The F Word

[Steven Gerrard]

We are currently 2 wins plus percentage ahead of 9th. We need to think bigger than aspiring for 7th or 8th, we need to aim for 4th. That's the mentality we need to have, become the hunter not feel like we are being hunted by Carlton, the Crows and the Eagles for 8th spot. And what better way to start this hunter approach than by beating Essendon on its home court this week. Onwards and upwards.

 

[BIG DADDY]

It's simple really
If we play the way we have the last 2 rounds we will finish top four
If we don't we will most likely finish ninth and hope that Essendon get relegated to bottom

 

[_Christoh_]

Its going to take 13 wins to make it and it will come down to us having to beat Carlton if we win the games we should against Saints, Lions, Suns and Crows. Those 4 are must wins unless we can slay a giant again against any of Bombers, Hawks, Cats, Dockers.

Positions 6-8 will be between us Collingwood, Richmond and Carlton. 3 spots 4 teams and Carlton chasing the pack to get in. It may very well come down to our last home and away game.

I cant call it on if we will make it. If we drop a game we should win then we need to slay another giant. I cant call the last round game against Carlton either as I think it will be a real 50/50 game and whoever wins deserves to be in the finals.

Wont be shattered if we don't make it, have seen enough to suggest we will give the top 4 a shake next year.

 

[Janus]

We're two games clear of the chasing pack, and West Coast/Adelaide play each other next week, along with Carlton/Collingwood. I have no doubt we'll make finals, because that's what the kind of football we are playing right now deserves. But make no mistake - if it comes down to Carlton or Port for that final eight spot, and a Richmond/Carlton elimination final is on the cards, don't expect ANY favours from the umpires during that last game.

 

[Doctor Feel]

My conclusion is beating Carlton and Adelaide are imperative, else we can still very very easily miss the finals.

 

[shewho]

We'll get what we deserve.

 

[Wargreymon90]

We should form a bigfooty choir at the airport if we get a home final

 

[DonDynamite]

We should form a bigfooty choir at the airport if we get a home final

Instead of apricot slice we'll have hot pies and instead of singing the song we will hold the hot pies in their faces.

 

[PAFC04]

It's possible, but very tight. I can't see us beating Geelong or Hawthorn, which makes the remaining games extremely important.

In my experience, upcoming younger teams like us have a big tendency to "lift" for big games like the past two weeks, and then bottle it against clubs that sit lower on the ladder. As much as we've improved, that loss against the Bulldogs should teach us that you can't take anything for granted.

I couldn't see us beating Sydney and the Pies, but we did....

 

[PAFC04]

If they start thinking that they will play finals this year, they will get distracted easily and lose focus. This is a young playing group still. They should be conditioned mentally to stay focused on the next game, not games they could(and just as easily could not) be playing in a few months time. Even if we were top of the ladder undefeated, the focus needs to remain on the next game we face, not September.

We were 5 and 0, then slumped just as quickly as we had risen. We've now put that slump behind us with two very solid and impressive wins over two of the best teams in the comp.
That momentum needs to continue by staying focused on the challenges at hand. And that is the upcoming game. And the week after that the same thing.

I hate to see our fans with the false belief that we are a certainty to play finals.
Because if we miss out, if we fall into another slump again, then those fans start the usual blame game. And who gets the blame?
Players, coaches. We don't need any more of that, we've had enough of that self inflicted poison these past few years. We were always going to lose more then a few games this year at some stage. When it happened, it resulted in the "Hinkley Out Coached Again" thread.
We need to keep things in perspective. Hinkley and co have done well to communicate to the supporters where they are taking the club, their plans etc, and to remind us that we are not there yet and we still have a long way to go.

In addtion to this, it requires patience to build a good professional, solid team to play games at a constant rate, year in and out. Thsi is what we are building, a team that will put us back on the map of AFL football and a relevant club that is not an impedement to the system but a team that is now the hunted to played against and a team that gets Friday night football.

No mattter how far our team ends up this year, these players and coaches, admin & staff will be amongst greats in our football club who saved our club by getting us to where we are now.

 

[Concussion]

I had us as an improving team this year, thinking we should finish around 10th so anything is a bonus from here and I am just enjoying watching the footy again and hopefully we get to the finals and push some teams pretty hard.
The next few years are going to be immense.

 

[Sewer de Lance]

Too many hypotheticals & verbal diarhhoea IMO. X=Y to the square root of 3.162 will make us finish 4th, Y-X x 5 drunk rabbits & a one legged pirate will make us finish 9th.

I live by one equation: Port Adelaide = win at all costs. I couldn't give a flying **** about the opposition. Some people are urinating there pants just at the prospect of playing the better sides. If we continue to play like we have the last fortnight, we will win every game.

