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Opinion 2018 Expectations

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No idea. Given up trying to guess whether Langford, Laverde and Francis are going to make it. Without knowing the answer to that we could end up anywhere from 4th to 14th.
Mind you, if we pick up Sloane?
 
5-6th and winning a final.

Of course with bad injuries we could finish outside the 8, and if everything clicks maybe we make a prelim. But I would be expecting us to make and win a final.
 
Like a few have said here, I expect an improvement in consistency. However, I still expect us to be around the same mark or even a peg or two back. The club does not appear to be trading for the inside mids we need so I expect next year we'll be rotating Langford, Laverde and Begley through there. This will mean that they should improve across the season, but we will probably make no progress from where we are now. We will also have a slightly tougher draw.

I'd actually prefer it if we did keep pushing for the internal growth in 2018 and front load on some contracts. This will leave us with cash to splash on a FA at the end of next year and hopefully go to the draft with two good picks. That should set us up for 3 years of Hurley, Hooker and Bellchambers still in the tank.

Getting Stringer for a bargin is great and Saad provides heaps of run too. Of course this helps our midfield with McGrath spending more time in there too. I do believe with the right focus in the preseason Stringer could become a very good attacking mid. Still think Kennedy is the player we should have been targetting though.
 

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It must have taken a lot for you to say that! Haha.

Not really, Football is football, the past is the past.... I like where your team is heading, lots of good youngsters, Mum's a bomber too!
 

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Richmond and Bulldogs might have popped up and won a flag but with our list of players aged between 18, McGrath, and Daniher, 24, we are on the verge of sustained success. Call it a dynasty if you want. We can now add Stringer and Smith to this group. This is why we are trading them in. Next year? Could go either way. Hopefully top 4, should at least play finals. By 2019, this group will be 20 to 26, and still with Hurls and Hooker and Heppell in his prime. Look out!
 
Richmond and Bulldogs might have popped up and won a flag but with our list of players aged between 18, McGrath, and Daniher, 24, we are on the verge of sustained success. Call it a dynasty if you want. We can now add Stringer and Smith to this group. This is why we are trading them in. Next year? Could go either way. Hopefully top 4, should at least play finals. By 2019, this group will be 20 to 26, and still with Hurls and Hooker and Heppell in his prime. Look out!

I agree 2019 - 2021 should be a good period for us and we should get a good tilt in that period. We will need to find Hurley, Hooker and Heppell replacements by the end of that period which isn't exactly trivial but not impossible either.

I think of this as the Daniher era. He's the guy that our list will be built around. He's the guy that will help us luring free agents because of his crazy potential. Every side needs a 'big name' and for us he's the guy. He's also the reason that people won't just write us off because of our below average midfield which still needs to improve.

Looking at our trading strategy this year and age profile of our list along with standard development times and you'd say that McGrath (and his fellow draftees) are the youngest guys likely to make an impact during that 2019-2021 period. We probably won't have many guys from 2017/2018/2019 draft in our best team during those years.

So I think you're dead on in highlighting the McGrath to Daniher core of our list.
 
Winning a final would be a great result.

The Sydney game showed us we're at least a couple of years away from contending for a flag.

One key thing I'd like to see this year is playing the kids if the senior guys aren't playing good-great footy. Langford/Laverde/Mutch/Begley/etc., if in form, should be playing ahead of Colyer/Myers/Howlett.
 
I think winning a final should be deemed as a success. I think winning the flag next year is a stretch, but I think 2019 and beyond is where our list will hit it's peak. And hopefully by then, we have a few blokes like Laverde and Langford really hit their straps. Particularly Laverde, because without recruiting a big body mid he will be it. He's going to have to do alot of grunt work.

But if we land all of the S's, we're going to have some serious firepower. I'm worried defensively, though.
 
I think we can probably expect to be THE primetime team next year to be honest.

The style we played last year, the size of our club and the players we have on our list, we will quite possibly be very well represented on Friday and Saturday nights.

As far as results. Id be happy with a Richmond like H&A season (forget the finals), just work through the season, winning games we are supposed to, rarely getting beaten by much, I think they only had 2 bad losses for the whole year. Every other game they could have won. Really consistent Home and away form.
Once we make it? Win a final.

I feel 2019 is when we need to demand actual results of prelim and GF appearances/wins. Next year feels a little too early.

Results aside, Id really expect to see strong physical performances by the players.
The Sydney game was the culmination but all through the year I felt we kind of got through on heart and excitement. Then you watch the Swans game and they were just powerful. Or watching any Adelaide game, really powerful running.
Watching the other finals games im not sure our team had that ability to run like those teams did, to lay big hits and take them. Lots of 2 quarter performances all year, id like to see those become 3 and 4 quarter performances.
 

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Opinion 2018 Expectations

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