AFL 2018
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@mariner4life said in AFL 2018:
@act-crusader said in AFL 2018:
GWS has a terrible injury toll and it will take a huge improvement from their bottom 6-8 players to really impact the finals.
Here's hoping the Dees can keep chalking up wins vs top 8 sides now, including GWS this weekend.
haha 1 win and exectations are through the roof.
GWS. Jesus, they just can't keep players on the field. Two years in a row hammered by injury.
Momentum
I'm really hopeful such a good win can be their springboard to bigger and better results.
That's two wins on the bounce VS teams in the top 8 with a resounding victory against GWS today. Now we get an elimination final VS Geelong. We're due a win against the Cats and we go in ranked ahead of them, but these are the sort of banana skin games a side such as the current Dees with minimal finals experience - and none as a group - could drop. Or the momentum, hype and some youthful exuberance might keep them surging forward. Of course I hope the latter!
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And so the regular season is done. Richmond easily the top side, everyone else in the 8 is pretty even i think.
Would anybody be surprised to see Clarkson come up with a plan to beat Richmond in their final?
Biggest Surprises of the year?
North not being awful
The Eagles finishing top 2. Actually you could stretch that to the rest of the top 4 after Richmond. Not sure many would have predicted any of them finishing that highBiggest Disappointments?
South Australian football. The Crows played the GF and were possibly the best team last year. They were out of the finals race with 3 weeks to go. Port recruited mature guys to have a crack at a flag and got worse.
St Kilda were tipped for a run at the 8, but were rubbish.
The GWS medical department
Perhaps Geelong only scraping in to the 8?For the Lions? well, we won 5 games. We lost another 5 by less than a kick. There was a definite, tangible improvement in the team this year. We have a heap of young guns, but our best players are still the older blokes (Dayne Beams is a deadset gun). A percentage close to 90 is not bad for a team that lost that many times. The goal for next year is 10 wins, finals in 2020.
Richmond, West Coast, Sydney and Melbourne to win their finals.
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@mariner4life said in AFL 2018:
And so the regular season is done. Richmond easily the top side, everyone else in the 8 is pretty even i think.
Would anybody be surprised to see Clarkson come up with a plan to beat Richmond in their final?Not at all, he's had basically all year after we beat them in round three to come up with and practise a plan. Stop our contested possessions and slow the pace of the game down. Easy to say...
To have any confidence he'd have needed to show his hand already against teams that play like the Tigers, to see if the plan worked.
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@mariner4life said in AFL 2018:
And so the regular season is done. Richmond easily the top side, everyone else in the 8 is pretty even i think.
Would anybody be surprised to see Clarkson come up with a plan to beat Richmond in their final?
Biggest Surprises of the year?
North not being awful
The Eagles finishing top 2. Actually you could stretch that to the rest of the top 4 after Richmond. Not sure many would have predicted any of them finishing that highBiggest Disappointments?
South Australian football. The Crows played the GF and were possibly the best team last year. They were out of the finals race with 3 weeks to go. Port recruited mature guys to have a crack at a flag and got worse.
St Kilda were tipped for a run at the 8, but were rubbish.
The GWS medical department
Perhaps Geelong only scraping in to the 8?For the Lions? well, we won 5 games. We lost another 5 by less than a kick. There was a definite, tangible improvement in the team this year. We have a heap of young guns, but our best players are still the older blokes (Dayne Beams is a deadset gun). A percentage close to 90 is not bad for a team that lost that many times. The goal for next year is 10 wins, finals in 2020.
Richmond, West Coast, Sydney and Melbourne to win their finals.
I said almost exactly the same thing of the Dees as you have the Lions, about three seasons ago. The Dees frustratingly are a season behind where I thought they'd be after missing finals by the barest of margins last year so go into this season's series pretty green, poasibly even naive but full of enthusiasm. This year they'd have been in much greater stead had they qualified last year and been tossed out first round. Its possible we go deep-ish into September this year but more likely next. Then again, maybe the lack of finals experience won't matter and we win the whole bloody thing! Hell, even the Warriors made a final after qualifying eighth.
