Opinion The Bye: Optimistic or pessimistic for the rest of the season?

[Dave]

Optimistic. Have loved watching the kids play this year. Parish has been an eye opener. Seeing many of the established players responding to Rutten's coaching has also been really good. Lots of positives, which compared to previous seasons, is something I haven't been able to see .

 

[naraku]

I'm worried about our midfield depth, worse now that Pidge will likely miss 4 weeks minimum.
Other than Draper and Smith, I'm not sure if we're getting anyone back in the next week or two?
I think we'll unfortunately drop off a little since we're still to play Dees, Doggies and Cats and probably finish around 12th.

But as other's have mentioned, the wins are obviously big but I was hoping to see a good game plan under Truck this season , as well as some signs from the kid's. So far, only the Port and Lions game have disappointed me in the way we went about things. The First half of the season has passed any reasonable expectation I might of had and beyond. We will probably have another shocker but as long as we keep competing and the kids develop then that will be some big strides forward.

 

[BrunoV]

Optimistic in the sense that the goal for this year was to build a style that has a place in the modern game and to see buy-in from the players. That's been knocked out of the park and I see no reason that will change.

However, I can't see how we maintain the results given the injury toll in the middle of the ground. 3 starting mids down and nothing to replace them with stretches us too thin. I could see us dropping to 14 or 15.

I'm not seeing a lot of obvious wins in the remainder of the season:

???

[TD valign="top"]Round 14[/TD][TD valign="top"]Hawks[/TD][TD valign="top"]MCG[/TD][TD valign="top"]Should win[/TD]

[TD valign="top"]Round 15[/TD][TD valign="top"]Demons[/TD][TD valign="top"]MCG[/TD][TD valign="top"]Loss[/TD]

[TD valign="top"]Round 16[/TD][TD valign="top"]Cats[/TD][TD valign="top"]GMHBA Stadium[/TD][TD valign="top"]Loss[/TD]

[TD valign="top"]Round 17[/TD][TD valign="top"]Crows[/TD][TD valign="top"]Marvel Stadium[/TD][TD valign="top"]Should win[/TD]

[TD valign="top"]Round 18[/TD][TD valign="top"]Kangaroos[/TD][TD valign="top"]Marvel Stadium[/TD][TD valign="top"]Will win[/TD]

[TD valign="top"]Round 19[/TD][TD valign="top"]Giants[/TD][TD valign="top"]Marvel Stadium[/TD][TD valign="top"]???[/TD]

[TD valign="top"]Round 20[/TD][TD valign="top"]Swans[/TD][TD valign="top"]Marvel Stadium[/TD][TD valign="top"]???[/TD]

[TD valign="top"]Round 21[/TD][TD valign="top"]Bulldogs[/TD][TD valign="top"]Marvel Stadium[/TD][TD valign="top"]Loss[/TD]

[TD valign="top"]Round 22[/TD][TD valign="top"]Suns[/TD][TD valign="top"]Metricon Stadium[/TD][TD valign="top"]???[/TD]

[TD valign="top"]Round 23[/TD][TD valign="top"]Magpies[/TD][TD valign="top"]MCG[/TD]

I'm not looking at it based on how we looked 2 weeks ago. The difficulty is going to be the increased reliance on kids, particularly through the middle as the season wears.

I can see us running out of gas by round 19 and I think each of those opponents are likely to either improve or maintain current levels.

 

[bombre-boy]

Long term injuries to mids will kill us off later in the year.
The youngsters just wont be able to keep it up with all of the guys we have unavailable.
As long as they keep trying and building the system the win column doesnt really matter this year.

 

[MiguelM]

Long term injuries to mids will kill us off later in the year.
The youngsters just wont be able to keep it up with all of the guys we have unavailable.
As long as they keep trying and building the system the win column doesnt really matter this year.

Yeah the cupboard is pretty bare. I think Perkins is most likely to hold up ok though.

 

[windyhill]

Injuries hurting. 12- 14th. 2022 looking good. Salary cap room, go land a big fish please.

 

[BrunoV]

Injuries hurting. 12- 14th. 2022 looking good. Salary cap room, go land a big fish please.

