To Make the Eight

[Cardinal]

Two teams will drop out of last years top eight IMO and those two will be Essendon and Carlton. With Hawthorn almost certainly talking one of those positions it is going to be a hot race but surely the Swans are the most likely (if they get Bradshaw they'd be almost certain).

But dont right off the others we saw what Essendon did this year, it could even be Melbourne.

The Pies are also suspect in my books.

[caj23]

Two teams will drop out of last years top eight IMO and those two will be Essendon and Carlton. With Hawthorn almost certainly talking one of those positions it is going to be a hot race but surely the Swans are the most likely (if they get Bradshaw they'd be almost certain).

But dont right off the others we saw what Essendon did this year, it could even be Melbourne.

Agree that Carlton and Essendon have gone backwards with trade week and will be pushing it to make the 8 next year, but Melbourne?????

LOL they might win enough games to avoid the priority pick again next year, but even their own supporters would admit they haven't got a snowflakes chance in hell of making the 8 next year

[Asterix]

In most football codes experience counts for a lot, and we've lost a heap of it. Experience means knowing where your team mates will be, what they'll do, how they'll back you up. It will take us some time to gel together as a team, particularly out of the stoppages and into attack. This can be simulated in training, but nothing makes up for playing together week in, week out. For that reason I think we'll do well to sneak into the 8, and anything higher than 6th would be fantastic this season.

We should do better than the Demons, Roos, Richmond, Freo, Port and West Coast. Geelong, St Kilda and the Bulldogs will do better than us next year.

So we will battle with Hawthorn, Brisbane, Carlton, Collingwood, Essendon and Adelaide.

It will be interesting how Carlton go without Fev, but in Gibbs, Murphy and Kreuzer they have some excellent young players. Adelaide and Brisbane really look like they have the players to kick on next season - Porplyzia, Tippett, Vince, Petrenko, Dangerfield and Walker are a really decent bunch of young players, and Brisbane have similar depth, with aome long term injured blokes coming back too. Plus Voss may turn out to be a very good coach.

No one likes talking about Collingwood.

So we need to go better than Essendon.

Simple.

[RogueSwan]

In most football codes experience counts for a lot, and we've lost a heap of it. Experience means knowing where your team mates will be, what they'll do, how they'll back you up. It will take us some time to gel together as a team, particularly out of the stoppages and into attack. This can be simulated in training, but nothing makes up for playing together week in, week out...

I have just been looking at the stats for 2003 final against Port.
In that game we had a total of 2304 games experience, an average of ~105 games.

then I took the rnd22 game against the lions from last year and took out Barry, Jolly, O'Loughlin and Crouch and replace them with Seaby, Mumford, Malceski and McGlynn (the first two are probables, the second two possibles.)
The total games experience came to 2207, an average of 100 games. Not a lot of difference in terms of experience.

Back in 2003 the young (read: less than 50 games) guy were Ablett, LRT, Doyle, Stevens and Schneider.
In 2009 they are: MOD, Hanners, Thornton, Smith, White,Mumford, Grundy and McGlynn.
Maybe we do have the experience to push well into the top 8?

[ScottH]

The Pies are also suspect in my books.

I would like to agree with you, but they aren't looking any worse than they did come their final weekend in September, and they've added a top ranked ruckman to their list. Lost a key forward who they did well without, anyway. AND some good kids who now have some experience, and will get a decent pre-season into them.

I wouldn't be writing them off just yet.

[caj23]

I would like to agree with you, but they aren't looking any worse than they did come their final weekend in September, and they've added a top ranked ruckman to their list. Lost a key forward who they did well without, anyway. AND some good kids who now have some experience, and will get a decent pre-season into them.

I wouldn't be writing them off just yet.

Unfortunately I have to agree with Scott on this one

[Cardinal]

Unfortunately I have to agree with Scott on this one

Without doing any analysis of the draw whatsoever I reckon they'll have a harder run of teams this year irrespective of where their games are played

[ScottH]

Unfortunately I have to agree with Scott on this one

Sad ins't it.

Maybe the Pies should've used Carltons 2009 Slogan.

Without doing any analysis of the draw whatsoever I reckon they'll have a harder run of teams this year irrespective of where their games are played

Well they are not happy with the draw, but they still have a lot of games in Melbourne, which is advantageous to them