They can say what they want about how great they are .. Reality is their 14 wins were against bottom 8 sides. 1 win against the Dees.. This highlights the shortcomings of the draw & infact can reward mediocrity. They obviously have peaked during the finals to make it thru to the Gf with a chance of winning the flag . 

Edited September 28, 20186 yr by Hogan2014

Probably karma for Wayne Harmes in 1979.

Reality is they’re in a grand final and 16 teams ain’t.

All that really matters is that they're there.

They win today then they've beaten the top 2 teams (after home & away) in consecutive weeks & would be worthy winners.

 

1 minute ago, rjay said:

All that really matters is that they're there.

They win today then they've beaten the top 2 teams (after home & away) in consecutive weeks & would be worthy winners.

 

Worthy winners correct .... Afl draw is not!

They improved as individuals and as a team during the season and, like the Richmond of 2017, were certainly assisted by finishing in the bottom six last year. That 13th placed finish allowed them to gain momentum in the mid part of the season when they were able to record wins against the also rans while avoiding the series of consecutive tougher games that might have stopped their run to the top four. They only fell in with a late burst against Freo in the last home and away game in which case they might never have made it. 

Still, you make your luck and they were terrific last Friday night against the Tigers who probably played at their very worst for the season. I was hoping that we would strike Richmond in a final when they were having that day.

Who finished 13th this year?

We had our chance and blew it badly

The Filth didn’t. 

You can only beat who is put in front of you. The draw is really hard to predict if it will be strong or weak going into a season. 

Who would have thought playing adelaide twice would have been a good thing after last year? 

Both Melbourne and Collingwood stand to have tough draws next season whereas the likes of North, Adelaide will [censored] it in with 15+ games against non-finalists. 2019 stands as our true test. Collingwood's too (even if they win today)

7 minutes ago, praha said:

Both Melbourne and Collingwood stand to have tough draws next season whereas the likes of North, Adelaide will [censored] it in with 15+ games against non-finalists. 2019 stands as our true test. Collingwood's too (even if they win today)

I cant really see the notion of a tough draw now we finished 4th. 

I'd love to play WCE, Collingwood, Tigers, Hawks or Geelong twice. 

Especially WCE, feels like it's been years since we have played them at home.

6 minutes ago, praha said:

Both Melbourne and Collingwood stand to have tough draws next season whereas the likes of North, Adelaide will [censored] it in with 15+ games against non-finalists. 2019 stands as our true test. Collingwood's too (even if they win today)

I'm not so sure this is guaranteed.

We know we will get a harder draw based on 2018 finishing positions, but that doesn't necessarily translate to a tough draw based on 2019 form.

As an example, we had Adelaide twice this year which, when the draw was released, looked to be our toughest match-up. Turns out it was two games against a bottom 10 side.

From what I recall, both Collingwood and Hawthorn had close calls with teams like Freo and the Saints late in the season that would have bumped them out of the four and us into it.  It's a game of inches sometimes.

What we should be aiming for is to be as dominant as teams like the Eagles and Tigers this year, so that we are safely in the top four, with a home final if possible.

It's a pretty simple answer. They beat us. If we won that game it would've been us in the top 4.

Yeah well they’re there now so it doesn’t matter. Hopefully into plays into the opposition’s hands today though. 

The trick is to be in the Big Dance...they are ...we aint.

In reality it's irrelevant to us who THEY played..or beat to get there. We just need to beat who WE play

The trick is to play a prelim @ the G not interstate. We coughed up 5 games under 10 points, enough said. We will be better for this years experiences.

Today hurts yes, but we will be stronger come next year.

Edited September 29, 20186 yr by Win4theAges

Also, if we can be the best team all year and particularly towards the back end, the draw is more or less irrelevant if we can be better than the other top eight teams we are pitted against and it also gives us another opertunity to beat them and deny them 4 points.

Who'd they beat? Us.

Yep. Us.

WC had 6 wins against teams in the top 8 vs Pies 1! Tell me something is not right with comp??? 

1 hour ago, Win4theAges said:

The trick is to play a prelim @ the G not interstate. We coughed up 5 games under 10 points, enough said. We will be better for this years experiences.

Today hurts yes, but we will be stronger come next year.

Unfortunately we could have been playing at Mars last week and it would not have made a difference.

What a time to put in a shocker.

That loss to st kilda.  2 composure-less minutes vs geelong.  max gawns errant kick vs geelong.  chance, luck, destiny

Have acknowledged we were shot last week, i dont think the loss would have been like that if it were @ the G, alot of if, buts and candy nuts.

3 hours ago, Win4theAges said:

The trick is to play a prelim @ the G not interstate. We coughed up 5 games under 10 points, enough said. We will be better for this years experiences.

Today hurts yes, but we will be stronger come next year.

But we beat West Coast in the West in the last few weeks of the season. And don’t give me that Kennedy Darling nonsense. We played like dogs in the Prelim. We had Viney back.