1-8 against top 8. WC down a rotation. Enough excuses!

[E]

Just not good enough this year i am afraid. Especially not given the injuries we now have.

Reload with Lynch and May and consider what to do with the Chronic.

By the way, percentage matters to this analysis. If Geelong had a better percentage, we'd be 0-7!!

[eddiesmith]

Of course had we won tonight, we would still be 1-6 against the top 8!

[lihei]

Thats a true thing. We've improved plenty this year, just not against the top teams.

[Big T]

Season isn't over yet.

[Johnno75]

When we lost Moore that made our injury list at 14. If anything the club has to have a serious review about this. You can’t compete with the top teams with that sort of injury profile no matter how much heart you put in.

[AN_Inkling]

This is a very weak post.

[September Zeros]

[Redlight]

[E]

[Jezza]

I find the stat misleading to be honest.

Had we lost to North two weeks ago, they'd be in the eight as we speak. The Bombers team we defeated a few weeks ago have only lost three games since round 9, so they've arguably been performing like a top 4 team despite their current ladder position and we defeated a Crows team who would be pushing for a top 8 spot had they defeated us in round 4.

Also, we benefited from finishing in the bottom 6 last year which inevitably translated into an "easier" draw. Richmond benefited from this last year and were often accused of beating no one throughout the year as well, and yet they stepped it up when it mattered and won the flag.

Factually, it's not incorrect to say we're 1-6 against the current top 8 sides, but context is always required when we analyse these stats.

[E]

[What'sinaname]

I thought it pretty obvious too.

As much as we want to say almost, nearly, coulda, woulda....we just can't beat the better teams.

[Piethagoras' Theorem]

The stat is saying everything but telling us nothing.

[Brown26]

Isn't it 1 -5 ? Have I forgotten a loss?

If anything, this stat shows that we are doubly cursed on the injury front. No one can question really that if Moore played out the game (even another 1 quarter) we would have won tonight. Taking away the loss of very good players for long periods of time, if you simply look at the games where we've lost players DURING the game, therefore having less rotations and having a significant impact on the result, we would have beaten Sydney, GWS (earlier in the year) and probably Geelong (9th) and last weeks game would have been touch and go against Richmond.

Sier didn't finish the game vs WC but didn't impact the result. The Hawks in round one I think we went through unscathed. We haven't played Port yet and we beat Melbourne. SO IF we had a full 22 on the park for the whole game we would be 2 - 3 wins better now (depending on if we beat Richmond; Sydney and GCS are definite IMO), we'd be 3 and 3 to 4 and 2 against the top 8 sides. That's just from men on the park, not even Elliot, Reid, Dunn, Shaz long term injuries etc. We'd also be equal top on percentage, or a game clear in second (depending on the Richmond result).

So what does that tell you - we can beat most of the top 8 teams if we don't have injuries during the match. If we get Howe, Reid, De Goey, Treloar, Elliot etc back that will be nice and a bonus. The key is, try to stay on the park! Then we have a chance of going deep into September. Playing iwth one or two rotations down for half a game against top sides is hard.

- Ben

[tbaker]