Does it really matter who makes the 8?

[Pasquali]

Watching Geelong last night was an eye opener. They look like they have all their 22 players on the park. Even though it was Melb, most sides would get 10 goals in front and then relax in the last quarter. Not Geelong, they want to demolish teams. Lets be honest, whilst i would love to make the 8 and play a semi final in Melb in front of a big crowd, that will be the end of it.

Its actually quite scary how much better they are than the rest of the competetion. No one will come within 6 goals of Geelong, not Footscray, Hawthorn or Swans. So lets just relax and enjoy the rest of the season without stressing about finals.

 

[Ah Cheung]

Watching Geelong last night was an eye opener. They look like they have all their 22 players on the park. Even though it was Melb, most sides would get 10 goals in front and then relax in the last quarter. Not Geelong, they want to demolish teams. Lets be honest, whilst i would love to make the 8 and play a semi final in Melb in front of a big crowd, that will be the end of it.

Its actually quite scary how much better they are than the rest of the competetion. No one will come within 6 goals of Geelong, not Footscray, Hawthorn or Swans. So lets just relax and enjoy the rest of the season without stressing about finals.

The way I see it, it's not just about winning the premiership this year. Yes, Geelong are a better side than the rest of the comp, but imagine the confidence boost it would give the kids if they managed to slip into the finals. The experience they would gain playing in front of a massive crowd in a game that actually means more than the normal home and away games would be invaluable to us as a side moving forward. I think you have to make finals a few years in a row to then be a genuine contender. I don't think we can expect to just say 'ok we wont make finals yet coz we'll get smashed so we'll hold back and wait till we can actually challange for the cup'
AC

 

[gaelictiogar]

Totally agree with Ah cheung. we all know we are not going to win the comp this year. we know that. however a big EF at the g maybe followed by a big SF before maybe 85,000 would constitute two huge stakes blockbusters against top opposition that would bring us on a huge amount.

 

[Pasquali]

The way I see it, it's not just about winning the premiership this year. Yes, Geelong are a better side than the rest of the comp, but imagine the confidence boost it would give the kids if they managed to slip into the finals. The experience they would gain playing in front of a massive crowd in a game that actually means more than the normal home and away games would be invaluable to us as a side moving forward. I think you have to make finals a few years in a row to then be a genuine contender. I don't think we can expect to just say 'ok we wont make finals yet coz we'll get smashed so we'll hold back and wait till we can actually challange for the cup'
AC

Point taken. Valid response, i guess i would hate to somehow make it to the semis and the get smashed by 100pts.

 

[JSFish]

Geelong won't be playing in the semis so I wouldn't worry.

But yeah, agree with Ah Cheung. We aren't going to win a flag this year, doesn't mean we shouldn't bother making finals. Lots of people say to win the flag you have to finish top 4, but that doesn't mean no one should care about coming 5-8th.

 

[L_J_T]

Its well worth it, it gives hope to the senior players, and the youngsters get that exposure they need and it would definately help them in the future in my opinion.

 

[T4P]

Making the finals this year will be an amazing achievement if you look back at our abysmal 2007. I reckon in a few years we will have a team on our hands.

 

[Tigerdrive]

We've had a good solid year of improvement and it's great to be looking forward to games this late in the season. Hopefully we can run the crows off their feet, going to be tough though.

 

[mhill]

Watching Geelong last night was an eye opener. They look like they have all their 22 players on the park. Even though it was Melb, most sides would get 10 goals in front and then relax in the last quarter. Not Geelong, they want to demolish teams. Lets be honest, whilst i would love to make the 8 and play a semi final in Melb in front of a big crowd, that will be the end of it.

Its actually quite scary how much better they are than the rest of the competetion. No one will come within 6 goals of Geelong, not Footscray, Hawthorn or Swans. So lets just relax and enjoy the rest of the season without stressing about finals.

thrill of hunt, if you have that attitude, go and follow another sport until we play in a GF.

 

[Darth_Tiger]

absolutley, the experience for the young players would be worth 10 normal games for each final. and not that i think it could happen but who would have thought collingwood would stretch the cats to within a kick of the grand final last year. once you are there who knows what can happen. just because the cats are playing awesomely now doesnt mean that they will be in the same form in a month. (having said that i dont think anyone will get within coo-eee of them).

 

[scarecrow2k1]

After watching tonights game, even though we havn't beaten a team of their quality yet this season I could easily seeing us snatch a finals win against a team like Collingwood or St Kilda. Both were ordinary tonight

 

[tucker777]

For those that don't wanna play finals....... 3 things

1. The experience for the kids. A finals game is like no other game. If we want our list to be contenders then they need to have finals experience. And also the experience for us young supporters, sorry we didnt live through the halcyon days but we'd like to see the Tigers in a final if its okay with you old pessomists.

2. Richo. Richo is Richmond. Richo bleeds yellow and black. If we needed a reason it would be to give this guy a taste of finals footy. Lord knows he's been starved of it.

3. Membership. Our membership was "disappointing" to quote a few people. We play finals and we WILL break a whole jump up a few K rather than just a rise of 1 or 200.

 

[PHX]

Adding onto Tucker's list, better for the suffering fans, and hopefully better for our 2009 AFL draw.

 

[telsor]

Another for tucker's list.

Sponsorship. We lost a major sponsor and showing that we're going to be up there will help get a new, bigger, one.

 

[Peter SasseGum]

After watching tonights game, even though we havn't beaten a team of their quality yet this season I could easily seeing us snatch a finals win against a team like Collingwood or St Kilda. Both were ordinary tonight

No question, Tigers match up well against both the Pies and Saints.

Tigers should make the 8 this year.
It'll be a great result, but not entirely unexpected.

Year 4 of the 5 year Wallace plan had us on target to be where we are currently at, with the 5th year looking towards challenging for a top 4 spot.

Well done to TW and his team for successfully executing their robust, brilliantly thought out plan to restore the Tigers back to the top