When he asks and posers some serious questions today in the Hun. He is right... are we contenders or pretenders. Should know later this afternoon!🤔

The media loves a weekly referendum.

If Robbo is right we're asking the wrong question

He's only posing questions most of us already have.

The real question ought to be why we're still needing to ask.

Apart from ‘where are the free sandwiches’, what were the questions that drove Robby to put pen to paper?

20 minutes ago, beelzebub said:

He's only posing questions most of us already have.

The real question ought to be why we're still needing to ask.

It's not like anything has changed. In 2021 we drew with Hawthorn late in the year, and the questions were asked about our capacity to beat a top 8 team all year. 

It's 2023. The competition is fairly even and it seems 12 teams are in it with maybe 1 or 2 standouts currently. The weekly referendums on whether you're a Contender or Pretender are going to be asked of you all year, unless you're a dominant team. And if Collingwood go 21/2, then they're the only team that won't be asking that question. 

Edited May 26, 20231 yr by John Demonic

3 minutes ago, John Demonic said:

It's not like anything has changed. In 2021 we drew with Hawthorn late in the year, and the questions were asked about our capacity to beat a top 8 team all year. 

It's 2023. The competition is fairly even and it seems 12 teams are in it with maybe 1 or 2 standouts currently. The weekly referendums on whether you're a Contender or Pretender are going to be asked of you all year, unless you're a dominant team. And if Collingwood go 21/2, then they're the only team that won't be asking that question. 

Who asked those questions?

Prior to the Hawthorn game we’d beaten Geelong, Port, Brisbane, GWS, Sydney, the Dogs and Essendon.

In other words, every single other top 8 side. 

34 minutes ago, BDA said:

If Robbo is right we're asking the wrong question

Correct. All our questions should be designed for Robbo to be wrong.

As much as I’d love a win today, and it’s a crucial game, it still won’t prove conclusively if we’re a contender.

We have to beat one of Collingwood or Geelong IMO. Lose both and we’re just making up the numbers.

3 minutes ago, John Demonic said:

It's not like anything has changed. In 2021 we drew with Hawthorn late in the year, and the questions were asked about our capacity to beat a top 8 team all year.

It's 2023. The competition is fairly even and it seems 12 teams are in it with maybe 1 or 2 standouts. The weekly referendums on whether you're a Contender or Pretender are going to be asked you all year, unless you're a dominant team. And if Collingwood go 21/2, then they're the only team that won't be asking that question.

Spot on JD, as supporters we tend to underrate the competition and then are disappointed if we don't win every game. We look at teams that are performing better and ask why that's not use given the talent we have, despite not considering the opposition talent and that every team is working on its system and exploiting ither teams systems and vulnerabilities.

Personally I'm pretty comfortable with where we sit given the improvements we have made in how we convert in our F50 while our defence remains solid. I'm also comfortable that we are being beaten in clearance and contested ball as these are areas we can tidy up. Overall I think we're in a good position to challenge again this year.

2 minutes ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

As much as I’d love a win today, and it’s a crucial game, it still won’t prove conclusively if we’re a contender.

We have to beat one of Collingwood or Geelong IMO. Lose both and we’re just making up the numbers.

Why Geelong and not the Brisbane return game?

Geelong’s 5-5, playing iffy footy, and we get the luxury of playing them in Geelong. 

Brisbane is IMO clearly the next best side after Collingwood (if not better) and that game will be at the G.

The questions are fair enough, unfortunately this season is starting to take on the stench of 2022

Just now, titan_uranus said:

Why Geelong and not the Brisbane return game?

Geelong’s 5-5, playing iffy footy, and we get the luxury of playing them in Geelong. 

Brisbane is IMO clearly the next best side after Collingwood (if not better) and that game will be at the G.

Only because the Collingwood and Geelong games come before the Brisbane game. If we lose both of them, what kind of realistic chance would we be of beating Brisbane?

But yes, at the moment Brisbane would be more of scalp than Geelong.

I still have faith in Geelong making top 4 and have them going 16-7 as they start getting all their players back.

 

19 minutes ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

As much as I’d love a win today, and it’s a crucial game, it still won’t prove conclusively if we’re a contender.

We have to beat one of Collingwood or Geelong IMO. Lose both and we’re just making up the numbers.

Yeah we have a bit to make up after the let down of last week. 

