With the exception of GWS...

[skeptic]

We've beaten all the teams ranked 12-18th...

Pbly shows where we're at despite a few wins in a row.

The game against Richmond is pbly a season defining one

[Jacks Back]

And the problem is we're not getting close to the top teams losing by 40-50 points. If we're going to lose to top teams then we just have to get a lot closer than that. Kicking straight would help that tremendously.

[Con Gorozidis]

Teams around us are Swans, Dogs, Eagles and Bombers.
We need to show we can beat at least one of these sides if not two of them.

[magnifisaint]

We've beaten all the teams ranked 12-18th...

Pbly shows where we're at despite a few wins in a row.

The game against Richmond is pbly a season defining one

Seems like every game is.

[Legendary]

Should have beaten the Eagles by 3-4 goals.

This week will be a very good barometer of where we're at. Richmond are as good as anyone this year.

[saintspremiers]

Should have beaten the Eagles by 3-4 goals.

This week will be a very good barometer of where we're at. Richmond are as good as anyone this year.

Our best chance of winning on Saturday night is the Tigers getting ahead of themselves.

Time to pump up their tyres on all forms of social media. If their players read how great they are it could all implode on match day!

If sanity does prevail and they keep a lid on it they should be too good for us. If that happens, I'm hoping for a competitive loss. I've had a gutful of big losses this year when we were never in the hunt.

[spert]

If we're going to win a flag, then we need to beat all the other teams-why would you aim any lower.

[meher baba]

On the other hand, we are the only club in the top ten who hasn't lost at least one game to teams that are 11th or below on the table: the majority have lost more than one. And we have the case of Port, who haven't beaten anybody in the top eight yet. So we can put away weaker opponents better than most.

With the lopsided draw we have nowadays, it's not necessarily the case that the top 8 teams at any stage of the season are the eight best teams in the comp. From what I've seen so far this year, the Swans are the best team, slightly ahead of the Giants. Then I don't think there's all that much to choose between the Crows, Port, Richmond, Geelong, the Eagles, the Demons, us, the Dogs, the Hawks, the Bombers, Carlton and even the Suns . I reckon any of these teams can beat any other on their day.

We were really lucky to strike the Hawks and the Suns when they were well below par, and unlucky to encounter the Swans and the Dogs when key players returning from injury gave them a boost. We were caned by frees against the Crows and Eagles. We should have beaten Geelong: poor kicking cost us. And the Dees totally outran us in Round 1: I think we'll struggle against them in the return match as well.

With the evenness of this year's comp, we could conceivably make it through to a PF or equally conceivably miss out on the finals altogether.

As everyone says, if we could start nailing more of those gimme shots on goal, we'd be a good show for making it to a PF.

[Fidelis]

As has been said, our run home consists of playing repeat games against teams about us on the ladder. If we deserve to be there, we'll win our fair share in the coming weeks. If we can't win them, we don't deserve to make finals.

Having said that, we've been a bit stiff with the draw. As it's turned out, our return five games feature only one team in the bottom half of the ladder. And the one team we play twice from the 2016 bottom six is Richmond who currently sit fourth!

[borderbarry]

Weird draw. We play Richmond this week and again 7 or 8 weeks later. I dont know why they could not have it that all clubs played all other clubs once before the repeat games take place, like it used to be.