Mike Sheehan's opinion

[Mismatched]

I find all the Richmond hype hilarious. If they finish top 8 I will be very suprised.

You won't be the only one there. I think its more wishful thinking than anything else.

 

[Riggy1]

I find all the Richmond hype hilarious. If they finish top 8 I will be very suprised.

Richmond top 8.well
Geelong and hawthorn are in with 2 spots. Us, sydney and north all get in all the time so that leaves 3 spots, Bulldogs and St Kilda are in.

So Collingwood, Carlton, Richmond and Essendon can fight for 8th. I say Collingwood

So yep Ill be very suprised if Richmond make the top 7

 

[Mego Red]

Richmond top 8.well
Geelong and hawthorn are in with 2 spots. Us, sydney and north all get in all the time so that leaves 3 spots, Bulldogs and St Kilda are in.

So Collingwood, Carlton, Richmond and Essendon can fight for 8th. I say Collingwood

So yep Ill be very suprised if Richmond make the top 7

I think you have to assume Geelong, Hawthorn, St Kilda and the Bulldogs are top four, and North and Collingwood probably fill the next two spots.

That leaves two positions for the Crows, Carlton, Richmond, West Coast, PAP and Sydney. It is hard to tip against us for one of them. So I guess it is a crap shoot for the other.

 

[The Crows Truth]

I think you have to assume Geelong, Hawthorn, St Kilda and the Bulldogs are top four, and North and Collingwood probably fill the next two spots.

That leaves two positions for the Crows, Carlton, Richmond, West Coast, PAP and Sydney. It is hard to tip against us for one of them. So I guess it is a crap shoot for the other.

you know what they say about the word ass-u-me

 

[Vince Van Mackay]

St.Kilda and Sydney won't make the 8, North may just scrap in. Collingwood are no certainties.

 

[Paladin]

I think you have to assume Geelong, Hawthorn, St Kilda and the Bulldogs are top four, and North and Collingwood probably fill the next two spots.

That leaves two positions for the Crows, Carlton, Richmond, West Coast, PAP and Sydney. It is hard to tip against us for one of them. So I guess it is a crap shoot for the other.

Dogs could easily miss the 8 - wont make top 4. How often is the top 4 the same year to year? West C, North, Syd will miss IMO

 

[The Sloane Ranger]

Richmond have a potentially amazing midfield if it comes together; Cousins, Cotchin, Deledio, Tambling and Foley and getting Coughlan back.

Don't know if they will make the eight but if those 6 players have a good year they will be close.

If my Aunt had balls she would be my uncle

Cousins, has not played majority time in the midfield since about 2005, due to his hammy's he spent the past couple of seasons at the Eagles across half forward, add 12 months out of the game he may struggle to play a majority middle role

Tambling, he still has a long way to go as he tends to play in spurts, long way away from proving he has what it takes to be a midfield gun

Foley, he must learn how to handle a tag, he gets blanketed out of a game too easily

Coughlan, big ask to expect him to step up in 2009

Cotchin will ikeep improving however still needs plenty of development

Deledio needs to spend less time up forward and more time in the middle

In summary, the hawks and the cats are the standouts, IMO after that you can throw a blanket over 8 - 10, all of them you can build a case, however none of them are absolute certainties.

 

[Crow-mo]

If my Aunt had balls she would be my uncle

Cousins, has not played majority time in the midfield since about 2005, due to his hammy's he spent the past couple of seasons at the Eagles across half forward, add 12 months out of the game he may struggle to play a majority middle role

Tambling, he still has a long way to go as he tends to play in spurts, long way away from proving he has what it takes to be a midfield gun

Foley, he must learn how to handle a tag, he gets blanketed out of a game too easily

Coughlan, big ask to expect him to step up in 2009

Cotchin will ikeep improving however still needs plenty of development

Deledio needs to spend less time up forward and more time in the middle

In summary, the hawks and the cats are the standouts, IMO after that you can throw a blanket over 8 - 10, all of them you can build a case, however none of them are absolute certainties.

good piece.

 

[jenny61_99]

I find all the Richmond hype hilarious. If they finish top 8 I will be very suprised.

I think it's all based around the wishful thinking from the Wallet hype over the past however many years. Now they have Cousins SURELY Wallet must deliver??

 

[KingsCrow]

North will not make the 8.


I repeat.


North will not make the 8.

 

[Drugs Are Bad Mackay?]

North will not make the 8.


I repeat.


North will not make the 8.

We hear that every year. And every year it's wrong.

 

[SydCrow]

What you have to remember is that Mike Sheahan is preaching to a Melbourne audience. He's a Herald Sun journalist. On the Couch has a predominately Victorian audience. He is bound to talk about the Victorian teams - the same way that Rucci talks about the SA ones.

Doesn't make it any easier to put up with. Robert Walls has slightly more idea but only slightly more.

 

[Crow-mo]

What you have to remember is that Mike Sheahan is preaching to a Melbourne audience. He's a Herald Sun journalist. On the Couch has a predominately Victorian audience. He is bound to talk about the Victorian teams - the same way that Rucci talks about the SA ones.

very true.

Doesn't make it any easier to put up with. Robert Walls has slightly more idea but only slightly more.

