Preview 2015 Predictions

[NT.Thunder]

1. Where will we finish on the ladder? 5th
2. B&F winner? Cloke
3. Which first year player (drafted in 2014) will play the most games? Moore
4. Leading goalkicker? Cloke
5. Who will be selected in the AA team? Cloke, Pendlebury, Marsh
6. Most improved player? Adams
7. Who will earn Rising Star nominations? Marsh, Moore
8. Most Brownlow votes? Pendlebury
9. Who will retire? Swan
10. Who will be delisted? Armstrong, Karnezis
11. Which 2014 recruit will perform the best? Greenwood
12. VFL B&F winner? Sinclair
13. More or less injuries than in 2014? Less
14. Which player will change position? Kennedy (from bench to the ground)
15. How many times will we beat a top 4 side? 2
16. Will GWS get their first win against us? no
17. Who will finish top 5 in our B&F? Cloke, Pendlebury, Adams, Marsh, Sidebottom
18. Will we beat Brisbane round 1? Yes
19. Will Dane Swan improve on his 2014 form? Yes
20. How many goals will Cloke kick? 71

I like, but surely if Marsh makes AA and top 5 B&F isn't he a Monty for most improved?

Where do you see Marsh playing next year?

 

[speedytiger]

I like, but surely if Marsh makes AA and top 5 B&F isn't he a Monty for most improved?

Where do you see Marsh playing next year?

Full back/ back pocket. Really keen on him, i don't really think he'll be AA but i feel i needed one mad tip! Surprised you picked up on it

 

[NT.Thunder]

Full back/ back pocket. Really keen on him, i don't really think he'll be AA but i feel i needed one mad tip! Surprised you picked up on it

I'm always interested in others thoughts because most see more than me regarding our youngsters so if you're excited about a guy like Marsh, than so,am I.

 

[Douglass]

Who will retire in 2015?

Most of us thought no one would retire come end of the year (56%). A third felt Swan may regretfully do his swan song by year's end (30%). A fair number of us felt Armstrong (2), Dwyer (1) or Young (4) were ripe for the door - perhaps the thinking is a forced retirement rather than the "graceful" one.

 

[speedytiger]

I'm always interested in others thoughts because most see more than me regarding our youngsters so if you're excited about a guy like Marsh, than so,am I.

He's got something. Looks real keen to learn. The move to full back in the VFL was brilliant. He has a bit of attitude too, not in a bad big mouth way, he just has a look. Dog hungry

 

[Ulahoopski]

1. Where will we finish on the ladder? 6th
2. B&F winner? Pendlebury
3. Which first year player will play the most games? Freeman (assuming debuting is considered 1st year)
4. Leading goalkicker? Cloke
5. Who will be selected in the AA team? Pendlebury, Elliot
6. Most improved player? Frost
7. Who will earn Rising Star nominations? Freeman (winner), De Goey, Moore
8. Most Brownlow votes? Pendlebury
9. Who will retire? - NObody
10. Who will be delisted? ???
11. Which 2014 recruit will perform the best? Greenwood
12. VFL B&F winner? Varcoe lol
13. More or less injuries than in 2014? Less
14. Which player will change position? Marley a tagger?
15. How many times will we beat a top 4 side? 3 at a guess
16. Will GWS get their first win against us? No
17. Who will finish top 5 in our B&F? Pendlebury, Sidebottom, Frost, Elliot, Swan
18. Will we beat Brisbane round 1? Yes.
19. Will Dane Swan improve on his 2014 form? Yes.
20. How many goals will Cloke kick? 60

 

[Douglass]

Here's the next instalment. Sorry for the "dribs and drabs" approach, but each analysis takes a good couple of hours just to conform the data for analysis. Anyhoo:

10. Who will be delisted?

Three quarters (76%) of us had Armstrong in their list to be delisted, Half had Gault (47%), while Dwyer (33%), Ramsay (33%), Young (29%) and Oxley (27%) were on a third of lists (or there abouts). There were 11 other players that appeared on people's lists, but with little frequency. There were 4 respondents that were either unsure or didn't submit any players in response to the question.

Note that the sample size has increased to 51 with some late entries.

 

[Douglass]

To the question:

11. Which 2014 recruit will perform the best?

Most people thought the standout performer for 2015 from our recruiting last year would be Greenwood (a little under three quarters of respondents, or 73%). This does make sense as he performed well in 2014 (3rd in North Melbourne's best and fairest). Varcoe was a distant second (15%), although we can say that around a seventh of us thought he'd perform the best out of all the recruits. Moore (4%) and De Goey (8%) also got votes for best prospective new-recruit performer in 2015.

