FACT - It is still mathematically possible that we can make the 8 ROFL

[FooffooValve]

Forgot that one. 

Not sure what it says about the standard of the comp.

[mat073]

It says you dont have to be that good to make the 8

[Smokey]

It also says you are a fool if you think we need a complete rebuild.  And it appears that most of the prospective coaches in the marketplace agree.

[mat073]

                                      Tragic Finals fact #1

Since 1994 the average number of games won by the 8th placed teams is 11.03
We have won 11 games or more in a season 8 times since 94. ???

Life can be cruel at times.

[mightytiges]

                                      Tragic Finals fact #1

Since 1994 the average number of games won by the 8th placed teams is 11.03
We have won 11 games or more in a season 8 times since 94. ???

Life can be cruel at times.

Yep we've missed out on finals with 12 wins a few times while Brisbane have twice made them with just 10 wins. We've had a knack of knowing where the line of mediocrity is each year and finish just below it  .

I hope this year isn't a repeat of 1997. We hardly won a game under Walls (Wallace) so we sack him and replace him by his assistant Geisch (Rawlings) and we win games at the end of the season in a rush to finish 1/2 a game outside the top 8 because the standard of the mid-ladder sides was rubbish . Coincidentally Melbourne were wooden spooners that year too with just 4 wins.

[Hellenic Tiger]

Yeah and in 1998 MT we had 12 wins and lost in round 22 to Melbourne the wooden spooner from 97 by 13 goals to hand Essendon 8th spot on percentage. Coincidentally another team who finished below us in 1997.

[one-eyed]

Another ninth in Tigers' sights
George Megalogenis | August 08, 2009 | The Australian

FOUR rounds to go. Four sets of results that no sane person would tip.

But it's there, Richmond supporters, if you give the abacus of the absurd a quick glance.

We can make the finals.

All that has to happen is Port Adelaide loses four times, Hawthorn and Essendon drops three of their next four, and Sydney gets beaten twice.

Oh, and the Tigers would have to win all four remaining matches, starting with the Swans tomorrow, then Collingwood, Hawthorn and West Coast.

OK, so Malcolm Turnbull is more likely to join Kevin Rudd's office as the prime ministerial speechwriter.

But there is a serious side to Richmond's remote mathematical chance of sneaking into the eight.

It means another ninth-place finish is on the cards.

This ninth would be our first in an odd year, and our first back-to-back. It would take our total to seven since 1994.

This ninth would repeat the nutty symmetry of last year's effort, when we left the run so late that the streak (eight of the last 11 games) could only be explained by the absence of pressure. No one expected the finals when the winning began, and they were right.

These are the phoney displays of form that give real meaning to one's membership.

You cough up the cash at the start of the season, watch the side surrender its first couple of matches, then you give up.

I've seen Richmond just thrice this year -- the round one dacking against Carlton; the round five choke against Melbourne, and the draw the other week against the Kangaroos.

There is nothing I witnessed in those efforts that would convince me to go back again this season.

But a come-from-nowhere ninth would compel me to renew my vows, if only for the sheer comic brilliance of it all. Was it really just a month ago that we were last?

Now the question that must be nagging readers at the moment: how do I see ninth place unfold when the team now in that position, Essendon, is 2 1/2 wins ahead of us with four games to go?

Don't ask me. The footy gods will find a way.

Go Tigers.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25898203-5012432,00.html

[mat073]

"A come-from-nowhere ninth"   but at the same time

[Tigermonk]