Top 10 🤢🤮

Finals teams are now 1-6

7-10 are wildcard nonsense

20 minutes ago, DubDee said:

Top 10 🤢🤮

Finals teams are now 1-6

7-10 are wildcard nonsense

Let's keep it going. I think we're a threat to top 16 this year!

42 minutes ago, Demonland said:

A threat to the top 10?

Wtf

the 17th team is a threat to the top 10

[censored] i hate the AFL

Mmmmmm, let's play more than 6 games and make the top 10 first.

We do give up scores - so I can’t see us finishing top 4. But I don’t gaf. We’re fun to watch for the first time in a long time.

And I guess the industry have to talk about something for the next 12-15 weeks before it gets really interesting.🤔

just happy we are playing football that is great to watch CGAF where we finish

See, I was proved wrong on Collingwood. I was convinced they couldn't win the flag with a defence that gave up as many points as they did. And yet they did. And even when their defence leaked goals in 2022, they managed to make a prelim.

I disagree that our defence can't be good enough. And this is probably the thing, our defence, injury-permitting, should only get better as the season goes on.

Yes, we have some youngsters back there who may tire, but as we get more and more confident in the system and how to move the ball from back to front, and it becomes increasingly instinctive, our defenders will start to trust each other even more.

I think there's no reason to believe with the platform we've given ourselves, that we can't finish top 6, top 8. Forget top 10.

16 minutes ago, Adam The God said:

See, I was proved wrong on Collingwood. I was convinced they couldn't win the flag with a defence that gave up as many points as they did. And yet they did. And even when their defence leaked goals in 2022, they managed to make a prelim.

I disagree that our defence can't be good enough. And this is probably the thing, our defence, injury-permitting, should only get better as the season goes on.

Yes, we have some youngsters back there who may tire, but as we get more and more confident in the system and how to move the ball from back to front, and it becomes increasingly instinctive, our defenders will start to trust each other even more.

I think there's no reason to believe with the platform we've given ourselves, that we can't finish top 6, top 8. Forget top 10.

To add to the comparison. Collingwood's percentage was just a touch above 100%. Very low for a top 4 team.

We are now at around 95%, should be closer to 98% without the Essendon debacle.

11 minutes ago, ElDiablo14 said:

To add to the comparison. Collingwood's percentage was just a touch above 100%. Very low for a top 4 team.

We are now at around 95%, should be closer to 98% without the Essendon debacle.

Yep, and at Round 9, 2022, they were 4 wins, 5 losses with a percentage of 98.

I have no issues with a top 10. The league is going to be 19 teams soon.

NBA has 16 of 30 teams play in playoffs with that going to 20 of 30 with the play-in.

So it’s not as bad as that. Cool your jets

I hate the top 10. It’s everything that’s wrong with AFL. Only cares about the mighty dollar.

But……… I’ll be ok with it if we finish 9th or 10th. Chance to get at finals experience into some of the younger guys. Hopefully break our recency straight sets run and prepare to have proper crack at flag next year.

I disagree with Hoyne here. On one hand he says we can't win it playing the way we do and then says we dismantled Brisbane by doing it differently to how we've been doing it. Bring Bowey into that defensive unit and for mine give Kentfield a crack down there in Petty's absence. Turner is going beautifully, Lever bar some of his disposal has found some solid form and the emergence of Howes gives us a pretty firm foundation. This year will depend on injuries, which for mine is always the case when your thereabouts. If we can stay in the hunt, stay fit then there's no reason we can't get on a roll coming into finals. The game against Sydney coming up will tell us and the industry just where we're currently at.

I honestly don’t even care where we finish this year. Keep playing the way we are playing, win or lose it doesn’t bother me.

I’m attending every vic game like I’m at a party, I’m having funnnnnn. The vibes are high, the crowd’s electric and LOUD! I know 2018 was a good year (I’m not including 2021 because we didn’t attend many games) but this season so far has been the most fun I’ve had at games ever.

