Barring a sway of long-term injuries to our stars, I don't see us falling away dramatically. The age profile of our list is still in its prime to challenge. Essendon 2002 was an aging list that began back with their 1993 baby bombers premiership. That group played finals for a decade and peaked between 1999-2001. They really blew two flags either side of their 2000 flag. Likewise Port were a top side for 4 years 2001-4 but choked 3 times before finally saluting. After that they fell away due to age. Eagles 2007 had a well reported culture problem. Carlton cheated before finally getting caught - enough said.
As far as flag, it's in the guts/clearances where we will have to improve to seriously challenge. Especially, now with the 6-6-6 rule. Sides could easily get a run on and slam on goals in quick succession if you get beaten in the centre clearances. Our ruck stocks are still highly dependent on Nank and we haven't added any quality experienced mids to improve our midfield depth. It's yet to be seen if Weller is any improvement on Miles, Lloyd and the other fringe players we let go. So we are going to be reliant on development within from our youngsters to step up to compliment our existing top tier mids.
Up forward, we've added Lynch so hopefully that clicks quickly and we are more efficient in converting our longer-kick/bombs under pressure inside forward 50 into marks and goals. I also think we lairised too much once inside F50 trying to go for that extra possession so we could kick goals from 20m out. It costs us a couple of goals per game. It's great to want to be unselfish but at times our smalls should do the straightforward obvious thing and just kick the ball between the two big posts right in front of them.
I don't see us as premiership favourite as the bookies do based on the above deficiencies and think we'll finish in the finals but fall short again
. However, fix those two above areas and I think with the extra motivation from that PF defeat we then become a big show. I'm sure if we are in the hunt then we'll make sure this year we are collectively hitting our peak intensity as we hit September.
