 1 and I have learned from the experience. No expectations. Hope, yes, that this young side has learned and gelled after a few hard years and seasons, that our very cerebral and thoughtful coach has done a lot of reflection and improved, and that there will be internal growth. And for some luck with the injuries; a good run with injuries and the team could be a chance. But expectations, yeah, nah.

*not a fan, a supporter. Holy heck it's been frustrating, no more so than that f***ing grand final.

 

[Joose]

Alas, I think this will be another lost year.

The club has a ferrari in terms of talent but is driven by a bloke who is just too timid to get the most out of it.

freo should be in the top 4 but will instead battle it out mid-table.

 

[King Huskii]

I just hope we win a flag before I die

Preferably soon, so I can go out with mates on a week long bender and celebrate properly.

 

[Boomer93]

I just hope we win a flag before I die

Preferably soon, so I can go out with mates on a week long bender and celebrate properly.

The Grandad that got me in to footy and supporting freo (my parents dont have any interest), drove up from bunbury countless times to watch games together during my youth, as well as driving me around to my own personal games has less than a month to live.

I honestly feel robbed never getting to experiance a flag with him...

 

[King Huskii]

The Grandad that got me in to footy and supporting freo (my parents dont have any interest), drove up from bunbury countless times to watch games together during my youth, as well as driving me around to my own personal games has less than a month to live.

I honestly feel robbed never getting to experiance a flag with him...

Yeah I can only imagine your situation. That's dedication for you, and someone who has devoted a big part of their life for you to succeed in your own dreams of footy.

 

[go_the_dockers]

I think our next 6-8 years are our prime chance to win a flag.

I am expected 5 prelims in the next 6 years, and hopefully at least 1 flag.

If we miss this window, it will be a very painful rebuild.

 

[Big Animal]

Alas, I think this will be another lost year.

The club has a ferrari in terms of talent but is driven by a bloke who is just too timid to get the most out of it.

freo should be in the top 4 but will instead battle it out mid-table.

I feel ya. We had 16 wins last year which would normally put you in contention as a dominant force of a team that year. But half the time I was instead getting frustrated at how we couldn't adjust quickly to oppo strategies that were working, we could hardly put a crap team away and instead gave them hope and momentum, we continued to cover space and got picked apart time and time again, we seemed to only have one option to kick it out to the wing or when we tried to switch, we were so slow going Ryan to Cox to Banfield that it didn't work and we just sent it back up to the wing again.
I look at the talent of the team on paper, I look now at the good depth, and I still know not to get my expectations up. It's not a history thing, it's a strategy thing. Thing is we look so hot going quick, yet is happens so infrequently. McRae even joked about it publically so you can only guess what is said behind closed doors around the rest of the coaches. Hope I'm proven wrong

 

[Raz]

I hope we win premiership

But expect us to finish 8-10 based on previous years disappointment

 

[Dirty_banchez]

I've never been more confident heading into a season.

 

[Paracleet]

 

[oldgoat]

The Grandad that got me in to footy and supporting freo (my parents dont have any interest), drove up from bunbury countless times to watch games together during my youth, as well as driving me around to my own personal games has less than a month to live.

I honestly feel robbed never getting to experiance a flag with him...

Sorry to hear that Boomer, its great that you did experience those times with him.
You're already a fortunate person.
I'm trying to be that grandad that I didn't have myself.
Still learning not to take anything for granted.

 

[WilloTree]

Some of the numbers starting to look at bit better as far as age/experience, but realistically we're still 3 or 4 years away from the 'window'.

Another final/s would be high on the agenda. If we can win one and play in a Semi, we're still ahead of the curve. A prelim would be awesome, but a bit of a dream at this stage.

 

[Catalpa]

There's something different to expectations of Freo at the moment. I keep hearing non-Freo footy tragics talking Freo up, talking potential of the list, but I just go "yep, we'll see."

I want to believe it. I think we'll be round about the top 6, but until I see the killer instinct of burying teams ruthlessly when we're up, hitting the first minutes with fire and intensity and sustaining that, I won't be convinced. We need to hear how much teams fear travelling to Perth Stadium. Freo coaches and players need to talk that up, commentators, journalists will start stating it ad nauseum, opposition coaches in their post match pressers will reflect on the most challenging fixture in football. Think Malthouse's teams at Subi.

I like Freo's list, but I wouldn't fear it as an opponent. That's what I hope to see change this year. If I sense opposition teams fearing Freo, I'll start to believe.

 

[Stevooo3940]

My view is this year hangs on game plan and its execution. The players are big enough, strong enough and fit enough. How much do they want it.

Big watch for me -
Heath Chapman - underwhelming on the weekend against a team of kids. He still lacks confidence.
Mids being too offensive at stoppage - You can't win 'em all and when you dont win, there needs to be some pressure applied or it's likely a scoring shot to the oppo.
Intercept marking in D50 - Still think we dont see enough of this, particularly with Cox, Ryan and Pearce (when he let it all hang out in the second half of the final against the Suns - it was unbelievable!). Increase the intercepts and the rule has to be, go hell for leather from that. No fear. Mistakes will happen but the more we do it, the more it becomes the norm.
Kicking skills - Outside of Clark (who has his limitation but jeez he can roost it), Young and Reid and maybe McVee (lets see), not enough players can pick apart the oppo with 35m kicks that drop inside the defence. If we can get this happening consistently, we will be so hard to defend. Right now, it's simply the handball game and teams (even west coast on the weekend) are onto it and clogging the running lanes.