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There is a theory the way to beat richmond is through precision kicking , and switching the ball to not allow them to set up their pressure game ,
Clarkson is a smart coach , but for some reason he has struggled a bit with richmond , their last 12 games are 6 each , and most of that was through the Hawks dominant period.
Might have something to do with dimma being his ex assistant and knowing his tricks better than most
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@mariner4life I had Saints about 15th or 16th heading into this season fighting it out with Carlton, Freo and Gold Coast for the wooden spoon. We don’t have much class in our side and our good young players are probably a couple of seasons away from hitting their straps.
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@act-crusader said in AFL 2018:
@mariner4life I had Saints about 15th or 16th heading into this season fighting it out with Carlton, Freo and Gold Coast for the wooden spoon. We don’t have much class in our side and our good young players are probably a couple of seasons away from hitting their straps.
you would have been in the minority then, as a large number of pundits had them having a crack at the 8. But i definitely agree with you on your squad. A big off season is required.
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Oh, and i reserve my right to change all opinions of the Lions should the rumours around Dayne Beams prove to be correct. If he leaves in the middle of what is building, then the Lions are done as a club, and we'll never compete again.
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@mariner4life said in AFL 2018:
@act-crusader said in AFL 2018:
@mariner4life I had Saints about 15th or 16th heading into this season fighting it out with Carlton, Freo and Gold Coast for the wooden spoon. We don’t have much class in our side and our good young players are probably a couple of seasons away from hitting their straps.
you would have been in the minority then, as a large number of pundits had them having a crack at the 8. But i definitely agree with you on your squad. A big off season is required.
Yeah I was very surprised by some of the preseason predictions. I think they put far too much weight on Richardson being able to work miracles through some sort of coaching genius.
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I read today that McGovern wants out of Adelaide. Apparently weird cult camps aren't his thing.
But he is thinking of going to Carlton? Why they fuck would you waste your life going to that dumpster fire?
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@mariner4life said in AFL 2018:
I read today that McGovern wants out of Adelaide. Apparently weird cult camps aren't his thing.
But he is thinking of going to Carlton? Why they fuck would you waste your life going to that dumpster fire?
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@antipodean Sweet. Once they sign him and lure Fevola and Kouta out of retirement they'll be competitive again.
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@antipodean said in AFL 2018:
@mariner4life said in AFL 2018:
I read today that McGovern wants out of Adelaide. Apparently weird cult camps aren't his thing.
But he is thinking of going to Carlton? Why they fuck would you waste your life going to that dumpster fire?
can't be. North, who are a better team in nearly every department, offered everyone in the league the GDP of a decent size nation last year, and no one took it.
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He is a WA boy ,
I wouldn’t be surprised if he ended up at freo .
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@kiwiinmelb said in AFL 2018:
He is a WA boy ,
I wouldn’t be surprised if he ended up at freo .
poor fluffybunny
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Firstly, how shit is the pre-finals bye?
Second, Dayne Beams commits to the Lions for the rest of his contract. Beauty.
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@mariner4life and the fact the bye week coincided with a weekend off of the Rugby Championship made it seem worst for some reason.
It’s going to be on this Thursday and the ferals will be out in all their glory around Melbourne town.
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Thursday night is going to be out of control.
Friday will be massive as well. And then Melbourne goes quiet for the weekend.
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Im going Thursday , strange that this is the first time Tigers and the Hawks have met in a final , both clubs have had their successful eras , but not at the same time ,
Going to the Storm v Bunnies Friday ,
Kick back and watch the ABs on TV sat
Life is good
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@kiwiinmelb said in AFL 2018:
Im going Thursday , strange that this is the first time Tigers and the Hawks have met in a final , both clubs have had their successful eras , but not at the same time ,
Going to the Storm v Bunnies Friday ,
Kick back and watch the ABs on TV sat
Life is good
Horse racing carnival here. I'll be blind every night Thursday to Saturday i reckon, so I'll see zero football until Sunday arvo.
Which makes it doubly frustrating they didn't have the AFL finals the weekend just gone!!