 

[jjsmitty8]

1. Where will we finish on the ladder? 7th-8th
2. B&F winner? Sidebottom
3. Which first year player (drafted in 2014) will play the most games? Moore, but I'd like to see Maynard feature and develop nicely
4. Leading goalkicker? Cloke
5. Who will be selected in the AA team? Cloke, Pendlebury, Sidebottom, Elliott
6. Most improved player? Broomhead
7. Who will earn Rising Star nominations? Moore, De Goey, Freeman (not sure how eligibility works, but assuming he would be)
8. Most Brownlow votes? Pendlebury
9. Who will retire? No-one
10. Who will be delisted? Armstrong, Oxley, Ramsay, maybe even Josh Thomas if he doesn't pull his finger out
11. Which 2014 recruit will perform the best? Greenwood
12. VFL B&F winner? Jack Hellier (assuming he's still with the club in 2015, I don't follow the VFL as hardcore as the AFL)
13. More or less injuries than in 2014? If we have any more, we'll need to borrow opposition players on game day like in local under 10's footy
14. Which player will change position? Hopefully they give up on trying to make Fasolo and rebounding defender have him around goal. Great hands, fantastic goal sense, screams x-factor. Makes sense to me.
15. How many times will we beat a top 4 side? 2 sounds fair
16. Will GWS get their first win against us? It would be contradictory for me to answer yes if I honestly believe we'll finish inside the 8. Every dog has their day, but surely not yet.
17. Who will finish top 5 in our Best and Fairest for 2015? Cloke, Pendlebury, Sidebottom, Greenwood and Elliott
18. Will we beat Brisbane round 1? Yes
19. Will Dane Swan improve on his 2014 form? The guy is too good of a player to produce anything less than he did in 2014, surely.
20. How many goals will Cloke kick? 58.44

 

[Dead Eye Didak]

Where will we finish on the ladder? 7th
2. B&F winner? Sidebottom
3. Which first year player (drafted in 2014) will play the most games? Maynard.....ready to go in my opinion
4. Leading goalkicker? Cloke
5. Who will be selected in the AA team? Pendles, Sidebottom
6. Most improved player? Grundy
7. Who will earn Rising Star nominations? Freeman, De Goey, Maynard
8. Most Brownlow votes? Pendlebury
9. Who will retire? Only possible one would be old man Swan.......but is contracted for 2016
10. Who will be delisted? N/a
11. Which 2014 recruit will perform the best? Varcoe
12. VFL B&F winner? Michael Still........will kick about 60 goals next year
13. More or less injuries than in 2014? Less hopefully, not a great start though with Reid, Toovey and Moore! !!
14. Which player will change position? Elliott, hopefully gets to play more midfield. Like to see him become a goal kicking mid. Maybe Keeffe moves up forward, with Brown down back.
15. How many times will we beat a top 4 side? 2
16. Will GWS get their first win against us? Will be close, but we should beat sounds like GWS for another year at least.
17. Who will finish top 5 in our Best and Fairest for 2015? Sidebottom, Pendlebury, Swan, Cloke, Williams
18. Will we beat Brisbane round 1? Yes
19. Will Dane Swan improve on his 2014 form? He seems determined to, so l think he will kill it next year.
20. How many goals will Cloke kick? 68

 

[Douglass]

To the question:

12. VFL B&F winner?

Most people were backing Dwyer with the honour of winning B&F (19%). After that, most people were unsure or didn't submit a response (6% and 15%). If you added these two categories together they topped the predictions list above Dwyer. From there it was a smattering of mainly AFL players that people saw may be playing most of 2015 in the 2s. The only VFL listed players to get a mention were Still, Moloney and Williams (Jake) polling one vote each.

 

[Adnan]

1. Where will we finish on the ladder? 6th
2. B&F winner? Scott Pendlebury
3. Which first year player will play the most games? De Goey
4. Leading goalkicker? Cloke
5. Who will be selected in the AA team? Pendlebury, Sidebottom, Elliott, Cloke (maybe)
6. Most improved player? Ben Ken
7. Who will earn Rising Star nominations? De Goey, Freeman, Broomhead
8. Most Brownlow votes? Pendles (25)
9. Who will retire? No one
10. Who will be delisted? Armstrong, Young, Ramsay
11. Which 2014 recruit will perform the best? Greenwood
12. VFL B&F winner? Sammy Dwyer
13. More or less injuries than in 2014? I think its impossible to have more injuries than last year.
14. Which player will change positions? Would like to see Marley williams spending more time in the mid
15. How many times will we beat a top 4 side? 3 times
16. Will GWS get their first win against us? NO.
17. Who will finish top 5 in our B&F? Pendles, Sidebottom, Elliott, Greenwood, Cloke
18. Will we beat Brisbane round 1? Hell yeahh, beamers gonna cop it good
19. Will Dane Swan improve on his 2014 form? Deffo
20. How many goals will Cloke kick? 58

 

[jackcass]

Nup bang on.....hopefully Cloke plays further up the ground, with Reid/Witts the deeper targets, or even at times play Swan/Elliott out of the goal square for a change up.

