All of a sudden, it looks a tough Draw.
Some teams have found form (GCS, Syd & Coll).
Some are up and down (GWS), but we know they’ll be tough.
We’ll take a 5 goal loss against the WB, and Norf will give us a game next week.
4 out of 6 will be a good result !
My niece already had the pleasure this year of her team falling over the line against us (VFLW). Needs to be put back in her place.
(She randomly turned up for the semi-final yesterday; if Ruby Svarc does some more insane runs down the wing she might yet turn to the light side.)
With our draw we SHOULD play finals but whether it be through years of pain I just have a horrible feeling we will drop one we shouldn’t. Really should win 4 of our last 6 minimum. I wouldn’t look forward to a final against Sydney or Port but every chance Sydney won’t be allowed back there this year
Is that realistic ?
We are where we are right now (7-9).
Why should we be overwhelming favourites in any of our games ?
Whilst every team has injuries, we have some very good mids missing, with only Shiel to return in 3 weeks.
3 and 3 would be a good result.
I don’t recall a season since the top 8 was introduced where the gap between 6th and 7th was so big. 7th/8th are generally teams that are just making up the numbers anyway, but this year it’s looking like a team with 10/11 wins could get 8th. Sydney is 6th, and they are head and shoulders above either Freo or West Coast, who depending on the result tomorrow night one of the WA teams will be occupying 7th spot.
The contenders for 7th/8th are:
West Coast - Look cooked.
Fremantle - Good at home, rubbish away.
GWS - Lost to Hawthorn and Gold Coast, drew against North and yet beat the Dees at the ‘G. Flaky.
St. Kilda - Hitting form at the right time, hard run coming up. Could come home with a wet sail after looking like a rabble a month ago.
Essendon - Rebuilding team who have exceeded expectations.
Richmond - Read West Coast.
North, we should win comfortably, even though they are improving they still should be no match for us.
GWS I still think is a 50/50 but I think while our lists are fairly even we are better coached
Sydney I do think they are better than us and will beat us on current form
Western Bulldogs like Richmond we go to water mentally against these blokes. I give them a 8-10 goal win
Gold Coast Terrible side, it’s at their dump of a ground and they will turn it into a crappy arm wrestle where 8 goals wins. We showed against the Crows that we can break teams like that open so I’m claiming a win there
Collingwood They are still a ordinary side and I reckon we can give them a genuine touch up
Looking at the bottom half of the 8 if we scrape in we would most likely be going to Adelaide/Sydney/Qld and will get rinsed.
After 16 Rounds we are above;
Richmond
FarkCarlton
Collingwood
Hawthorn.
If we stopped the season now I’d regard that as an outstanding Finals performance.
Even if we don’t make the actual Eight.
The live ladders site predicts a 7th place finish for us (11 wins/105%)
2009?
8th was a raffle, we limped in with 10.5 wins
if we win every game bar the dogs, we wouldn’t be limping in. we’d well and truly have earnt it and you’d think mcgrath/shiel will be back
it’s unlikely, but if we make it - we’ll be in good form
Key games in our race to finals:
Us v GWS and Sydney obviously
St Kilda vs. Carlton
Western Derby Rd 22
Us v Pies
I did a predictor and had us pinching 7th with our last win.
In a weird way, with the way our rebuild is going, I think we are going to lose one more final before we break our drought. For that reason I wouldn’t mind us sneaking into the finals, losing it to build some hunger and fire in the kids and show them what it takes before playing our next final with some hunger and hitting the next one at full tilt as opposed to missing out this year, making finals next year and getting taught a lesson then. Making finals this year could accelerate our rebuild by a year. Does that make sense or am I talking absolute ■■■■?
Squiggle and AFL predictor also have us making the 8 
next week we beat North
Eagles thump crows
Freo lose to cats. (they have snuck in the 8)
Saints lose to Port
Id like to see Giants beat Sydney unfortunately cant see swans missing the 8 now.
Richmond lose to Lions
Pies to beat Blues
That would leave us in 9th I think.
I did a pretty conservative forecast with us losing 2 games - WB and one of Sydney or GC. If the other results goes to favourites we will be in the 8 with 44 pts with superior %. It is critical that we pump North this week and then not being demolished by WB. If we can stay around 105% we may just sneak in.
I think Crows will beat the Eagles. After their performance last week, they’ll be looking to make amends.
Will have a few decent ins as well.
You’d think Brisbane will account for Richmond next week.
Won’t be going to Sydney
Saints are very capable of causing an upset and beating Port, they are playing better than most thought they would.
Does this mean he would miss our game?