Just watching the Melbourne round table discussion on Fox Footy.  Quite a lot of positivity around the attacking game plan shown in the NAB Challenge getting up to 100 points etc massive improvement on prior years, they want to see that continue.  David King still banging on that Goodwin should have the match day keys now and keep up the new game plan and Roosy take the club shaping role. 

A lot of love for Jesse and Oliver too. The concensus was 9 wins but they saw moreso that the improvement will be reflected more in the style of play and the excitement for the fans and players enjoying their footy. 

Jason Dunstall was relaxed about Hoges fixing his kicking style and said he would be the first player you'd go after if you were building a team.

King excited by Petracca said he's a freak like Robbie Gray just a bit taller 

Cam Mooney said we're no longer a basketcase, and people are going to be standing back this year and saying how good is this, they're exciting 

Brad Johnson's a Viney fan.

Overall not really any negatives,  but they wanted to see that NAB Challenge game style continue during the season 

This must come as a major disappointment for those who have been crying out about half of those cited above hating the Dees and never having a good thing to say about the club.

Was that on tonight's one? I've recorded them all so far but haven't watched yet, will watch the one featuring us first.

6 minutes ago, Delusional demon 82 said:

 

Cam Mooney said we're no longer a basketcase, and people are going to be standing back this year and saying how good is this, they're exciting 

Brad Johnson's a Viney fan.

 

I actually think we are the hardest team to call in the comp apart from Carlton and Essendon. For so many reasons 8-10 wins are possible (injuries etc) but for so many reasons, if we avoid the Norm Smith curse (Neil Balme would still have nightmares about the injury list he had) I can see as many as 14 wins (This is realist me, fantasy me says 15....). So anyway my point is the pundits all sound like they are hedging their bets, they know we are on the move but need to see change before they back us. They will jump on quickly and say they saw the improvement.

As for Viney, I'm starting to think by the end of his playing days Junior Viney will be the best thing Senior Viney ever did for us, and that is not meant as a slight against Todd.

 

3 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

Was that on tonight's one? I've recorded them all so far but haven't watched yet, will watch the one featuring us first.

It's was on at 7.30 tonight but the TV Guide was not correct I was expecting freo and the pies. But instead it had norf, dees,  port , essendon and gc. ..was surprised myself 

23 minutes ago, Delusional demon 82 said:

Just watching the Melbourne round table discussion on Fox Footy.  Quite a lot of positivity around the attacking game plan shown in the NAB Challenge getting up to 100 points etc massive improvement on prior years, they want to see that continue.  David King still banging on that Goodwin should have the match day keys now and keep up the new game plan and Roosy take the club shaping role. 

A lot of love for Jesse and Oliver too. The concensus was 9 wins but they saw moreso that the improvement will be reflected more in the style of play and the excitement for the fans and players enjoying their footy. 

Jason Dunstall was relaxed about Hoges fixing his kicking style and said he would be the first player you'd go after if you were building a team.

King excited by Petracca said he's a freak like Robbie Gray just a bit taller 

Cam Mooney said we're no longer a basketcase, and people are going to be standing back this year and saying how good is this, they're exciting 

Brad Johnson's a Viney fan.

Overall not really any negatives,  but they wanted to see that NAB Challenge game style continue during the season 

Thanks for these thoughts. I missed our episode, but caught the first episode. Having just seen the trailer I couldn't help but Tweet FOX FOOTY and complain about the direction. Seriously, the dollying is nauseating. Glad I didn't have to watch it.

Umm. Pretty sure this is on tomorrow? I just watched today's replay and Melbourne wasn't mentioned.

Each of the 4 panelists was asked who they thought would be the best of our current group over their careers (paraphrasing).  Interesting that they came up with 4 different players, as follows:

Dunstall:   Hogan

Mooney:   Gawn

Johnson:   Viney

King:   Petracca

I like that!

9 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

Was that on tonight's one? I've recorded them all so far but haven't watched yet, will watch the one featuring us first.

Yep.  We were on tonight but they buggered up the sequence.  The advertised teams for tonight were shown after us.

