Roar Guru
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Devour everything I can read, watch or go to in regard to the AFL, not interested in any other sports really. Have attended a dozen or so grand finals in my life, none of which I have had to pay to get in. (Work that out yourself). Collingwood tragic and member. Will never, ever get over losing the following Grand Finals - 77, 79, 81, 2002, 2011, 2018...1980 and 2003 we were never in it. Watching the Pies win 2010 with my boys was one of the greatest days in my life.
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The countdown is on for the opening bounce of the 2019 AFL season on 21 March, and to get you warmed up, these are my ladder predictions for the year.
With the 2019 footy season an interminable time away it’s time to ponder the current hot questions of the 2018-2019 off season. We count backwards from twelve.
One of my earliest memories in my life of following the Collingwood footy club involved the 1976 AFL season.
We’ve all heard about how Collingwood’s makeshift defence might impact their September campaign. But it’s actually the performance of the small forward brigade that the Pies will live or die by in the finals.
We’ve all heard the third quarter in a grand final defined as the ‘premiership quarter’, and we don’t need to go back far to find a significant one.
Collingwood surprised many this year with a convincing, some say era-defining 48-point win over Adelaide at their home ground, followed by a 49-point win over the Bombers on Anzac Day.
Isn’t it interesting the way media works? Supporters latch on to a catchphrase, a byline, a supposed “truth” and regurgitate it as fact.
Tried watching it but couldn’t. Felt like a parody of our great game.
In defence of AFLX
Wheel Grant Thomas out for some cringeworthy media attention too many times and eventually no one will listen.
'You're a liar': Peter Everitt and Grant Thomas clash over drug claims
Freo impressed me in that last Home and Away game against the Pies but I’m tempered by that insipid performance late season against the Cats in Geelong. That one was inexcusable and made me question if Ross had lost the players.
2019 AFL Season Preview: Fremantle Dockers
I was thinking the same. Swans will drop IMO and they could be right down there.
2019 AFL Season Preview: Fremantle Dockers
To be fair Cam, you said the same thing when I predicted the Pies rise to finals in November, 2017. https://www.theroar.com.au/2017/12/01/debunking-myths-around-nathan-buckley-pies-actually-headed/
As for me I had the Hawks 13th and WCE 14th.
Fremantle for me are like Paul D, anything from 6-14 maybe. I feel they will contend with a large group for the bottom of the eight and whether they make it or not will depend on close results. Macca said last year in response to the article above…”Collingwood have had the same coach for 6 years and went from 12th in 2016 to 13th in 2017.
These improvements aren’t just luck – you have to do something to create change”. Well the Pies did create change from largely within and so can Fremantle.
2019 AFL Season Preview: Fremantle Dockers
Hope not Kane, I reckon Grundy will love the new rule.
How 2019's AFL rule changes will play out on the field
The key is to tighten the group so they don’t want to leave. Not saying that’s easy by the way but I reckon Chris Fagan is doing it. Rodney Eade was no father figure but Fagan is. If they can get a core group who become tight mates might be their best bet.
2019 AFL season preview: Gold Coast Suns
I don’t think 17th will keep the wolves at bay. 17th may well see the end of Brendan Bolton. Most Blues fans want more this season and they would be happier with 6-7 wins showing progress which should get them a little higher. I agree Charlie Curnow is a superstar in the making with shades of (dare we say) Buddy Franklin and Cripps is the inside mid every club wants. Some fit looking boys in the preseason. Perhaps the Blues biggest draft choice was Andrew Russell from the Hawks.
2019 AFL season preview: Carlton Blues
You have the Hawks lower than me Don, where’s your spot for them? Around 16th?
2019 AFL season preview: Gold Coast Suns
You see it in suburban leagues. Despair kicks in when you just get belted week in week out.
2019 AFL season preview: Gold Coast Suns
Every club hammers home to these kids the years go fast and your career is a flash. Can’t blame them really for wanting some finals before it flashes away. Suns even possible finals prospects? 2023 maybe? That’s a long time to wait.
2019 AFL season preview: Gold Coast Suns
Not so sure about that Dal, seen the clanger kings of 2018? A lot of inside workers in the top ten.
