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We have to win 3 out of the last 4 to equal 2014 and better 2015.
That means have to beat either Hawthorn or Dogs, as well as clean up Tiges and Suns. Quite a tall order but definitely would be something for the club to hang its hat on and make 2016 a success (barely I suppose but would give us optimism in the off-season)
 
Somebody said:
We have to win 3 out of the last 4 to equal 2014 and better 2015.
That means have to beat either Hawthorn or Dogs, as well as clean up Tiges and Suns. Quite a tall order but definitely would be something for the club to hang its hat on and make 2016 a success (barely I suppose but would give us optimism in the off-season)
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Before the season started nearly everyone said finishing in the bottom of the 8 was the minimum acceptable result.
 
Maybe I'm just trying to scrounge a few crumbs from the season, yes disappointing but if we finish strong as opposed to the terrible collapses in last halves of 14 and 15, I think that gives a lot to look forward to and gives cautious confidence in the coach, list and admin going forward. A lot depends on these last 4 games.
 

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Somebody said:
Maybe I'm just trying to scrounge a few crumbs from the season, yes disappointing but if we finish strong as opposed to the terrible collapses in last halves of 14 and 15, I think that gives a lot to look forward to and gives cautious confidence in the coach, list and admin going forward. A lot depends on these last 4 games.
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With no 1st round pick there's certainly only positives from a strong end to the season.

Bulldogs are decimated by injuries, Richmond are crap and who knows if Hawthorn will play seriously 1 week before finals
 
If I can find a positive it will be we have had wins against 3 teams in the 8 (almost 4 considering the Doggies game). Hopefully we can defeat the Hawks as well.

However, we were comprehensively beaten by Melbourne twice, St Kilda and Carlton which is not good.

What I'd like to see for the remaining season is more fluid, quick ball movement. There seems to be a lot of handball, and credit to the boys in that they are winning games based upon pressure and tackling. Not pretty football, a lot of basic skill errors etc, but the pressure has affected the opposition.

So, it would be good to see us play a little quicker with more free run.
 
We have beaten three teams that were fancied to finish top 4, and will probably all finish in the top 6. Even if we finish a spot or two lower I think the opposition we've beaten shows we're a better team that last season, though still way too inconsistent. A lot of people set finals in 2016 as non-negotiable but I think getting rid of the coach now would be a terrible decision. I was all for getting rid of him before the Geelong game but since the performance has been a lot better.
 
I was finals or bust so I'm much like TG, but I'll be a little more blunt in that we'd failed by May because finals were gone post the Carlton loss.

The frustration for me is that our record will be 50-50 against top 8 sides by seasons end (I believe we'll beat both the Dogs and Hawks) so we were good enough to have made it if we had the correct football department structure in place...
 
Scodog10 said:
I was finals or bust so I'm much like TG, but I'll be a little more blunt in that we'd failed by May because finals were gone post the Carlton loss.

The frustration for me is that our record will be 50-50 against top 8 sides by seasons end (I believe we'll beat both the Dogs and Hawks) so we were good enough to have made it if we had the correct football department structure in place...
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If we beat Dogs and Hawks it will be 5 of the top 8 sides. So yes wasted year.
 
Scodog10 said:
I was finals or bust so I'm much like TG, but I'll be a little more blunt in that we'd failed by May because finals were gone post the Carlton loss.

The frustration for me is that our record will be 50-50 against top 8 sides by seasons end (I believe we'll beat both the Dogs and Hawks) so we were good enough to have made it if we had the correct football department structure in place...
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I reckon I'll be watching out for news on our footy department this off season as keenly as I am for trade and draft news.
 
good4footy said:
If we beat Dogs and Hawks it will be 5 of the top 8 sides. So yes wasted year.
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Yeah the talents definitely there! I can only imagine how things would have gone had we employed a player development manager this year and not had avoidable player management issues to the likes of Witts, Langdon and Broomhead. Frustrating, but unfortunately out of control the club just needs to hold those in control responsible...
 
Scodog10 said:
I was finals or bust so I'm much like TG, but I'll be a little more blunt in that we'd failed by May because finals were gone post the Carlton loss.

The frustration for me is that our record will be 50-50 against top 8 sides by seasons end (I believe we'll beat both the Dogs and Hawks) so we were good enough to have made it if we had the correct football department structure in place...
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if you had no confidence in the football department at the beginning of the season, then why did you think we could finish top 8?
 
BPikkers said:
If I can find a positive it will be we have had wins against 3 teams in the 8 (almost 4 considering the Doggies game). Hopefully we can defeat the Hawks as well.

However, we were comprehensively beaten by Melbourne twice, St Kilda and Carlton which is not good.

What I'd like to see for the remaining season is more fluid, quick ball movement. There seems to be a lot of handball, and credit to the boys in that they are winning games based upon pressure and tackling. Not pretty football, a lot of basic skill errors etc, but the pressure has affected the opposition.

So, it would be good to see us play a little quicker with more free run.
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You know, if I'm going to look really really deeply and put on a set of "glass half full" glasses, one thing I've noticed about us a club particularly in 2016 as opposed to the past few years (although it was there in the last few years), is that we're at a stage where we are pretty much in FULL control of the outcome of our matches.

