THE ROAD TO THE FLAG 2019

Yes, because the WC Collingwood prelim isn’t a draw.

To tank for our 2nd round draft pick, obviously.

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Yep. About half a dozen oter teams are all saying the same thing. Their supporters will have their own doubts, but doubt is not a good enough reason to give up a season that is only half over. Go Bombers.

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Time away with the bye means the players and coaches have to come back and refocus/regroup. Going into the bye with a good win is a positive. But the challenge is getting ourselves set mentally and physically for Hawthorn. This mental side of the game is still an issue for us - where they talk about how they want to play the Essendon brand but struggle to regularly deliver it and not for a full match. The best sides don’t struggle or have to really challenge themselves to play their brand. It’s just what they do.

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Win the next 2 and we are right in the 8 and only one game from top 4…True story!

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Because our form is terrible. If we make it we will get smashed again

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Pity they didn’t focus between Sept last year and March this year instead of drinking their own bath water

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Do you know what our form will be in September if we were to make it ?
Can I have the lotto numbers as well, since you seem to be able to predict the future ?

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Why do you bother even coming into the forum if you think you know everything? From your comments you would be best just staying away until we are right to go for a flag then comment.

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Oh come on you don’t need to be Nostradamus to predict it. Last year we atleast showed glimpses of being a very good side. I’m yet to see any of that this year and just don’t know where this sudden upturn in form will come from. Unless they have magically found some mysterious game plan in the bye round I can’t see much changing.

The point is, whoever finishes in 7/8th spot this year won’t be very good sides, and won’t win the Flag.
We are definitely in that category.
Around that 11-11 type side (give or take a win or 2).

We have 11 games and 3 months to try and find a workable system and consistent form that may give us a shot at winning a Final.
Why would we give up now ?
The teams around us are hardly intimidating !

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Well I have us finishing 4th does that make a difference?

4th?
How many do you have us winning and where do you see the massive form lift coming from?
We were putrid last week still and would have lost to nearly everyone else. I just can see it TBH.
Anyway lose to the Hawks and it’s time to pack it in

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Win to the Hawks and win to WCE ( like we did last year ) right there

this is what i don’t understand about people around here who rely on hope and faith.

the biggest predictor of future behaviour is past behaviour . so what our form in september looks like, from this clubs recent history of finals experience, is poor, and probably results in a belting.

not aimed at you, cos you can see it, but others just still seem to assume, despite believing you can’t just change tactics and gameplans willy nilly, somehow this side, in it’s current formation will somehow just start clicking and it’ll all work out somehow.

oh but the draw is easier …
not really, and with this sides propensity to lose to bottom clubs, no game is “easy”.

oh but we did it last year…
yes after a drastic change in a sacking of a coach. you can also argue we are missing the biggest driving force in our turnaround in dev.

we play
hawks, who we’ve won 2 games in how many years, i stopped looking at 2012
WC over there, granted we won last year, so there is that, but in general they don’t play in the west too well.
we also have freo over there with the same trait as above, and they did beat us last year.
giants whooped us in rd 1.
and have the pies in the last rd who our record against them is similar to hawthorns, there’s ahell of alot more losses than wins.

so it beggars belief why people run with the thinking, oh how can you predict how we will go in the future.

well look at the past. this club hasn’t been able to string together a consistent strong season where the team performs for 25 odd weeks of the year, for how long ?

and all of a sudden at this point in the season, with the way it’s gone so far, it’s somehow going to change ?
because ?

If you don’t rely on hope at this point in the season there is nothing left.

Ok you say you’ve given up. That’s fine. Each to their own. But I call BS on you giving up. If you have you wouldn’t still be posting in all of these threads. You still have hope and you know it.

:wink:

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i didnt’ say i have given up.
i just dont’ expect much to change

it’s like watching a slow motion crash.
you can sorta see it coming, you hope like hell it doesn’t, but you can see it happening.

I’m not saying it cant’ turn around, i’m just saying on balance of probabilities it won’t, when you take in past evidence of it well not.

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Sometimes change happens slowly, and improvement isn’t always linear.
In fact, it seldom ever is.

Look at Richmond as an example.
They had to keep presenting in the Finals and suffered many humiliating defeats before something clicked in 2017, with personnel, game style and belief in that system.
They had to get beat by the 9th placed team in Carlton after leading early.
They got walloped by Port the year after.
Then North got them in 2015 after Rich lead by 4-5 goals early.

Making Finals is still a worthy goal for this year, despite the Flag being out of reach.
I’m not sure if our game style can hold up in Finals, but I’d like to find out.
Perhaps some of the problems are fixable between now and September ?
Give me Bris at the Gabba
Rich at the G
Adelaide in Adelaide
whatever !

Missing Finals does not assist us this year, particularly with our Draft predicament.

Essington’s lack of improvement has been fairly linear

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when those things happened though, said change was very quick and dramatic.

and yes the difference before that being, they indeed made finals 3 out of the previous 4 years, twice finishing 5th.
so for 23 weeks of the year, they were able to perform to a high standard, and KNEW they were on the right track.

the key issues that changed richmond IMO were the fact they realised altho they could do well enough during the season, they couldn’t execute in september, with said 3 issues you raised.

so they went out and changed.

We MAY be in that process, and you may be right that it’s just going slower for us.

but IMO the football landscape has changed so much now, that you just can’t rely solely on slow change.
because improvements and strengths in the here and now may not be the same, in 1-2 years, as things will have changed yet again.

case in point 2 years ago we thought we had the new buddy franklin, now ??
last year we had this absolute beast of a competitor most of us hoped would drag the rest of this side along with him, this year, gone.

No it’s not as easy as just doing a richmond, changing things and just expecting success.
but you can’t just wait around every season til you’re 5-8 at the mid season break to be trying more and new ways to win and or improve.