Are we in in for a 0 win season with <50% ?

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Most games we were competitive for 2-3 quarters and half a dozen full quarter efforts. The 2 blow outs against dogs and lions were when we were depleted. We had a couple players come back but were not match for. We should have quite a few competitive efforts

The thrashings at the hands of the Lions, Dogs, Blues and Hawthorn were the exception rather than the rule. I expect most games especially after the bye to unfold similar to the Geelong, Port, Essendon games. Close then our youth run out of puff at 3/4 time.
 
I think zero wins is a real possibility if the club cant pull an upset within the first month.

I completely support the clubs stance to go "youth", but to get zero mature age back-ups is a fundamental flaw which essentially cut the clubs balls off for a few years.


Try growing a group of men with no balls. Its a big error imo. Should have targeted the likes of Markov Membry, even Stringer etc to give them some adults in the room, but also some talent that believes they can "do it all alone". There is no Alpha on this team whatsoever atm

At a time where all the clubs in the bottom half are building their way up, we are the only one falling further down. I expect "Fitzroy" era losing in 2025-26
 

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We win 4-6, we wont be nearly as bad as people are predicting. Players were checked out this year, even Baker admitted he was, then Shai as well and Dusty taking the piss choosing when to train and play, how could the rest of the team take it seriously. Next year everyone will be onboard. In the modern game if you bring pressure and have a crack, you can beat anyone (like the Swans game last year).
 
We win 4-6, we wont be nearly as bad as people are predicting. Players were checked out this year, even Baker admitted he was, then Shai as well and Dusty taking the piss choosing when to train and play, how could the rest of the team take it seriously. Next year everyone will be onboard. In the modern game if you bring pressure and have a crack, you can beat anyone (like the Swans game last year).
Feel the same. Jack going is a net gain for us as we can replace his baffling, guaranteed spot in 22 with a super charged McAulliffe. Bolton going has practically no effect on our chances as he was dipping in and out of games half-heartedly all year and will be an open spot for a gun youngster (Lalor) this draft. Baker was mostly ineffective all-year as well, useless in the middle and not applying enough pressure forward or back. Again, spot opens up beautifully for that 2nd pick/Ross.
Rioli I thought genuinely tried most of the year and we'll feel his absence but hbf is prime real estate for developing kids. It's there for a Smith/Trezise or gun draftee.

Then you add Gibcus, Lynch etc to the mix. We're bottom 4 but not uncompetitive.
 
I think zero wins is a real possibility if the club cant pull an upset within the first month.

I completely support the clubs stance to go "youth", but to get zero mature age back-ups is a fundamental flaw which essentially cut the clubs balls off for a few years.


Try growing a group of men with no balls. Its a big error imo. Should have targeted the likes of Markov Membry, even Stringer etc to give them some adults in the room, but also some talent that believes they can "do it all alone". There is no Alpha on this team whatsoever atm

At a time where all the clubs in the bottom half are building their way up, we are the only one falling further down. I expect "Fitzroy" era losing in 2025-26
I suggested exactly this in one of my first posts and got a ton of disagree reacts.

Thankfully we have a prematurely bald, moustachioed, flappy handed mature aged alpha mentor among the playing ranks to lead the youth into an era of aimless running disposal avoiding dominance 😂
 
I think zero wins is a real possibility if the club cant pull an upset within the first month.

I completely support the clubs stance to go "youth", but to get zero mature age back-ups is a fundamental flaw which essentially cut the clubs balls off for a few years.


Try growing a group of men with no balls. Its a big error imo. Should have targeted the likes of Markov Membry, even Stringer etc to give them some adults in the room, but also some talent that believes they can "do it all alone". There is no Alpha on this team whatsoever atm

At a time where all the clubs in the bottom half are building their way up, we are the only one falling further down. I expect "Fitzroy" era losing in 2025-26
Bahahahaha. Markov and Stringer??? We traded Markov to GC for peanuts and then they delisted him cause he's no good. Stringer is a dh and culture killer. This is an even worse stance than your politics one from the thread that just got shelved.

