On the money there Jack.
Interstate teams play 12 games in their home City if you count the away derby's some lets say they win two thirds (ball park) that's 8 wins and four or 5 away and that gets you to 13ish.
Are we honestly going to win 13 and have a better % than a Freo or Sydney or Adelaide who may cash in on playing some poor interstate travelling side(s).
Dogs are on the slide in decline and in denial as are St Kilda. I guess new coaches in charge after longish regimes beforehand and you these clubs have to be positive to sell memberships. Does that mean we will finish above them. Not necessarily but I am confident we can. A measure of our improvement will be indicated if we can beat either or both of these sides who have really owned us in the last 8-10 or so years.
Melbourne is a tricky one. Scully gone how have their kids developed or will develop under Neeld and Craig remembering Neeld was involved with the Pies who under Malthouse seemed to be able to churn out some kids and get them playing the footy they wanted them too. It's always interesting when we play them. They have little respect for us and we think they are soft spoilt and more inclined to playing tennis at a country club somewhere on the Mornington Peninsula or skiing on the slopes at Mt Buller. Nevertheless we are a better club than them and we need to beat crap teams like them to get us out of the top half of the bottom ten and get us into the eight as they are vying for the same spot as us.
Essendon are a side susceptible to injuries and blessed with an array of players who are flashy unpredictable prone to lapses and hardly unreliable to long stretches. No goal to goal line and lots of flashy downhill skier types who look great when things are good and diabolical when things are bad. Can win games of footy by 10 goals and lose the following week by the same margin.
Other than the fact that they are living on past glories and their fans have a chip on their shoulder and believe it is their right to succeed regardless of list ability and any other macchination known to man as well as they always seem to get a decent draw one can expect that they will be there or thereabout. Difference between our win against them and theirs last year was they had won their previous three games when we beat them in Dreamtime we had lost 4 of 5 including the FTF game against the Filth the week before. That said more upside for us and all being fair and equal we should finish above them. Cannot wait for the Golden Boy to feel the heat and the fans to turn on him. There's always an upside at Tigerland.
Experience is where North have us but when blokes like Harvey are your best player and he's 33 and Petrie who 28ish and Edwards who can kick bags against the lower sides but gets no sniff smell or stink of leather when they play bona fide top 8 sides then you have to say they may struggle to get back if they have a poor start. Furthermore Scott may be under pressure if they still are losing heavily to the better sides and kids like Cunnington Atley Pederson Peterson Adams (please don't bump into me) don't take the next step. Swallow and Bastinac are good but their mids other than the two aforementioned look like grinders (I'll include Ziebell in the slow grinding type) with not enough class and ability to break the game open with a brilliant quarter of 9 stats and a few goals against the better sides ala Cotch, Deledio and Martin against the Pies last year or in the Dreamtime game. See ya characterless effs.
