TOPIC:

West Perths victory today has really made the battle for positions in the top 5 a lot more interesting. As it stands with 2 games to play, Subiaco are on top with 48 points and SF, WP and C are all on 11 wins separated by percentage with Swans on 10 wins.
Subiaco's last 2 games are against East Perth and Peel, so you would expect them to win both of these comfortably to finish on 56 and top spot. Souths will play Swans and the Eagles both at home so they will be favourites to move to 52. West Perth have a potential banana skin game next week at Shark Park before finishing up against Perth at Lathlain. Claremont play the Eagles and Swans both at home. So those double chances may come down to percentage in the end. Swans are likely to stay 5th given they have 2 tough away games to finish the qualifying round.

I think there is still a surprise or two to be seen just yet mate - this season has seen losses when we didn't necessarily expect them and it will go down to the wire as to who finishes top 3 now

mikeh wrote:

West Perths victory today has really made the battle for positions in the top 5 a lot more interesting. As it stands with 2 games to play, Subiaco are on top with 48 points and SF, WP and C are all on 11 wins separated by percentage with Swans on 10 wins.
Subiaco's last 2 games are against East Perth and Peel, so you would expect them to win both of these comfortably to finish on 56 and top spot. Souths will play Swans and the Eagles both at home so they will be favourites to move to 52. West Perth have a potential banana skin game next week at Shark Park before finishing up against Perth at Lathlain. Claremont play the Eagles and Swans both at home. So those double chances may come down to percentage in the end. Swans are likely to stay 5th given they have 2 tough away games to finish the qualifying round.

Our last two games are virtual finals in terms of the opposition.  Subiaco should win their two games by at least 10 goals average.  I would expect Peel to field a team with not many Dockers players.  The same applies to the Eagles reserves.  Probably the West Perth East Freo game is the most difficult to pick the winner.

Earlier in the season EP gave Subi a massive push for most of the game before Subi pulled away late, but the expectation is there that Subi should win as long as we dont play insipid footy like we did v EF, no disrespect to EF as they forced us to play that way. As for Peel, well who knows which Peel will suit up, I expect more Peelmantle than Peel, there will be a big influx of listed players, apart from those who will be off for post season medical procedures, but certainly will be much stronger than they currently are.
The SF v WP game and the recent SU v Cl game showed there is not all that much between the top 4 teams, no disrespect to SD. On any day each team is capable of beating the other and if any team is slightly off the pace they will lose.

All bodes well for a great finals series.

No disrespect at all SS.
Until we start beating the long well established Top 4 of the last decade- SU, WP, SF & CL regularly we will always just be making up the numbers in the finals sadly!

Beasley Hutton wrote:

No disrespect at all SS.
Until we start beating the long well established Top 4 of the last decade- SU, WP, SF & CL regularly we will always just be making up the numbers in the finals sadly!

One way of looking at it BH is that if you consider how far Swans have come from their wooden spoon in 2019 to making the finals in 2021, this year may be part of their journey towards being a genuine contender. Playing a final will be part of that development and this experience may assist them to start beating these top 4 teams more regularly in 2022. There are some obvious deficiencies in the team that need to be addressed through recruiting or development of young players but I am now a lot more optimistic that the team is on the way up after watching some of their best bursts of football this year. These bursts of intense footy obviously need to happen more regularly for them to be a top side.
I would like to see them finish this season by being ultra competitive in their remaining games. I don't expect them to get past week 1 of the finals but as long as they go out on the ground at either Joondalup, Fremantle or Claremont and give their absolute best for 4 quarters in a final, I will go home happy and look forward to further improvement next year.

I totally agree with your assessment above Mike.
Our best footy is as good as anyone's in the WAFL it is just unfortunate we can only show it for a qtr or 2 every couple of weeks. 
I just wish they would believe in themselves more and take the game on more at times, but as you say at least it is a far better sight than some of our previous seasons, 2016 was just horrific to watch.

Yes I think 2016 was the bottom of the barrel but 2018 and 2019 were not much better. I'm pretty sure that our total points score for was at an all time low in 2016. It was just boring footy to watch. This year has been much better and I am looking forward to the game at Freo this week

Haven't SD recruited more then enough over the last 2 years.....those 4 E.S boys are crucial to SD progress not only over the coming weeks, but into 2022....have you guys got any potential returning AFL guys?.....with SD colts and reserves entrenched in the finals, surely development is the way to go for SD? 

Freezin wrote:

Haven't SD recruited more then enough over the last 2 years.....those 4 E.S boys are crucial to SD progress not only over the coming weeks, but into 2022....have you guys got any potential returning AFL guys?.....with SD colts and reserves entrenched in the finals, surely development is the way to go for SD? 

We still have a fair few to go then to match Old Easts recruits over the last few years Freeze.........Schoenfeld, English, Boekhorst, Tucker, Dixon, Leggett, Kommer, Chalmers, Tassone, Davies, Winton......and those already gone Manning, Bray, Creasey, Fletcher, Loersch, Mills etc

But yes local development first with only selective recruiting has been our mantra of late, its just unfortunate we had many holes to try and fill, hopefully a few Colts & those currently playing Reserves can step up to fill those roles.