May as well just plonk Russel Jackson's (no relation?) preview here for further discussion . . .

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/mar/16/2016-afl-season-preview-st-kilda-and-melbourne

Personally, I think they are spot on with 9 - 10 wins this year. 

32 minutes ago, Deeoldfart said:

Each of the 4 panelists was asked who they thought would be the best of our current group over their careers (paraphrasing).  Interesting that they came up with 4 different players, as follows:

Dunstall:   Hogan

Mooney:   Gawn

Johnson:   Viney

King:   Petracca

I like that!

Need 3 more panellists so they can vote for Salem, Oliver and Brayshaw. Only fair. 

Given that we finished 13th last year, have just won 3 NAB cup games, had a solid preseason, improved game style etc... how does the Guardian crew justify having us finishing the same (13th) or worse?

At least the Fox Footy Crew have us winning more this year than last... I think they're under estimating because they don't want to write off teams above us who would have to fall for us to rise, namely Tigers, North, Port, and Giants. 

3 minutes ago, PaulRB said:

Given that we finished 13th last year, have just won 3 NAB cup games, had a solid preseason, improved game style etc... how does the Guardian crew justify having us finishing the same (13th) or worse?

At least the Fox Footy Crew have us winning more this year than last... I think they're under estimating because they don't want to write off teams above us who would have to fall for us to rise, namely Tigers, North, Port, and Giants. 

It's not a crew. It's one man with a decent well founded opinion....who also spends a lot of his time as a cricket writer and researcher.

He justified it easily with the statement that there are a lot of good teams, and it's a perfectly fair point. The top 12 were well clear of us last year and so many of them (Coll, GWS, Geel) had strong off seasons. 

Simply there are good teams with more experienced talent than we have. 

We need the 1st to 3rd year young players to come on, and they are good and I think they will.

But even more we need Jones, Vince, Dunn, Garland, Garlett, Jetta, Lumumba, Dawes/Pedo, Matt Jones/Grimes to give us their best, which they likely will. We know what we'll get from that lot, both the good and the bad.

But our season might rest upon the 22-25 year old types in Gawn, McDonald, Watts, Ben Ken, Vanders, Tyson and Viney. If the experienced guys do a job and those guys make the step up to regular performers then we have a backbone of the side.

Fools gold to think kids without 50 games or fully grown bodies, no matter how talented, will be able to suddenly lift us much higher than last years ladder position and more than 1 or 2 more wins. 

 

 

18 minutes ago, PaulRB said:

Given that we finished 13th last year, have just won 3 NAB cup games, had a solid preseason, improved game style etc... how does the Guardian crew justify having us finishing the same (13th) or worse?

At least the Fox Footy Crew have us winning more this year than last... I think they're under estimating because they don't want to write off teams above us who would have to fall for us to rise, namely Tigers, North, Port, and Giants. 

That I certainly agree with. The issue being we had 7 wins and some of those sides last year or the year before for Port went well over 12 wins. 

If we close the gap it's much easier to jump over those teams. 

3 minutes ago, DeeSpencer said:

It's not a crew. It's one man with a decent well founded opinion....who also spends a lot of his time as a cricket writer and researcher.

He justified it easily with the statement that there are a lot of good teams, and it's a perfectly fair point. The top 12 were well clear of us last year and so many of them (Coll, GWS, Geel) had strong off seasons. 

Simply there are good teams with more experienced talent than we have. 

We need the 1st to 3rd year young players to come on, and they are good and I think they will.

But even more we need Jones, Vince, Dunn, Garland, Garlett, Jetta, Lumumba, Dawes/Pedo, Matt Jones/Grimes to give us their best, which they likely will. We know what we'll get from that lot, both the good and the bad.

But our season might rest upon the 22-25 year old types in Gawn, McDonald, Watts, Ben Ken, Vanders, Tyson and Viney. If the experienced guys do a job and those guys make the step up to regular performers then we have a backbone of the side.

Fools gold to think kids without 50 games or fully grown bodies, no matter how talented, will be able to suddenly lift us much higher than last years ladder position and more than 1 or 2 more wins. 