8 hours ago, Adam The God said:

See, I was proved wrong on Collingwood. I was convinced they couldn't win the flag with a defence that gave up as many points as they did. And yet they did. And even when their defence leaked goals in 2022, they managed to make a prelim.

I disagree that our defence can't be good enough. And this is probably the thing, our defence, injury-permitting, should only get better as the season goes on.

Yes, we have some youngsters back there who may tire, but as we get more and more confident in the system and how to move the ball from back to front, and it becomes increasingly instinctive, our defenders will start to trust each other even more.

I think there's no reason to believe with the platform we've given ourselves, that we can't finish top 6, top 8. Forget top 10.

Collingwood still only conceded 80 points per game in 2022. Even when scores higher across the board, the chances of playing finals while averaging 100 points against is very slim. No top 10 team has averaged 100 points against going back to 2012 (haven't looked before). Unless we tighten up out defense (which I think we can), then the pressure to score 100+ each week to win is increased substantially. We need to knock off at least a goal per game average by the mid-season. I am sure the coaches are aware of it.

You could listen to Champion Data analysis. Or you could watch an octopus point to club logos with its tentacles. Both are arbitrary; one is at least entertaining.

11 hours ago, Adam The God said:

See, I was proved wrong on Collingwood. I was convinced they couldn't win the flag with a defence that gave up as many points as they did. And yet they did. And even when their defence leaked goals in 2022, they managed to make a prelim.

I disagree that our defence can't be good enough. And this is probably the thing, our defence, injury-permitting, should only get better as the season goes on.

Yes, we have some youngsters back there who may tire, but as we get more and more confident in the system and how to move the ball from back to front, and it becomes increasingly instinctive, our defenders will start to trust each other even more.

I think there's no reason to believe with the platform we've given ourselves, that we can't finish top 6, top 8. Forget top 10.

I was wrong about that too but really the Collingwood 2022 and 2023 seasons were a couple of the most unlikely years in the history of the sport. 2022 making a prelim with a percentage of a smidge over 100%, then 2023 barely firing a shot after the halfway point and then going undefeated in finals despite an expected percentage of less than 100 over that stretch which hasn’t happened before or since. Winning the vast majority of their close games they can take a tiny bit of credit for, but when you look closely there’s so much luck involved in determining the final outcome (multiple iffy free kicks, opponent mistakes and missed shots on goal in final moments etc). Ed could’ve probably kept his comments in house, but I really don’t think he was wrong with the whole ‘all duck no dinner’ thing and they were extremely fortunate to get a flag with their list and game style, more so than any other in my memory other than perhaps the 2016 Dogs.

For what it’s worth I think this year we’ll be fun to watch but I don’t see any evidence that we’ll be contending in any meaningful way. It wouldn’t surprise me if at some point we have a string of bad defeats. Our defensive transition is pretty terrible with low rankings in preventing chain from back half, preventing inside 50s and preventing scoring. On the weekend we give up 80 points from turnover and lose expected score by 10 and win basically because we kick 16.4 from our shots at goal. History would suggest that’s not sustainable. Although we’ve been fun to watch and I’m enjoying it, our expected percentage is lower this year than last despite the popular opinion being that we’ve improved drastically. When you break it all down, the main difference between this year and last is kicking for goal.

2 hours ago, praha said:

Collingwood still only conceded 80 points per game in 2022. Even when scores higher across the board, the chances of playing finals while averaging 100 points against is very slim. No top 10 team has averaged 100 points against going back to 2012 (haven't looked before). Unless we tighten up out defense (which I think we can), then the pressure to score 100+ each week to win is increased substantially. We need to knock off at least a goal per game average by the mid-season. I am sure the coaches are aware of it.

Look, I agree. But I expect our defence will get better as the game style becomes more familiar. Our game style will give up goals though to get goals.

I don't think we're a top 4 team or anything like that but I do think we could be back quicker than anyone thought.

The main benefit of the top 10 IMO is not the finals format itself but the fact that there will likely be more relevant games in the later rounds than usual as more teams will be in the hunt.

As for us, I’m really hoping we can finish 7th to 8th in order to host a wild card final at the G.