Cloke won a BnF for us when he was a kid playing predominantly as our CHF, let him go back to that role.

Cloke rumored to have had injury issues in 2014 which impacted his running. Hopefully he can recapture that hard running beast with a clean bill of health.

 

[Hagla]

Here's the next instalment. Sorry for the "dribs and drabs" approach, but each analysis takes a good couple of hours just to conform the data for analysis. Anyhoo:

10. Who will be delisted?

Three quarters (76%) of us had Armstrong in their list to be delisted, Half had Gault (47%), while Dwyer (33%), Ramsay (33%), Young (29%) and Oxley (27%) were on a third of lists (or there abouts). There were 11 other players that appeared on people's lists, but with little frequency. There were 4 respondents that were either unsure or didn't submit any players in response to the question.

Note that the sample size has increased to 51 with some late entries.

View attachment 102019

Trust THATSGOLD to like the post referring to delistings

 

[Chilli Con Incarnate]

1. Where will we finish on the ladder? 10th
2. B&F winner? Scott Pendlebury
3. Which first year player will play the most games? De Goey
4. Leading goalkicker? Elliott
5. Who will be selected in the AA team? Pendlebury, Elliott
6. Most improved player? Fasolo
7. Who will earn Rising Star nominations? De Goey, Freeman, Broomhead
8. Most Brownlow votes? Pendles
9. Who will retire? No one
10. Who will be delisted? Armstrong, Ramsay, Gault
11. Which 2014 recruit will perform the best? Greenwood
12. VFL B&F winner? Josh Thomas
13. More or less injuries than in 2014? Less
14. Which player will change positions? Karnezis, Maxwell's loose man in defence role
15. How many times will we beat a top 4 side? Once
16. Will GWS get their first win against us? No
17. Who will finish top 5 in our B&F? Pendles, Sidebottom, Elliott, Greenwood, Fasolo
18. Will we beat Brisbane round 1? No
19. Will Dane Swan improve on his 2014 form? Yes
20. How many goals will Cloke kick? 45

 

[iGNITER]

1. Where will we finish on the ladder? - 7th
2. B&F winner? - Pendlebury
3. Which first year player (drafted in 2014) will play the most games? - De Goey
4. Leading goalkicker? - Cloke
5. Who will be selected in the AA team? - Pendlebury, Elliott & Cloke
6. Most improved player? - Adams
7. Who will earn Rising Star nominations? - Freeman
8. Most Brownlow votes? - Pendlebury
9. Who will retire? - None
10. Who will be delisted? - Not sure, more of an idea mid year
11. Which 2014 recruit will perform the best? - Greenwood, although I think that Varcoe will be a very handy acquisition
12. VFL B&F winner? - Dwyer
13. More or less injuries than in 2014? - Less... Please
14. Which player will change position? - Fasolo to play mainly as a half forward
15. How many times will we beat a top 4 side? - Once
16. Will GWS get their first win against us? - NO DEAL
17. Who will finish top 5 in our B&F? - Pendlebury, Sidebottom, Cloke, Elliott, Langdon
18. Will we beat Brisbane round 1? - YES
19. Will Dane Swan improve on his 2014 form? - Definitely, if he can get back to being fully fit he will for sure
20. How many goals will Cloke kick? - 62

 

[Douglass]

To the question:

13. More or less injuries than in 2014?

Overwhelming most people thought we'd have less injuries in 2015 compared with 2014 (84%). Of this percentage, a few people answered with a definite "considerably less" (5%). Interestingly many people qualified their response with statements such "surely" and "hopefully". Only one person thought we'd have more injuries (2%). A few people didn't answer the question in a measurable way (7%). In other words there was a donkey vote of 7%.

 

[Douglass]

I have skipped 14 because it was too hard to "statisticise". Apologies to anyone I may have disappointed - maybe I'll give it another go later.

To the question:

15. How many times will we beat a top 4 side?

Four of us thought we'd win no games against a top 4 side (7%). 12 thought we'd do it once only (7%). Twice was the most popular choice at 42%, but only 16% thought we'd do it three times. There were votes for 4 (4%), 5 (2%) and 6 (2%) times. 2% thought we'd win half of our top 4 encounters, while 1 brave soul thought we'd win all of them, albeit with the caveat that Hawthorn wasn't a top 4 side in 2015. 4% were not willing to make a choice.

I should add that many suggested that Sydney would be one of our scalps in 2015.

 

[Jasper84]

Given the outpouring of emotion this week, I think this is worth revisiting.

 

[TradeDraft]

Given the outpouring of emotion this week, I think this is worth revisiting.

That was before our Fantastic Start to the Season