2018 general discussions

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Matchu said:
I think the biggest question that should be asked over the first nine rounds is: How many games does the club need to win to keep their dream of finals alive? You need 11/12 wins to have a shot at finals so I'm inclined to believe the answer to that question is 4/5 wins is required before the bye. That means 1-2 wins over the next 4 games against Crows (away), Bulldogs (Ballarat), Demons (Gabba) and Port (Shanghai).

It may sound biased but I think most level headed people would agree the games against the Adelaide-based clubs are unlikely to end in wins for the Suns. So I think the focus needs to be on the games against the Demons and the Bulldogs and I feel they need to win at least 1 of those games to stay in the hunt. What do you guys think?
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I agree Adelaide is beyond the Suns, but I'd be more confident of beating Port than Melbourne. Confidence would go even higher if Ryder isn't back yet., which is conceivable given that hes listed at 2-3 that game is a month away, and holding him back would give him the bye as well as not having to play his first or second game back in another country. Overall i don't think Port's side is anywhere near as strong as fooball media seem to. (which is nice as I've picked up two tips on quite a lot of people in the last two weeks because of it!)
On paper i think the Melbourne list is better, but they are horribly out of form. if that continues we could nab them, if it doesn't could be West Coast all over again. (they could even have Viney back by the time we play them)

Bulldogs is a must win.
 

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Port are struggling without Ryder, wouldn't rule us out of that one. We're going alright. I'm not sold on WC being a good football side yet so we haven't played a real quality side. If we can stand up in those games and provide a contest then that's how you mark the season, not finals
 
GCStormie said:
I agree Adelaide is beyond the Suns, but I'd be more confident of beating Port than Melbourne. Confidence would go even higher if Ryder isn't back yet., which is conceivable given that hes listed at 2-3 that game is a month away, and holding him back would give him the bye as well as not having to play his first or second game back in another country. Overall i don't think Port's side is anywhere near as strong as fooball media seem to. (which is nice as I've picked up two tips on quite a lot of people in the last two weeks because of it!)
On paper i think the Melbourne list is better, but they are horribly out of form. if that continues we could nab them, if it doesn't could be West Coast all over again. (they could even have Viney back by the time we play them)

Bulldogs is a must win.
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sunsofanarchy said:
Port are struggling without Ryder, wouldn't rule us out of that one. We're going alright. I'm not sold on WC being a good football side yet so we haven't played a real quality side. If we can stand up in those games and provide a contest then that's how you mark the season, not finals
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I wanted to prefix my statement with "it may sound biased" for this reason.

It's also important to remember the Shanghai game will almost definitely involve some very tired Gold Coast legs after all the travelling they've done. That's a big factor IMO.
 
Matchu said:
I wanted to prefix my statement with "it may sound biased" for this reason.

It's also important to remember the Shanghai game will almost definitely involve some very tired Gold Coast legs after all the travelling they've done. That's a big factor IMO.
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I was factoring in the fact that its in China as a positive for the Suns. by the time that match comes around the Suns will have been on the road for essentially all of 9 weeks. I'd imagine that the system shock of a big trip will be gone by that point (because they've been doing it every week) where it will be in full effect for Port. I also expect that the suns aren't going to have the same air travel disaster as last year either.

I guess all I'm getting at is its hard to guess what affect the accumulated travel will have, as no team has really had to do it before. could be (probably will be) negative, but could also be positive.

In terms of Kms if you exclude the China game i suspect that its probably not all that many more Kms than West Coast or Freo will do in the same time although I'm too lazy to do the numbers.
 
GCStormie said:
I was factoring in the fact that its in China as a positive for the Suns. by the time that match comes around the Suns will have been on the road for essentially all of 9 weeks. I'd imagine that the system shock of a big trip will be gone by that point (because they've been doing it every week) where it will be in full effect for Port. I also expect that the suns aren't going to have the same air travel disaster as last year either.

I guess all I'm getting at is its hard to guess what affect the accumulated travel will have, as no team has really had to do it before. could be (probably will be) negative, but could also be positive.

In terms of Kms if you exclude the China game i suspect that its probably not all that many more Kms than West Coast or Freo will do in the same time although I'm too lazy to do the numbers.
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Also good news for us, we play in Brisbane the week before so the lads would have spent the preceding week at home on the GC.
 
I dont think finals are in the picture at this stage. Looking at our draw id be happy if we ended up around the 8-9 win mark. Lots of 50/50 games for us, no easy ones thats for sure.
 
GCStormie said:
I was factoring in the fact that its in China as a positive for the Suns. by the time that match comes around the Suns will have been on the road for essentially all of 9 weeks. I'd imagine that the system shock of a big trip will be gone by that point (because they've been doing it every week) where it will be in full effect for Port. I also expect that the suns aren't going to have the same air travel disaster as last year either.

I guess all I'm getting at is its hard to guess what affect the accumulated travel will have, as no team has really had to do it before. could be (probably will be) negative, but could also be positive.