Walls is lazy, but he absolutely knows what he's talking about. very easy to confuse the 2 things. just remember there are still people who say blight doesn't know what he's talking about, and before than Matthews was out of touch.

personalities get overexposed in the media and we sometimes think that's a true reflection of their abilities. walls could do more homework on the nitty gritty details, but he knows a shitload about the game. whereas we tend to focus on the minutae of the game, and use that as a proxy for real in-depth knowledge. because that is something we can do, and it is knowledge we can acquire.

 

[seababoon]

robert walls doesnt know a penis from a girls ankle..

i might have no idea here, but isnt robert walls a wooden spoon coach..?.. i know he's won a premiership, but still, i think he's a bit out of date with the modern game.. (thus his wooden spoon).. (i also understand he took a new franchise though..) some of the things he says is the equal of mike sheehan.. i know that he may say a slightly positive thing every week regarding adelaide, which may satisfy the odd supporter.. but the majority of what he says seems off the mark

 

[magtrev]

Never thought i'd say this, but I agree with Crow-mo on this one. Walls is a tool and an occasional master of the obvious/inane, but he does know his football. My only real problem with him is when offers opinions on stuff he clearly hasn't seen.

 

[Crow-mo]

Never thought i'd say this, but I agree with Crow-mo on this one.

I didn't think you were up to the job either

 

[jenny61_99]

Never thought i'd say this, but I agree with Crow-mo on this one. Walls is a tool and an occasional master of the obvious/inane, but he does know his football. My only real problem with him is when offers opinions on stuff he clearly hasn't seen.

And herein lies the problem. What's the point of making comment/passing judgment on something you clearly haven't seen? Only goes to make you look like a goose and undermine the actual knowledge you have, but choose not to show to it's fullest potential because you are too lazy! On this point Walls is AS BAD as Sheehan.

 

[Deaneus!]

I think it's all based around the wishful thinking from the Wallet hype over the past however many years. Now they have Cousins SURELY Wallet must deliver??

You'd have to think, he doesn't have much time left. It's the last year of his contract, and he'd really want to make the finals - i can see a brash young coach to go with their brash young list in the near future.

 

[Zvim]

North will not make the 8.


I repeat.


North will not make the 8.

I think if we have a good run with injuries we will make the top 4. We played more games against the better quality sides than any other side last year and only Geelong won more games. Despite that I rate our year last year as very poor in terms of consistency and application yet still only missed out on 4th spot due to again switching off against a very ordinary side.

I still think we are more than a match against any other side in Melbourne, we haven't struggled to beat Hawks or Bulldogs. Geelong I think have far too much midfield talent for us, so unless we can bridge that gap I think we will still struggle against them.

With 14 games against other Vic sides, with us having the wood over a lot of those sides in recent years plus 3 games against interstate sides and three of our five interstate away games to Port, Eagles and Swans (who I don't expect to be powerhouses in 2009). I think there is a very strong chance of us winning 14+ games this year, that puts you in range for a possible top 4 spot.

Games I think that we are unlikely to win or will be difficult would be: Geelong, Crows at AAMI and Lions at Gabba. The rest are all very winnable.

We only have one guy in rehab at this point in time, last year we had 9. We had 11 senior players and 2 rookies out early in the year, most didn't come back to play seniors. I just think if we can bring guys like McIntosh, Smith, Swallow, Edwards, etc back into the senior side aswell as add in some of the promising youngsters then we will cause a lot of damage this year.

 

[Zvim]

If my Aunt had balls she would be my uncle

Cousins, has not played majority time in the midfield since about 2005, due to his hammy's he spent the past couple of seasons at the Eagles across half forward, add 12 months out of the game he may struggle to play a majority middle role

Tambling, he still has a long way to go as he tends to play in spurts, long way away from proving he has what it takes to be a midfield gun

Foley, he must learn how to handle a tag, he gets blanketed out of a game too easily

Coughlan, big ask to expect him to step up in 2009

Cotchin will ikeep improving however still needs plenty of development

Deledio needs to spend less time up forward and more time in the middle

In summary, the hawks and the cats are the standouts, IMO after that you can throw a blanket over 8 - 10, all of them you can build a case, however none of them are absolute certainties.

I didn't say they were certainties, I just said if the midfield group had a good year then it wouldn't surprise me if they made the 8. Teams without much substance anywhere other than the middle have proven they are capable of great feats, ie West Coast of a few years ago. Judd, Kerr, Embley, etc were fairly young and inexperienced when they hit their stride. It is possible.

I really didn't post a lot of IFs and nothing you posted really says they wont improve. They have generally a young group of midfielders, they would have learned a lot over 2008.

Seeing the Tigers smash the Hawks in the middle late last year it does not require a big leap of faith to think what they could potentially do this year, even if Cousins and Coughlan have zero impact, the guys there showed improvement over the course of 2008.

Will they improve, go backwards or tread water? Who knows... I just wouldn't be surprised if they went a bit further this year. If the players I mentioned had a good year, i would expect them to do better than they did this year. Their big achilles heel is the lack of a quailty ruckman, they recruited one last year but unlikely he will have much of an impact for a few years.