Who will finish higher - North, Richmond or Collingwood?

Who will finish higher in 2017?

  • North Melbourne

    Votes: 76 17.6%
  • Richmond

    Votes: 150 34.6%
  • Collingwood

    Votes: 207 47.8%

  • Total voters
    433
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Bring-Back-Powell

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Thread starter #1
The big question on everyone's mind is who will finish the highest in 2017? North, Richmond or Collingwood? My ladder prediction in brackets.

North Melbourne (15) Along with Essendon, they're the biggest mystery/wildcard of 2017. Have well documented losses of experienced heart and soul North players which could hurt. However there was a massive correlation between North finishing 2-10 and a ton of injures. If they regain their Etihad form, they could win quite a few games to hang around the fringes of the 8.

Richmond - (14) Not sure if 2016 was the start of their decline, or a really off year. They traded well to offset the loss of Deledio, who missed half off last year anyway. I really think they needed a new coach to refresh the existing talent they have.

Collingwood (13) - Have the best midfield in the league according to Chapion data. According to Bring-back-Powell's assessment, have one of the worst forward lines and backlines on paper - Jesse White and Lynden Dunn...seriously?
Like Hardwick, if he was a head coach of a Pro US sports team, he would've been sacked for sure.
Having said that, they'll win plenty of games I reckon to possibly hang around 8th-11th for most of the year.
 
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dean33

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#4
The big question on everyone's mind is who will finish the highest in 2017? North, Richmond or Collingwood? My ladder prediction in brackets.

North Melbourne (15) Along with Essendon, they're the biggest mystery/wildcard of 2017. Have well documented losses of experienced heart and soul North players which could hurt. However there was a massive correlation between North finishing 2-10 and a ton of injures. If they regain their Etihad form, they could win quite a few games to hang around the fringes of the 8.

Richmond - (14) Not sure if 2016 was the start of their decline, or a really off year. They traded well to offset the loss of Deledio, who missed half off last year anyway. I really think they needed a new coach to refresh the existing talent they have.

Collingwood (13) - Have the best midfield in the league according to Chapion data. According to Bring-back-Powell's assessment, have one of the worst forward lines and backlines on paper - Jesse White and Lynden Dunn...seriously?
Like Hardwick, if he was a head coach of a Pro US sports team, he would've been sacked for sure.
Having said that, they'll win plenty of games I reckon to possibly hang around 8th-11th for most of the year.
Big question on everyone's mind? Yes, all I've been thinking about since the season finished was if we can finish above the pies and Roos next year...
 

adammania9

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#10
We'll all miss the eight most likely. I do think the Pies are best although being a fan of one of the proposed teams, my opinion probably counts for nought.

Collingwood 11th, North Melbourne 13th, Richmond 14th. Both Collingwood and Richmond to start rising in 2018, whilst North will stagnate or fall.
 

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master bate

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#13
I'll probably say Collingwood as they finished the year in the best form. But I also feel like they added Wells to their long injury list and until he and any of those other guys come back they might just be treading water.

I think it will be a pretty even comp next year. Not many stand out teams and not many terrible team. So any of these 3 teams could start hot at 7-4 and then push towards a 5-8 finish if they were really lucky. Or they could start 4-7 and 2 of these teams could fire their coach and North could decide to play kids for half a year to speed up the rebuild and secure a nice draft pick.
 

master bate

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#15
I think I'd describe the Pies best 22 as ugly but functional. In that there's a lot of players who fans would be suspect on but as a team it could work together. Pendles with a little help from Treloar, Sidebottom, Grundy, maybe Wells in the midfield, some man on man defending and better ball use and then an odd mix of forwards might just work.

Richmond have the depth issue despite bolstering the midfield and should stick with some pretty young kids if they want to improve in the long run. The list has talent but needs a complete rethink from the coaches to get it working and that's hard to do without changing the head coach!

North are going to be playing some different players and are really hard to predict. I don't think they'll be all that bad but except for maybe the ruck if the Goldy/Maj combination works I don't see where they have a strength. Tall forwards, tall backs, inside, outside runners, smalls, there's not really one spot where I think North have a clear advantage over most teams and that probably means a lot of close games at best.
 

Mitchell54

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#16
The big question on everyone's mind is who will finish the highest in 2017? North, Richmond or Collingwood? My ladder prediction in brackets.

North Melbourne (15) Along with Essendon, they're the biggest mystery/wildcard of 2017. Have well documented losses of experienced heart and soul North players which could hurt. However there was a massive correlation between North finishing 2-10 and a ton of injures. If they regain their Etihad form, they could win quite a few games to hang around the fringes of the 8.

