Expectations for 2026

[Astro7]

Even the teams that finished just above us last year had 5-6 wins.
15th - Essendon - 6 wins
16th - North Melb. - 5 wins
17th - Richmond - 5 wins
18th - WCE - 1 win
Some think we can do better than 5 wins, 8 or more? I'll park that optimism until I see it happening.
Some think 5 wins is a big ask, but going on last year that's only 1 rung up the ladder.(depending on percentage)
Depends on the form of those teams directly above us, but it's possible we could get 3-4 wins and still claim the wooden-ware.
But 3-4 wins is a definite improvement and we get another top pick - a gun midfielder.
Hopefully we avoid the spoon, for everyone's mental health? Can still get a good midfielder.

 

[Off Tap]

Some think we can do better than 5 wins, 8 or more? I'll park that optimism until I see it happening.

The craziness with the pre-season is that there are people in here who are actually thinking that we're a sneaky chance to make finals coming off the worst season by any club in the AFL era.

 

[Mighty Eagles]

A lot of fans are far more optimistic about how we'll go this year than I am. Happy to stand corrected.

 

[Pwani Magharibi]

I'm more optimistic about this season than I realistically should be, though that will evaporate when we're 1-6 by Round 7. I do expect us to improve significantly, but that will probably be more evident from the Percentage column than the Wins column.

 

[Astro7]

The craziness with the pre-season is that there are people in here who are actually thinking that we're a sneaky chance to make finals coming off the worst season by any club in the AFL era.

Sounds like Facebook WCE fan comments, been heavily glugging down the O.J (optimism juice)...apparently we're not only making finals, but the cup is in the bag this season!!!?
A lot of these folk would make good christians, their faith and hope is dazzling if not bewildering.

 

[Rowan18]

The craziness with the pre-season is that there are people in here who are actually thinking that we're a sneaky chance to make finals coming off the worst season by any club in the AFL era.

Any team is a chance if they get their fitness right and tune the gameplan. It's a top 10 now. Is it a high chance? Not at all. But I maintain that we were 80% likely as a 5 win team last year but luck didn't go our way. I figure if the opposite happens, then maybe we win 10-12 (with 12 getting us into wildcats round).

Rebuilding teams are usually completely shit until they're suddenly not. It is clear we have plenty of talent on the list now, it's just a matter of how quickly it clicks. McQualter also seems very clear on what he wants and how to get it.

 

[jatz14]

Historically, the rise of bottom ranked teams is unpredictable and erratic. Anything between 1 and about a dozen is conceivable.

I tend to be overly optimistic, and over rate the impact new players will have, so this time, I am just reserving judgement until we are a few games in.

 

[Selurs]

Even the teams that finished just above us last year had 5-6 wins.
15th - Essendon - 6 wins
16th - North Melb. - 5 wins
17th - Richmond - 5 wins
18th - WCE - 1 win

While true, if you just reverse those three teams results against us, we finish 16th by percentage from Essendon. Richmond would have the spoon with just 3 wins - the fact they got to play us us twice helped make the gap look bigger. Not like we could play ourselves (luckily, we'd probably have found a way to lose )

 

[Astro7]

Any team is a chance if they get their fitness right and tune the gameplan. It's a top 10 now. Is it a high chance? Not at all. But I maintain that we were 80% likely as a 5 win team last year but luck didn't go our way. I figure if the opposite happens, then maybe we win 10-12 (with 12 getting us into wildcats round).

Rebuilding teams are usually completely shit until they're suddenly not. It is clear we have plenty of talent on the list now, it's just a matter of how quickly it clicks. McQualter also seems very clear on what he wants and how to get it.

I'm open to the possibilities. Just keeping a lid on expectations, thinking 2027 might be more the breakout year. This year we improve on last season, showing lots of good signs and build the foundations for 2027's charge, when the talent, teamwork and gameplan has matured more. Port game should tell us more.

 

[EJ_Faithful]

6 wins, probably 16th imo. If Reid and McCarthy have full seasons and get the required back up from Yeo, Kelly and others. If the club has midfield injuries book us in for a year like last season.

