When will Melbourne break the embarrassing record of never having gone undefeated in a season? 

Think we should be expecting a similar mid season drop off as last season. 

Imagine that Selwyn will be following a similar regime to burgess.

don’t think we complaining if we are top 2 with a 18-4 season.

What ever happens, we must finish top 2 to avoid a potential Brisbane week 1 GABBA final. 

The club needs to aim for a 19-3 season which would guarantee a top 2 spot.

No issues dropping the odd game here and there, particularly against Geelong in Geelong as we know finals won’t be played there.

The idea of 22-0 is nonsense at the moment considering we haven’t played anyone of note at the moment. (I thought the dogs win in Rd 1 was a genuine scalp but not so sure at the moment)

Only need to take it contest by contest, quarter by quarter. 
Each week. 
 

Results, records and everything else will take care of themselves. 
 

Goodwin said not striving for perfection, rather play your best every week. 
 

 

21-0-1

We'll go undefeated and draw with a club like Adelaide or Collingwood (Or Freo/Bris)

Edited April 25, 20223 yr by John Demonic
maths

The back end of our draw gets a lot more difficult, I just hope we can bank the wins early to try to secure a top four finish as early as possible.

10 hours ago, Fat Tony said:

I’m still dirty about losing to Carlton in the preseason. 

Not to mention that we had  eight 50 metres for dissent which resulted in four goals, but even worse, the way their supporters reacted at the final siren- it was like they thought they won the GF.

Sure, we may drop a few in the season proper, but it must not be against Carlton!

1 hour ago, Wodjathefirst said:

Not to mention that we had  eight 50 metres for dissent which resulted in four goals, but even worse, the way their supporters reacted at the final siren- it was like they thought they won the GF.

Sure, we may drop a few in the season proper, but it must not be against Carlton!

We don't have consecutive losses to other teams anymore. It's a thing. I genuinely cant remember who we last lost to twice in a row. I think West Coast maybe, going back to that 2020 round 1 dead-like  rubber. 

6 hours ago, Chook said:

That based on little more than ladder positions - i.e., the combined fixtures the other teams have had thus far this year. If our fixture has been soft, how many of the other top eight teams have had soft fixtures too. The law of averages suggests around half of them.

Everyone else in the top 8 has played at least one game against someone else in the top 8. All bar Carlton have a win against a top 8 side, too. Geelong have two. 

5 minutes ago, Skuit said:

We don't have consecutive losses to other teams anymore. It's a thing. I genuinely cant remember who we last lost to twice in a row. I think West Coast maybe, going back to that 2020 round 1 dead-like  rubber. 

In 2020 we lost to Brisbane, Geelong, Port, Richmond, Sydney and West Coast, for each it was at least a second loss in a row (was 5 in a row for Richmond, 4 for West Coast and 3 for Port).

12 hours ago, rpfc said:

Happy to try and cross that rubicon…

Seriously though, we are great and hard to score against but there will be a team that backs themselves and runs through us enough times to kick 90 points like Adelaide last year. We are not infallible.

And that is bound to happen when we load up around the bye period, as occurred last season.

3 hours ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

What ever happens, we must finish top 2 to avoid a potential Brisbane week 1 GABBA final. 

The club needs to aim for a 19-3 season which would guarantee a top 2 spot.

No issues dropping the odd game here and there, particularly against Geelong in Geelong as we know finals won’t be played there.

The idea of 22-0 is nonsense at the moment considering we haven’t played anyone of note at the moment. (I thought the dogs win in Rd 1 was a genuine scalp but not so sure at the moment)

We play Brisbane at the Gabba in round 23 so we may be playing there to decide where we play week 1 finals

14 minutes ago, titan_uranus said:

In 2020 we lost to Brisbane, Geelong, Port, Richmond, Sydney and West Coast, for each it was at least a second loss in a row (was 5 in a row for Richmond, 4 for West Coast and 3 for Port).

Yeah - I probably messed that up quite a bit. Sydney would have been the last of those in 2020 in Cairns, with the prior loss in the last round of 2019? We haven't lost to any of those teams since. Last year's losses that we've had the chance to avenge include the Bulldogs, Adelaide, and GWS. I think our longest losing current streak is 1 match, vs Collingwood. (plus a Hawthorn draw). 

13 hours ago, Jaded No More said:

We will drop games and it won’t be a bad thing. 
We reset so well after challenges I almost feel that once we drop one we will go to another level. 
Besides I have no doubt that if ladder position allows, we will ramp up training halfway through the year which will likely see us drop a few games in preparation for finals. It’s just what we did last year. 
I also wouldn’t put it past us to drop a game against our most likely rival in the lead up to finals. I think we were happy to drop a game to the Dogs in the later part of last season. 

Perfectly said.

A season without a loss would be remarkable, considering the training loads being set up to peak in finals.

 

 

27 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

We play Brisbane at the Gabba in round 23 so we may be playing there to decide where we play week 1 finals

Nope.

We'll have decided our own fortunes well before then.

Just drop Bowey to the VFL for one week then put him back in, problem solved.

Hope we rest Bowey for any loss.

Would like to see us continue the season undefeated,

.Winning by a lot, winning by a little, winning ugly, winning looking good, winning with injured outs and winning with new players in.

Just win.

After 57 years it's a mighty good feeling and still just balancing the ledger.

i can't recall any team taking it easy on us when we were in the doldrums.

This group of players are an exceptional group gathered by an exceptional club with exceptional coaches in an exceptional time, they must grasp this and exploit it. We as supporters can certainly take a loss and can certain Bly nderstand it, but it ant necessary and would be a blight on an exceptional record potential.

22 hours ago, BDA said:

I'm not fussed what the W/L column says as long we finish top 2 and secure home finals

+1.

The goal is always what gives you the best chance to win a flag and if it's between goals geared towards that scenario or aiming to go undefeated I know what I'm choosing. Sure you can go the Old El Paso route and try to have both but keeping things simple in the players and coaches minds is the most important thing. 

On 4/25/2022 at 8:30 PM, Clint Bizkit said:

The back end of our draw gets a lot more difficult, I just hope we can bank the wins early to try to secure a top four finish as early as possible.

I hope we can make the top eight looking at our run home.

19-3 or 18-4?

I’ll be happy with 15 wins to be honest.

One thing which will come apparent in the later stages will be team fitness. Younger teams like the Swans , Pies will eventually fall away as they haven’t had the years to build that base. 
 

We will also be playing other top 4 at various stages of their fitness program so I’d be interested to see how other teams will approach the finals.

I’ve listened to a number of different pod casts and one (will not mention the name) said it was undeniable we are loading giving how out of puff we have been in the last month and mentioned several times that teams just don’t lose fitness as quickly as we have shown. Kind of makes sense. 

Nevertheless I am little more optimistic now and would probably be surprised if we fall out of the top 4. Top 2 will probably boil down to beating Lions at the Gabba. Which reminds me to give the AFL a big F U for fixturing the reigning premiers an away game against the prime contender for the final game of the season. Seriously wouldn’t be surprised if Bartlett had organised that little parting gift.

On 4/25/2022 at 8:30 PM, Clint Bizkit said:

The back end of our draw gets a lot more difficult, I just hope we can bank the wins early to try to secure a top four finish as early as possible.

Banking 10-0 has become far more important now than we realised back in April. ❤️💙

I reckon 15 wins will be enough to secure Top 4. And I'm not that worried about playing an inter-state final if we have to