Luck… or designed? We also consistantly travel a lot more than most other vic sides - esp to perth and brisbane. If we add travel factor to the draw it would be really telling. cwood is the protected team - afl give them everything they can to help them succeed.
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so can we stop whinging about the conspiracy ■■■■? we beat good teams and if we didnt ■■■■ our pants vs ■■■■ teams we would be in finals, simple as that. blaming the draw is a major fkg cop out.
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The compromised draw is not a conspiracy - it is a fact.
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Wasn’t a whole season. In 2000 after the loss to the Bulldogs they vowed to not sing the song again until they won the flag. So it was like 6-7 weeks, not a whole season.
The chat around “celebrating too much” is so fkng ridiculous. Players enjoying themselves for 20 minutes before looking ahead to next week should the least of anyone’s concerns in sport.
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Do you have anything else to back up your claim? Because I don’t see any evidence there except your assumption about how I came up with my conclusion.
On a side note, do you blame injuries for the 2 goals a game and goal assists that we had from Hooker last year and not this year? Or Stewart’s form?
You have gone nuts Ants. Lost the plot completely.
They didn’t factor in travel into their analysis.
I’m pretty sure it was the whole season after losing to Carlton in the pre-lim.
You do realise saying I’m biased, lost the plot, while not providing any evidence or arguments of such is pretty silly. So far all your evidence is claiming a post with a conclusion was written with the conclusion as the starting point. Nothing to say why that’s the case. Nothing else.
So please, before you keep slandering me, show some justification.
I gave it all to you, you ignored it and then revealed the truth, you want to blame the coaches and you have ignored all the nuances that impact on why something happens.
So please, before you keep going on and on, maybe admit to yourself that you were incredibly harsh and didn’t use the evidence correctly.
Maybe Ants and IT need to go to mediation.
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Personally I don’t mind the open discord.
FWIW so do I.
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Our forwardline:
2017:
Goals 319
2018
280
Losing our main forward (JD) all year (basically) due to injury, having our other main forward from last year moved down back (Hooker) and having our 3rd best forward (Fanta) in and out of the side due to injury, we did an amazing job to reach that scoreline, being only 39 goals down on the previous year when all were fit and firing. You also have to add in a very changed midfield group to last year which does have an impact.
Sure form played a part (Stewart, Green) but ainjury also had an impact on that formline. Stewart went from 3rd tall, roaming free and being able to impact games every so often without being under the spot light, to being the main focal point. He didn’t cope well with it as he isn’t a classic tall forward and the flaws in his game became glaring and he lost a large amount of confidence. Green’s injury from the end of last year had more of an impact on him than we probably realise imo. And then he found his start of the year also impacted by some injuries and then his form fell off a cliff. Tippa had an issue at the start of the year and was not impacting games (many on here say he played through injury). He got into towards the end and kicked 26 (down from 34) but still a good return.
We then cobbled a forwardline of Brown, Smack, Baguley and Stringer (in and out) and actually did pretty well considering that.
Unlike Ants I don’t think “bad coaching was the major reason for the forward line going backwards”. I also do not consider that it went backwards in the sense he is using. Based on last year it would appear to have gone backwards, but injuries were the main reason we lost what we had last year (and some form drop - but again injuries played a part of creating that as outlined above). However due to some really good coaching they managed to get a forwardline together that kicked almost as many goals as last year, just without the excitement level (Fanta aside) we might have wanted.
Next year we get JD back, add him and I think you find we go past what 2017 gave us with the strength of what 2018 gave us.
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I think there is a rider in the post you responded to.
Ignoring players like Fanta and Joe missing is absolute idiocy. Joe alone kicked 65 last year and about 10 this year.
Stewart and Green are really the only two who went backwards on form. Both eminently replaceable.
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Another factor which is greatly overlooked IMO is the fixture. I guess there’s two ways to view it in essence, we either weren’t good enough or we were asked to climb a mountain too high (and both can be linked). Statistically we had the second hardest fixture (Adelaide had the hardest but as a reigning GF team to be expected) based on the finish of 2018. We had 7 matches against the eventual top 4 (Richmond, Collingwood & Hawthorn twice & WCE once albeit away) and 11 against the final 8. Only one return match against a bottom 6 club (Freo) and six interstate trips.
Compare that with Collingwood who only played Richmond twice of the top 8 but had return matches against Carlton, Freo & Brisbane and 5 interstate trips. Hawthorn Similarly had return matches against Brisbane (ironically they lost) and St Kilda and only played Geelong & Sydney twice of the top 8. Richmond as the reigning premier only played Geelong & Collingwood twice.
I really think the 17-5 fixture needs to be brought in to maximise the fairness factor to the competition. Even though it’s arguable we should’ve won against Richmond, Collingwood & Hawthorn in the return matches and not dismissing the poor start, we would’ve had a better chance to make the finals playing more teams around us on the ladder.
Hopefully next year, our finishing position works in our favour and evens out some of those sides above us as well.
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And Pies got an absolute dream run with the umps. WC at home like differential.
Almost like the AFL didn’t want them falling in a heap and having to sack Bucks.
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Pies had a team differential of +98
Eagles +85
Dons -24
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In terms of results and final ladder position, this year has neen a massive failure.
In terms of looking forward to the future and next season it weirdly has been a success
If there was ever a season of two halves it was this one.
Positives:
We have a game style that I have complete confidence can stand up in finals and win one
We were able to kick some very good scores with a patched up forward line consisting of quite a few depth players
Later in the year Worsfold started to make more game day decisions and switch guys around
We are playing with aggression
We have found some really good youngsters who really showed something
Francis
Stringer looks very focused, settled in much better than I had thought
Hooker back in defence, we look so much more settled
After the Carlton game Hep really came into his own as a leader, there was a drastic different from before the scum game and after
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