Round 12: just other games.

[Thunder Shaker]

Essendon was always vulnerable, as most of their wins were against teams in the bottom half of the ladder. Combined with the Suns' strong form at home, it is not a huge surprise that Essendon lost to the Suns.

Essendon, like Geelong, have an inflated ladder position due to the opponents they've had so far.

[Matty10]

We really couldn’t have asked for a better bye round.

[Mel_C]

When I saw the score for the Melbourne game I thought it was a mistake. What a shocker!

I kept checking the Gold Coast game scores on my phone and got a little nervous when it was only 6 points in the final quarter. It was a great result for us.

[Mel_C]

Wht did the AFL schedule us, GWS and Brisbane to have a bye first up, when the three of us had already had a bye because of Opening Round? And why give both Sydney teams the bye in the same round, which means no football being played in Sydney this week? Strange scheduling.

[i'm-uninformed2]

Wht did the AFL schedule us, GWS and Brisbane to have a bye first up, when the three of us had already had a bye because of Opening Round? And why give both Sydney teams the bye in the same round, which means no football being played in Sydney this week? Strange scheduling.

A good pick up and why I never understood all the bleating from Vic media about our scheduling, beyond the fact they’re myopic pissants. We now have an 12 straight game run home.

[dejavoodoo44]

A good pick up and why I never understood all the bleating from Vic media about our scheduling, beyond the fact they’re myopic pissants. We now have an 12 straight game run home.

Yes, I think I'd prefer a bye later in the season, but hey, we do play North in round 18.

[liz]

Yes, I think I'd prefer a bye later in the season, but hey, we do play North in round 18.

Don't count your chickens. By round 18 Clarkson might have found a way (voluntary or enforced) to absent himself from coaching duties. They looked pretty competitive at times last season while Ratten was standing in as senior coach (including the game they possibly should have won against us).

[SwanSand]

The only teams that actually look good and can push us in September are Collingwood, Carlton and Fremantle. I don’t give Essendon any chance of a major upset in September. About Geelong we will know next week.
It is a season where with the start we have and the way everyone is falling apart, we have to go to the big dance. Especially if we win reasonable number of games in the next 4. No excuses. Otherwise we would have underachieved.

[Kafka's Ghost]

When I saw the score for the Melbourne game I thought it was a mistake. What a shocker!

I kept checking the Gold Coast game scores on my phone and got a little nervous when it was only 6 points in the final quarter. It was a great result for us.

Same, I checked the score and couldn’t believe my eyes. A result of that magnitude suggests serious issues at Melbourne, and a big reliance on too few. There’s a thumping, and then there’s a THUMPING!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[mcs]

The only teams that actually look good and can push us in September are Collingwood, Carlton and Fremantle. I don’t give Essendon any chance of a major upset in September. About Geelong we will know next week.
It is a season where with the start we have and the way everyone is falling apart, we have to go to the big dance. Especially if we win reasonable number of games in the next 4. No excuses. Otherwise we would have underachieved.

There are never any guarantees in footy. But we couldn't be better placed than we are at the moment, and so far the cards are falling nicely. Barring a dreadful injury crisis (That can strike of course at any point), on exposed form from here there should be zero excuses not to finish Top 2 and give ourselves the best chance to be there.

With good luck from here, as you say, we need to be there at the pointy end of the season to have taken advantage of the wonderful first half to the season. But the fact is we've only played half the regular season - plenty of time for things to go very right, or indeed very wrong from here.

Keep on praying to those footy gods that our good fortune continues. I would love us to finally turn a dominant season into a truly dominant season and win the lot. But by gee that's still a long way off at this point in time.

[dejavoodoo44]

Don't count your chickens. By round 18 Clarkson might have found a way (voluntary or enforced) to absent himself from coaching duties. They looked pretty competitive at times last season while Ratten was standing in as senior coach (including the game they possibly should have won against us).

Of course, the ideal scenario would be for us to inflict such a severe thrashing, that it ends up being Clarkson's last game. (Though as I type, I'm starting to feel a vague apprehension of bringing on a strange manifestation of commentator's curse).

[stevoswan]

Wht did the AFL schedule us, GWS and Brisbane to have a bye first up, when the three of us had already had a bye because of Opening Round? And why give both Sydney teams the bye in the same round, which means no football being played in Sydney this week? Strange scheduling.

They did that after the 'Opening Round' too, where there was no footy in Sydney for three weeks. The AFL certainly don't schedule for NSW benefit that's for sure.....it's still the 'heartland' getting most of the attention.

[MattW]

I think the teams that will challenge us most at the end of the year are those that could match us in the midfield and then expose our slight weakness against tall high marking forwards.

So that's Bulldogs, Carlton, Giants, in descending order.

I think the Bulldogs are potentially the biggest threat. Second highest % in the league. They were unlucky against us, and were without Liberatore, Weightman, and Richards and Naughton for some of the game. Their talls worry us and their midfield is actually pretty good.

I can't imagine that Carlton would be that bad against us again, and were without Cerra, Saad and Cottrell. Their forwards will score against us if they get decent ball.

We completely smashed GWS in the middle a few weeks ago. They were without Congilio and Green for much of the game, and I'd expect Greene to be better in the back part of the year.

Collingwood is the other team that I'm a bit wary of. They are very banged up though, and don't have the forwards to kick big scores.

[707]

Why did the AFL schedule us, GWS and Brisbane to have a bye first up, when the three of us had already had a bye because of Opening Round? And why give both Sydney teams the bye in the same round, which means no football being played in Sydney this week? Strange scheduling.

Because it's the incompetent AFL!

All really valid points

But, amazingly, we strengthened our top of the ladder position without even playing. Closest contenders for top spot Essendon and Port both got beat and we've now got a game in hand. Play third positioned Geelong next week so in our own hands to start laing the cement on top spot by winning.

[Maltopia]

I think the teams that will challenge us most at the end of the year are those that could match us in the midfield and then expose our slight weakness against tall high marking forwards.

So that's Bulldogs, Carlton, Giants, in descending order.

I think the Bulldogs are potentially the biggest threat. Second highest % in the league. They were unlucky against us, and were without Liberatore, Weightman, and Richards and Naughton for some of the game. Their talls worry us and their midfield is actually pretty good.

I can't imagine that Carlton would be that bad against us again, and were without Cerra, Saad and Cottrell. Their forwards will score against us if they get decent ball.

We completely smashed GWS in the middle a few weeks ago. They were without Congilio and Green for much of the game, and I'd expect Greene to be better in the back part of the year.

Collingwood is the other team that I'm a bit wary of. They are very banged up though, and don't have the forwards to kick big scores.

Agree that our finals danger teams are Bulldogs, Carlton and GWS.

Carlton knocked us out last year, and we have a very poor finals record against GWS.

To win the flag, we need to win anywhere, but the VFL can make a mockery of our right to a home ground final by making us play GWS at ANZ Stadium again, where they would have a better chance against us.