Let's not forget the quick rise and fall of Port Adelaide. A kick of the grand final to being an also ran a year later. Anything can happen. Basing next year on this year's form is fools gold. We could get much better, or we could stall.

Ask me midway into next season and I will give you an answer.

Ask me in September next season and I'll give you an answer.

Ask me in September next season and I'll give you an answer.

Taking the easy way out. Come ooooon make a bold prediction.

We can. Injuries and off season will tell a lot.

I expect Hawthorn, Sydney & Fremantle will be there abouts again and after that we're as good a shot as anyone.

We need at least one significant off season win, to the level of the Garlett for a bag of chips trade.

a really good draw and a lot of luck.

i reckon we can win another 6 this year if all things go right for us,

4-10-14 would be a really good result from Roosys three years imo, i doubt anyone would have predicted that.

We still haven't won two games in a row for ages.. We're still on baby steps at the moment, plenty more work to be done before we can start to talk finals.

We still haven't won two games in a row for ages.. We're still on baby steps at the moment, plenty more work to be done before we can start to talk finals.

We can make a big jump up the ladders next season. The blocks are in place.

Like Ken Hinkley at Port when he came in and they rose from the pits to play Finals in his first season.... but the list and young talented midfield were there waiting for him before he got there.

We are now at that position. Roos had no chance of a fast rise up the ladder in his first year because the list was so bad and midfield deplorable.

Things are a lot different now. We should absolutely play Finals in 2016, no excuses.

We still haven't won two games in a row for ages.. We're still on baby steps at the moment, plenty more work to be done before we can start to talk finals.

Exactly, and you can't make it with 11 wins anymore unless a team gets banned for injecting themselves

We have good players coming through, but our polish is horrible sometimes. It costs us two goals, and gifts the opp three in most of our games. When I see us hitting up the people we are aimng for on a really regular basis then I'm start thinking about finals. We are moving in the right direction, but so often anything good we do is often undone by stupid and b grade work. Get rid of that and we are looking like a team again. If we cant do that then we will be around our current mark for a fair while.

Exactly, and you can't make it with 11 wins anymore unless a team gets banned for injecting themselves

Luckily Essendrugs are still playing & still have potential bannings to come......

Finals next year for sure, we can already beat the Geelongs, Tigers & Dogs, time to beat up on more teams we should be beating like the Saints, Blues, Dons, Suns, Lions, Port, GWS & Crows & what do you know we're sitting in 6th next year!! At least we can discuss the possibility now without the aid of mushrooms.

2017 will be 1987 revisited and hopefully with a better ending.

Who knows.. I think for the first time in a long while the competetion is very even. The top sides like Fremantle, West Coast, Hawthorn, Sydney aren't bulletproof.. Then there's a log jam of 8 sides who are all middle of the road then there's sides like us, saints and to an extent brisbane who are mid to bottom but in rebuilding phase, then have carlton & essendon who really havnt bottomed out and started the rebuild phase and then the Gold Coast have their own category cos who knows where they are at! So really it's getting harder to make finals with so many teams fighting around the same spots yet easier in other ways because sides aren't as dominate as years gone by

Skills are still really poor, we need another couple of classy mids/hbf types for us to be finals bound. 2017 it is for mine.

Saints-battlers playing well under a good coach.Reiwoldt ,Montagna reliant-yet to bottom out in my opinion.

Geelong-reliant on too few currently. Ageing list struggling to find young replacements for old stalwarts.

North-Petrie,Waite,Harvey,Firritto all over 32.Youth weak as Pish.

Richmond-going well now ,may be ahead of us in the short term but no real fears for us.

Gold Coast-Cultural cesspool-a mess.(drugs,booxe,strippers,and a selfish Captain

GWS- their young team looks good but I doubt they are tough enough to sustain injury,long sesaons into Sept just yet.

Bombers- in denial on many issues-a long slow implosion is due.

Port-May have reached their ceiling,not belting the door down.

