we might have competition for next years spoon

[stinger]

the bulldogs......

...no captain ....no coach......losing two of their better midfielders and a key forward is likely to severely weaken them.....

[dragit]

The dogs will be pretty good IMO

Killer young midfield, dangerous forwardline.

Our only chance is if the bombers receive decent bans, but even then they will probably get some assistance.

[aaron82]

The dogs will be pretty good IMO

Killer young midfield, dangerous forwardline.

Our only chance is if the bombers receive decent bans, but even then they will probably get some assistance.

Agreed, honestly reckon 2-3 wins might see us out for 2015. Depending on the bombers ban we might beat them. Only competition in my view for the spoon is Melbourne again. GWS should be ok, they still have a list bursting with talent

[Sainternist]

I'm with Stinger. Footscray will struggle next year.

[matrix]

I reckon they might have a capt and a coach by round one.

[BakesFan]

Melbourne might mount a fair challenge for the spoon.

[saintsrus]

I reckon they might have a capt and a coach by round one.

With the money they are paying Boyd, hes my tip

[Zed]

Nah bulldogs have got good young MIDs coming through and with Boyd they now have that elusive tall - which in turn helps Crameri and Stringer get off the chain a bit more. Oddly its their defence that might let them down.

[CURLY]

Hope not pick one and 19 next season.

[Jacks Back]

The dogs will be pretty good IMO

Killer young midfield, dangerous forwardline.

Our only chance is if the bombers receive decent bans, but even then they will probably get some assistance.

IF the bummers do finish last next year then I bloody well hope that they are NOT allowed to get the number one draft pick!!!

They brought this shame onto themselves and shouldn't be getting any assistance from a number one draft pick.

[plugger66]

the bulldogs......

...no captain ....no coach......losing two of their better midfielders and a key forward is likely to severely weaken them.....

Yep should only finish about 8 games ahead of us.

[Razzledazzle]

2014 was hard to cop especially in the land of the purple haze.

Another spoon ...I really did not fancy contemplating. The hope of the young brilliant kids with a further season under the belt offered some optimism especially if the recruiters get it right in the 2014 draft ...even if that means that the Club ducks out on getting pick 1 again in 2015.

Selfish I concede but there has been enough cutlery added to the Club's trophy cabinet in my lifetime.

That said ....like other die hards I will continue to stick fat if another spoon is earned because I will bleed for the Club but ... Geez are the player stocks not better than 2-3 wins and capable of finishing above the Dees, GWS, Doggies and Dons.

Go Sainters !!

[saintspremiers]

The spoon is our destiny next year.

Deal with it

[bergholt]

the bulldogs......

...no captain ....no coach......losing two of their better midfielders and a key forward is likely to severely weaken them.....

I'm bullish on the Doggies. No doubt their core is weak and it gets weaker with Cooney and Griffen out. Jones I'm not sure is an issue given he only kicked 12 goals this year and they replace him with a potential superstar.

But what looks good is their young midfield:

Liberatore 22yo, 77 games
Dahlhaus 22yo, 71 games
Wallis 22yo, 56 games
Stevens 23yo, 50 games
Macrae 20yo, 34 games
Stringer 20yo, 28 games
Hunter 20yo, 23 games
Hrovat 20yo, 19 games
Darley 22yo, 18 games
Bontempelli 19yo, 16 games
Honeychurch 20yo, 3 games

There's some real class there. Bonti, Libba, Macrae, and I rate Hrovat and Hunter highly. They're getting some good games into them. 2015 they'll be inconsistent but have some very good wins, should finish 13th to 16th. But 2016 if all goes well for them they'll be on the fringes of the 8 and on a good trajectory.

[Dr Spaceman]

One of those bright young lads will surely be studying Boydian Economics at Footscray Tafe.

And then how long until they all start demand Tommy inspired pay increases?

And then....








....KABOOM!!!

[Beno88]

Carlton will be our biggest threat for the wooden spoon. They're in for an extended period of hurt. Terrible list.

[spert]

Unless we get some kind of competitive midfield in place, we will be clear wooden spooners for a long while

[borderbarry]

I dont think we would have been wooden spooners this year if we had of had a similar fixture to Melbourne and GWS. And of course our horrific run with injuries.

[Con Gorozidis]

I think GWS will be officially out of the Spoon zone for a long time now. Lions will struggle at both ends of the ground but have a super elite midfield so wont be easy beats.

