I just don't think the pies best is as good. Same with richmond. Both of those sides are particularly vulnerable to teams with dominant key talls particularly with rance out for the year.
With full sides available (discounting season ending injuries) then the only two sides I can see going with us with Nicnat, Jetta and Barrass is Geelong and GWS.
I see our defence being able to match up with Richmonds forwards well enough, us holding even at least in the middle and our forwards being the difference.
Against Collingwood their very strong midfield shades us but our defence is a few levels above their forward line and our forward line a couple of levels ahead of their defence. I think we have them covered in the air and can keep up with them around the ground.
Geelong's additions have greatly improved them, particularly on the spread and general ground speed which has been their biggest weakness in years past as well as fading towards the end of seasons. Will be interesting seeing how their older players continue during the season and if they slow at all. If their key older players slow up at all or hawkins gets injured they are in trouble.
GWS best football sees their midfielders absolutely dominant and able to destroy us with run however some of their very best players still are young and not fully developed and may not stand up to finals. Also very important to see how Mumford, Shaw and Deledio hold up over the season as their class and on field leadership i think is very important to them. They have been underwhelming at the MCG to say the least as well mind you. In saying that like us in our years of success that's been the very last thing to click.
Mind you we are one more key midfield or forward injury away from not competing either in a lot of ways. I see us as having an exceptional best 22 all fit but our depth is very unbalanced imo. Mind you with salary caps, limited list sizes and 18 sides in the comp you really can't have 30+ guys all ready to go with genuine cover to all important positions. Our small forward depth imo is non existant (venables is currently not afl standard and neither is cameron) as is our midfield depth (masten, ah chee, mallen?) and it's really easy to see how hard it is for us to get clean ball out of defence without all of shep, hurn and jetta playing. Also if we play an important game in the wet i see us in lots of trouble.