Stringer being an "alpha" at Essendon is really going well for them.

I'd also add that once we stepped away from that macho/alpha bs and the players learnt to be vulnerable with each other through the Triple H sessions, we won 3 out of the next 4 flags.
 
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We should win at least 5 games but it will depend a lot of how many game we get from:

Prestia
Lynch
Broad
Vlastuin
Nankervis
Short
Hopper
Taranto
Balta
Ross

They need to stay on the park most of the season to give us the foundation of our side for 2025.

We're going to need to see improvement and more consistency from:
Koschitzke
Mansell
Ralphsmith
Miller
Rioli
Dow
Banks
Campbell
Brown

Then there is the unknowns(under 10 games)

McAuliffe
Green
Smith
Blight
Fawcett
Gray
7-8 Draftees

And finally how the LTIs come back from injuries
Gibcus
Lefau
Clarke
Young

I know I've named nearly everyone, but I think it's important to understand the different categories in our list and how they will impact the way our season pans out.
 

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We should win at least 5 games but it will depend a lot of how many game we get from:

Prestia
Lynch
Broad
Vlastuin
Nankervis
Short
Hopper
Taranto
Balta
Ross

They need to stay on the park most of the season to give us the foundation of our side for 2025.

We're going to need to see improvement and more consistency from:
Koschitzke
Mansell
Ralphsmith
Miller
Rioli
Dow
Banks
Campbell
Brown

Then there is the unknowns(under 10 games)

McAuliffe
Green
Smith
Blight
Fawcett
Gray
7-8 Draftees

And finally how the LTIs come back from injuries
Gibcus
Lefau
Clarke
Young

I know I've named nearly everyone, but I think it's important to understand the different categories in our list and how they will impact the way our season pans out.
Agreed. #1 is Lynch. If he misses basically another year we'll finish bottom.
 
Bahahahaha. Markov and Stringer??? We traded Markov to GC for peanuts and then they delisted him cause he's no good. Stringer is a dh and culture killer. This is an even worse stance than your politics one from the thread that just got shelved.

Stringer being an "alpha" at Essendon is really going well for them.

I'd also add that once we stepped away from that macho/alpha bs and the players learnt to be vulnerable with each other through the Triple H sessions, we won 3 out of the next 4 flags.



Like how you conviently left out the part where he won a flag inbetweem all that. Don't we 'love our boys' until they are cut or traded, then they are all shit, apparently. Markov is a high quality guy & excellent clubman. Could do a lost worse than picking him up for literal nothing.

Stringer would be a walk-up start in our forward-line and likely be the most talented bloke in it most weeks. He just got traded for pick 67. Jake is younger than Tom Lynch & kicked over 350 goals in his career and is less than 100goals behind Tom for his whole career.

I would take either of these blokes in our starting 18 next year over K-Mac, Dow, Ryan.

People saying we will win 6-7 games - where is the logic. We won TWO last year & lost by tons every week.

Out: Martin. Bolton. D.Rioli. Baker. Pickett. Graham. Grimes. Cumberland. Naismith.

In. Not a single game of AFL experience

Lynch. Prestia. Toby all get 1 year older and absolutely no reason to believe they will have better lack with injuries. Same with Hopper, who looks like an old Kane Johnson at best even when fit. Gibcus has missed 2 years of footy. J.Clarke, Lefau & Young all go into the season unlikely to feature until July.

Who makes a meaningful leap this season Vs taking a noteable fall in form? There is not a single drop of reasoning except hope to how we would win 7 games, let along.

In 40+ years of following AFL i can't remember a team playing and performing as poorly as we did this year, lose so many players & do not a single thing to make the team more competitve the next year. The draft picks are great, but ffs - there were some legit talented AFL journeyman available either completely free or incredibly cheap - would it have killed us to chase 1 or 2 to just TRY and get a lil better in some areas?
 
