The boys were on notice last week having be unreliable in backing up after big wins.  Another challenge this week agaisnt the Blues because should they relax they will be vulnerable.  Not even thinking finals at this stage, happy with the progression and IAH as the old cliche goes not getting ahead of myself and just focussed on beating teh Blues this week, before moving on   

Not to get ahead of myself but I have us playing GWS at Spotless in the semi final, should GWS finish 4th and lose week 1.

I really feel that the three in a row, particularly by following up the unexpected upset (hawthorn) with a winnable game, is a massive psychological factor. 

OK it is hard to shake the MFCSS, the feeling that we will get snagged by Carlton in the "easy" game after the tough two games but this week should be less of a pysch hurdle now. The pressure isn't on to win two in a row, or to win the easy one, the pressure this week is just to perform as we have the last 4 weeks and walk away with 4 points.  And we've done that enough this year that the "back the win up" blues isn't as big a risk. 

Not saying we have it on the bag but I don't think we are facing the same challenge as the essendon game for example. 

1 hour ago, Nasher said:

I don't reckon.  Every loss to crud teams we've had this year, namely Essendon and St Kilda x2, they had a different feeling about them.  

That nervous feeling in the pit of my stomach when coming up to teams we *should* beat is absent this time around.  I bet the players are feeling the same surge of confidence (not complacency) that I am.  We are going to crush them, mark my words.

Hope you're right, Nash.

10 minutes ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

Not to get ahead of myself but I have us playing GWS at Spotless in the semi final, should GWS finish 4th and lose week 1.

I had us losing to Sydney in October.

If anything is going to cost the team it will be the North loss.  The quintessential 8 point game.

We could have won the North encounter and only a bit of inexperience cost us - we certainly didn't play poorly that day.  I believe that loss propelled the team forward anyway.  The players started playing with real confidence and belief from that moment.

The other point about the season is the amount of bad days that we've had ... I'd say we've had about 5 - 6 games where we weren't completely switched on.  And probably only 2 of those 5 - 6 games were shockers.

Again, you'd take that at the start of the season when factoring in that we were going to play well or very well in the other 14 games. 

5 of our losses have included narrow losses to North & the Eagles, 2 x small losses to the Hawks & Crows and we weren't disgraced against the doggies either.  It's fair to say that the win over the Lions was an average win but we've won 9 other games in impressive fashion, all things considered.

One of the major factors that must be considered is how young & inexperienced the team has been all season.

We're in bonus time ... playing with house money.  A free hit.

Best and Fairest count on Tuesday the 6th of September could be interesting...

On 15/08/2016 at 2:44 PM, Bring-Back-Powell said:

Not to get ahead of myself but I have us playing GWS at Spotless in the semi final, should GWS finish 4th and lose week 1.

 

"Not to get ahead of myself but here's how I got ahead of myself."

Just did the ladder predictor. Tried to give us the best case scenario while still being realistic

I have us beating Carlton by 30 points this week, and Sydney beating North by the same margin. Among the other round 22 results I've got Hawthorn beating West Coast by 12, Collingwood beating GCS by 12 and St Kilda beating Richmond by 12.

This puts us 1 game behind North, with their percentage (106.3) ahead of our percentage (106.2) by 0.01%

The following week, I have us somehow edging out the Cats by 1 point at Simmonds. That leaves Saturday nights clash between North Melbourne and GWS. The Giants win a close one by 12 points. Meaning the Cats' consequence for losing earlier in the day is they have coughed up their top 4 spot to GWS. With a 1 point win we scrape past North Melbourne by 0.06% and play Geelong at the MCG in an elimination final

15 minutes ago, DemonLad5 said:

Just did the ladder predictor. Tried to give us the best case scenario while still being realistic

I have us beating Carlton by 30 points this week, and Sydney beating North by the same margin. Among the other round 22 results I've got Hawthorn beating West Coast by 12, Collingwood beating GCS by 12 and St Kilda beating Richmond by 12.

This puts us 1 game behind North, with their percentage (106.3) ahead of our percentage (106.2) by 0.01%

The following week, I have us somehow edging out the Cats by 1 point at Simmonds. That leaves Saturday nights clash between North Melbourne and GWS. The Giants win a close one by 12 points. Meaning the Cats' consequence for losing earlier in the day is they have coughed up their top 4 spot to GWS. With a 1 point win we scrape past North Melbourne by 0.06% and play Geelong at the MCG in an elimination final

As a loyal demon, where do I sign my pact with the devil to make this happen?

16 minutes ago, DemonLad5 said:

Just did the ladder predictor. Tried to give us the best case scenario while still being realistic

I have us beating Carlton by 30 points this week, and Sydney beating North by the same margin. Among the other round 22 results I've got Hawthorn beating West Coast by 12, Collingwood beating GCS by 12 and St Kilda beating Richmond by 12.

This puts us 1 game behind North, with their percentage (106.3) ahead of our percentage (106.2) by 0.01%

The following week, I have us somehow edging out the Cats by 1 point at Simmonds. That leaves Saturday nights clash between North Melbourne and GWS. The Giants win a close one by 12 points. Meaning the Cats' consequence for losing earlier in the day is they have coughed up their top 4 spot to GWS. With a 1 point win we scrape past North Melbourne by 0.06% and play Geelong at the MCG in an elimination final

I thought the team that finishes higher gets a home final, and because Cat park is unavailable, it would end up at Etihad?

