Finals

[barry]

Its hard to tell where the swans are at. Are they back to 2016 form, or just an average side riding their luck.?

Must be hard for selectors. Just had two wins that could have easily been losses.

[Thunder Shaker]

Its hard to tell where the swans are at. Are they back to 2016 form, or just an average side riding their luck.?

Must be hard for selectors. Just had two wins that could have easily been losses.

That is balanced by two losses that could easily have been wins: Collingwood and Hawthorn.

[707]

Our fate is in our hands as we have games against most of the others vying for a place in the eight, must win the classic 8 point games starting this Friday against Melbourne. The teams that look well placed in the top of the eight also have a number of games against each other in the run home so don't think anyone is a certainty yet.

[Matty10]

Our fate is in our hands as we have games against most of the others vying for a place in the eight, must win the classic 8 point games starting this Friday against Melbourne. The teams that look well placed in the top of the eight also have a number of games against each other in the run home so don't think anyone is a certainty yet.

The Melbourne game is going to be very tough - their bravery and run with the ball looked impressive in their win against WC. Rohan Connolly wrote an interesting article pumping up their flag prospects in The Age today.

Why Melbourne can win the 2017 AFL premiership


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[Thunder Shaker]

The Melbourne game is going to be very tough - their bravery and run with the ball looked impressive in their win against WC. Rohan Connolly wrote an interesting article pumping up their flag prospects in The Age today.

Why Melbourne can win the 2017 AFL premiership

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Out of our remaining games, the Melbourne game is probably going to be the most difficult to win. That's a big call with Adelaide, Geelong and GWS to come, all away. We beat Adelaide and Geelong in the finals last year and injuries have made GWS vulnerable.

Against Melbourne, the only thing in our favour is that traditionally we do well against Melbourne. We haven't lost to them for several years and we have been ahead of them on the head to head record since 1898.

[barry]

Out of our remaining games, the Melbourne game is probably going to be the most difficult to win. That's a big call with Adelaide, Geelong and GWS to come, all away. We beat Adelaide and Geelong in the finals last year and injuries have made GWS vulnerable.

Against Melbourne, the only thing in our favour is that traditionally we do well against Melbourne. We haven't lost to them for several years and we have been ahead of them on the head to head record since 1898.

I am looking forward to the Sydney derby/showdown/battle-of-the-brdige, especially if the swans keep winning. It will be HUGE.

[Thunder Shaker]

The Melbourne game is going to be very tough - their bravery and run with the ball looked impressive in their win against WC. Rohan Connolly wrote an interesting article pumping up their flag prospects in The Age today.

Why Melbourne can win the 2017 AFL premiership

Melbourne still need to prove themselves against the top sides. Their run home includes games against Adelaide, GWS and Port Adelaide. They will need to win at least one of them - perhaps more - to be a genuine premiership chance. They're not good enough to win the flag from fifth or sixth due to lack of finals experience. They also play Sydney and we have been a difficult opponent for them recently. Their other games are all winnable: Carlton, North, St Kilda, Brisbane and Collingwood.

Their form has been somewhat inconsistent. Their losses include Fremantle (2 points), Hawthorn (3 points) and North Melbourne (14 points), and they have also beaten Adelaide by 41 points and Western Bulldogs by 57 points. IMO they need to gain finals experience before they can be a genuine premiership chance. The last side to win a premiership without playing in the finals in either of the previous two years was Adelaide in 1997.

[Markwebbos]

The Melbourne game is going to be very tough - their bravery and run with the ball looked impressive in their win against WC. Rohan Connolly wrote an interesting article pumping up their flag prospects in The Age today.

Why Melbourne can win the 2017 AFL premiership

They are coming off a second six day break returning from Perth, plus they've got half a dozen players out including Watts, Hogan, Salem etc. and Viney is pretty banged up.

[Matty10]

They are coming off a second six day break returning from Perth, plus they've got half a dozen players out including Watts, Hogan, Salem etc. and Viney is pretty banged up.

These are all things that work in our favour, but the output from their lesser-likes, who play with dare, is what worries me.

Either way, I'll be there with my son cheering as loud as I can - go Bloods!


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[stevoswan]

I see the AFL/umpires push to get the Dogs safely into the finals is officially on. 26 to 14 free kick count in favour of the Dogs over Norf on the weekend. It was 16 to 4 at half time!

[Hotpotato]

Won't matter how much theumps try to help, the Dogs won't win the Granny this year.
They are all over the place.

[Thunder Shaker]

Won't matter how much theumps try to help, the Dogs won't win the Granny this year.
They are all over the place.

AFL Website agrees with you:

The Run Home

9.Western Bulldogs

28 points (seven wins, six losses) 97.0 per cent
Eight-point game coming up at home to the Eagles and what is emerging is that the Dogs are one of the flakier teams in the competition. They play their best footy at Etihad Stadium, but after the West Coast game they play just three more there including an 'away' game to erstwhile MCG club Hawthorn to finish the season. That might come in handy in case they need to win to get in.

The run home
Rd 15: West Coast (Etihad Stadium)
Rd 16: Adelaide (Adelaide Oval)
Rd 17: Carlton (MCG)
Rd 18: Gold Coast (Cazalys Stadium)
Rd 19: Essendon (Etihad Stadium)
Rd 20: Brisbane Lions (Gabba)
Rd 21: GWS (Etihad Stadium)
Rd 22: Port Adelaide (Eureka Stadium)
Rd 23: Hawthorn (Etihad Stadium)

Meanwhile, they highlight our tough games to come:

10. Sydney

24 points (six wins, seven losses) 105.2 per cent
The Swans are alive, thanks in part to two most recent opponents (Richmond and Essendon) who couldn't close things out. The Swans need to win six of their last nine to make the finals and it starts Friday night at the MCG with their biggest clash against Melbourne since the 1987 first semi-final. They still have to visit Spotless Stadium, Simonds Stadium and Adelaide Oval, so don't go penciling them into the finals just yet.

The run home
Rd 15: Melbourne (MCG)
Rd 16: Gold Coast (SCG)
Rd 17: GWS (Spotless Stadium)
Rd 18: St Kilda (SCG)
Rd 19: Hawthorn (MCG)
Rd 20: Geelong (Simonds Stadium)
Rd 21: Fremantle (SCG)
Rd 22: Adelaide (Adelaide Oval)
Rd 23: Carlton (SCG)

[CureTheSane]

Well on our way now.
Some supporters found it a bit to easy to give the season up and start looking to next year.
At 6 from 7 we are probably the form side at the moment.

[bloodspirit]

Meanwhile, FoxFooty is coming out with these bizzarro projections: The Run Home: Every AFL?s club remaining fixture analysed after Round 14, predicted ladder, finals series | Fox Sports. Very rose coloured glasses in the case of the Swans. Despite rating our fixture the 5th most difficult and saying that teams in our position only have a 32.3% of making top 8, they are tipping us to only drop one more match for the season and finish 14-8 (along with five (5!) other teams) and finish 5th on percentage. Was it only last week they projected us optimistically finishing I think was it 8th? Yet, on the back of us scraping in over Essendon now we are up to 5th. Enjoy these forecasts with your magic mushrooms. If we beat the Dees let's see what they say next week.

[Billericay]

Well on our way now.
Some supporters found it a bit to easy to give the season up and start looking to next year.
At 6 from 7 we are probably the form side at the moment.

We are #1 form side of last 7 games. Melbourne are #2