 

[Keys]

We lost 4 games last year by less than two goals - Essendon and Richmond (2 points), Adelaide (9 points) and North (10 points). We also lost two other games (Brisbane and Port) where we were leading or level at 3/4 time

It’s not a stretch to say with some improvement we could/should convert 4 of those losses into wins

The aim should be to win at least 5 games and improve our percentage to over 70% for the first time since 2021 - last year it was 60.13%

Anything above that would be a welcome surprise. Would be nice to at least get off the bottom to the heady heights of 16th/17th

 

[gravy_86]

We lost 4 games last year by less than two goals - Essendon and Richmond (2 points), Adelaide (9 points) and North (10 points). We also lost two other games (Brisbane and Port) where we were leading or level at 3/4 time

It’s not a stretch to say with some improvement we could/should convert 4 of those losses into wins

The aim should be to win at least 5 games and improve our percentage to over 70% for the first time since 2021 - last year it was 60.13%

Anything above that would be a welcome surprise. Would be nice to at least get off the bottom to the heady heights of 16th/17th

Did a little maths and it turns out that if we concede one fewer goals per game and score one more compared to last year that gives a percentage of almost exactly 70% which would be great and seems achievable. Though the defence might improve a little more than the offence based on the list changes made.

 

[Off Tap]

I'm open to the possibilities. Just keeping a lid on expectations, thinking 2027 might be more the breakout year. This year we improve on last season, showing lots of good signs and build the foundations for 2027's charge, when the talent, teamwork and gameplan has matured more. Port game should tell us more.

I went back and had a look at the history of sides that have finished with 1 or 2 wins in a season and it showed that the most improvement to be expected would be 4 - 5 wins. On the odd occasion teams finished with 6 wins.

Normally the poor teams like ours struggled at the end of the season due to a lack of fitness, conditioning and the ability to cover the number of injuries that accumulate by years end.

I agree that 2027 will be a breakout year but if we want to be serious about competing with the top sides we need to find replacements for our FB and CHB positions. Only Norf are as bad as our 2.

 

[Astro7]

I went back and had a look at the history of sides that have finished with 1 or 2 wins in a season and it showed that the most improvement to be expected would be 4 - 5 wins. On the odd occasion teams finished with 6 wins.

Normally the poor teams like ours struggled at the end of the season due to a lack of fitness, conditioning and the ability to cover the number of injuries that accumulate by years end.

I agree that 2027 will be a breakout year but if we want to be serious about competing with the top sides we need to find replacements for our FB and CHB positions. Only Norf are as bad as our 2.

Yep, 4-5 wins, keeping it within realistic expectations at this very early stage, anything more is a bonus. When you say "replacements for FB and CHB/our 2", who do you mean? (having just topped up). Looking for Gov and Barrass replacements?

 

[evans1863]

I went back and had a look at the history of sides that have finished with 1 or 2 wins in a season and it showed that the most improvement to be expected would be 4 - 5 wins. On the odd occasion teams finished with 6 wins.

Normally the poor teams like ours struggled at the end of the season due to a lack of fitness, conditioning and the ability to cover the number of injuries that accumulate by years end.

I agree that 2027 will be a breakout year but if we want to be serious about competing with the top sides we need to find replacements for our FB and CHB positions. Only Norf are as bad as our 2.

Edwards looked good in parts last year once he settled. I don't much about Young but he's meant to be a bit of a steal. Its definitely still a major area for further growth as we rebuild and I think that's why we targeted Harry Dean with pick 3.

I've got a bit of hope in our backline improving this year, partly because I'm expecting our midfield to improve and take a bit of pressure off the backs.

 

[Off Tap]

When you say "replacements for FB and CHB/our 2", who do you mean? (having just topped up). Looking for Gov and Barrass replacements?

Yep. We're not going to be seriously competitive with Edwards and Young in our 2 key back positions. Nothing against them personally, they're just a long way off in quality when you compare them to sides that are competing at the end of the season.

Obviously replacing Gov and Barrass is extremely hard to do. Gov is arguably our best ever CHB and Barrass would be in the best dozen or so key defenders in the comp. Losing both of them last year went a long way in us allowing in the most points scored against.

