I really hope everyone else is closer with their ladders than I.  In mine we only just scraped into the 8 and Geelong end up on top due to a relatively friendly draw.  I had us being knocked out in the first week of finals.  I also have a Geelong/GWS GF.  Not liking the look of that. 

6 hours ago, Krazy Jaeger O'Smeara said:

1. Sydney
2. GWS
3. West Coast
4. Adelaide
5. Geelong
6. Western Bulldogs
7. Gold Coast
8. Melbourne
9. St Kilda
10. Fremantle
11. Collingwood
12. Hawthorn
13. Richmond
14. Port Adelaide
15. Kangaroos
16. Essendon
17. Brisbane
18. Carlton

 

 

Krazy, we were the only ones to have Gold Coast in the 8.

Very interested to see how they go, and I think they will surprise.  A fully fit Ablett, new superstar Tom Lynch, the rising Peter Wright, the exciting Jack Martin and Aaron Hall, and the handy additions of Pearce Hanley, Michael Barlow and Jarryd Lyons should give them some depth.

AFL 360 last night David King has us finishing 5th, said we're primed and ready to go under Goodwin. He didn't have Saints in the top 8 by memory.

McClure has us at 8th, with the Saints at 5.

35 minutes ago, McQueen said:

AFL 360 last night David King has us finishing 5th, said we're primed and ready to go under Goodwin. He didn't have Saints in the top 8 by memory.

McClure has us at 8th, with the Saints at 5.

As much as I loathe David King's commentary, I hope he is correct on this occasion.

 

4 minutes ago, Is Dom Is Good said:

As much as I loathe David King's commentary, I hope he is correct on this occasion.

 

I don't mind him. He's passionate about looking deeper into the statistical analyses of the game so he doesn't just fire off mindless comments like other commentators.

I too hope he's on the money with this.

14 minutes ago, McQueen said:

I don't mind him. He's passionate about looking deeper into the statistical analyses of the game so he doesn't just fire off mindless comments like other commentators.

I too hope he's on the money with this.

True.

The level of commentary has really reached new lows.

Most people are only interested in a few clubs and literally don't even know players name. Pretty poor when that is your job!

2 hours ago, McQueen said:

AFL 360 last night David King has us finishing 5th, said we're primed and ready to go under Goodwin. He didn't have Saints in the top 8 by memory.

McClure has us at 8th, with the Saints at 5.

When it comes down to it the Saints fixture is much more difficult than ours, they could improve and still miss out.

1 minute ago, ArtificialWisdom said:

When it comes down to it the Saints fixture is much more difficult than ours, they could improve and still miss out.

That's the biggest difference between our season and the Saints. They will most likely bet us this Saturday, but the rest of the season is harder for them.

Ninth is my prediction with 13 wins unless the season is very even  for teams fifth to ninth.

Our back line has holes you can drive a truck through, with luck it might be good enough to sneak us into Eighth.

But the season so far has not shown much in the way injury luck so I struggle to see finals football in 2017.

Am I allowed to change my mind on Saturday night?

39 minutes ago, old dee said:

Ninth is my prediction with 13 wins unless the season is very even  for teams fifth to ninth.

Our back line has holes you can drive a truck through, with luck it might be good enough to sneak us into Eighth.

But the season so far has not shown much in the way injury luck so I struggle to see finals football in 2017.

Am I allowed to change my mind on Saturday night?

I am with you Old Dee. Hard for me to get them into my eight

We start the season without our best 22 imo but I hope we get a good start

 

While every team is looking to improve and can, in the haze of pre-season optimism, make a case for rising up the ladder... I thought I'd list why we should rise: 

• Lewis, Hibberd, Melksham - Recruitment of mature top quality talent where we need it - Lewis, Hibberd, Melksham were all quality players for their former teams, with all finishing top 5 for good teams at various points. 
• Viney, Tyson, Hogan, Salem, Hunt, Oliver, Brayshaw, Petracca, Stretch, OMac - The maturing of our young talent - Given Hogan, Brayshaw and Salem had issues last year if these 10 play most games and continue to realise their talent anything is possible. They're the key to our optimism, and I've left out Frost, Wiedeman, J Smith, JKH etc... who could work into the team as well. 
• Gawn, Jones, Vince, TMac, Garlett, Kent, Watts - are a solid crew with all capable of playing outstanding football for long periods of the season.

