Will we now make the finals?

[mightytiges]

Was winning in the fashion we did enough to get our confidence back up and go on from here to reach the 12 wins needed to make the finals?

We've now got 8 wins with the Bombers, Blues, Freo, Hawks and Dogs to come. All outside the 8 and winnable. Plus we also have the out of form Saints at the 'G.

Although I was ticked off about us throwing away what should have been a comfortable win, yesterday was a crucial win if we were to have any chance to staying in the finals race. As my mate said to me it's still 4 points.

[PuntRdRoar]

4 points is 4 points...whatever happens now Wallace has produced great improvement- the test for me now...isnt what happens for the rest of this season...but its how we perform next season. Carlton won 10 games and the wizard cup....and now theyre back to being poo. Richmond must continue to develop its young players. Hopefully Meyer and Pattison will come in for games. This may sound stupid...but at some point in the next 8 weeks Deledio has to go back to Coburg for 2 weeks- hes played all season...if we make the finals...its important he has a good campaign in them. Tambling needs games and should play as many as he can between now and the end of the season for Richmond. Thursfield must also now stay in the side- lets see if he can develop into a backman we can depend on.

[mightytiges]

I wouldn't be surprised if we took a small step backwards next year. I've got nothing to back that statement up just a feeling of possibly second year blues (excuse the pun) and no surprise factor. Wallace wants to win though so hopefully that feeling is totally off the mark.

Even if we do take a step back it'll be nothing like what's happened to Carlton this year though. Our situation is completely different to theirs. As they lost their best drafts picks cheating the salary cap Pagan when he arrived drafted a whole heap of rejects from other clubs who had spent most their time at their original club in the VFL. The Blues' list as a result is full of duds apart from their ageing senior players like Kouta and Lappin. Reminds me of our late 80's sides. It's going to be a long time before Carlton sees September action again IMHO. We at least have something like 18 players under 21 and 4 first round draft picks from last year to build upon.   

[JohnF]

We may make the finals but I wouldn't think anything but a first class rodgering awaits us if we do.

We may only need 11 wins to sneak in and with the teams we have to play you'd have to say we are a pretty good chance.

[letsgetiton!]

i will wait til next week to decide, if we beat the bumbers, we are in sept action 4 sure, if we lose, i feel another slide on the cards

[mightytiges]

The AFL site has a ladder predictor

http://afl.com.au/?pg=toyota&spg=default

I end up with us 8th with 12 wins/ 10 losses.

Wins against the Bombers, Blues, Hawks and Dogs.

[WilliamPowell]

I had the day off today and while I was driving around this morning I was listening to SEN and they had Greg Denham on with KB instead of Patrick Smith

Anyway by Greg Denham's reckoning we are dead set certs for the finals because in his view we have an easy draw as we onlt have to play one more team in the top 8 for the remainder of the season (Geelong rd 22). He said we should start favourites against the Bombers and the Saints

What Greg also neglected to mention is that we play Port in Adelaide and Freo in Perth as part of our run home.

[mightytiges]

Anyway by Greg Denham's reckoning we are dead set certs for the finals because in his view we have an easy draw as we onlt have to play one more team in the top 8 for the remainder of the season (Geelong rd 22). He said we should start favourites against the Bombers and the Saints

We've seen us stuff up and lose winnable games too many times in the past decade to think we are home before getting that 12th/13th win on the board. Another major injury to a key player and it could all go pear shaped again.

The Saints are out of form (except for Luke Ball) and won't have Hamill, Riewoldt or Harvey when we play them but we haven't even got close to them since Cornflakes said they were still better than us after we had just knocked them off in 2003. I hope we do win just to throw that back into his face and their overconfident supporters  . Still we've got the Dons first up and I'm not thinking ahead of Saturday  .

[WilliamPowell]

Still we've got the Dons first up and I'm not thinking ahead of Saturday  .

That's it just take it one week at a time 

[tiga]

IMO on the run home games against teams that are not in the top 8 can be more dangerous than playing top 8 teams as they have nothing to lose and quite often experiment and play unconventional football which can sometimes be harder to prepare for.

[mightytiges]

IMO on the run home games against teams that are not in the top 8 can be more dangerous than playing top 8 teams as they have nothing to lose and quite often experiment and play unconventional football which can sometimes be harder to prepare for.

Unless they're coached by Spud lol .