When you look at our list there isn't anyone who's even close to them. Bazzo and Harry haven't come on as hoped and the rest of our younger talls aren't natural defenders as they're either rucks or playing forward of centre.

If Barnett pulls his finger out this year then Reid could be tried down back but that is looking unlikely.

We've done extremely well recently in finding BP and HB players, but you don't want guys like Ginbey playing on the 195+ guys. You need interceptors who can take contested marks against the gorillas.

It would be highly negligent if we didn't address those 2 positions this year but with the NGA and F/S guys coming through, I'm afraid we'll be using picks outside of the 1st round on them instead.

Do we then split our 1st rounder this year into a couple of later picks which means we miss out on the final primo midfielder that we need to complement our current guys?

Either that or do we trade out our 2027 1st rounder for another 1st rounder this year? Teams will be overly cautious of that as they know we'll be a better side in 2 years and Tassie will be taking in talent as well. The value of our 2027 pick will be greatly diminished.

Hopefully our recruiting team have a plan and have been in the ear of someone established who can come in from another team.

 

[Astro7]

Can still snag a quality mid a bit lower down. Mind you, we just enlisted Milan Murdock (midfielder) with a pretty decent resume, to fill Long's spot. But Yeo will be gone probably end of this year?

 

[PremiershipNo4]

With Simpo off the radar and out of WA I’m expecting rapid improvement.
A commentary team of Simpo and Pav absolutely made me chunder and they’re both out of the state now, you bloody beauty!

 

[Rowan18]

Yep. We're not going to be seriously competitive with Edwards and Young in our 2 key back positions. Nothing against them personally, they're just a long way off in quality when you compare them to sides that are competing at the end of the season.

Obviously replacing Gov and Barrass is extremely hard to do. Gov is arguably our best ever CHB and Barrass would be in the best dozen or so key defenders in the comp. Losing both of them last year went a long way in us allowing in the most points scored against.

When you look at our list there isn't anyone who's even close to them. Bazzo and Harry haven't come on as hoped and the rest of our younger talls aren't natural defenders as they're either rucks or playing forward of centre.

If Barnett pulls his finger out this year then Reid could be tried down back but that is looking unlikely.

We've done extremely well recently in finding BP and HB players, but you don't want guys like Ginbey playing on the 195+ guys. You need interceptors who can take contested marks against the gorillas.

It would be highly negligent if we didn't address those 2 positions this year but with the NGA and F/S guys coming through, I'm afraid we'll be using picks outside of the 1st round on them instead.

Do we then split our 1st rounder this year into a couple of later picks which means we miss out on the final primo midfielder that we need to complement our current guys?

Either that or do we trade out our 2027 1st rounder for another 1st rounder this year? Teams will be overly cautious of that as they know we'll be a better side in 2 years and Tassie will be taking in talent as well. The value of our 2027 pick will be greatly diminished.

Hopefully our recruiting team have a plan and have been in the ear of someone established who can come in from another team.

I think we've already replaced them. It's wrong to think we were going to replace gov and TB directly, that's just too much talent. Instead we have Edwards who can intercept and lockdown on bigger slower forwards and Brock/Young/Ginbey for the more mobile. Starc isn't exactly small either and is very good at intercepting (he would have been in the top 5 players in both his GF wins).

Sure, we're vulnerable to the 2M mobile forwards (like King and Darcy), but most sides are. It's midfield pressure that will solve that in the short term. Let's be honest too - neither Gov or TB were fantastic on those ones either (TB lost us two finals by getting bags kicked on him by Mason Cox and Ratagulea).

 

[Astro7]

With Simpo off the radar and out of WA I’m expecting rapid improvement.
A commentary team of Simpo and Pav absolutely made me chunder and they’re both out of the state now, you bloody beauty!

It was truly nauseating, regardless of Simmo's insights. Maybe the footy gods are finally aligning. Curious to see who fills their spots. I notice Bell is quite unbiased in his podcasts, and quite glowing in his praises of Wc players; there's not that underlying slow-fuming resentment of Pav.