Just now, Wadda We Sing said:

I thought the team that finishes higher gets a home final, and because Cat park is unavailable, it would end up at Etihad?

No way they'd make a Dees vs Cats at Etihad. They'd want the bigger crowd

Besides we'd forfeit anyway

All I'm focusing on is that should the Roos result go our way this week, we are playing a game in round 22 to potentially play for a spot in the finals in the final round. Whether that last round actual eventuates to anything or not we should just enjoy the ride for the next week, not look too far ahead & have enjoyed the previous 2 weeks. After all we deserve it after the last 10 years.

When we destroy Carlton & the Roos get a kicking by the Swans, this place is going to be mental.

If we win our next six matches, we are certainties for the Flag!

To the people saying that it will somehow be better to miss the finals than make it, just know youre in good company - Damian Barrett said the same thing

It is the stupidest thing I have ever heard

14 minutes ago, Petraccattack said:

To the people saying that it will somehow be better to miss the finals than make it, just know youre in good company - Damian Barrett said the same thing

It is the stupidest thing I have ever heard

I agree, simply because if we do happen to make the finals we will be in great form and no doubt could do some serious damage in there.

There is a school of thought that believes that you can not win finals and a GF without having experienced the pain and angst of coming close but coming up painfully short. 

We've allowed the season to unfold in a way that has our finals appearance (or not) in the hands of others (i.e. North losing two).

Should it not fall our way, and we don't make it, the boys will have to face that it was their own fault and they need to burn brighter and more ruthlessly next year if they are to make it.

Should it fall our way, and we make it, play a final or two before being bundled, the boys may not really learn that lesson and think it's easier than it actually is.

So there's probably some merit to Damo's arguement.

 

On 15/08/2016 at 2:31 PM, Allus Monk said:

The only question for me is how will our players respond to the bye after Round 23!!!

I reckon it will work in our favour actually. 

Would give them a week to recharge/refocus after having to get themselves up for such a huge match in Round 23.

13 hours ago, Wadda We Sing said:

I thought the team that finishes higher gets a home final, and because Cat park is unavailable, it would end up at Etihad?

2006 St Kilda finished 6th & Melbourne 7th. 

Elimination Final played at the MCG.

I think we are getting ahead of ourselves here, first we must win on sunday against a carlton side who we rarely win against. Last year we lost because we took them too lightly. In1987 we were very lucky and unlucky we lost player to injury during critical games. Against Footscray we lost Garry Lyon early in the match with a broken leg and against Hawthorn Robbie Flower was unable to lift his arm above his head. The reason we lost the 1987 preliminary final was each individual tried to win the game of their own boot and not do the team thing which they were doing until 3/4 time. 

13 hours ago, Wadda We Sing said:

I thought the team that finishes higher gets a home final, and because Cat park is unavailable, it would end up at Etihad?

I think the idea is that they always use the biggest stadium in the state for finals to maximise crowds, for some reason Geelong got a home final against Fremantle.

My opinion is that finals should be played at the home ground of club (such as Geelong in Geelong) as they truly have a home ground advantage there because not all grounds are the same size and have the same conditions.

Those saying we shouldn't make finals, because it'll give us the desire next year are crazy.  We've had a great run of injuries this year.  There is no guarantees that next year will be the same.  

Imagine what it would do for the club: memberships, sponsorship, exposure, fixturing next year if we are seen as an improving, exciting team.  

If we make it there will be teams worried about us.  I think i read that Brereton even said that if we make it there will be 7 other teams worried about playing us.  He also said that he thinks we're playing as well as any other team in the comp at the moment.  

8 minutes ago, PaulRB said:

There is a school of thought that believes that you can not win finals and a GF without having experienced the pain and angst of coming close but coming up painfully short. 

We've allowed the season to unfold in a way that has our finals appearance (or not) in the hands of others (i.e. North losing two).

Should it not fall our way, and we don't make it, the boys will have to face that it was their own fault and they need to burn brighter and more ruthlessly next year if they are to make it.

Should it fall our way, and we make it, play a final or two before being bundled, the boys may not really learn that lesson and think it's easier than it actually is.

So there's probably some merit to Damo's arguement.

PaulRB,

You don't think the sting and burn of losing a final would motivate them more that stewing over a loss to the Bombers or WC?

 

9 minutes ago, hells bells said:

PaulRB,

You don't think the sting and burn of losing a final would motivate them more that stewing over a loss to the Bombers or WC?

 

That's the key question.

What happens if we win one? or even two?

Most supporters, commentators and even players would say we have "over achieved" just to play finals and would be ecstatic should we play and win one or two... so we'd go into the pre-season felling pretty good, like that wasn't too hard, we're certainties to be top four in 2017, blah blah blah... 

Or we win our two games and North win Vs GWS by a point.

Ouch! Grrrr [censored] [censored] [censored] bring on 2017, we'll show them...

Have you seen "The Hustler"?

13 hours ago, Chook said:

As a loyal demon, where do I sign my pact with the devil to make this happen?

I believe the traditional method as per Robert Johnson is to head down to the crossroads and fall down on your knees. 

The devil will explain the rest. 

 

I've always liked Cream's version.