By that I mean that it looks to me at least that we seem to determine the outcome regardless of how the opposition plays. Whether the opposition plays well or not, if WE play well, we win. Which I guess bodes well for the future. I mean Geelong and GWS were both in ripping form leading into both those matches and in patches during those matches also played well and yet we beat them both handily because of how well WE played.

Which is what's making this Buckley situation so frustrating for me. I can see what's there but I really want someone to take the reigns that will know what to do with this list, which I think is still a really good list on the whole. It's easy to look at a list negatively when you're not playing well.
 

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No SPIN said:
if you had no confidence in the football department at the beginning of the season, then why did you think we could finish top 8?
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Talent lol. I've been stomping all over the board telling anyone who'll listen that we have a top 6 quality list. We just need a football department to match. You don't put GWS, Geelong and West Coast to the sword the way we have if you don't have a talented group.

With Grundy having an AA squad quality season we've got A grade performers in all areas of the field. We just need to keep them fit and get the most out of their development. I know Buckley will be in charge next year so the priority needs to be in appointing better staff to support him.
 
Scodog10 said:
Talent lol. I've been stomping all over the board telling anyone who'll listen that we have a top 6 quality list. We just need a football department to match. You don't put GWS, Geelong and West Coast to the sword the way we have if you don't have a talented group.

With Grundy having an AA squad quality season we've got A grade performers in all areas of the field. We just need to keep them fit and get the most out of their development. I know Buckley will be in charge next year so the priority needs to be in appointing better staff to support him.
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No confidence in Balme?
 
No SPIN said:
if you had no confidence in the football department at the beginning of the season, then why did you think we could finish top 8?
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Because every now and again, talent alone MAY be enough to get you through if you have a blessed injury run?

I mean look at North. That's a pretty damn boring vanilla list and yet you combine a clean injury sheet with a favourable first half draw and you get 10-2 start. All of a sudden they get some injuries and the draw gets harder and they fall in a heap.

I believe our list has a better combination of depth and talent than most lists in the comp at the minute. Which I guess is partially a result of our injury run over the last 5 seasons. We've been forced to play everyone we have and see whether they sink or swim and as a result they've gained invaluable senior experience.

I still think the same thing I did at the start of this season. If all goes right for us (next year), we could easily make Top 4. But it all needs to go right. Before this season started I said that for us to make it to Top 4 we'd need:

- Almost no injuries (ba bao)
- A big year from Cloke (ba bao)
- Reid to play all season (tick that one off)
- Easy draw (tick that off, it's probably the easiest one we've had in years)
- Good seasons from key players (ba bao, outside Grundy and Reid, not many other KEY players had legitimately good years)

It's unfortunate but I still think that if all goes right - even with Buckley coaching, we can crack Top 4. Of course, if we were to bring in a better coach and a better football department we could make Top 4 without ALL those things needing to go right.
 
Righto No SPIN time for your questions. Does it make sense to you that an AFL football club well resourced enough to run a Netball franchise does not have a ruck coach or player development manager? It's like stepping into the ring against Ali with an arm tied behind your back...
 

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Scodog10 said:
Righto No SPIN time for your questions. Does it make sense to you that an AFL football club well resourced enough to run a Netball franchise does not have a ruck coach or player development manager? It's like stepping into the ring against Ali with an arm tied behind your back...
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It's clearly a football TAX issue, not a resources issue. Which current positions would you eliminate to free up resources for these new positions?
 
Obviously the year has been a disappointment, but it doesn't mean we cannot take a lot out of the second half of the year.

From a purely psychological perspective, I'd like to see us win 10 games or more, which means we at least equal or beat last years record.

Since Buckley commenced his coaching career, the club has continually slipped lower and lower, so from a psychological perspective it would be good to reverse that trend so we can at least say we are on an upward trend.

Realistically though, it doesn't excuse a lot of mistakes that were made in the first half of the year in particular. There was an obviously personnel issue, but there were also glaring management issues as well.

I hope we finish off the season strong and take some momentum into pre-season. It will at least give us some positives to hang our hats on and mean this year wasn't a total waste. There's no incentive to lose since we don't have a first round pick anyway, so I think it's important we come home strong.
 
Kappa said:
Before the season started nearly everyone said finishing in the bottom of the 8 was the minimum acceptable result.
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Before the season started, I hadn't anticipated we would have used 39 players.
I have seen enough to be hopeful going into 2017.
 
Finals were portrayed externally as an objective by the club, so in that regard it's clearly a failed season.

If you dig deeper there's some positive aspects though and some questions have been answered.

  • Grundy vs Witts - what shaped as a break out year for Witts in the preseason seen Grundy street ahead
  • Fasolo, White, Reid, Sinclair, Howe have shown great form
  • The bottom half of our 22 was unknown with an even spread across the list, I think we're better placed to know who's capable and what our best structure looks like
  • When we play well we generally win
  • A game plan is starting to take shape, you can see how we're trying to move the footy
 
"Progress" came second in the Melbourne cup once.
It's just a nice medium season hopefully the young ones develop and improve, the hi knows season 2017
 

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