I think just about everyone's bottom four prediction will be Gold Coast, St Kilda, Brisbane and Carlton again.desertsaint wrote: ↑Thu 18 Oct 2018 2:34am they gave us a B yet predicted we'd go even worse next season?
right...
Gold Coast are royally screwed. Just about a lock for the spoon.
We are relying on a potentially cooked mid to improve us as well as that natural improvement we were counting on this year.
McGovern and Newman will improve Carlton and getting Docherty back is huge. I'd like to think we have them covered but they now have a pretty good group of kids and better veterans than we have. A young core of Cripps, Curnow, Dow, Walsh, Petrevski-Seton, Mackay, Weitering, McGovern and Marchbank is pretty exciting and Murphy, Kruezer, Docherty and Simpson are a solid group of leaders. Where they fall over is that they have no depth and are still carrying an awful lot of plodders on the list.
So I do agree that we should finish ahead of Carlton again but they have the potential to overtake us if they get a good run with injuries. Then most the others around the bottom half of the ladder simply should have us covered. The Bulldogs have a more talented group than us. Essendon have added Shiel and get Daniher back which should see them in the 8. Fremantle have recruited a forward line overnight. North have added 4 best 22 players. Adelaide surely can't get any worse than this year. Port could slide after losing so much outside run but Burton and Mayes are solid recruits and you wouldn't think they'd fall to the bottom four. Brisbane are the others who we could overtake but there certainly seems to be a good vibe about that club and they've got some young stars who are rapidly improving.
My guess for the 2019 ladder would be something like this
1 - Hawthorn
2 - West Coast
3 - Melbourne
4 - Richmond
5 - Collingwood
6 - Essendon
7 - Fremantle
8 - North Melbourne
9 - Geelong
10 - GWS
11 - Sydney
12 - Adelaide
13 - Port Adelaide
14 - Bulldogs
15 - St Kilda
16 - Brisbane
17 - Carlton
18 - Gold Coast