- Joined
- May 5, 2003
- Posts
- 7,013
- Likes
- 246
- Location
- Oval, SW8, South London
- Other Teams
- WA state-of-origin
one positive is that the players wont think that the pathetic effort they put in through the middle of the season will result in them playing finals. id be kind of pissed off if the team that completely rolled over and looked awful against mid-range sides like carlton, collingwood, north and richmond could just waltz into the 8 by only beating poor sides.
another positive is that our ladder position is completely accurate, even with a couple of months of really diabolical football, we were still a better side (in my opinion) than carlton, collingwood and gold coast, and possibly the crows. likewise above us, richmond and north are far better sides than we were (just inconsistent), while essendon are too, just not by as much.
so say what you want about our easy draw, but i think we genuinely are the 9th best side in the comp.
so the good news is that i think we arent that far off it. i disagree with the popular opinion that our midfield depth is a problem, guys like magiggity and hutchings are perfectly cromulent fringe players who can come in and perform well enough to cover for big name outs.
our list problem (apologies if you have read me say this 500 times now) is our top end midfield talent. wellingham, rosa, selwood, shuey, gaff, masten, nicnat, lycett, yeo, there just isnt enough really good players in that lot. yeo and scooter were good early and toward the end of the season lycett, gaff and shuey started to show their best but we are still some significant improvement away from real contention.
attitude, intensity during games and playing 4 quarters were also significant problems for us during the year.
so look i really dont think we are THAT far away. if a couple of those midfield guys can see some improvement, like scooter, shuey and/or gaff stepping up to AA sort of level, and the rest of the team playing full games and with the sort of intensity we saw at the end of the season, then we have the backs and forwards to beat all comers at home and the occasional middling side away, and push into the 3-6th range with the dockers and port.
another positive is that our ladder position is completely accurate, even with a couple of months of really diabolical football, we were still a better side (in my opinion) than carlton, collingwood and gold coast, and possibly the crows. likewise above us, richmond and north are far better sides than we were (just inconsistent), while essendon are too, just not by as much.
so say what you want about our easy draw, but i think we genuinely are the 9th best side in the comp.
so the good news is that i think we arent that far off it. i disagree with the popular opinion that our midfield depth is a problem, guys like magiggity and hutchings are perfectly cromulent fringe players who can come in and perform well enough to cover for big name outs.
our list problem (apologies if you have read me say this 500 times now) is our top end midfield talent. wellingham, rosa, selwood, shuey, gaff, masten, nicnat, lycett, yeo, there just isnt enough really good players in that lot. yeo and scooter were good early and toward the end of the season lycett, gaff and shuey started to show their best but we are still some significant improvement away from real contention.
attitude, intensity during games and playing 4 quarters were also significant problems for us during the year.
so look i really dont think we are THAT far away. if a couple of those midfield guys can see some improvement, like scooter, shuey and/or gaff stepping up to AA sort of level, and the rest of the team playing full games and with the sort of intensity we saw at the end of the season, then we have the backs and forwards to beat all comers at home and the occasional middling side away, and push into the 3-6th range with the dockers and port.
