Play Nice 2018 Ladder Predictions

[JayJ20]

wat? so the MCG was advantageous this year to Geelong vs Sydney, but last years PF of Geelong vs Sydney at the MCG it wasn't?

Well didn't you beat Richmond at the MCG last year too?

You quoted the Geelong vs Richmond result at KP in the home and away season to try and prove your point. I quote the Geelong vs Sydney result at KP this year. Or should venue only come up when it suits you?

Geelong should literally be the last club to complain. You get pure home ground advantage like an interstate side, travel like a Victorian side and play enough games at the MCG.

 

[Heisenberg_]

You're a Bigfooty trope

So you're basically saying your team is that mentally weak they can't harden up and not play at a ground outside Geelong?

Pretty insulting really.

 

[matey]

Sam Mitchell, Lewis & Burgoyne will hardly be missed

Of course these past champions played a big part in Hawks recent success but the windscreen of a car is much bigger than the rear vision mirror for a reason! Are you basing the Saints upcoming season on Saint Nick retiring or by the players that they currently have?

Tom Mitchell is a gun mid. In a losing GF on the biggest stage was Swans second best player on the day and then follows up playing at a new club and wins the B&F still only 24yo. JOM is a Rolls Royce and clubs will be reminded when he starts to play regularly, Howe a 191cm/85kg tagger showed alot of improvement last year playing on the best opposition mid most weeks and still found a fair bit of the pill, Sheils is a consistent warrior, Smith one of the better wingman around and then you have a long list of pinch hitters in Burgs, Bruest, Poppy, Roughy, Impey, Burton, Hardwick, Rioli, Langford and confident that a couple of others will show improvement and push for selection including Lovell, Cousins, Morrison and Worpel. Then throw in the master at the helm.

It will not be the best midfield going around but it won't be the worst and combining this with the players the Hawks have in the back and front halves they will be a very competitive unit and should play finals.

Your prediction of how poor the Hawks midfield is has been noted and no one is right or wrong at this stage but let's revisit in 8 mths time shall we.

 

[Ian Dunross]

No sh#t sherlock

Of course we'll revisit this in 8 months time

The Saints need to fill the void left by Riewoldt and Montagna

As do the Hawks

This O'Meara garbage, to use your car analogy, the bloke has barely left the garage in 3 years and that's why until he can get on a freeway, no one is counting him. Rolls Royce? Please.

Tom Mitchell is a very limited mid. His damage is about as low as it gets for a ball winning midfielder. Doesn't mean he is bad. Just means that he's not a game changing player.

 

[TheFourPillars]

No sh#t sherlock

Of course we'll revisit this in 8 months time

The Saints need to fill the void left by Riewoldt and Montagna

As do the Hawks

This O'Meara garbage, to use your car analogy, the bloke has barely left the garage in 3 years and that's why until he can get on a freeway, no one is counting him. Rolls Royce? Please.

Tom Mitchell is a very limited mid. His damage is about as low as it gets for a ball winning midfielder. Doesn't mean he is bad. Just means that he's not a game changing player.

Ah yes Tom Mitchell. If we are talking about game changing players there aren't too many of those in the game. Some of the parts sprinkled in with those game changing players however. Tom would at least statistically be better than every St Kilda midfielder. You have to also remember that most of the hawthorn midfield hadn't played with him before. O'meara is an unknown as you say

 

[Ian Dunross]

Ah yes Tom Mitchell. If we are talking about game changing players there aren't too many of those in the game. Some of the parts sprinkled in with those game changing players however. Tom would at least statistically be better than every St Kilda midfielder. You have to also remember that most of the hawthorn midfield hadn't played with him before. O'meara is an unknown as you say

Statistics don't win you games of football.

Seb Ross about on a par with Tom Mitchell and Jack Steven ahead, particularly from a game winning ability. If we're going to get club v club about things.

Be interesting to see if Hardwick keeps developing and where Burton ends up. Both have shown good potential.

 

[matey]

No sh#t sherlock

Of course we'll revisit this in 8 months time

The Saints need to fill the void left by Riewoldt and Montagna

Elementary my dear Watson, the Saints are f####d!

 

[TheFourPillars]

Statistics don't win you games of football.

Seb Ross about on a par with Tom Mitchell and Jack Steven ahead, particularly from a game winning ability. If we're going to get club v club about things.

