Prediction Why won't we win the 2019 flag?

Can we still win the flag?


  • Total voters
    106

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CM9000

BigFooty Optimist
Aug 19, 2016
3,053
6,792
Perth, WA
AFL Club
West Coast
Other Teams
East Fremantle
I had a pretty ******* awful day footy wise. Not only did I watch West Coast get smashed, but the club I play for was pumped as well, in our only final. That sort of bad luck on the same day isn't something you often get (unless you support Fremantle).

However, I refuse to believe that 2019 is a wasted year. I have no idea what the hell happened, and honestly, after our worst slog in the wet this year, coming off a six day break, we were probably physically destroyed. Hawthorn are also better than people give them credit for, especially in the second half of the season - they haven't lost a game since the bye by more than 4 goals. I was hoping that we'd smash them, but, in reality, I did expect a close match from a team playing for finals.

Sam Mitchell as a coach helps as well.

But * all this "2019 is done" talk, though. We're not going to finish fifth, Brisbane will beat Richmond in an upset, and I refuse to believe we're done even if they don't.

2018 is a thing, you know. What happened that year made this team, they showed us something special. This season has proven to be more difficult than I think many were expecting - twice as many wet games, probably the toughest draw in the competition, and no Nic for most of the year. Actually, I think most underestimate the importance of Nic in 2018; we may have won the premiership without him, but he was still there for 16 games and our 10 consecutive wins. We would not have the flag if it weren't for his influence in the first part of the year.

And now he will be starting for us in our next game.

I see no reason to believe we won't do what is necessary this year - creating club history, keeping the flag outside Victoria, and above all us, giving Nic, Gaff and Shep the flag they missed out.

Actually, no, another crucial objective that is as important as any other is keeping the flag out of Richmond's hands. Between us and Brisbane, we have to ensure that the AFL's money maker doesn't win another premiership, just so this competition can maintain a shred of integrity.
 
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We're good enough to beat anyone, anywhere on our day. Last night was a shocker, but I'm glad we got that out of our system and hope we can see some Eagles footy from here on in.

Brisbane win today, we finish 4th and go to the Gabba. Won't be an easy game but we can beat them if we stick to our systems and actually hit some ******* targets.

Richmond win today, we finish 5th and likely host the Bombers, who we absolutely pantsed earlier in the year. That'll give the lads confidence.

We're not done, we can still do this, we'll just have to do it the hard way.
 
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Think our season is riding on Brisbane today realistically. I’ve said all year we’re still the best team in the comp on our day and we just needed to get to finals in a good enough position to challenge (top 4). The last 2 weeks we’ve pretty much cooked our season and while I think we could potentially give it a shake from 5th.. realistically we aren’t winning 3 away finals in a row, especially on current form.
 

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Hickey is pretty much the sole difference this year, he plods along but gives us nothing Lycett and Vardy gave us. If we play him first week of the finals its pretty much the white flag.
 
Might miss a trip to Brisbane to play a QF could be a blessing in disguise , sure we may have had a chance but a loss and backing up would have stuffed our finals campaign ......I think we're okay with 5th there is advantages , hehe we got this !!
Maybe !!
 
I wish we could flick a switch and play four quarters for the first time all year. But this is a team that hasn't beaten a top 4 side all year (or 1-3 if Richmond lose today) and has a 4-5 record against the top 8 (as it stands right now).

You can't paper over that rubbish record by saying those loses were at the start of the year any more.

We just haven't been hungry enough.
 
We haven"t been up for any of the major challenges of this year. Perhaps this team needs to know its sudden death every game from here.
 
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Yeah based on the evidence of this year so far, we aren’t willing enough to get our hands dirty and dig in when it gets tough.

We have failed basically every ‘test’ other than winning the GF replay in Round 2.

Whenever we’ve been given a good opportunity based on other results, we’ve crumbled under pressure and we also failed to beat our SCG hoodoo.

s**t happens though - there’s always next year.
 
We're good enough to beat anyone, anywhere on our day. Last night was a shocker, but I'm glad we got that out of our system and hope we can see some Eagles footy from here on in.

Brisbane win today, we finish 4th and go to the Gabba. Won't be an easy game but we can beat them if we stick to our systems and actually hit some ******* targets.