Richmond - (14) Not sure if 2016 was the start of their decline, or a really off year. They traded well to offset the loss of Deledio, who missed half off last year anyway. I really think they needed a new coach to refresh the existing talent they have.

Collingwood (13) - Have the best midfield in the league according to Chapion data. According to Bring-back-Powell's assessment, have one of the worst forward lines and backlines on paper - Jesse White and Lynden Dunn...seriously?
Like Hardwick, if he was a head coach of a Pro US sports team, he would've been sacked for sure.
Having said that, they'll win plenty of games I reckon to possibly hang around 8th-11th for most of the year.
Richmond declining! from what? mediocre to bad? Agree they need a new coach. Hardwick is a spud. Not sure how he got his contract extended.

I don't mind Dunn & White, They're good supporting cast to Moore & Ried. They can both play. Reckon Collingwood got a very good deal for Dunn. Again a coach that i'm surprised is still around- spud.

Collingwood will finish highest & North lowest
 

doppleganger

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#17
Their list mangler has no clue about footy.
The decision has been to move away from slow, big bodied talls - Cloke, N.Brown, Witts and Frost - and ball butcherz like M.Williams, and Toovey

Instead moving toward more agile, flexible, dynamic players who can cover the ground, can kick the ball and play multiple roles; bringing in Treloar, Wells, Mayne, WHE, Howe and Aish in the last couple of years.

Reckon we are finally catching up with what is required in modern footy.

A forward line of Elliott, Fasolo, WHE, Mayne and Moore would potentially be a nightmare...five blokes who all can mark, all chase and are all agile and good when the ball is on the deck.

All can push up the ground and rotate through the middle / wings too.

Problem being that they spend more time injured than on the park.
 

master bate

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#19
A forward line of Elliott, Fasolo, WHE, Mayne and Moore would potentially be a nightmare...five blokes who all can mark, all chase and are all agile and good when the ball is on the deck.

All can push up the ground and rotate through the middle / wings too.

Problem being that they spend more time injured than on the park.
That can be an effective forward line but I can't see it being a nightmare. The medium types need to be good because Moore is still a kid, the other tall will be either Cox or White and you lack a genuine crumbing small. And whilst those 4 medium guys might all be decent players I don't think any of them really would scare good medium defenders. Maybe Elliott on his day but he'd need great service.

The whole will have to be a fair bit better than the sum of the parts when it comes to the Pies forwards.
 

doppleganger

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#20
That can be an effective forward line but I can't see it being a nightmare. The medium types need to be good because Moore is still a kid, the other tall will be either Cox or White and you lack a genuine crumbing small. And whilst those 4 medium guys might all be decent players I don't think any of them really would scare good medium defenders. Maybe Elliott on his day but he'd need great service.

The whole will have to be a fair bit better than the sum of the parts when it comes to the Pies forwards.
Meant nightmare in terms of match-ups, as if you put a small on any of Fasolo, Elliott, WHE or Mayne they will be too good in the air.

Moore is ready to go, 3rd season now, 40+ goals if he plays 20 games would be minimum expectation based on his form to finish 2016

Problem being that all of them bar Mayne are very fragile and prone to injury. So not much use if sitting in the stands
 

TwentyNine

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#21

aussierulesrules

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#23
Collingwood's draw in the first 10 or so rounds is pretty brutal, while according to Champion Data, North have the easiest draw in the comp for 2017. I suspect one of these 2 teams will finish highest of the 3.

With Collingwood still having Davoren in charge of their fitness, I'm not confident of them avoiding another bad injury run though and if North get injuries again they'll be in trouble, as we saw in the 2nd half of this year that they don't have the depth to handle them, and that was when they still had the famous 5 on board, who are now gone.
 

PetterdHoisted

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#24
Collingwood should finish highest, but they should have finished highest the last 4 years with the talent on their list. The reality has been a year-on-year decline, and from the outside some very un-Collingwood performances, something just not right with that club. I've said it before, I think they need to move back home to Collingwood, find their old identity again before they improve.

So then it depends how much North drops vs Tigers improvement. Reckon North will pay a high price for the way they knifed their club legends last year, can't be good for morale especially among the experienced players left at the club, so Richmond gets my vote, by a whisker.
 

The Dice Man

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#25
In the AFL's 27 years, Richmond have finished above North just four times.
Why must we be compared with those minnows?
Well obviously it will go to 5 next year.

Another interesting stat is that Northboner, excluding new start up in GWS, are the club with the longest drought of not having a player win a Brownlow. :eek:

Now that your best player in Harvey has retired.. Oh I mean sacked, reckon that stat will last a long time, unless they start giving it out for sympathy.
 
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