In terms of Kms if you exclude the China game i suspect that its probably not all that many more Kms than West Coast or Freo will do in the same time although I'm too lazy to do the numbers.
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So it turns out I'm not too lazy to do the numbers.
R1-11 Gold coast do 34068 kms roughly (airport to airport, assuming 140kms for Gabba, and that the guys fly to Tullamarine then to Ballarat. also assumes GC fly direct Coolangatta to Shanghai which obviously isn't the case, but as i don't know the itinerary was the best i cold do)
In the same time West Coast do 22754 kms, and Freo do 27752kms- (difference there is due to West Coast playing their 'away' derby in the front half of the year, and in a normal year Freo's tally would have been higher but reduced due to playing an away game at Optus courtesy Suns)

So while its bad its not in insane territory apart from the fact we aren't getting the rest weeks that the WA sides get.
 
ajsars said:
I dont think finals are in the picture at this stage. Looking at our draw id be happy if we ended up around the 8-9 win mark. Lots of 50/50 games for us, no easy ones thats for sure.
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I'll take finals contention until Round 20 as a pass mark. The way the Ladder looks now, only Carlton and Brisbane are truly out of it, but even they will start winning games (as long as it isn't against the Suns) and this will lead to equalisation of the middle part of the Ladder. After next week, 4 wins and 2 losses will put you in the Top 8 and not much else unless you've got percentage, but after Round 12, I don't think it will take 7 and 5 to be in the Top 8 and a whole lot of clubs will remain in contention on 6 and 6 or even 5 and 7 with reasonable percentage. In an even year like this, 8th and sometimes 7th can be up for grabs by the team that finishes strongly after a mediocre first half with 11 and 11.

That said, the Suns have to find ways of continuing to win ugly, like in Round 1 and again last night. Continuing to beat the sides that we expect to beat will get us 8 wins, and then it is just a matter of staging upsets. After losing in every way conceivable, the boys are ready for another tilt like 2014, except this time the foundation is much better for a sustained campaign.
 
SandyToes said:
I've had a sneaky feeling that the prolonged road trip may be the making of some of our guys
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It’s certainly helped the team bond as well from a few lads that I’ve spoken to recently. A much stronger brotherhood forming than ever before.

The boys really seem to have bought into the Dew/Malceski “family” ethic as well. Swallow FaceTiming Darcy Mac during the song was top notch :thumbsu:
 

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I don't know how many people realise this but if we beat the Dogs today it's actually the best start we've ever had to a season. We have NEVER won four of our first seven games in any season.
 
GC2015 said:
I don't know how many people realise this but if we beat the Dogs today it's actually the best start we've ever had to a season. We have NEVER won four of our first seven games in any season.
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In 2014 we started 7 and 2


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
TheSunGod said:
Geez Brisbane are worse than us? They just look better when losing if that makes sense. North are destroying them.
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Maybe because a losing score of 87 points is more than anything we've scored in 2018 other than the Carlton match- which was only 14 points better
Sad but true facts.They have ways to score
We don't unless Lynch is on
 
SandyToes said:
Maybe because a losing score of 87 points is more than anything we've scored in 2018 other than the Carlton match- which was only 14 points better
Sad but true facts.They have ways to score
We don't unless Lynch is on
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I hate Brisbane but give them credit for sticking it out and keeping the losing margin from not being like our disgrace last night
 
SandyToes said:
Maybe because a losing score of 87 points is more than anything we've scored in 2018 other than the Carlton match- which was only 14 points better
Sad but true facts.They have ways to score
We don't unless Lynch is on
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I don’t think Dew’s gameplan is aimed at heavy scoring... more so restricting the opposition to a beatable score. I prefer to watch the Lions method over the defensive wrestle Sydney employ these days which we’re trying to emulate. Either way we’re crap at both.
 
TheSunGod said:
I don’t think Dew’s gameplan is aimed at heavy scoring... more so restricting the opposition to a beatable score. I prefer to watch the Lions method over the defensive wrestle Sydney employ these days which we’re trying to emulate. Either way we’re crap at both.
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I wish Suns had the same luck with injuries as Lions had up to now (virtually none, similar to North). But today Lions luck run out - Berry out before game (hamstring) and during game Cameron (ankle), McCluggage (calf), Christiansen (concussion). It was garbage time after half time, North relaxed. Lions make stupid turnovers like us.
 
Jirik13 said:
I wish Suns had the same luck with injuries as Lions had up to now (virtually none, similar to North). But today Lions luck run out - Berry out before game (hamstring) and during game Cameron (ankle), McCluggage (calf), Christiansen (concussion). It was garbage time after half time, North relaxed. Lions make stupid turnovers like us.
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Yeah Handbaggers Franchise were keen to stick the boot into us because of GAJ.
The Mercenary would have sooked it if they didn’t keep at it.
 
Really finding it hard to cheer up after last nights effort but life goes on.
Reckon there are three dilemmas facing us in the immediate future.
1 By the half way mark of every season we seem to have a swag of long term injuries that
just basically destroys the ability to put anywhere near our best 22 on the park.
Is this bad luck , bad management or hard grounds --not sure but it is soul destroying for the club.

2 How do we stop good players leaving on a regular basis ???

3 How do we attract quality players from interstate ???

With GWS having similar problems the AFL would have huge concerns that these problems are
stalling the success of these clubs.
Best and easiest solution as already pointed out is to find and develop our own but this will take a long time
to happen.
Unfortunately with lots more injuries and form worries we are in for a very tough month.
 
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