Adams 2nd, Mitchell 4th, Cripps 6th, Selwood, Cunnington all in top ten. A lot of hack kicks under fierce contested pressure in there causing high clanger counts and poor disposal efficiency impacts. As for the highest disposal efficiency, no surprise to see a lot of backmen in there with marks/frees in the back line and time and space to pick out targets.
2019 AFL season preview: Gold Coast Suns
You got to watch the boys getting too big too soon Col, puts extra strain on the body carrying those extra KGs around if their body frame isn’t meant to hold it.
2019 AFL season preview: Gold Coast Suns
There wont be anything left to say by the time Cam does his Carlton article? 5-7 wins for me the Blues in 2019.
2019 AFL season preview: Gold Coast Suns
Yeah I’m from the school that admires any bloke who gets to play one AFL game. Naming “worst player in the comp” is pretty negative stuff. Still, each to his own.
2019 AFL season preview: Gold Coast Suns
Ironically the Gold Coast Suns commenced in the year the Pies last played in a Grand Final, 2011. Youth does not guarantee success. Based on the side I know best, since that year the Pies brought in Jeremy Howe in a complicated trade essentially for Ben Kennedy, now retired. Trav Varcoe came in essentially for Lumumba (now retired), Levi Greenwood for pick 25, Lynden Dunn for pick 51, Jack Crisp of course was the steak knives bonus in losing Beams, James Aish (couple of 2nd round picks), three GWS players in Tay Adams (for Heath Shaw), Adam Treloar (pick 7 and future first round), Wil Hoskin-Elliott (future 2nd round pick ), Mihocek and Cox were both hit and hope punts and of course the high profile recruitment of Mayne and Wells with Chris Mayne coming off a really good season for us. Add the return of the prodigal son Beams and there is 14 players brought into the club outside the drafting of youth. How many of these played in our grand final side? 11 players. So there is half the 2018 Grand Final side recruited outside of youth picks and potentially 14 will appear in a home and away game in 2019. That’s not saying we got it perfect with all these trades (Eg Wells, Seedsman is a lost player) or gloating with success as we were a goal short and only just returned to the finals but it does show a side rebuilt since our last grand final in 2011 when the Suns commenced. Only Sidebottom, Pendlebury and Goldsack played in our last GF. Perhaps this more than anything shows what being a big Vic club can do in attracting talent to build your youth around.
2019 AFL season preview: Gold Coast Suns
I wonder what decisions the AFL would have changed with the early days of the Suns? Is it now just a historical University marketing class of how one can messup a new franchise, appoint the wrong people, run into bad luck or is a combination of all above? What lessons have been learned for a future new franchise I wonder?
2019 AFL season preview: Gold Coast Suns
What do you reckon Matti, round one should have been WCE V Tigers at the G…the GF you all thought would happen.
The Round 1 fixture the AFL got wrong
Hey Ryan, we just lost a flag by a kick after leading for 90% of game time – close game results are unpredictably brutal.
Numbers Game: Which teams will rise and fall in the AFL in 2019?
Looking forward to your article Jonboy, whats the topic?
Numbers Game: Which teams will rise and fall in the AFL in 2019?
Mike Sheahan said after the season that had he written his top 50 for 2019, Beams would be top ten, that’s how highly he rates him.
The Round 1 fixture the AFL got wrong
I tell you an interesting round one fixture. West Coast v Richmond at the G. The grand final most thought would happen that didn’t.
The Round 1 fixture the AFL got wrong
Horse Longmire will be available end of 2019 is my prediction, should any of those clubs want him.
The Round 1 fixture the AFL got wrong
Not finals just yet for me, but an even season of 11-11 and a nil all percentage of 100. One query is depth if injuries bite though.
The Round 1 fixture the AFL got wrong
Yep. It’s a pantomime, a parody of the beauty of our game. There’s something egocentric about putting these great footballers on show as circus performers and expecting anyone to watch too. I don’t want to watch these blokes perform acrobatics or sing badly either so why watch them run around in this embarrassment to the game?
The AFLX sure has some work to do