Be interesting to see if Hardwick keeps developing and where Burton ends up. Both have shown good potential.

Here's the thing who was winning us games of football? It was Tom Mitchell hawthorn midfield. we adapted to the way he plays as the season wore on

 

[Ian Dunross]

Here's the thing who was winning us games of football? It was Tom Mitchell hawthorn midfield. we adapted to the way he plays as the season wore on

You won 2 games of football in the first half of the season when Mitchell was at his most prolific...

 

[TheFourPillars]

You won 2 games of football in the first half of the season when Mitchell was at his most prolific...

As I mentioned we adapted to the way he plays as the season wore on. It will take a similar period of adjustment for O'Meara if he stays on the park.

 

[McOrist]

As I mentioned we adapted to the way he plays as the season wore on. It will take a similar period of adjustment for O'Meara if he stays on the park.

...maybe after the bye??

 

[Bazzar]

Geelong already gives up 3 home games per year anyway, don't get me wrong I enjoy seeing Geelong make the finals but we also have to remember that generally they only play weak/interstate teams at KP which further inflates the W/L record there. If you took the W/L record for Hawthorn at home vs only interstate sides, WB, St Kilda, Melbourne and Richmond over the past 10 years I'd say it'd be similar to Geelongs at KP
wat? so the MCG was advantageous this year to Geelong vs Sydney, but last years PF of Geelong vs Sydney at the MCG it wasn't?

Were Freo a weak interstate team when they played you in the 2013 QF in Geelong?
How did you go in that game?

 

[Bazzar]

You won 2 games of football in the first half of the season when Mitchell was at his most prolific...

The Hawks lost all six games when Mitchell had is six highest possession games for the year

 

[DapperDon]

Here's the thing who was winning us games of football? It was Tom Mitchell hawthorn midfield. we adapted to the way he plays as the season wore on

The entire team changed their style so one guy could punch out some stats?

Clarko has changed man

 

[Roughies Boys]

As I mentioned we adapted to the way he plays as the season wore on. It will take a similar period of adjustment for O'Meara if he stays on the park.

Both actually adapted, he adapted to his teammates & so did the young guys in new positions adapted.

Ian Dunross Seb Ross & Tom Mitchell are not the same player, I would debate that Tom Mitchell would out hunt Ross for the ball. But Ross has some other attributes that are better than Mitchell... but not sure why you comparing them nor Steven... again a different type of build & player.

 

[matey]

You won 2 games of football in the first half of the season when Mitchell was at his most prolific...

What a fn joke what about the rest of the season you go back and pull out stats for a period to suit your pathetic comments re Tom. Imagine the losing margins if the Hawks didn't have him in the first half of the season.

So what about the last 10 games where the Hawks had 6 wins and a draw. During this 10 game period he polled 16 Brownlow votes and in the 7 games we didn't lose he polled in 5 of them. How ineffective were his possessions during these games! There is no player at the Saints that I would rather have in front of Mitchell, envy is a curse.

 

[Roughies Boys]

The entire team changed their style so one guy could punch out some stats?

Clarko has changed man

Actually Clarko pushed us to playing a more contested type of footy & it was frustrating to watch especially when Hartung, Langford & Shiels... including O'Meara were hitting targets as that was their roll as they carry the footy. Changed back to our slow down uncontested footy & Mitchell & so adapted. But we can't carry to many soft players nor players who can't hit targets you gotta have a balance.

 

[Roughies Boys]

What a fn joke what about the rest of the season you go back and pull out stats for a period to suit your pathetic comments re Tom. Imagine the losing margins if the Hawks didn't have him in the first half of the season.

So what about the last 10 games where the Hawks had 6 wins and a draw. During this 10 game period he polled 16 Brownlow votes and in the 7 games we didn't lose he polled in 5 of them. How ineffective were his possessions during these games! There is no player at the Saints that I would rather have in front of Mitchell, envy is a big curse especially for some that follow a minnow team.

We did drop a game to Carlton, but Hodge out... but we get back experience heads this season to void that.

