Mafia Island & Erin Phillips' Brother-in-law were big outs for them, not to mention a 5 day break v our 9 day break. Really shouldve belted them but instead we were nearly overrun. Still nowhere near where we were last year....missing Prestia, Broad & especially Rioli....Conca & CEllis have been inferior replacements....Lambert out of form, Houli & Grigg ordinary(the latter getting exposed in the ruck now- Nank also getting done by bigger & more agile opponents)BEllis back to his worst(though was ok yesterday).... blokes like Bolton, Lloyd & Short are defensively inferior.....a bit of lairising by certain players....shorter pre-season (though it doesn't seem to be affecting Adelaide but then again as runners-up they're probably a bit more determined than us at this stage)...
The last part of your post is the most relevant. We do not need to be playing at full potential just yet. Just need to win as many games up to the bye weekends and be at worse 8 and 4. Then we can build over the last 10 weeks.
The next 5 weeks can set us up. Brisbane, Melbourne, Collingwood, Freo all at MCG then North at Etihad