We should win at least 5 games but it will depend a lot of how many game we get from:

Prestia
Lynch
Broad
Vlastuin
Nankervis
Short
Hopper
Taranto
Balta
Ross

They need to stay on the park most of the season to give us the foundation of our side for 2025.

We're going to need to see improvement and more consistency from:
Koschitzke
Mansell
Ralphsmith
Miller
Rioli
Dow
Banks
Campbell
Brown

Then there is the unknowns(under 10 games)

McAuliffe
Green
Smith
Blight
Fawcett
Gray
7-8 Draftees

And finally how the LTIs come back from injuries
Gibcus
Lefau
Clarke
Young

I know I've named nearly everyone, but I think it's important to understand the different categories in our list and how they will impact the way our season pans out.

Optimistic v Pessimistic

This is how it looks from a pessimistic view.

Prestia, Lynch, Broad, Nank, Vlastuin (& McIntosh) are all at risk of dropping off due to their age.

Hopper, Lynch & Prestia are also injury prone. Ross is still a fringe player as he has not consistently played high quality football.

Kozi, Mansell, HRS, Miller, Rioli and Dow are not that young and have a decent amount of experience. They may not improve much or at all. Ryan could almost be added to this group as well.

Banks, Brown & Campbell have shown promise but may have only got consistent footy this year due to injuries. We hope to see improvement but what if we don’t.

The ACL guys we just don’t know about. Gibcus and Lefau have looked really good but both might be injury prone.

The rest are unproven and at best have shown glimpses of talent.

And then we look at our scoring issue….

We scored 211 goals and conceded 349 goals in 2024.

Bolton, Baker and Martin kicked 58 of those goals while Balta also kicked 12 goals. There were also a handful of goals kicked by other players who have left us.

Assuming Balta plays down back we will need to find 70 goals to bring us back to 2024 scoring levels, and over another 100 goals to bring us up to our opponents level (depending on how many we concede).

Where are we going to find those goals?

It’s a scary question in 2025 as only 4 forwards left on our list averaged more than a goal a game in 2024 and they all played 10 or less games.

We may get a handful of goals from the games played to replace the players leaving us but can our players step up and produce more than a goal a game, who knows.

We need to nail this draft hard and then we need to hope about half our younger players step up to another level.


I’m optimistic but the pessimistic view scares me, especially if we get injuries.
 
Got my 2025 membership renewal the other day. First time in my life this year I didn't see an actual win live in a whole season. I attended 9 games. 😐 I've heard many people saying in 2025 we could well be the 1st team since Fitzroy in 1964 to go winless. I'm hoping we can win a handful of games next year. 🙏
 
Got my 2025 membership renewal the other day. First time in my life this year I didn't see an actual win live in a whole season. I attended 9 games. 😐 I've heard many people saying in 2025 we could well be the 1st team since Fitzroy in 1964 to go winless. I'm hoping we can win a handful of games next year. 🙏
Reckon we will cop some hidings early in the season.
 
Reckon we will cop some hidings early in the season.

Doubt it. The only hidings we had last year were against dogs and lions when were smashed by injuries. Look at the positives. Plenty of 2-4 quarter games last season. Our midfield will be better next year with plenty more clearances and forward entries
 
I live in a little bit of hope. In the draft of our dreams coming up we get perhaps all of Lalor, FOS and Jagga. Just for a moment imagine a world of our new fitness bloke working mini jesus style miracles over the preseason and getting a fit and firing Lynchy next year with support from Gibcus, Lefau, even Kosi for gods sake being hit lace out by these kids with the luxury of parking a fit and firing Taranto more forward (a proven goalkeeper at GWS) with Hopper, Ross, Meatball and even a bit more of Maurice JNR helping out with the grunt work out the middle while these kids learn the rigours of AFL. And for gods sake, Balta stays back. Keep Nank out there, Broady and Vlas our supreme warriors who we love for their courage, the rest of the boys will follow. Where not f..... totally dead yet. We can win some games when we're not expected. My wish next year is to somehow ruin Geelong's season when we meet them. Go Tiges!!!!
 

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Are we in in for a 0 win season with <50% ?

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