Good or Bad?

Essendon4eva · Post by **Essendon4eva** » Sun Aug 19, 2007 7:43 pm

After this weekend is over, St Kilda beat Freo, brisbane drew with Sydney and Adelaide beat the Bulldogs.

Are these results good or bad for Essendon's finals chances?

I think the only bad one is the draw. Istead of being ahead of brisbane we are now tied with them on points. At least the St Kilda wins put Freo out of the race, and eventhough they are head of us, have West Coast next week, beleive. And instead of the Dogs jumping us, we are ahead of them and tied with Adelaide on points.

So the way I see it, if we beat Richmond and the Saints, Crows and Lions lose we will finish round 21 in 8th spot.

The thing that bothers me about the AFL system is this. The importance of percentage. If we followed a system, where we eliminated draws, by having overtime and decided who finishs on top of eachother (if drawn on points), by who beat each other during the season. If the teams split one win each, then you can go by the biggest winning margain. So under the current system we could be bumped out of the finals by Brisbane or St Kilda or Adelaide. Teams we beat this season. That is a side rant though for another time.

So the results of this weekend. Good or bad for our finals chances?

ZRS · Post by **ZRS** » Sun Aug 19, 2007 7:58 pm

i some how doubt that both crows and lions will lose next week (they are playing each other).

but i don't think good or bad from this weekend, we would need to beat wc in perth to make it no matter what happens, while I hope like anything this occurs, i do not think it will.

ealesy · Post by **ealesy** » Sun Aug 19, 2007 8:01 pm

We shouldn't be focusing on what other clubs need to do to help us. We should simply focus on winning our next three games, and have as power over our destiny as possible.

Essendon4eva · Post by **Essendon4eva** » Sun Aug 19, 2007 8:05 pm

You are right, but we are not the team. And maybe Brisbane and Adelaide draw next week?

If we win one of the next two we will only be out on percentage. So what do you guys think about the last point I made? We could be out on percentage by teams we have beat.

bombers_rock · Post by **bombers_rock** » Sun Aug 19, 2007 8:15 pm

Good.. bad... I dunno. I'll be disappointed not to make the finals, seemingly only on percentage, but what can you do?

Essendon4eva wrote:If we win one of the next two we will only be out on percentage. So what do you guys think about the last point I made? We could be out on percentage by teams we have beat.

As I said above, what can you do? It's crap, but all it does is highlight how costly games we SHOULD win, that we lose, become when it comes down to the makeup of the finals. We should have beaten the scum earlier this year. Beating 16thmond next week will have us on 11 wins. Had we beaten the scum earlier in the year, that would have us on 12 wins, and probably have us in and we wouldn't even be talking percentage. *sigh*

If you want to talk about percentage - the blowouts against the Dawks and Freo over the past 2 weeks are certainly costly, as is the Geelong game. Very much in it at 3/4 time - only to have it taken away because we ran out of puff. The Scum game earlier in the year was also costly because it was potentially a big percentage booster, as was the Melbourne game. Both games we came out firing, easily could've been 10 goal+ victories. Wasn't to be.

Bring on 2008 - the fightback continues.

Rossoneri · Post by **Rossoneri** » Sun Aug 19, 2007 9:43 pm

Makes no difference. We wont beat WC in perth anyway and we need to win both games as our percentage sucks.

We need to start building for next year, making sure the kids who are playing at the moment get accustomed to the highest level and can spend the off-season getting their bodies right for it.

sconsey · Post by **sconsey** » Mon Aug 20, 2007 12:31 pm

If we followed a system, where we eliminated draws, by having overtime

I don't think I'd like too see overtime. Keep the game as it is. Players are absolutely spent by the end of regulation when it is a close match. Besides that, a draw is a mixed bag of emotions, and adds intrigue to the ladder at the end of the year. It can either help or hinder teams. Though, at the end of the day, 2 points is better than none![/quote]

F111 · Post by **F111** » Mon Aug 20, 2007 1:04 pm

No extra time for h & a games, but definitely in finals.

10 minutes each way.

andrewb · Post by **andrewb** » Mon Aug 20, 2007 2:41 pm

One week at at time

Beat Richmond next week.

Beat WC the week after. If we can't beat the eagles we'll only be making up the numbers anyway.

tom9779 · Post by **tom9779** » Mon Aug 20, 2007 3:41 pm

andrewb wrote:One week at at time

Beat Richmond next week.

Beat WC the week after. If we can't beat the eagles we'll only be making up the numbers anyway.

the tiges aren't in bad touch at the moment eh....they were with WC in perth for most of the day on the weekend.

albeit the eagles were down judd and cousins...

i just hope we can beat richmond on the weekend. i'll worry about what ifs after that.

its going to be hard if fletcher doesn't come up...richo will be rubbing his hands

bueller · Post by **bueller** » Mon Aug 20, 2007 8:23 pm

bombers_rock wrote: It's crap, but all it does is highlight how costly games we SHOULD win, that we lose, become when it comes down to the makeup of the finals. We should have beaten the scum earlier this year. Beating 16thmond next week will have us on 11 wins. Had we beaten the scum earlier in the year, that would have us on 12 wins, and probably have us in and we wouldn't even be talking percentage. *sigh*

If you want to talk about percentage - the blowouts against the Dawks and Freo over the past 2 weeks are certainly costly, as is the Geelong game. Very much in it at 3/4 time - only to have it taken away because we ran out of puff. The Scum game earlier in the year was also costly because it was potentially a big percentage booster, as was the Melbourne game. Both games we came out firing, easily could've been 10 goal+ victories. Wasn't to be.

Bring on 2008 - the fightback continues.

Lets be realistic - we have won 3 games by less than a kick and another 4 by less than 2 kicks - thats 7 wins out of our 10. All of which couldv'e gone the other way.
Lets not get too down about what couldve been "if only" as it may have well been 6-7 wins instead of ten - meaning definite bottom four.

Our season has been exciting due to those close wins - but some of our losses have been v.average - including twice v pies & hawks, poor games against W.Bulldogs, Port, Freo & North.

I've enjoyed the season - but lets not get carried away here. We've been the luckiest side in the league.

Essendon4eva · Post by **Essendon4eva** » Mon Aug 20, 2007 8:55 pm

We lsot all those close games last season. To me it shows we have improved. Instead of losing close games we win them.

At the end of round 22 we could be out of the 8 only by percentage by three teams we have beaten comfortable during the season.

Time for a change I think.