Thanks for posting this website. 
Will be able to watch games that I missed while overseas.
I started with the West Coast game. Boy oh boy wow wee did we sizzle in the first half, was great to watch.
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Finish top 6, will make the prelim at a minimum.
What browser do you us? I tried to watch from the website and it came up with “unable to load media”!
Google Chrome
Manage all that and we’ll only lose to the Dogs in round 22
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Our expectations are more in line with our lack of success than talented 22
Soooo many question marks heading into 2019 about our list, but seems to be again replaced by ‘hey look we have a new shiny recruitment thing’
I don’t think this organisation demands enough of its self, which was really clear when people spoke of BJ arriving at the club. 2019 will show just how bad EFC want onfield success
I hope/expect a flag - but realistically 4-7 finish with a finals win and we answer some of those question marks
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I don’t think there are any glaring holes in our list. The issue is the way we play, not who we’ve got playing.
The list is the best it’s been in 15+ years. There is supreme talent on every line complimented by good honest footballers and young emerging kids. Age profile is on point.
There is only one question and that is whether the coaches can get the list playing the sort of football that’s going to win us finals (and a flag) consistently enough. 23 weeks of what we saw in the back half of last year, with some adjustments and further improvements will see us improve our ladder position significantly and contend for and in finals.
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Saying its the best list in 15 years is not really an achievement. In that time we have a team has been pretty average
I see a few question marks 2nd tall forward/lock down defender/back up ruck/tagger-lockdown player/ depth to cover injuries and of course game day coaching tactics
Pretty sure we have the 3rd most All Australian’s of any side in the comp, it’s a very very good list of talent.
As to those specific positional needs…
2nd tall forward - Mckernan and Brown both showed themselves capable of fulfilling that role. I wouldn’t want to rely on them to hold down the two key forward posts for an entire year but certainly happy for them to play 2nd fiddle to Joe. Stewart has regressed which would be a disappointment.
Lock down defender - We have 2 All Australian key defenders in our back 6. Both have the ability to play one on one and the emergence of Francis as an intercept defender will free up Hooker to help out Hurls on the gorilla’s.
Back up Ruck - this is our main area of weakness for sure. McKernan can pinch hit but we need another back up option and I’d imagine with the retirement of Leuy it’s an area they’ll look to target via DFA. Draper looks a real prospect.
Tagger - Never going to play one so don’t need it.
Depth - we have great key position depth at both ends and on the flanks (they may not be superstars but that’s not what your depth players need to be). Midfield depth will only come from development from within. The likes of Laverde/Begley/Mutch/Clarke need to develop for us to improve that depth. Consider that we won 10 of our last 14 this year with a string of injuries to crucial personnel.
It’s 100% about whether plan is good enough and whether we can execute it.
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If we don’t drop the games to those we are expected to beat and pinch a game or two from Coll, Rich, Melb and Haw, we will be top four for sure. Expect the Hawks to come out and ESS And Melb fight for the 4.
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I recall Hirdy was bullish about Hawthorn in 2019 on his podcast - thought Clarkson was building them back up to have a crack next year.
Some sides step up and some go backwards. Just a gut feeling (i.e. I haven’t really thought about it in detail. Then again I’m not sure that’ll make a lot of difference) it’ll be a crowded top eight next year with a number of sides fighting for those top 4 spots. Percentage is going to be super important, but is an area we have struggled with for a long time. Last time we finished with a % higher than 110 was 2003.
Need to post some big wins.
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If we can maintain form from the second half of this season we’ll be in good shape. We won 8 of our last 11. 16 wins should be an easy top 4 finish and with Shiel, Daniher, more Raz and even Gleeson in the mix it’s not an unreasonable expectation. They can’t ■■■■ around trying to get it right for 8 rounds like this year though. Hopefully this season was the kick up the ■■■ they needed.
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We have a three year window coming up, this is the first year next year.
If in one of these years JoeDan and Raz stay fit we’ll win or go far
I also expect us to all realise we at this point still underrated kev
Maintaining our form isn’t enough, we need to be proactive during the off season. The game doesn’t stand still, you have to move with it or get left behind. Given we weren’t quite at the level of the top 4 when when were winning this year, there’s clearly things that still need to be worked on. Hopefully they get it right and it’s plainly obvious for all to see from JLT1!
Yes agree. For me, maintaining form would include maintaining the level of improvement. Although i don’t care much for the results in JLT. I don’t want them to over do it and end up with any Marty Gleeson type injuries.
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I think we can make top 4.
With WC, Pies, Tigers & Dees the main competition.
WC team has been weakened somewhat (Lycett, LeCras gone) and there is always question marks on hunger following a flag.
The other 3 have been strengthened (arguable for Melb) through trade period and be bleeding over how their finals series ended up.
Our back half to season saw us one of form teams of comp only just falling to other top 4 sides. We definitely will be stronger both onfield personnel and coaching wise (rutten). And we too will be steeled to ensure come out firing from round1 after a wasted year of sorts.
Top 6 and win a final is a minimum however.
We can do better than that though.
Should be a very exciting year for Dons fan’s
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Yeah totally. Practice matches are largely redundant and useless save for conditioning. Injuries during them are the single biggest waste of time and effort during the pre-season. But after what we did last year, which was to stink royally for 10 weeks of football (inc JLT) before finally doing something about it and getting our ■■■■ together, I’d actually hope that maybe they’ve got their ■■■■ together before we even start this year. The plan should be entrenched and visible for all to see, even if we’re going at half rat power.
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cough second.
Hirdy’s tipping was terrible this year.
But he’s got better form with longer term predictions. When Bucks was under pressure last year he was saying they’d be top 4 in 2018 if Collingwood hung on to Bucks. Seemed like a crazy prediction at the time to me.