Melbourne - who knows
Doggies - Who knows
Bombers - Who knows
Some other side will have a crisis.

So might be 4 or 5 sides down the bottom.

[Dis Believer]

I dont think we would have been wooden spooners this year if we had of had a similar fixture to Melbourne and GWS. And of course our horrific run with injuries.

Injuries played a massive part in our fortunes. Off the top of my head, we missed the following players for most of the season, or significant parts of it:

Armitage, Geary, Fisher, Gilbert, Schneider, Hickey, Wright, Webster, Dunstan, Maister, Markworth, Lee.

That's 12 players, or more than a quarter of our list. And that doesn't include guys lilke Eli, who were promoted from the rookie list to cover a LTI, and ended up as an LTI themselves !!

With our best team on the field we can compete with most teams, where we suffer is our lack of depth. We can afford injuries less than just about anyone, and suffered them more than just about everyone.

One great example of the early impact was that a lot of work in the preseason went into clearance setups with Hickey and Armo, and within a few weeks HIckey was injured and witihn a few more, so was Armo. That immediately takes your top tier rotation out of your clearance set ups.

Against admittedly weak opposition, it was no coincedence that we won our few games early in the season when we actually still had a squad to choose from, rahter than scaratching around to scrape together 22 blokes that werren't in the medical rooms.

[Bunk_Moreland]

Carlton will be our biggest threat for the wooden spoon. They're in for an extended period of hurt. Terrible list.

I dont think anyone comes close to the state of our list in 2015.

We are an absolute moral for the spoon.

Just keep your nerve everyone, its gunna be ugly.

Just keep you eye on the likes of Petracca, Billing, Acres, Dunstan, Eli, Jack Newnes, Jimmy Webster, Spencer White, and whatever you do, dont look at the scoreboard.

[St Ick]

Carlton will be our biggest threat for the wooden spoon. They're in for an extended period of hurt. Terrible list.

I dont think anyone comes close to the state of our list in 2015.

We are an absolute moral for the spoon.

Just keep your nerve everyone, its gunna be ugly.

Just keep you eye on the likes of Petracca, Billing, Acres, Dunstan, Eli, Jack Newnes, Jimmy Webster, Spencer White, and whatever you do, dont look at the scoreboard.

Agreed.

Dogs will be ok, they won the VFL flag so have good depth with kids coming through. They will have a similar season to this year. Natural progression of their kids will allow them that. Losing Griffen, Higgins & Cooney will affect their rise up the ladder but they won't drop.

Bit of a big call, but we should make Macrae our #1 target over the likes of Shiel and (can't believe I am saying it) but Treloar. Will be an out and out superstar and almost exactly the player we need on our list. Offer him a huge contract and watch the dogs feel the squeeze after they sold the farm for Boyd.

[bergholt]

Carlton will be our biggest threat for the wooden spoon. They're in for an extended period of hurt. Terrible list.

Agreed. Oldest list in the comp at this stage. They've got all these aging mediocre guys like McLean, Armfield, Warnock, Wood, Rowe, White and Ellard. Carrazzo and Simpson have never been stars, Walker has underperformed for most of his career, Judd is 31 now and has to run out of legs at some point.

But the real issue is they don't have any quality youth. Jaksch and Whiley are necessary additions because apart from them their under 23 year olds are: Watson, Buckley, Docherty, Graham, Menzel, Cripps, Giles, Holman. Not much happening there.

And their draft picks this year: 19, 28, 61, 65. How are they going to improve? I'd be pretty worried if I was a Carlton fan.

[The Redeemer]

The dogs will be pretty good IMO

Killer young midfield, dangerous forwardline.

Our only chance is if the bombers receive decent bans, but even then they will probably get some assistance.

Agreed, honestly reckon 2-3 wins might see us out for 2015. Depending on the bombers ban we might beat them. Only competition in my view for the spoon is Melbourne again. GWS should be ok, they still have a list bursting with talent

Works for me. Bring on another aggressive trading period and another year building a great core of young players again.

[WinnersOnly]

Before last year I thought we could have done better but it was obvious that we were playing for last position. We had a poor trade period and werent able to add some older players eg Jaksch or spread the picks so we could select players to fill our list holes.

2015 & 2016 will be no difference IMO, we can expect some very bleak times ahead, when all we can look forward too is watching these kids develop. You have to wonder at what point does losing become a habbit ?

I doubt there is any club with as poor a list as ours or in such poor shape financially!