My take on the ladder for next year (end of home and away, not finals):
West Coast - settled team. gaff back. Nic Nat back sometime. hard to beat in west
Essendon - barring injuries, will be most exciting team to watch next year. In full flight
Richmond - lose some depth, but get Lynch. Any injuries could be problem. Had dream run last 2 years
Collingwood - good midfield will get you through most games
Melbourne - another good midfield, with good bookends now.
Adelaide - Cut out the crap, power ranger stuff, boot camps, and stick to football, they will be OK
GWS - Little worried. Another bad injury run, and they tumble
North - Not bad, not quite the class of others
Geelong. Long in the tooth. Will win games in Geelong, struggle elsewhere
Port Adelaide - Home games, few match winners, I’d take Robbie G anyday
Hawks - My sliders along with swannies. Sad to see. Hell no. Clarko will berate journalists most of year
Brisbane - Could be higher. Dangerous opposition next year.
Fremantle - They should see a quack. Split personaility. OK one day, toilet stuff the next
Swannies - Tired and slow. Will be evident when Hooker runs away from Buddy and kicks a goal from the boundary at the 50
Saints - Carlisle, I’ll send you a post card at the end of next season saying “told ya…”
Bulldogs - Lost players, Bevo will only be there 1 training session a week. Surfing other sessions.
Gold Coast - Funnily enough, will be better without a few bad eggs
Williamstown - promoted for VFL as finishing as highest non-aligned team in VFL
Carlton I honestly think will finish around mid-table in VFL, with SoS staring bewilderingly at his clipboard saying “$%#^ I reading these drafts upside down…”
It doesn’t bother me about Essendon too much.
It seems a dumb first round for the AFL though.
And call me sentimental, but I don’t think it’s right for the reigning premiers to have to travel as far as they can possibly travel in round one.
Should be home game and they can do the flag thing.
But maybe they asked for it?
Who knows?
I reckon they may have asked for it. That’s the worst trip for WC, it totally makes sense for them to get it out of the way in the first round when they have the longest time to prepare.
Just finished watching the grand finals Fox footy have replayed over the past few weeks. Seeing the reactions & tears of the Bulldogs supporters, who waited 62 years. The tigers fans who had 37 years of torment.
It got me thinking. What would a flag mean to us all? Sure, it’s not the longest premiership drought, but no club has been through what we have. No club has had to endure what we have. I’m not sure how I’d react if we were to win a flag but I reckon I’d shed a tear & consume a lot of beer, for sure.
For now, I’ll settle for that long awaited finals win & who knows, maybe we can be the team to get hot in the finals and bring home the sweetest flag of all. I’m confident we have a premiership list but do we have a premiership mindset? A win at all cost desire? If we do, look out!