Our next premiership?

[LawnMosey]

The loss to Melbourne was out of character. We looked deflated all game long. The Win against Port Adelaide is difficult to judge. The opposition's best players failed to fire a shot, Boak, Hartlett, no Polec, no Ryder, while the Sydney win was arguably our best performance of the year when you consider the out's we had, particularly Stanley & Clark.

Totally agree with your assessments there. I guess my struggle is that I'm not that good at identifying weaknesses in gameplan, so I look for other problems. Discounting injury, this year I saw ability, but little grit, or hardness. It's there, but patchy, kind of like Geelong of 05/06: can do amazing things, just lacked the discipline to do it for a whole game.

I also think on-field leadership is a bit of an issue, in that our strongest teams have had multiple leaders on every line, and capable soldiers around them. It felt a bit like we still had good leaders (not great, but good), but the soldiers weren't as switched on. Hopefully another strong voice in the midfield, the emergence of a few in the backline and some support (leadership-wise) for Hawkins up forward (which is why Bartel forward makes way more sense) would go along way to moving us up the ladder. Now that I write it, it feels like a lot to ask... Let's hope the character first recruitment policy kicks in and we see some results with the younger blokes.

 

[DanA]

Maybe your right but from what we have watched in recent seasons, our midfield has not been able to withstand four quarters against genuinely powerful + mature midfield's (played alongside one another for multiple seasons). I understand we won a few games this year against teams who do have solid midfield's, Port Adelaide and Sydney are two that come to mind, but put into perspective, we have struggled against many other sides who are not even close to challenging for premierships let alone finals.
I see a lot of finesse but very little grunt & ferociousness at the footy. Guthrie, Blicavs, Motlop, Murdoch, Duncan . . . compare it to other teams, they play a hard styled brand of football. Kids who crave winning contested footy and have done so for multiple seasons already.
Factor in other solid trades done by Collingwood, Port Adelaide and Brisbane this off season, yes we will improve, but so too do other teams surrounding us and it evens out in a sense.

I completely agree with your assessment. But that's why I think it will look different with Dangerfield, S.Selwood and Smith.

I actually disagree a bit in that I think Blicavs is very good in the contest and Guthrie's solid but we've now got four grunt players (S&J.Selwood, Caddy and Danger) where previously we had two.

It's still short of 2007 when we had Jnr, Chappy, Corey, Kelly and J.Selwood but it's loads better than anything we've had since 2011.

 

[Catatonic Shock]

So, about our next Premiership....

 

[manboob]

It's a balancing act between 2016/17 and dependent on when our side gels, Hawks and Freo drop off and if there is space before a new challenger emerges.

 

[Daniel McL]

God didn't win us those Premierships in 2007, 2009 & 2011. It was the hard work & perfect cohesion of the playing group & the coaching group which brought us that success

And on the actual thread topic, I am looking forward to seeing us win our next premiership in 2016 or 2017!

Predicting if it's in 2016 it will be against the Hawks. If it's in 2017 it will be against GWS. Just my opinion

 

[Lana]

Do I have to join the Masons for that...they are big on the eye aren't they?

You don't have to, but it couldn't hurt. And you'd also get to learn the secret handshake.

 

[Lana]

God didn't win us those Premierships in 2007, 2009 & 2011. It was the hard work & perfect cohesion of the playing group & the coaching group which brought us that success

And on the actual thread topic, I am looking forward to seeing us win our next premiership in 2016 or 2017!

Predicting if it's in 2016 it will be against the Hawks. If it's in 2017 it will be against GWS. Just my opinion

Well the son of god did in 2007 and 2009, then he did his shoulder in the middle of 2014 after which things started to fall apart

 

[Art Vandelay_]

You talk about "billions of lives transformed"; What about the billions of lives lost in the most callous and brutal ways imaginable? All for what? All for a god that we can't even prove exists. If religion helps people live a more fulfilled life, fine. But it doesn't mean that it's correct. Most religious people are peaceful people, but it's not through religion which we derive our core morality from, so those same poeple would be good people with or without the delusion of a false purpose. My biggest issue with religion is the platform it provides for psychopaths with grandiose agendas to carry out mass genocide in the name of a higher being.

