Looking ahead ... the Path to September

[What 18,810]

West Coast will win comfortably today.

Essendon wont lose to Freo.

Its over.

[Copuchas 763]

17 minutes ago, Ungarie boy said:

Geez talk about mfcss, Adelaide do not want to go into a final series with two losses in row (particularly to fellow final contenders); and will play accordingly, with winning their primary focus. Come finals confidence is a huge advantage. 

Though of course if there are a couple of players that have niggling injuries or in need freshening up for the finals campaign well yes they will do it.  We likely did it with Viney, and in an ironic twist Watts (giving him a run to blow out the cobwebs) and no-one here was screaming conspiracy theories. Even to the point of running some depth players through the team in a leadup to the final series to allow them to slot in when the inevitable injuries occur (again think what we have done with Stretch, Maynard, Wagner, etc)

but to put it bluntly, if you want to persist with this frame of thought (managing a result specifically to exclude the Dee's from the finals), then meeting a Melbourne team (that struggled to beat the wooden spooners, and in reality was never in the contest against the Pies) would probably be your preferred finals opponent.

Unfortunately the way we are playing at the moment means we are not even on the radar of other teams.  

Again we may be at the mercy of Adelaide loosing to the Eagles (who will probably play with the most venom they have all year), but it is not because they want to loose. 

Actually a few fringe players in the crows side may help us, as they will be desperate to win a finals spot, while the regulars are more likely to go through the motions (lacking intensity) which would be far more damaging to their chances of winning.  

For the record we blew our finals chance when we allowed Brisbane to come back from 5+ goals, and of course not beating Collingwood just confirmed we don't deserve it (though ironically nor do the eagles, saints, or dogs)

If you want to persist with conspiracy theories, then here's one: The crows will do what they can to manufacture a loss, not because the fear meeting the Dee's in the finals, but because they don't want to see a bottom 8 side gaining a huge confidence boost (and easy path) beating up on an insipid 8th place Demons.

Reality is we lost; and now will likely suffer the consequences because, we lost

Go the Crows, 

or even more satisfying Go the Dockers!!!!

This is just semantics Ungarie boy.   Losing because there's not enough on the line to push for a win is akin to not showing up mentally.   No doubt they'll probably run out this afternoon wanting to win but it may well be wanting to win conditionally ie so long as we don't have to put our bodies on the line / risk injury.   If however, for some reason they have a preference for playing either Richmond or GWS at home next week (and wherever the balance of the finals draw likely heads after that), we have afforded them the possibility to pick and choose and obviously our fate swings with it.

[JV7 2,375]

10 minutes ago, Petraccattack said:

West Coast will win comfortably today.

Essendon wont lose to Freo.

Its over.

Yep, west coast knowing the full equation wont let it slip... Adelaide are playing for nothing. 

[WattsUp2312 63]

In simple terms, we choked yesterday and it's bee coming over the last few weeks with the loss to North, the near surrender to St Kilda and Brisbane

when we went 32 points up against the lions last week, that was the moment they should have gone in for the kill. We instead let them kick 5 straight and were hanging on for our lives.

this team is not top 8 material, has too many floaters and lacks the mental instincts to be successful.

We are going to have to do some smart trades this off-season to go to the nxt level. The scary thing is the teams above us will continue to be good nxt season and WCE, Collingwood, Carlton  and even North will be much better nxt season also.

[beelzebub 23,390]

5 minutes ago, JV7 said:

Yep, west coast knowing the full equation wont let it slip... Adelaide are playing for nothing. 

This is the unfortunate equation.

You only need to apply Newton's other law..  For every expectation there's an equal an opposite disappointment. 

 

[beelzebub 23,390]

2 minutes ago, WattsUp2312 said:

In simple terms, we choked yesterday and it's bee coming over the last few weeks with the loss to North, the near surrender to St Kilda and Brisbane

when we went 32 points up against the lions last week, that was the moment they should have gone in for the kill. We instead let them kick 5 straight and were hanging on for our lives.

this team is not top 8 material, has too many floaters and lacks the mental instincts to be successful.

We are going to have to do some smart trades this off-season to go to the nxt level. The scary thing is the teams above us will continue to be good nxt season and WCE, Collingwood, Carlton  and even North will be much better nxt season also.

Choking sums it up perfectly, unfortunately.

It's damning commentary but what is...is. 

Even worse. It's nothing new.

Easily recognised by big ears and a trunk btw.

[Leoncelli_36 2,264]

God I am still fuming from yesterday.  Turned on the TV when I woke and the last 20 seconds was on. I felt even sicker seeing Lynden Dunn fist pumping and carrying on like a pork chop high fiving spectators as soon as the siren sounded 

[CityDee 738]

West coast 1.88 favorites to beat crows 1.96 unbelievable 

[Hellaintabadplacetobe 4,297]

If the ADL v WC match gets willing late in the last qtr, Crows will not risk injuring anyone. I expect their bench to be a star studded lineup late in the game, which will kill any chance we have of staying in the 8

[Hellaintabadplacetobe 4,297]

Just now, CityDee said:

West coast 1.88 favorites to beat crows 1.96 unbelievable 

Melbourne $1.35 favourites, Collingwood $3.25........