It's not a players effort that will get us up the ladder it will be a team effort... yes I'm looking at a fit & firing O'Meara & Roughead going, including the young players who will push for selection, including some young blood in Morrison, Lovell, Cousins, Hanrahan, Worpel. Also Impey needs to learn some stuff still as he comes along. Even Mirra is a chance at getting a go in our backline. Team has to learn to gel at once especially with O'Meara & Lovell hopefully playing more games this year & new boys Mirra & Impey. Also Rioli will be back.

 

[Trav 20]

Look, they have built a pretty good side Melbourne, but I am not confident they'll go all the way. They have problems with mentality as a group.

They remind me more of Richmond in 2011-2013 regarding mentality. Melbourne had an opportunity to be a left field option in 2016 but ended up getting thrashed in the end by Geelong and losing to Carlton the week before. So did Richmond of 2011, losing to Gold Coast, Port Adelaide and getting thrashed by Carlton by 103 points.
Melbourne honestly were a solid chance of making the finals the following year in 2017 but blew it because they couldn't keep it together in the end despite having great results like smashing Adelaide in Adelaide. Richmond in 2012 did the same thing, losing to Gold Coast, an injury-riddled Carlton, North Melbourne by less than a goal and drew with Port Adelaide at home. This is all despite comfortably beating eventual Premiers Sydney and smashing the runners up Hawthorn by 62 points. All of those games were vital for us to win in order to make it but we still lost and ended up missing the finals.


The first final we ended up winning was last year. This is why I am not confident about their chances in finals, even though I think they could even go as far as making the top 4. Mental weakness is not something that seems easy to get over judging from how sides in the past fared.

Having said that, at least Melbourne changed up the group though by removing players who they think is an issue and bringing in Lever, who won multiple finals. That is something we didn't do at the end of 2012 when we missed finals. In fact, we didn't do that until the end of 2016. So they may not go our trajectory for this reason.

In 2016 we fielded the youngest AND least experienced team more than any other club. We were still bottom 3-4 in this regard in 2017.

My point ? You're reading too much into this "mental fragility" theory that has become groupthink on fan forums. Young sides have results like the ones you're referring to. Especially if 4 of their top 6 miss large chunks of the season - often out at the same time to compound the issue.

Nine of our best 22 have yet to play 50 games; namely Oliver, Petracca, Brayshaw, Hunt, Salem, Oscar McDonald, Hannan, Harmes, and Neal-Bullen. Hogan has only played 51. But all bar one should reach this milestone this year. And it's around that 50-60 game mark where players regularly start impacting games.

Naturally, other sub 50 game players will get games in 2018, but by the end of the year this group as a whole will be far more experienced. And it makes sense that consistency of performance will be enhanced accordingly.

 

[WilloTree]

Im sure the Eagles mids would love to reaquaint themselves with Clayton and that weak jaw of his.

Can't believe I'd almost forgotten this. Pure comedy gold.

 

[Leather Poisoning]

Hahaha people are suggesting the all Australian rover doesn’t have much impact.

Absolute gun - whatever pick we gave for him was an absolute steal.

 

[JimmyMann]

My 2018 ladder (apologies if I do not rate your team):
1. Geelong (R)
2. Adelaide (P)
3. Sydney
4. Richmond
5. GWS
6. Essendon
7. Melbourne
8. Western Bulldogs
9. Collingwood
10. Port Adelaide
11. St Kilda
12. Hawthorn
13. Fremantle
14. West Coast
15. Carlton
16. Brisbane
17. North Melbourne
18. Gold Coast

 

[Ian Dunross]

Both actually adapted, he adapted to his teammates & so did the young guys in new positions adapted.

Ian Dunross Seb Ross & Tom Mitchell are not the same player, I would debate that Tom Mitchell would out hunt Ross for the ball. But Ross has some other attributes that are better than Mitchell... but not sure why you comparing them nor Steven... again a different type of build & player.

I'm comparing them because a Hawks fan made the comparison between Mitchell and the Saints midfielders to which i responded.

 

[TheFourPillars]

The entire team changed their style so one guy could punch out some stats?

Clarko has changed man

Don't be ridiculous that's not what I said. His impact on winning games increased as his team mates were able to better use his ability to get the ball to their advantage.

 

[WilloTree]

on Brayshaw, as regardless of if he turns out to be a star or not, he'll have little impact on where Freo finish this year

James Worpel clearly on the radar now. 10 mins ago I had no idea who he was.