 

[manboob]

So now #lolmarty is referring to Martin of Tours? I'm confused.

 

[dazbroncos]

Ive cleaned this thread up. Discussions left footy and out next flag and moved elsewhere A LONG TIME ago…

TO continue the religious and theological theme… go here

http://www.bigfooty.com/forum/threa...d-absolutely-nothing-to-do-with-footy.1116681

Meanwhile, back at our next premiership ranch….

Carry on

Go Catters

 

[ShaunWDT]

Stlll think we are 3 or 4 years away personally, too many inexperienced young players right now.

 

[ShaunWDT]

I did mention it depends on the development of the younger blokes. Player by player, I think it's on par. You tell me what you think, here's my break down:
Hawkins 2016 > Mooney
Vardy 2016 > Hawkins 2009
Gregson 2016 = Stokes 2009
Lang 2016 < Rooke 2009 (way different players, this isn't by much)
Motlop 2016 < Chapman 2009 (but not by much)
Menzel 2016 < Johnson 2009

So overall, I called this a draw based on the big forwards being better next year and having a greater potential impact on games and if the other guys do come on a bit, they may be close to having the impact Johnson/Chapman/Rooke had on the game in 09.

Oh, and our backline and midfield in 07-09 had a huge amount to do with our scoring power back then. Would Moons kick 50 in our 2015 side? Love him, but I think not.

I disagree with all of this, Hawkins was a 34 Goal Forward at 21, way more than Vardy has ever shown. Stokes was a consistent 30 goals a year forward, Rooke was crucial as a defensive forward, Chapman in 09 was arguably the best mid/forward in the comp. Stevie kicked 40 odd aswell. Mooney albeit inaccurate, had Hawkins measure back then too.

 

[LawnMosey]

I disagree with all of this, Hawkins was a 34 Goal Forward at 21, way more than Vardy has ever shown. Stokes was a consistent 30 goals a year forward, Rooke was crucial as a defensive forward, Chapman in 09 was arguably the best mid/forward in the comp. Stevie kicked 40 odd aswell. Mooney albeit inaccurate, had Hawkins measure back then too.

Get what you're saying, and maybe I'm being optimistic, but what I said was based on my expected output next year, not on anything the current guys have done to date.

On Vardy, I get why, well, anyone, would disagree with me, but as I mentioned in another post, I believe his overall impact (not just goals) will be greater next year than Hawkins in 09 (I don't think 30-odd goals is beyond him as a permanent forward however).

I did say that Chapman was better than I expect Motlop to be, but I do expect Motlop to become 'one of' the premier mid-forwards in the league. He's shown that he's close to All-Australian quality at his best so far, I'm saying he'll take another step forward.

I'm saying Menzel won't be as good as Johnson at his best, which I'm sure you agree with and also that Lang won't be as important as Rooke, but as they're such different players, I expect Lang get closer to Rooke's impact without ever really looking like the same sort of player.

I don't really get why people don't think Hawkins is capable of a 70-80 goal year with a performing midfield and cohesive forward line. At his best, he's a potential Coleman medallist. I know that a lot of people might disagree with this, but surely you can admit his performance this year had a bit to do with the team's weaknesses as a whole, not just from poor performance on his part.

On Stokes vs Gregson though, I'll concede. I forgot just how effective Stokesy was back then. I will say however, that compared to this year, our premiership years were pretty high scoring, high possession years, so numbers-wise, I think it's a bit of a tough comparison. I do think that Gregson's shown enough in his first year to think that he'll be a decent player in the years ahead however, and it's not much of a stretch to think that he'll be a better player than Stokesy, just maybe not next year.