Richmond win today, we finish 5th and likely host the Dogs, who we absolutely pantsed earlier in the year. That'll give the lads confidence.

We're not done, we can still do this, we'll just have to do it the hard way.

Great post. Last night was shocking on most fronts. It is time to reset for finals. It is not as bad as people think. We can still do this!


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Richmond win today, we finish 5th and likely host the Dogs
How does this happen?

We can only play Essendon/Hawthorn in an elimination final

Brisbane in a QF final

EDIT: Unless Dogs draw with Adelaide
 

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I can't think of many reasons why you blokes can't win it. I reckon even if they end up outside of the top 4 the eagles are a massive threat.
 
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The biggest difficulty in winning from 5th is having to travel 3 weeks in a row. If a hard slog vs Richmond was the reason we lost to Hawthorn, how the heck are we going to back up a trip to the MCG in 2nd week of finals with a trip to Brisbane for the prelim and a Grand Final after that?

Its not an impossible task and I have hope that the injection of NN will be the spark we need. But if we don't win the flag that's also ok, I've always said sustained success is the key to winning flags and we have the list to stay up for a while.
 
I can't think of many reasons why you blokes can't win it. I reckon even if the end up outside of the top 4 the eagles are a massive threat.

I agree with this anything can happen in finals it's an open race .
Looking forward IF we win our first FF ( EF final ) then we play the loser of Geelong v Collingwood probably .......very tough over there but not impossible .

Brisbane are the complete unknowns , how good are they ? at home very good away pretty good also !!
 
It’s too hard for interstate teams to make the GF outside top 2. It’s just too much travelling.

If anything, better to finish 5th than 4th. At least get a home game. If they make 4th and lose one, they don’t deserve the GF anyway...
 
I can't think of many reasons why you blokes can't win it. I reckon even if they end up outside of the top 4 the eagles are a massive threat.

Unfortunately the easiest way to find a reason is to point to our performances all year.

Couldn't beat your mob despite kicking 7 of the first 10 goals
Couldn't beat Collingwood at home despite having a 3 goal lead in the last.
Smashed by Brisbane, Port and Geelong.
4 goals or fewer wins against Gold Coast, Melbourne (twice), Carlton, St Kilda and Freo so couldn't build percentage
Lost to Sydney
Lost to Hawthorn when top 4 was on the line

Our best is awesome but playing well for a quarter (or less) a game isn't going to cut it :(

I hope we grab Tim Kelly so our midfield has depth.

I still think we have a chance if Brisbane win today and we get Nic Nat back for the Qualifying Final, but jeez. I wish we had 7 games straight at Optus.
 
If anything, better to finish 5th than 4th. At least get a home game. If they make 4th and lose one, they don’t deserve the GF anyway...

Not sure about that logic.
Finish 5th, get a home final and then 3 away finals.
Finish 4th, play away, then home and finish with 2 away finals.

The latter breaks up the travel.
 
Unfortunately the easiest way to find a reason is to point to our performances all year.

Couldn't beat your mob despite kicking 7 of the first 10 goals
Couldn't beat Collingwood at home despite having a 3 goal lead in the last.
Smashed by Brisbane, Port and Geelong.
4 goals or fewer wins against Gold Coast, Melbourne (twice), Carlton, St Kilda and Freo so couldn't build percentage
Lost to Sydney
Lost to Hawthorn when top 4 was on the line

Our best is awesome but playing well for a quarter (or less) a game isn't going to cut it :(

I hope we grab Tim Kelly so our midfield has depth.

I still think we have a chance if Brisbane win today and we get Nic Nat back for the Qualifying Final, but jeez. I wish we had 7 games straight at Optus.

Perfect

Nuff said, end thread
 
We haven"t been up for any of the major challenges of this year. Perhaps this team needs to know its sudden death every game from here.
Not really confident that’ll do anything. They’ll just say * it and “we tried our best”. A lot of evidence to suggest we can’t be arsed, last week was sudden death for top 2, this week for top 4 and many other times during the year where a chance has opened up and we’ve failed to capitalise.
 
Pretty hard to make a case for us to win a flag from here but if we do it it will be our greatest flag ever. We have form issues in Barrass and Kennedy. We lost the last 2 games going into finals. Pretty likely we will be travelling each week. We aren't anyone's fairytale. We have to take our chances from now on. In NIC we trust.
 
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