 

[Timmytime]

Top 4.

 

[The Round House Drunk]

I’m not covering new ground here but I think our list is top 4 material, but our coaching group hasn’t yet demonstrated that they are capable of taking us there.

So based on that, my expectation is that we’ll be in strong contention for a top 4 finish throughout the season. Whether we achieve it or not will possibly come down to a few key moments in big games and luck with injuries.

Our level of performance in the 3 finals under JLo concerns me, and there will need to be clear signs of growth during the season if we are to be anything other than fodder for the very top teams come September.

I think a prelim is a reasonable expectation given our list build and overall trajectory, although I’m not sure that this playing and coaching group will reach that level.

I hope I’m wrong of course and that JLo shows he’s capable of maximising the potential of this list.

 

[GingerDocker]

I've been as bullish on this list build as anyone with a heartbeat, but I still have concerns.

The major one is that the improvement needed to be a consistent top 4 and ultimately a premiership team, will happen organically due to the maturing nature of the list.

If there is even the slightest sentiment that most of the hard work has been done by Walls and that some form of success will just happen as a matter of course, we are well and truly rooted.

My hope is that the fire that seems to burn inside players like Serong, Treacy, Voss etc is strong enough to quash any chance of complacency. The players and coaches need to continually remind each other that we have achieved absolutely **** all at the minute and even a 1% drop-off in application and intensity will consign us to the annals of obscurity and nothingness.

 

[Cesoir]

I believe the biggest reason we have been unsuccessful to date is because our supporter base are such a bunch of pussies. I watched Oprah's The Secret and she said whatever you manifest to the Universe will eventually come back to you. So all you people saying we won't achieve this, we won't make that are just putting a bunch of negativity out there and begging for it to come back to bite us.

So harden the **** up and get POSITIVE people. We WILL win the flag this year, which will be the start of a dynasty the likes of which has never been seen before. West Coast will wallow in MEDIOCRITY for many years, forcing their followers to acknowledge that we are the number one side in the state and that we are their overlords. Then they will fold that skidmark of a club and expunge their asterisked premierships from the AFL records for all time.

Other than that I'm not expecting much this year.

 

[GingerDocker]

I believe the biggest reason we have been unsuccessful to date is because our supporter base are such a bunch of pussies. I watched Oprah's The Secret and she said whatever you manifest to the Universe will eventually come back to you. So all you people saying we won't achieve this, we won't make that are just putting a bunch of negativity out there and begging for it to come back to bite us.

SO harden the **** up and get POSITIVE people. We WILL win the flag this year, which will be the start of a dynasty the likes of which has never been seen before. West Coast will wallow in MEDIOCRITY for many years, forcing their followers to acknowledge that we are the number one side in the state and that we are their overlords. Then they will fold that skidmark of a club and expunge their asterisked premierships from the AFL records fir all time.

Other than that I'm not expecting much this year.

 

[Joao]

 

[Purpletown]

Big watch for me -
Heath Chapman - underwhelming on the weekend against a team of kids. He still lacks confidence.
Mids being too offensive at stoppage - You can't win 'em all and when you dont win, there needs to be some pressure applied or it's likely a scoring shot to the oppo.
Intercept marking in D50 - Still think we dont see enough of this, particularly with Cox, Ryan and Pearce (when he let it all hang out in the second half of the final against the Suns - it was unbelievable!). Increase the intercepts and the rule has to be, go hell for leather from that. No fear. Mistakes will happen but the more we do it, the more it becomes the norm.
Kicking skills - Outside of Clark (who has his limitation but jeez he can roost it), Young and Reid and maybe McVee (lets see), not enough players can pick apart the oppo with 35m kicks that drop inside the defence. If we can get this happening consistently, we will be so hard to defend. Right now, it's simply the handball game and teams (even west coast on the weekend) are onto it and clogging the running lanes.

Chapman can be an enigma, seems to have plenty of AFL attributes but not playing to his potential yet.

 

[Stevooo3940]

Chapman can be an enigma, seems to have plenty of AFL attributes but not playing to his potential yet.

Agreed. He just seems to run with the ball and struggles to pull the trigger. On almost every possession, he sees something and starts the kicking action, but he pulls it and continues to run. Its almost like he still isn't 100% sure of what is expected. IF he just hit the first option im sure we would begin to see him flourish!

 

[dominguez]

I honestly don't expect top 4 at all. I'd love a prelim like everyone else has mentioned, but I'm realistic to know that's very unlikely.

Ideal - top 6 and a win, then competitive in the second final. I think we can finish as high as 5th, 6th is a possibility.

I also think we're a huge chance of playing in Wilcard Round.

I know people on here will take the above as an insult somehow, but I've been correct for 3 years running.

We fell off the cliff and started rebuilding a decade ago. If now isn't our time then when?

Cox already injured isn't ideal and Pearce is fragile but that won't change next year or the year after.

I would have used our SSP spot on a Sam Collins/Alex Silvagni type 25 year old key back but if our backline stays fit our list is stacked and ready to strike.

Anything short of a competitive prelim I'll be disappointed.

 

[Cam Payne]

A dire read. You've started making me think east coast high speed rail is going to be finished before we win a flag.