Top 8
Sydney
Western Bulldogs
GWS Giants
Adelaide
Melbourne
West Coast
Hawthorn
Geelong
Premier: Sydney
Wooden Spoon: Carlton
Edit: Actually I’ve looked at a lot of the “expert’s” predictions for last season. It appears the methodology is - jumble up the order of the final 8 from the previous year, then swap one team out for an up and coming team (usually Melbourne).
Wasn’t sure where to post this maybe there should be a thread on 2018 predictions/expectations
Anyway
We will play Melbourne Demons at the G in an elimination final and lose by 12 points.
100% this will happen
I’m expecting end of the first quarter round 1. The crouch brothers plus Sloane. I’m expecting to be losing clearances badly. Cue calls for Myers to be executed.
I swear I watch different games. The grand final I watched was most certainly not won by clearances. And certainly not forward line clearances, which is where Graham and Caddy line up.
You’ve gone from “consistent inside mids” to “they played roles on the day which didn’t involve being inside mids”. Which is quite correct. And Prestia, to his credit, had a good, consistent 2017. I just wouldn’t bank on him backing it up, with his injury history.
That finals serirs was all about pressure. If it was about inside mids, Adelaide win in a canter.
Essendon’s pressure was poor for much of the year, with some brief patches of very exciting, intense work. Get that right, and it throws the other mids under as much pressure as ours look most of the time. Get it wrong, wouldn’t matter who’s on ball.
The positive is Richmond showed you could go from just about the worst pressuring side to the best, if you draft and select right: Castagna, Rioli, Menadue, Lambert, Graham were very very good.
On what your saying you can’t really call Dusty an inside mid then if 50% of his time is spent fwd which is pretty much what happens in switching with Caddy.
Of those Richmond 5. Only Cotchin, Prestia & Graham (tagger) played permanent midfield.
But again I agreed with you on pressure.
Tigers have just enough contested players to win the footy inside, where they trump most teams is their hard running role playing outside players / small fwds.
Helped by the fact they played 1 kpf in JRiewoldt whose excellent at ground level, Grigg 2nd ruck who always was a hard running midfielder & then Dusty/Caddy as a medium fwd.