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Certified Legendary Thread Squiggle 2017

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LittleG said:
Sorry FS, it was actually 15 wins. Agree there were 7 strong teams last year.
Looks like a lot less strong teams this year....
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Ah ok. 15 wins is quite a bit more unusual, especially prior to the arrival of the expansion teams in 2011. Until then, it bought you entry into the top 4 every year. But then wins got cheaper, and 15.0 of them hasn't been enough since.

There's a good chance that will change this year. We don't really have easybeat teams any more, or, at least, we have fewer of them, so the ticket price for top 4 is dropping. It'll almost certainly be 14 wins excluding draws.
 
WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot said:
I have to admit that at the time I was pretty entertained by Richmond making the finals and somehow managing to get knocked out by 9th place. Only Richmond could manage something so Richmond-y.
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For some teams, it would be ridiculous enough to make the finals for the first time in 12 years (and the 3rd time in 30 years), rack up a comfortable lead, and blow it. But that's not enough for Richmond. The misery has to have extra dimensions.
 
Final Siren said:
Ah ok. 15 wins is quite a bit more unusual, especially prior to the arrival of the expansion teams in 2011. Until then, it bought you entry into the top 4 every year. But then wins got cheaper, and 15.0 of them hasn't been enough since.

There's a good chance that will change this year. We don't really have easybeat teams any more, or, at least, we have fewer of them, so the ticket price for top 4 is dropping. It'll almost certainly be 14 wins excluding draws.
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The Dogs finishing 7th is long in the tooth. Their win, still extraordinary, was also the result of extreme AFL inteference leading up to the finals, that completely devalued the top 4, and extraordinarily poor umpiring in the grand final.

Had the afl not introduced a bye week, they would not have won the first final.
 

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chunkychicken said:
The Dogs finishing 7th is long in the tooth. Their win, still extraordinary, was also the result of extreme AFL inteference leading up to the finals, that completely devalued the top 4, and extraordinarily poor umpiring in the grand final.

Had the afl not introduced a bye week, they would not have won the first final.
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Yeah, real shame that the AFL had to remove the double chance and home finals for the top 4 to completely devalue them.

Also fantastic that you can glaze into your crystal ball and determine that a pre-finals bye somehow turns around a 7-goal margin.

I took the bait, but someone's still extremely salty over last year's grand final.
 
chunkychicken said:
Game on Friday night next week could well be a grand final rehearsal. Interesting game that one, especially if Richmond or Geelong start losing matches.
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I posted on our Board that psychologically the AFC need to win and win well against Sydney. They will be one of the possible sides we could face and we need to have them thinking negatively.
 
threenewpadlocks said:
Yeah, real shame that the AFL had to remove the double chance and home finals for the top 4 to completely devalue them.

Also fantastic that you can glaze into your crystal ball and determine that a pre-finals bye somehow turns around a 7-goal margin.

I took the bait, but someone's still extremely salty over last year's grand final.
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Both Geelong and GWS played 2 games in a month, completely unprecedented for top 4 teams, and their starts reflected it, more so Geelong.

The teams finishing 5th to 8th have a better chance of progressing this year than the other teams.
 
chunkychicken said:
Both Geelong and GWS played 2 games in a month, completely unprecedented for top 4 teams, and their starts reflected it, more so Geelong.

The teams finishing 5th to 8th have a better chance of progressing this year than the other teams.
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It isn't completely unprecedented. As previously posted in the final five system used from 1972 the team that won the qualifying final would have two weeks off before the grand final, and the 10 times that happened, they won 7 times.

And to think that any perceived advantage of playing 3 times in 4 weeks instead of 2 outweighs the benefits of home ground advantage and a double chance, well, that's beyond delusion. Beyond delusion.
 
chunkychicken said:
Both Geelong and GWS played 2 games in a month, completely unprecedented for top 4 teams, and their starts reflected it, more so Geelong.

The teams finishing 5th to 8th have a better chance of progressing this year than the other teams.
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Bullshit. The bulldogs won the premiership last year because of 2 things:
1. They played the best football in the finals.
2. They got some very favourable umpiring in the grand final.

It had very little to do with the bye - maybe the bye improved their chances slightly in the first week, but to claim that they were advantaged over the top 4 is just stupid.
 
gothecrows said:
Bullshit. The bulldogs won the premiership last year because of 2 things:
1. They played the best football in the finals.
2. They got some very favourable umpiring in the grand final.

It had very little to do with the bye - maybe the bye improved their chances slightly in the first week, but to claim that they were advantaged over the top 4 is just stupid.
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Actually the Bulldogs won the premiership in 2016, because they were at their peak when it really mattered and were the best team throughout the final series.