Bulldogs- nothing special to worry about.Bob Murphy on last legs.Good mids,no rucks,one forward.

Brisbane-Zorko ,Rockliffe,Handley,Martin/s. a few stars .Not a team that strikes much fear .

West Coast- Will wait till next week before passing comment.

Collingwood-improving but not as quickly as we seem to be.

Freo-coming back to the back but well ahead of us.Once again,Lyon has the team to take him to Runner up if he is lucky.

Sydney-the ethos of one for all etc doesn't carry any water when 2 guys take all the $$$.Same reason I don't want us to chase Danger now.

Hawks-The benchmark.Tough,skilled,ruthless team of mercenaries. The nucleus and core are still good.Good players coming through.

Crows-meh

Melbourne-Good leader,good backline,developing mids,exciting forwards,many injuries to come back-could just as easily climb the ladder a la Port last year.

As Jonathon Brown said last weekend - we have superb bookends in Hogan and McDonald.

They're the hardest positions to fill and we're beautifully positioned in this respect.

Our young mids look great.

This list ain't so bad after all.

Thank you Paul Roos, Todd Viney and Jason Taylor.

If there was an option 'who the F knows' I would vote for it

But I am confidant

Despite our 'beatification' of Roos

The is the first rebuild that is not 'Messiah based'

Every aspect of the club is being improved

We are building better players and a better team

And i think the next 5 years are going to be great

THE big unknown for me is the next coach

But i cant see how we could be handling it any better

Changed my mind..... YES We will make the 8 in 16

Before I can have any confidence in our ability to make finals next year I'd like to see a few thing happen on the run home this season.

First and most important is we finish the year off. Last year post bye was an absolute shambles. This year, with the draw we have, we should get to 8 wins, if we finish with less than 7 we've gone backwards again.

Next we need to show we can win games against teams that are inferior to us. We don't have a great record in the few games we've started favourite in the last few years. (This is just going from memory so I could be wrong) We'll most likely be favourite against Carlton and Brisbane at least and really need to win these two.

We need to show an ability to back up, it's been a long time since we won 2 in a row and you won't play finals if you can't do that. We have 2 pretty good opportunities to do it on the run home, the Ess, Bris, St K block and Carl, WB late in the year.

If we can tick those boxes I'll be pretty confident we'll be well in the mix for finals in 2016

Well, this season against teams int he middle bracket of 7-12, we've actually managed to break even.

We played the entire top 7 in our first 12 games, and generally didn't match it with them.

The second half of our season has a much more 'approachable' draw which will tell us a lot about how we're going.

Broken record from me, but we've suffered horribly from not having a full 22 of legitimate AFL-standard players.

That has exacerbated the layer of injuries we've had, and exposed the kids to more responsibility than is usual to handle.

If Trengove is even an 'adequate' player after his lay-off, it makes a difference.

If Petracca goes ok next year, that'll make a difference.

If Stretch, ANB, Vanders and the like develop modestly but adequatel, that'll make a difference.

If one or two draftees/trade-ins are acceptable AFL standard, that'll make a difference.

But most of all, and always, if the the team reaches a point collectively where they believe that if they do their part, the next player will also do theirs, and nobody will be left on their own to carry the weight... that will make all the difference in the world.

Given the mess and inconsistency in the middle range of the ladder these days, it is absolutely possible to make finals in 2016.

But I'd still like another four or five wins this season, thanks.

We still haven't won two games in a row for ages.. We're still on baby steps at the moment, plenty more work to be done before we can start to talk finals.

Until we win two, then three in a row, vs anyone at all, we will not be serious contenders.

But I think the light at the end of the tunnel this time is (probably) not an oncoming train.

For me next year and 2017 are the transition years. A more pertinent question might be if you had to choose would you prefer us to play finals in 2016 or 2017? The obvious answer for the long term health of the Melbourne Football Club is 2017 under Simon Goodwin. If it goes the other way ie we rise up the ladder next year under Roos, then fall back under Goodwin, it won't be pretty.

