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Joined December 2015
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The AFL season starts this week, and with a lot of mid-table teams having been active in the trade period, it looks set to…
Earlier this month, when the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) banned 34 former and current Essendon players for the 2016 season, AFL Chief…
I have Port ranked 4th overall, but if I go through each round in a ladder predictor they end up finishing top.
The reason for this is West Coast, Hawthorn, Sydney and Richmond all play 3-4 double up games against other top 8 teams, so they’ll all be fighting each other for wins and that will end up leveling out the ladder.
Historically you need to win 17 games to finish top and the only teams I can see doing that are Port or Freo.
West Coast play Hawthorn, Freo and Collingwood twice; Hawthorn play West Coast, Sydney, North and Richmond twice. I have them both finishing on 16 and Port and Freo a win ahead.
I agree Lobbe is a pretty poor ruckman but he’ll be serviceable enough. Port did fine with Lobbe as first ruck in 2014.
Port Adelaide at the top of my 2016 eight
Ofcourse they will look mediocre if you ignore all the good form.
They’ve been undeniably good in big games and against the best teams – their problem has been dropping games to lesser teams. You can probably put that down to a lack of experience.
Port Adelaide at the top of my 2016 eight
When I say below market value, I mean what they paid at the trade table i.e. draft picks
The Dogs only gave up pick 26 for a 25 year old averaging 2 goals a game. You’d do that every day of the week.
Essendon did make the most of the situation though – They ended up with Zach Merrett who was best available at their pick and would go much higher if the draft was re-done now.
They were also pressured into trading Ryder for two low-ish picks, because he threatened to go to the grievance tribunal if a deal wasn’t done.
Clubs of former Essendon players should seek further compensation
It’s not uncommon for teams to finish outside the 8 one year and go top the next. West Coast went from 9th to 2nd in 2015, Adelaide went from 14th to equal 1st in 2012.
Port only need to find 5 more wins to finish top. Taking into account that they lost 5 games by 10 points or less last year and lost to Brisbane, it’s very doable.
I agree it is unlikely Adelaide will go 0-8, but they probably go in as underdogs in all those games. I have them 3-5.
As for Geelong; I think they are a chance to make the 8 but probably don’t have the forward line or defence to finish high up. I think if you look at the age of their defence and the lack of proven goal kickers up forward, it’s not exactly the list profile for top 4. More likely to be forced into a rebuild in the coming years.
Port Adelaide at the top of my 2016 eight