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with finals now settled, i cant help but think the 2 Blue & White sides from both the AFL and WAFL are the best sides to actually miss finals that I can ever remember.

would love to have seen North battle Richmond on sunday. I could not believe how carlton got out of jail against port. Not being biased (maybe i am) but we had a great year with some insanely bitter losses. The geelong & hawks ones still hurt.

and east fremantle beat the top 2 sides, smashing west perth, plus going down in the foxtel cup final by half a kick.

can anyone remember a side who missed finals, yet probably deserved a shot? or at least could have given a few sides a scare. I think both North Melbourne and East Fremantle fall into that category.

I agree on EF perhaps , but not on NM really.

Bazza wrote: I agree on EF perhaps , but not on NM really.

i think north could have taken richmond, we dominated them a few months ago by 60 odd points.

i was suprised EF dropped that game to swans, no disrespect to swans. but trying the gauge all of this season on results in the wafl is very hard. s

swans lost to Peel and struggled the other 2 times to beat Peel
but beat claremont east fremantle and west perth. lost to east perth twice?

east frem beat claremont & west perth but got crushed by souths mid-season?

look at subi, they beat claremont swans and east perth this year, but finished 8th?

it has been hard to work out, which is actually good for a competition i think

EF would be very dissapointed to miss the finals...especially after last year..further they failed to get a single grade into the finals..a poor year for them.

North really should of won those close ones to be a genuine contender, I actually get a bit sick of them, they have just tread water now for years, I wish they would either do something or bottom out and get some decent picks.

EF finished where they deserved in my eyes......in all three grades they were there at the end finishing 5th by a bees dick from finals footy......it happens, that loss to SF was the killer, plus those 2 X 3 pt losses to Cl & EP.....saying that EP played Subi twice in a matter of weeks towards the end and SD played Peel twice as well easy 8 pts in the bag at a crucial time.....but again EF failed to beat EP and SD this season, thus deserved to finish 5th.....

...do believe though EF coped a lot better without as many AFL boys each week than a lot fans thought, thus next year won't be such a big deal....the likes of Brennan, Sheppard, Duffy etc did little in the 6 -8 games they played for EF.....whilst regulars in past years in Dalziell,Stevens, Griffen,Sutcliffe and Brown played between 0 - 4 games each......Dick played the most and hopefully he will be full time at EF next year anyway.....disappointing to miss out but kudos to the other teams for winning the key moments when they did.

North lost 10 of 12 games by less than 15 pts and 5 of those by under a kick.....they had numerous meltdowns in the last quarter of games to lose them, totally nobody to blame but themselves......saying that, North would do more damage in the finals than what Carlton or Port will do.....

Overall you must have to admit EF had a dissapointing year no finals at all - off the back of last year Freeze??

Agree EF were unlucky but close losses during season killed them.
Beating CLA proved they would of made a difference in the Finals.
They were hot comming home and definately the team finishing off best.
A 2 point loss up at Kunnenara and the the win showed they had the goods to compete with CLA in the Finals.

WP did their best but 28 to 19 free kick count didnt help and most directly in front of SD goals... So EF if you want to blame anyone blame that umpire for making the difference in the end even though we missed a few easy ones as well so It could of been a 6/7 goal win to WP..
Not that it mattered as no change to our possy and expect the finals to be a bit different especially with EP getting some AFL players in.

Interesting post by WAFLOVER re FINALS. GOOD to see has done a bit of research and a good post. If they front up with this lot they will be hard to beat.

East Perth are looking somewhat ominous now. Another big win and six Eagles have now qualified to play finals - Matt Rosa, Adam Selwood, Blayne Wilson, Cale Morton, Scott Lycett and Jamie Cripps.
I don't begrudge them Adam Selwood (always an EP-aligned player), but I think the addition of Rosa, Wilson and Lycett from Peel has strengthened them (despite the loss of Dockers players to Peel). And I think Morton and Cripps, who should be playing elsewhere, have certainly tipped the scales...

yeah true Bazza missing finals in all 3 grades is disappointing, but the fact is EF 3 teams were still in with a shout for a 4th spot well into the last quarter of all 3 games on Sat...be more worried if they were out of finals way before then

..the colts team had 150 odd more possessions v the top team in Cl colts,yet lost by 9 pts, also EF colts beat SF,P and Subi colts team during the year.....the reserves were in second spot with two games to go, but missed out, they beat all 4 sides playing finals this year.....whilst the league beat the top team, but sadly WP weren't interested in their game and Subi kicked poorly in the first half v EP...all three grades went down to the wire...shit happens, disappointed yes, ......

.....but hey all it says to me is that where ever your team finishes in the year or how well they finish the year, counts for nothing the next year......

Honestly expected a lot more from EF was certain they would make the GF.

gee and was shocked your other grades failed to deliver a single finals appearance. How long has it been since that happened?

probably not since the Dunbar days......but to think EF were a shoe in for a GF spot this year on lasts year effort, indicates to me, you boys at SF really believe SFFC will go places in 2014, simply because SF have 2 grades in the finals and SF young league side won a few games this year......EF 2013 performance, should be a stark reminder to all clubs that nothing is a gimmee in the WAFL.