So will Roos want to go out on a high or will he try to leave a lasting legacy. I think and hope its the latter, therefore my answer to the question is I hope we play finals in 2017.

For me next year and 2017 are the transition years. A more pertinent question might be if you had to choose would you prefer us to play finals in 2016 or 2017? The obvious answer for the long term health of the Melbourne Football Club is 2017 under Simon Goodwin. If it goes the other way ie we rise up the ladder next year under Roos, then fall back under Goodwin, it won't be pretty.

So will Roos want to go out on a high or will he try to leave a lasting legacy. I think and hope its the latter, therefore my answer to the question is I hope we play finals in 2017.

After 10 years of not being in finals, I don't get how anyone would want to wait a minute longer than necessary!

In 2016 p l e a s e!

2017 could be a fizzer for Goodwin whether we make finals in 2016 or not. 2017 being pretty or not, it is for him to take his opportunity.

ps 2015 finals would be even better but I know I'm dreaming there.

We fall into this trap everytime. After drafting Scully and Trengove I remember reading the 'will we compete for a flag in 2015?' threads. It just heightens the disappointment when a snag comes up in the road.

I don't think we'll play finals next year, but if we make the same growth from our 2014-2015 team, it'll certainly be enjoyable to see what the team is capable of on its day.

Before I can have any confidence in our ability to make finals next year I'd like to see a few thing happen on the run home this season.

First and most important is we finish the year off. Last year post bye was an absolute shambles. This year, with the draw we have, we should get to 8 wins, if we finish with less than 7 we've gone backwards again.

Next we need to show we can win games against teams that are inferior to us. We don't have a great record in the few games we've started favourite in the last few years. (This is just going from memory so I could be wrong) We'll most likely be favourite against Carlton and Brisbane at least and really need to win these two.

We need to show an ability to back up, it's been a long time since we won 2 in a row and you won't play finals if you can't do that. We have 2 pretty good opportunities to do it on the run home, the Ess, Bris, St K block and Carl, WB late in the year.

If we can tick those boxes I'll be pretty confident we'll be well in the mix for finals in 2016

Yes it is interesting isnt it. We tend to beat mid range teams (GCS,Dogs, Tigers) struggle with top teams (Freo,Hawks, Woods, Swans) and inexplicably lose to "inferior" teams (St kilda, GWS - although they have improved a lot since we met them)). The only top 8 teams we have beaten in the last two seasons has been Geelong ( dont count Richmond) and they are on a downward path and maybe will miss the 8 this year.Consistency is our major challenge.

If we played like we did against Geelong of the remain games it should come out:

WC: narrow loss

Ess: win

Bris: win

St. kilda: win (we owe them)

Coll narrow loss, possible win)

North breakthough win

WB win

Carlton win

Freo loss, but they will have cemented top spot by then, and Lyon may play his kids

GWS too close to call, let's call it a win

that makes it ten games won, and probably about tenth. A good platform to make the eight in 2016

Yes it is interesting isnt it. We tend to beat mid range teams (GCS,Dogs, Tigers) struggle with top teams (Freo,Hawks, Woods, Swans) and inexplicably lose to "inferior" teams (St kilda, GWS - although they have improved a lot since we met them)). The only top 8 teams we have beaten in the last two seasons has been Geelong ( dont count Richmond) and they are on a downward path and maybe will miss the 8 this year.Consistency is our major challenge.

If we played like we did against Geelong of the remain games it should come out:

WC: narrow loss

Ess: win

Bris: win

St. kilda: win (we owe them)

Coll narrow loss, possible win)

North breakthough win

WB win

Carlton win

Freo loss, but they will have cemented top spot by then, and Lyon may play his kids

GWS too close to call, let's call it a win

that makes it ten games won, and probably about tenth. A good platform to make the eight in 2016

if this happened i'd be ecstatic.

It won't so i'll stay miserable.

I know it's unlikely but if we manage to beat West Coast this week I really believe that finals this year aren't completely out of the question.