 

[Shaxx Attaxx]

The Bulldogs game massively biting us on the ass. I did the predictor. I had us in 8. We beat Carlton in the final round but lost to Crows. 2 Massive games that could go either way

 

[cj_09]

I heard someone say yesterday, if can beat one more team above us, and beat everyone below us in the games to come, we'll be playing finals for the first time in 5 years.

There's a long way to go and we need to take it week by week and not look to far ahead.

 

[BornPort]

I'm going to take it one week at a time like Hinkley. We could lose the next 5 for all we know. We are a very young side and we will be inconsistent as we saw when we lost to the Bulldogs.

 

[Adz2332]

My ladder predictor to me comes down to the final rnd vs carlton.
Win were in lose out...
Although makes us 9th and still a shot to play finals

 

[RossFC]

What I think will happen

 

[Chrizzt]

What do people think of the value of making finals? I would certainly like to see us playing finals, as it will justify our own belief, as well as giving the media more positive spin to put on us. I also firmly believe you need a few lost finals campaigns to really strengthen the resolve of a club pushing for a premiership, so the earlier you get it out of the way the better.

However, when 'planning' our development, I'd figured we weren't going to make finals this year and factored things in like the extra pre-season time, better draft picks, etc. It will also mean we will go into next season with huge expectations, and it only takes a little hiccup of losing an early match for a team to tumble.

I still believe that the benefits outweigh the negatives in this case, however it is an interesting point as to how people think that making finals will affect our development.

 

[bringbackbucky]

Been thinking about this for a while.
Everyone always refers to the psychological damage that the 2007 season did to our Club. We played above ourselves for much of the year and then got pantsed in the GF. Its taken 5 years and 3 coaches for the football side to recover. Now the football side has turned the corner and we are a realistic chance of making finals.
As a supporter, I am finding that the psychological scars of 2007 are still with me. I feel ashamed to say it but I am actually scared of making the finals. Scared that we might just surprise everyone and make it all the way to the big day again. Scared that it will happen before our time. A Port supporter should not be scared of playing finals, but 2007 must have cut very deep. No wonder it ended some careers…
And for the record - I think we will make the finals and win finals.

 

[bringbackbucky]

What do people think of the value of making finals? I would certainly like to see us playing finals, as it will justify our own belief, as well as giving the media more positive spin to put on us. I also firmly believe you need a few lost finals campaigns to really strengthen the resolve of a club pushing for a premiership, so the earlier you get it out of the way the better.

However, when 'planning' our development, I'd figured we weren't going to make finals this year and factored things in like the extra pre-season time, better draft picks, etc. It will also mean we will go into next season with huge expectations, and it only takes a little hiccup of losing an early match for a team to tumble.

I still believe that the benefits outweigh the negatives in this case, however it is an interesting point as to how people think that making finals will affect our development.

Its a good question isn't it. I've often wondered how Burgess will view it. I'm sure our fitness regime was based around the season finishing in August. I wonder if he has already had to make adjustments...

 

[Andre]

Our last finals appearance was a disgrace. We don't need to win a final if we make it, but if we put in an honourable performance (as per the Creed) then it will go a long way to finally drawing a line on that day. Make the finals and not disgrace ourselves there and 'the vibe' going into 2014 at Adelaide Oval will be huge. Especially if the Cows miss the finals and have s**t picks due to their draft tampering. It can help set us up at AO from the start, stamping the ground as ours, in a way we were never able to do at Footy Park with the crows winning in 97 off the back of the dodgy final 8 match schedule.

 

[The Hobo]

I wouldn't expect us to get very far in the finals, this is where experience is extremely important.

And so every game if finals we can get into these boys will be worth its weight in gold when we are actually ready to push for a premiership in 2-3 years time

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

Ken Hinkley was a coach at Geelong on 29th September 2007. Given he saw what happened to us, and experienced something very similar in both 1994 and 1995 GF's when he played for Geelong who were absolutely smashed by WCE and Carlton, I have confidence that if we make the finals he will make sure we give it everything.

If we are good enough to win 8 or 9 of our last 9 games and make the top 4, then if we win 2 finals and make the GF, I have full faith that Ken wont allow a repeat of 2007. We might not win, but we will never give up and we will give a good account of ourselves.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

What do those posters around town say? "Beware the Sleeping Giant."

I think the last two weeks we have come out of our slumber. Long may we stay awake this season.

 

[Papa G]

What I think will happen
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Under that scenario I'd love the opportunity to play Richmond again. Outside the Darwin game it was definately our most dissapointing game of the year. I reckon we'd give a much better account of ourselves and would love to rub Chaplin's nose in it.

The other scenario, which I think is a big possibility is that Essendon aren't allowed to compete in the finals which would mean we'd play Carlton back to back at Footy Park.