 

 

Good Points you make...We are on the edge of the middle log jam.... 

Jackson addresses this in the comments section by asking who drops. It's a fairly decent question but is consistent with any preview that has trouble picking movers and sliders from previous seasons without relying on rusted-on prejudice. My issue is with the consistent underrating of Jetta from outside perspectives (assuming RJ isn't a Dees fan - though there's an indication he supports either the Dees or Saints) and on the flip, everyone outside the club's supporter base seems convinced Tyson will be an A-grader better than Jones, Viney, Vince and co. when I'm not so sure that's a given

They also mentioned that we have the 4th hardest draw. 

2 minutes ago, Baghdad Bob said:

They also mentioned that we have the 4th hardest draw. 

How does that happen when we finish 13th?

2 minutes ago, Skuit said:

Jackson addresses this in the comments section by asking who drops. It's a fairly decent question but is consistent with any preview that has trouble picking movers and sliders from previous seasons without relying on rusted-on prejudice. My issue is with the consistent underrating of Jetta from outside perspectives (assuming RJ isn't a Dees fan - though there's an indication he supports either the Dees or Saints) and on the flip, everyone outside the club's supporter base seems convinced Tyson will be an A-grader better than Jones, Viney, Vince and co. when I'm not so sure that's a given

He's a saints man. So he's also coming at us with a perspective that he's own struggling side beat us twice last year. 

Jetta is a beauty. But injury derailed him a bit last year so it's patchy form last year and 2014 and that's all we have to go off. His impact on games is also limited somewhat as he doesn't have huge involvement away from the ball coming to him and his opponent.

I'm with you on Tyson, but I also think he's been building through the preseason after missing a lot last year. I'm hoping he and Viney can stand up and with Jones control games and let Vince go to half back. I rate Tyson and Viney about equally at this stage. Both very good but needing to keep improving their weaknesses and bringing their best. It's not easy to make the step up from promising young player to consistent performer with a well rounded game.

7 minutes ago, Baghdad Bob said:

They also mentioned that we have the 4th hardest draw. 

If that is the case then good.  Can't  learn tough uncompromising footy properly with a soft draw.  Now we should have the caliber of players to take the game on. 

Essendon 0-1. Carlton 0-1. St Kilda 0-2

Beat: Geelong, GWS, GC, Brisbane, Collingwood, Dogs and Richmond.

The way for us to go up without getting spectacularly better but getting far more consistent is:

Win 3 out of the first 4 teams, which were embarrassing losses. 

Win 4 out of the 7 we beat last year. 

Beat 2 of Sydney, North, Port and Adelaide.

Beat 1 of Hawthorn, West Coast, Freo

10 wins, % around 90-95%. 

13 minutes ago, america de cali said:

If that is the case then good.  Can't  learn tough uncompromising footy properly with a soft draw.  Now we should have the caliber of players to take the game on. 

Spot On...We need to suprise a few sides...

47 minutes ago, Redleg said:

How does that happen when we finish 13th?

"AFL", "consistency", "fairness" --- pick any two ... 

28 minutes ago, DeeSpencer said:

Essendon 0-1. Carlton 0-1. St Kilda 0-2

Beat: Geelong, GWS, GC, Brisbane, Collingwood, Dogs and Richmond.

The way for us to go up without getting spectacularly better but getting far more consistent is:

Win 3 out of the first 4 teams, which were embarrassing losses. 

Win 4 out of the 7 we beat last year. 

Beat 2 of Sydney, North, Port and Adelaide.

Beat 1 of Hawthorn, West Coast, Freo

10 wins, % around 90-95%. 

We should dispatch those teams we shouldn't have lost to last year.

We split three of those we won. The only surprise win for me last season was Geelong.

The 'beat 2' line we're ready to crack and the 'Beat 1' I can't see us beating just yet.

So . . .not beating anyone highly unexpected, beating everyone we rightly should, balancing the surprise wins and losses, and splitting the rest, I arrive at 11.5 wins.