[Straight Sets Simon 23,113]

This hurts more than only winning a couple of games in a season.

[ding 5,126]

Even if we manage to make the finals, the supporters will have not had the opportunity to celebrate the breaking of a 12 year drought after a win. Im gonna feel flat as a pancake no matter what the result of todays game is. Our last game was an insipid loss, and we are probably gonna limp into finals on the back of someone elses hard work instead of our own. We had several chances to do the job ourselves, but we Melbourned it instead. If we do make it i expect the team to get slaughtered as they will know they dont really deserve to be there based on their own input.

How typical of our club that it robs everyone of the simple joy of celebrating a victory of our own to make finals.

Nah, we will leave the job of getting us there to some other team. 

FMD.

[At Least I Saw a Flag 5,323]

I'm not at all nervous about the other matches today. I won't even bother watching/listening.

I hope the Demons manage to hang onto their place in the 8. But if not ... as Ned Kelly apparently said "such is life".

[GawnWithTheWind 604]

Dunn and Howe showed their true character yesterday after they won. They were going berserk, acting like they won the flag.

Disrespectful towards their old friends and their old home. I certainly won't be celebrating either player as an ex Melbourne player from now on and I hope the club turns its back on them.

Beating us was enough, they should have kept their excitement about ruining 20 of their mates dreams to behind closed doors.

[Ted Lasso 19,561]

2 minutes ago, GawnWithTheWind said:

Dunn and Howe showed their true character yesterday after they won. They were going berserk, acting like they won the flag.

Disrespectful towards their old friends and their old home. I certainly won't be celebrating either player as an ex Melbourne player from now on and I hope the club turns its back on them.

Beating us was enough, they should have kept their excitement about ruining 20 of their mates dreams to behind closed doors.

13th was probably higher than either finished as Melbourne players... 

[david_neitz_is_my_dad 4,084]

18 minutes ago, GawnWithTheWind said:

Dunn and Howe showed their true character yesterday after they won. They were going berserk, acting like they won the flag.

Disrespectful towards their old friends and their old home. I certainly won't be celebrating either player as an ex Melbourne player from now on and I hope the club turns its back on them.

Beating us was enough, they should have kept their excitement about ruining 20 of their mates dreams to behind closed doors.

What do you expect..... We have our self to blame we had an opportunity to really show them what they are missing out on and Adams what a successful club looks like but we made him look like a genius. [censored] i hate the MFC

[Straight Sets Simon 23,113]

2 hours ago, ding said:

Even if we manage to make the finals, the supporters will have not had the opportunity to celebrate the breaking of a 12 year drought after a win.

This.

We had the perfect opportunity to attack the finals on the back of three wins, minimal injuries and good form.

[Wrecker45 3,378]

4 hours ago, JV7 said:

Yep, west coast knowing the full equation wont let it slip... Adelaide are playing for nothing. 

So were Collingwood. 

[Straight Sets Simon 23,113]

If we do get in in the back of West Coast losing, will anyone feel a bit shallow about it?

[Ted Lasso 19,561]

1 minute ago, Clint Bizkit said:

If we do get in in the back of West Coast losing, will anyone feel a bit shallow about it?

I won't lie, I will be shamelessly happy about it. But I don't like our chances of being there past the first week in any case 

[CBDees 3,167]

If St Kilda repeat their dominance against the Tigers they will either consign us to ninth or if they scrape home they might ensure we play an elimination final against Richmond at the "G" (with us playing away same as yesterday)! I am unsure which will be more embarrassing? ☹️

[titan_uranus 25,191]

24 minutes ago, Clint Bizkit said:

If we do get in in the back of West Coast losing, will anyone feel a bit shallow about it?

It obviously won't feel like it would have if we'd done it by winning, but I'll still enjoy it.

It will reflect the fact that after 22 games we ended the year as one of the 8 best teams.

[Jibroni 5,042]

Not really, Id rather the players live with the embaresment.

[titan_uranus 25,191]

4 minutes ago, Jibroni said:

Not really, Id rather the players live with the embaresment.

I'd rather get embarrassed in the Elimination Final than not make it in the first place.

[Chook 15,023]

15 minutes ago, Jibroni said:

Not really, Id rather the players live with the embaresment.

And then next year we make the finals and get embarrassed because we have no finals experience and it overawes us? This is a massive opportunity to taste what it's like. We are better off having that experience, no matter how we get there. And Melbourne vs Port at Adelaide Oval after a rest for our young players isn't exactly an unwinnable game.