They won 4 games in 4 weeks, while 1 other team won twice and 2 other teams managed 1 win.
 
chunkychicken said:
Game on Friday night next week could well be a grand final rehearsal. Interesting game that one, especially if Richmond or Geelong start losing matches.
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Agree with this re the Ad v Syd game.
Each week for a while there's been season shaping games in a season that has been very much open and spasmodic.
With a quick review-
R15- GWS/Geelong draw. Rich d Port.
R16- GWS/Hawks draw.
R17- Syd d GWS. Geelong d Hawks.
R18- Ad d Geel. Rich d GWS.
R19- Hawks d Syd.
R20- Syd d Geel. Ad d Port. Rich d Hawks (which I wasn't going to add as a defining game but Hawks have figured in a few close games that have defined where real contenders are now so this win by the Tigers is defining).
R21 Geel v Rich.
R22 Ad v Syd.
R23 Geel v GWS.
It's starting to get very interesting
 

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Bulldog Joe said:
It was covered by the first point.

Unfortunately your second point just devalues eveything.

You need to acknowledge that the Bulldogs were legitimate premiers.
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I'm not sure why you need anything from me, but I agree that the bulldogs were the best performed team during the finals last year.
However, I also believe that they benefited from some very questionable calls against Sydney - would they have won without them? Quite possibly, but I'm not going to pretend it didn't happen.

Just FYI - I really in no way cared that Sydney lost. I was quite happy the bulldogs won, because I figured at least everyone could shut up about the stupid "impossible to win from outside the top 4" narrative. I'd said on the crows board before the last game of the season (when we were still 2nd):

gothecrows said:
Oh FFS - why do people keep banging on about the grand finalists coming from the top 4? The approach to the argument seems to be "if team X that finished 5th had the double-chance, then they'd be more likely to make the grand final". While this is probably true, it does not follow that because they don't have the double-chance, they cannot make it.

Generally speaking, the top 4 are the top 4 because they're the best 4 teams that year, so it's obviously more likely they'll make the grand final. Indeed, there have been a number of years (2001, 2008, 2009, 2011 for starters) where there have been 2 teams obviously better than the rest, and they've gone on to play in the grand final.

This year, however, I don't think you can objectively say that whoever finishes in the top 4 are clearly the best performed 4 teams this year, especially if Hawthorn is part of it, given their percentage. Take into account the inequity of the draw and it emphasises the point even more. Geelong have had double-ups against Brisbane and Essendon. We played them once each, and made up over 12% in those two games. Imagine if we had just another 6% from double-ups - Geelong would have no hope of overtaking us if we win.

Can we win from 5th? Absolutely.
Would it be difficult? Again, absolutely, but so is winning a flag in general. If the team is good enough to win it, then they'll win it from any position in the 8. The reason no team has won from 5-8 so far is that they haven't been good enough - simple as that.
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Am I the only person sick of bulldogs fans this year?
Question their accomplishment even a little and they get all defensive.
 
Bulldog Joe said:
It was covered by the first point.

Unfortunately your second point just devalues eveything.

You need to acknowledge that the Bulldogs were legitimate premiers.
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When the AFL releases a statement saying the umpiring was below standard people will ask questions; I can't recall anything like that report for a Grand Final this century. When the questionable decisions they list as incorrect are all for one team then the questions get louder.

You telling someone that they need to change their mind doesn't make those questions or the facts behind them go away.
 

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deflated said:
When the AFL releases a statement saying the umpiring was below standard people will ask questions; I can't recall anything like that report for a Grand Final this century. When the questionable decisions they list as incorrect are all for one team then the questions get louder.

You telling someone that they need to change their mind doesn't make those questions or the facts behind them go away.
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The AFL also said that the decisions didn't effect the result.
This thread is about the Squiggle. Take your sore loser talk to the Bay.
 
chunkychicken said:
Both Geelong and GWS played 2 games in a month, completely unprecedented for top 4 teams, and their starts reflected it, more so Geelong.

The teams finishing 5th to 8th have a better chance of progressing this year than the other teams.
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Well, I guess you're hoping that Sydney lose at least 1 of their next 3 games to ensure they don't finish top 4 then. ;)
 
Dirty Bird said:
Am I the only person sick of bulldogs fans this year?
Question their accomplishment even a little and they get all defensive.
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About as much as teams like Adelaide and Sydney sooking about umpiring.
 
Spot on. Bulldogs once again timing their run perfectly to finish in the bottom half of the 8 to maximise their chances of going back to back. Absolute visionaries, predicting that the end of season bye would have this effect last year and putting the strategy into place again this year. Shame the other clubs haven't seemed to twig yet as they keep trying to win games!! Suckers.
 

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Certified Legendary Thread Squiggle 2017

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