16 wins ?

[Pessimistic]

Is 16 wins a realistic target for 2001 ? - putting us in the top 4 perhaps.

My reasoning ?
I just looked at our fixture and totalled the games we usually have trouble with - which add up to 6 losses and 16 wins

They are:
Adelaide at FP
Essendon
Carlton (twice)
Melbourne (twice)

Not that these are all beyond our reach but we might win one or two of these but lose some of the more 'winnable' ones. Also some will have better seasons than last year, and some will have worse.

 

[Grendel]

Realistic, maybe. But with the eveness of the competion and other variables to take into account i reckon 14 is more acheivable.

But id rather your view Pess

 

[Pessimistic]

Given that our draw, which seems to be easier, actually turns out to be easier then 14 wins would be a similar effort to last year- we should look for a little improvement

Having said that 1999 was a very easy draw for us and the improvement 1999 to 2000 was much more than the 1 win difference (in 1999 we played each top four side only once)

 

[Hawkforce]

I'd accept 14 wins as long as we beat the blues at least once and came away from the Crows with a win (we can beat the Power there why not the bloody crows?).

We need tough wins over quality and in form sides.

 

[Pessimistic]

I'm just thinking that the last two seasons have seen us change from a team that only won when the opposition was 'off their guard' to one which should expect to beat every team except those which seem to beat us regularly - this is now only essendon (2 wins only since our 160pt win in '92) and Carlton (1 win since '91) other 'woods' such as WCE, Adelaide, North, Richmond are now well behind us, and we've gone back to being a team which can expect to win interstate as well. Colonial is a (surprising) goldmine for us and we can only get better.

 

[Grendel]

True Pess. Even (strange as it may sound, and im not being cocky) the Dons dont really hold any real fears for me. Only those Blue swine and that i still think is more a 'mind set' (and a midfield) more than anything.

The one thing that i do feel will cause a few stumbles along the way is experience of lack thereof.

Most of the core 'Keys' Hay,Croad etc are all still very immature in their actual experience, particularly in big matches. We need more 50,000 plus type pressure games so that they can get used to performing when the heats on.

Still, id rather be in our posistion than at least 13 other clubs, with only the Dons,North and Carlton really the teams that give me that 'oh well theres always next week' feeling before i get into the ground. And im hopeful that i wont even get that next year!

 

[Dan26]

Pessimistic,

If you keep on posting stuff like your opening remarks on this thread, you might have to change your name to Optimistic.

 

[Dan26]

Grendel,

I was kind of intrigued by your comments that Essendon don't really worry you. It's just that we have won 7 of the last 8 matches against you; your only win came against an injury riddled Essendon in 1997, when we finished 14th.

I was just thinking, what else do we have to do, to earn Grendel's fear ?

 

[Grendel]

dan, the reason behind that (if you can call it reason) is that i reckon the Hawks are more or less about the same sort of posistion that the Dons were going back circa 97/98. That is you can see a good side (maybe a really good side) being developed. Theres no point in worrying about the Dons as they are clearly the best in the competition. So why bother to worry? Rather than that, look at them and try and build to that standard, which is what i truly believe Schwab is doing.

Hope that makes sense.

 

[Pessimistic]

It's a funny game, Dan24, who would have believed on that day when the Hawks beat the Bombers by 160 points that Essendon would be the team that won the flag the very next year, then won another in 2000, came very close another 2 times ?

 

[Hawkforce]

Losing to Carlton hurts more. Simple as that.