Just now, Bring-Back-Powell said:

Only because the Collingwood and Geelong games come before the Brisbane game. If we lose both of them, what kind of realistic chance would we be of beating Brisbane?

But yes, at the moment Brisbane would be more of scalp than Geelong.

I still have faith in Geelong making top 4 and have them going 16-7 as they start getting all their players back.

 

But what if we do? If we go 1-2 in those games by beating Brisbane, will that help you believe in us? 

17 minutes ago, titan_uranus said:

Why Geelong and not the Brisbane return game?

Geelong’s 5-5, playing iffy footy, and we get the luxury of playing them in Geelong. 

Brisbane is IMO clearly the next best side after Collingwood (if not better) and that game will be at the G.

And just to bring out the trite line that doesn't get used here enough:

"Let's hope we can get a big crowd at the G for that game!"

13 wins 11 losses since we went 10-0 last year says we are just making up the numbers, only thing that gives me hope is this time last year geelong we’re sitting on 7 wins 4 losses and sitting 7th on the ladder, our record against top 8 sides in that period is horrible so I’m not convinced we even make the 8 right now 

All fair enough.

We are unbeaten on the mcg so I’m hoping that it’s simply a case of struggling away from our fortress…

 

It is a really sad day for all people with an IQ over 60 when someone can post a thread with the title 'Robbo is right on the money'. The guy is an absolute numbskull, mumbling and bumbling through AFL360 with Gerard holding his hand and leading out of the minefields he creates for himself with his random, and mostly completely idiotic, utterances.

This whole contender / pretender thing is just a media construct to garner clicks and is such a facile way to look at the game. You're a contender if you are half decent and have a big and active enough following to sell clicks/papers. Hence whenever Collingwood or Richmond are even half a chance, they are contenders. For the rest of us, you have to force your way into that conversation and if you drop anything, you become a pretender so that the big club supporters can feel better about themselves.

We are a great team, even though it sometimes seems like half our own supporters would rather tear us down than build us up. We are trying a bunch of new stuff to try and get better and we have down games and injuries sometimes. The sum of us won't be known until near the end of the season, or hopefully the last game of the year. If you want to fall back to the contender/pretender paradigm then think about this. If we aren't a contender, I don't know who is. That doesn't mean we are going to have perfect season or win the flag, but if we aren't counted with those in the running then there is something seriously wrong.

41 minutes ago, brendan said:

13 wins 11 losses since we went 10-0 last year says we are just making up the numbers, only thing that gives me hope is this time last year geelong we’re sitting on 7 wins 4 losses and sitting 7th on the ladder, our record against top 8 sides in that period is horrible so I’m not convinced we even make the 8 right now 

Imo, you should treat the two years separately.

It's easy to lump the second half of last year with this year and extrapolate an argument, but we're different this year.  Different personnel, different rotations, tweaked game-plan, a fitter group, etc.

I prefer to analyse 2023 in isolation.  If we win today, which I expect, 8/3 with the game's best percentage will hold us in good stead for the back half of the year.

We haven't been perfect, but nor were Geelong in 2022.  It's easy to forget they were 5/4 after round 9.

Today is a very important game.

17 minutes ago, FlashInThePan said:

It is a really sad day for all people with an IQ over 60 when someone can post a thread with the title 'Robbo is right on the money'. The guy is an absolute numbskull, mumbling and bumbling through AFL360 with Gerard holding his hand and leading out of the minefields he creates for himself with his random, and mostly completely idiotic, utterances.

It's even sadder that someone is ridiculed for merely agreeing with someone you'd prefer to deride.

I don’t know the article cos I won’t pay for their subs. 
But I believe we need some changes to our game plan. One Is variety around clearances, less long bombs into the f50 and stronger defensive efforts when they are moving the ball from our f50 to theirs.

Oh and not kicking to the left edge of the centre square from kick outs ever single time too. 
 

I'm surprised about the negativity here. We lost to Port by 4 points on their home deck despite being beaten around the ball for 3 quarters in what was an excellent game. Compare the quality of Sydney v Carlton last night to Port and us last week and we are close to the mark and tidy up a few areas and beat Collingwood and suddenly we will be talked up as the team to beat.

3 hours ago, picket fence said:

When he asks and posers some serious questions today in the Hun. He is right... are we contenders or pretenders. Should know later this afternoon!🤔

What, so we're contenders if we beat 10th placed Freo? FMD, Picket.

1 hour ago, FlashInThePan said:

We are a great team

We had one pretty great year.