A lot of factors at play here. We will be better this year than last, injuries to our players will determine how much better. Thankfully we have more depth but we cannot afford to loose key players like Hogan and Gawn.  Then we have factors such as everyone else's draws, ours appears harder, but who knows some of the less fancied teams we play once could be on the rise, so playing them once maybe a bonus for us and a pain for others.  The we have how other teams have fared with their list management, injuries, draw and game style.  I think many agree St Kilda and Carlton are unlikely to improve drastically this year. Brisbane is still lacking depth, the suns rely on Garry and a couple of others, GWS is up and down, while some of their players re getting more mature they are still not consistent, the loss of Cameron and a couple of others will upset them. Collingwood, we saw what happened to them after they lost cloke and Elliott, no forward line and an aging midfield. They have recruited a couple of guns but that's nothing new, Collingwood has a bit of history buying in expensive recruits to help lift them, it has not worked too well so far, I hope the trend continues.  Richmond will be around 8 or 9 as usual, as they are such an up and down side.  Port two years ago were wowing everyone have now fallen back into the pack, the loss of their ex-Essendon players and toumpas is not going to help them improve this year. Adelaide, lost their number one player, they rely on Tex and a couple of older hands, they maybe slowing down. Norf, is a real mystery they could go anywhere unfortunately they are consistent enough to do that from week to week so are only likely to be around the edge of the 8 with richmond. Footscray will improve but they will miss cramery and may have a little trouble scoring if tommy doesn't come good for them, but I would expect they may challenge for the 8. and Essendon they have stacked their side with top up players who are all likely to be playing every week while the normal essendon list tops up the side as these older players succumb to injury and tire from the workload. They may win a few games but no finals this year, maybe next year once their get a new first pick in the draft in November.

All in all the final eight is likely to be Geelong, Hawthorn, Eagles, Freo, Sydney  with 3 spare spots being raffled, so maybe,  just maybe Melbourne can get one of those spots.

I wouldn't ink Geelong in so quickly. Just me

3 hours ago, It's Time said:

... including a need to be "brutal" at the contest."

That's where I think we can make the most improvement. Hard at the ball and hard at the contest. Make other teams realise they've been in a competition.

1 hour ago, beelzebub said:

I wouldn't ink Geelong in so quickly. Just me

Agree with that BB. I think they've  been still slowly coming back down since 2012 , that 2007-11 elite midfield has now either aged or retired . skilled stadium is no longer the fortress it once was.  danger and Henderson might help a bit don't understand why many think they're montys for top 4 .

Looking forward to Viney shutting down selwood again this year

Don't see all the hype with the cats. 

Still prefer that we're flying under the radar atm. 

In hindsight, a lot went wrong last year that doesn't necessarily have to go wrong this year.

We could get a roll on. A bit of excitement and morale. Attacking game-styles rely a lot on emotion and it is our attacking flow that has been particularly deficient.

But I always get this way, this time of year. Looking at supercoach values and thinking "oh, surely he'll go up, and him, and him, and him..."

Every. Year.