Which team from the bottom 8 will be the bolter of 2020

Aug 13, 2006
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Melbourne should be right in the mix but I'm not sure their ceiling is all that high right now, might be a couple of years to really get back on track.

Carlton are going to win plenty of games.

Hawks will be right in the mix (talking teams that miss the 8 not bottom 8 for the pedants out there).

St Kilda have really addressed a lot of holes and will be hard to beat week in week out.

North are talented but probably rely too much on Goldy, Cunnington, Ziebell, Higgins, Brown, Tarrant. Injuries will hurt them. Port are a bit similar to North, plenty of talent, but not all that inspiring.

Sydney are a bit the same. Just depends if they look to keep rebuilding for another year or if they try to maximise a fit Buddy. Adelaide are in a similar spot, do they go hard to rebuild or do they back in a pretty talented group?

Freo.........depends a bit on the Longmuir factor. Highly regarded, but sometimes the better coaches change more things and take time to build their system rather than start fast. Backline is very talented. Forward line is full of options - but do they have an A grade forward that isn't Walters? Aish and Acres are at least options to replace Langdon and Hill. Otherwise it's still Fyfe, Walters and then what in the midfield I think. The rise of Freo is obviously largely dependent on Cerra and Brayshaw stepping up and then immediate impact from some of Young, Serong, Henry.

A complete guess on chances of making the 8: Hawthorn, St Kilda, Melbourne, Port, Carlton, Freo, North, Sydney, Adelaide...GC.
 

Bazza97

Premiership Player
Nov 17, 2016
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Talking about the teams that missed the top 8 this year, I reckon Hawthorn will return to the finals and possibly back in the top 4 and I think Melbourne will bounce back to finish in the top 8 as well. You'd think there would be at least two changes to the top 8, so those are my two teams who I'm tipping to at least make it, but we could possibly have 3 changes to the top 8 which is what we've seen in the past few years. Much harder for me to choose a 3rd team, would probably decide between either Port, North or Sydney however I wouldn't completely rule out St Kilda, Freo, Adelaide or Carlton. Gold Coast would be the only side I'd completely rule out in terms of contending for a finals spot going into 2020.
 

SirKarl0s

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Jun 10, 2018
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Got a good feeling about the Saints, finished last season well, got some decent talent in over the trade period that will slot straight into the best 22. Could easily fly under the radar next year.
 
The Saints off-season recruits will all fit in straight away and have an immediate impact. The Saints have a lot of players returning from injury and they should push for a top eight spot.

The Hawks this time go into 2020 with their number one player returning, a full forward (Patton) and a centre half back (Frost). Expect Hawthorn to be a significantly better scoring team next year.

Melbourne could go from bottom four to top four. They need T.McDonald to have a 40-50 goal season again and also a better output is needed from their small-medium forwards if Melbourne are to challenge for the Premiership.
 

Capriati

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Aug 25, 2019
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Carlton and Gold Coast are the two that stick out. Both should realistically win more games in 2020 than they did this year, but neither will make finals.



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Jan 7, 2011
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The Saints off-season recruits will all fit in straight away and have an immediate impact. The Saints have a lot of players returning from injury and they should push for a top eight spot.
To the team that we fielded most weeks this year (to get us to 9 wins), we could potentially add any or all of (with games played for us this year in brackets):

Hill (0)
Ryder (0)
Jones (0)
Howard (0)
Butler (0)

Roberton (0)
King (0)
Bytel (0)
Hannebery (5)
Geary (5)
Webster (8)

With Bruce, Newnes and Acres being the only regulars this year that we've lost so far.

By round 23 we could also have as many as 17 on our list who have played 100 games, so we're starting to get our list profile to the stage where we need to be contending for finals.

Finally, we played just 11 games at Marvel this year, whereas we have 14 there next season, which ought to help. Especially as we're likely to field a much quicker team.
 

Purple_Turtle

Stockholm Syndrome
Oct 12, 2019
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What makes you think freo will significantly improve?

I think that Fremantle will go backwards due to the loss of Hill and Langdon, however like this year could still get a couple of good wins against top teams at home


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Aish can cover the loss of Langdon. Hill is the bigger loss, but we have decent options for wing.

The return of players like Hogan, Pearce, and Taberner will have a huge impact, particularly if they can stay fit throughout the season.
 

Capriati

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Aug 25, 2019
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Aish can cover the loss of Langdon. Hill is the bigger loss, but we have decent options for wing.

The return of players like Hogan, Pearce, and Taberner will have a huge impact, particularly if they can stay fit throughout the season.

Decent options for wing, such as?

From an outside (and non-WA) perspective it feels to me that Freo hasn't been this bad since pre 2003.
 
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