No fishing!

 

[dave10]

Injuries hurting. 12- 14th. 2022 looking good. Salary cap room, go land a big fish please.

No, we need this year to solidify the foundations via the draft. We need to stay the course with this rebuild.

 

[JayJ20]

Optimistic when it comes to how we develop as a side.

Not too optimistic about winning given the amount of injuries we have. Midfield is barely hanging on at the moment.
I see us finishing 10th or 11th.

 

[windyhill]

No, we need this year to solidify the foundations via the draft. We need to stay the course with this rebuild.

We got picked off last season. What goes around comes around.

 

[Cold Sober]

Too much over analyzing by dreamers and keyboard warriors. Stop being sheep.

 

[blitzer]

I was pessimistic before the start of the season. Thought we'd end up about 13-15th but the impact from some of our younger blokes in Cox, Perkins and Jones etc has been first rate. Additionally Parish taking his game up to the elite level was something I never saw coming in a million years plus a lot of other positives like most of our backline etc.

With what I've seen so far and taking into account our injuries I think we'll finish in that 9-11 range. Our draw isn't too harsh and even though I don't think we are much of a chance beating Melbourne, Bulldogs or Geelong (at GMBHA) the other games really aren't too bad and are generally winnable with some games that we simply should win.

Whilst we do have lots of injuries right now one good thing is that our next 2 matches after the bye are Hawks who we should win (we've improved a lot since round 1) and then Melbourne who we will probably get beaten by pretty easily. So we've got some time to sort ourselves out in that respect.

But honestly way more important than wins and losses and whether we scrape into finals is if we can keep bringing the same attitude and game style week after week. If we do that I'll be happy and confident knowing we are on the right track.

 

[fairbump_playon]

The WCE win was a great indicator for what this group can do.

I will be amazed and impressed if we can continue to be that competitive given injury and youth.

Also worth noting that WCE are nowhere near being a top 4 side this year, and we have been belted by the two actual good sides we have played. The cats, dogs and demons will likely have us for brekky.

Will be important for Merrett retention and the confidence of the group going forward to not get blown away in losses. My optimism is that we can hang in and keep showing up almost every week, and maybe win a couple of 50/50s. Finish =12.

 

[fishardansin]

No fishing!

Agree. No big fish. Start front-loading contracts that lockin in star players, so we can afford to keep our younger stars in 2-4 years time. Right now we need to build in the draft again. Not against finding a mature fringe player here and there to give us depth as kids continue to develop. Hooker and Hurley can be that next year at either end. I suggested earlier someone like Matheson for the midfield.

We must be involved in the first round of the draft again this year and next year build a draft/trade strategy around the Davey twins.

 

[eth-dog]

So looking at the injury list, here are the players we should have fit for either Hawthorne or Melbourne (with a few developing players in there as well for overall squad health):

Tom Cutler
Devon Smith
Sam Draper
Peter Wright
Zach Reid
Josh Eyre
Dylan Clarke? Who honestly knows, though
Will Snelling?

Leaves us with (as well as the two maybes):

Kaine Baldwin
Jye Caldwell (2 more months it looks like, so the last 3 games at best?)
Dylan Shiel (could be back for Adelaide or North?)
Michael Hurley
Andrew McGrath
David Zaharakis?

So our VFL KPP's should get a relatively good run and it'll allow guys like Bryan to develop their forward craft as well.

 

[Bombermania]

If we can double our wins and if Zach signs on then it has being a pretty successful season considering the preseason fears of being the league's whipping boys.

 

[Vindicater]

Pretty happy with Cox, Perkins and Jones cementing themselves as long term best 22 players.

Hit the draft again and maybe bring in a mid price free agent veteren to help cover injuries and we should be good.

 

[Cold Sober]

6 more wins to come.

 

[Runk]

Seeing as I burnt my membership after the pre season loss to Carlton I went and bought a new one and will burn it when we lose to the Roos in rnd 18.

Loving seeing the kids play - play em all.

 

[Vindicater]

Would like to see us continue beating the teams we should.

Starting with HawthornE this week.

 

[Jade]

I'll let you know Sunday night.