That's 20 players who have or are capable of finishing in the top 10 for us at years end, and 10 of those 20 are young, yet to fully or consistently realise their potential, but likely to this year and/or next.

If we can keep those 20 on the track for the year then we're in for something special this year.

Prediction: 5th+

One of the most even seasons beckons, albeit GWS effectively the Winx standout and of course one or two lagging at the bottom to hold up the rest.

13 wins for 9th or we might scrape in with that if the cards fall in our favour.

14 is a slim possibility for finals but I wouldn't put any hard earned on it.

Significant Injuries, or lack thereof, to play a key role in each team's fate here as always. A match fit and in form Kent, Jeffy and JW crucial to ours IMO lead by our 3 hard nuts in the middle .... JL, JV and THE Captain! Hoping Mr Lewis brings some of that unsociable football flavour across!

Time to put our big boy pants on. Outside of a flock of injuries this is the year we need to step up. Finals the minimum pass mark.

8 minutes ago, Rusty Nails said:

13 wins for 9th or we might scrape in with that if the cards fall in our favour.

Since 2000 the only team to win 13 games in a year and not play finals was the Bombers the year they got excluded from the finals.... It would be a hell of an outlier if we won 13 and didnt play finals.
 

23 minutes ago, ArtificialWisdom said:

Since 2000 the only team to win 13 games in a year and not play finals was the Bombers the year they got excluded from the finals.... It would be a hell of an outlier if we won 13 and didnt play finals.
 

I hear you AW. Consider me scarred from so many years in the wilderness. If any team were to add to that outlier! Why 14 is a must in our case! I also truly believe this will be one of the most even seasons. 14 shld mean we aren't in the hands of a flukey % to get us over the line

Just now, Rusty Nails said:

I hear you AW. Consider me scarred from so many years in the wilderness. If any team were to add to that outlier! Why 14 is a must in our case!

Lets just win 15 to be safe  

1 minute ago, ArtificialWisdom said:

Lets just win 15 to be safe  

? I am usually a terrible judge of these things AW so who knows! Let's hope so

On 4 March 2017 at 0:36 PM, Wells 11 said:

Hope you're right re the hawks....Im more than sick of them to be honest. 

Signs are looking promising 

Did the ladder predictor again and tried to be as pessimistic as possible, and still came up with 11 wins. That had us finishing 10th, one game from 7th position.

On 09/03/2017 at 11:08 PM, Dees2014 said:

As much as I hate to admit it, the performance tonight was no better than 2015. Our preseason optimism has no basis. Prepare for Tigers mark 2

I have reconsidered - said in haste and dissappointament. Our performance Saturday was not bad, just unlucky in several ways. We outplayed them for most of the match, it was just our kicking and max injury which let us down. There is plenty to work on, and Spencer will be much better than we all expect. 

All is not lost by any means. The Tiger will be the test, but we will have hoges, Bernie and Jesse back for them too which will help a great deale.

16 minutes ago, Dees2014 said:

The Tiger will be the test, but we will have hoges, Bernie and Lewis back for them too which will help a great deale.

Lewis will miss the Tigers game, and return the week after to face the dirty drug cheating Essendopes.

4 hours ago, Petraccattack said:

Lewis will miss the Tigers game, and return the week after to face the dirty drug cheating Essendopes.

Sorry, should have been hogan. Will fix.

Still think we are looking good for 6-7th spot. If we had of kicked even ok we would have beaten a top 4 team. Prob only gws, dogs, crows rated above them?

 

15 hours ago, DubDee said:

Still think we are looking good for 6-7th spot. If we had of kicked even ok we would have beaten a top 4 team. Prob only gws, dogs, crows rated above them?

 

Geelong may make the eight but only because of the brilliance of Dangerfield with assistance from Selwood. If they do make the finals then I'd be shocked if they did any kind of damage.

On 04/03/2017 at 0:52 PM, Clint Bizkit said:

This will be the most even season in living memory.

Teams are going to me making and missing the top eight on the back of a handful of close results either way. As a result, there will be a lot of teams that miss out who are worthy of being top eight teams while others will be seen as lucky to make the top eight.

Pretty good call

8 minutes ago, Stretch Johnson said:

Pretty good call

I read somewhere that the gap between top and bottom was the lowest in years.