Volatile 8 !!

[Donny]

The top 8, well from 2 to 8, is on a knife edge.

Adelaide, in 2nd., is only 4 points ahead of Freo in 6th. and with Collingwood and PA to play, could plummet although their % will come in handy.

The Swans play us and Brisbane at the Gabba so could well end up 8th.

We are also in a vulnerable position, with 3 biggies coming up. They're all vital but none bigger than next week against the crows.

It's mathematically possible for Essendon to make 2nd. although unlikely. They'd need to win their 3 and have Adelaide lose theirs. Stranger things have happened.

TOP 8.

1 Port Adelaide 19 15 0 4 1899 1472 129.01 60

2 Adelaide 19 13 0 6 1901 1478 128.62 52

3 Brisbane Lions 19 12 1 6 1926 1620 118.89 50

4 Collingwood 19 12 0 7 1969 1639 120.13 48

5 Sydney 19 12 0 7 1877 1627 115.37 48

6 Fremantle 19 12 0 7 1841 1786 103.08 48

7 West Coast 19 11 1 7 2038 1732 117.67 46

8 Essendon 19 11 0 8 1898 1751 108.4 44

[Joel]

You are spot on the money there Donny. I've been thinking the same thing since the loss on Saturday. We are in a very, very vulnerable position here. We cannot allow what happened in the first quarter against Brisbane to happen again this year, if we do, we may well just slip down the eight.

[Geoffy Pie]

it's a cause for concern this ladder, the competition is incredibly even and we really have to win at least 2 of the 3 games left to hold down a reasonable position

[Whitey]

yeah, it's gunna be tough. If we win over adelaide this week, we'll be even on points, but down on % so it's a must win game really to get a top 4 spot, but i guess that goes without saying. I think we'll finish 4th, and I'd reckon anywhere in the top 4 leaves us a good chance to win it. Hopefully sydney beats brisbane this week...hopefully we learn something from the weekend!

[MissMagpie_20]

I cant remember the final 8 ever being so close Donny. Never has winning every game been so important. Its frightening.

[dillo_09]

Frightening only half describes it!!!

We could still miss out or finish on top being the 2 extreme possibilities. Realisticly anywhere from 2nd to 7th is where we could finish.

Do the calculations here - http://www.allthestats.com/stats/ladderpredict.asp

Its a tipsters nightmare!!!

[Greg J]

What about the so called experts, who get paid for their opinion, who had West Coast on top at the end of the season. This was only two or three weeks ago in the Hun. Waste of space that article was.

[DaicosMagic]

We do not want Sydnet to beat Brisbane. Brisbane have 2 points up on us and will finish 2nd. Adelaide will most likely finish 3rd. We must aim for 4th (like I said in a topic starter weeks ago). To do this we must win 2 of our last 3.

[JLC]

This is the week. Lose this week and you can throw away your calculators and statistics. There will be no way we will go to Sydney and win the following week. That would mean a 7th or 8th finish and an interstate final. Whatever the case premierships arnt won from there. At the moment we arnt playing premiership football so it doesnt matter.

[couragous cloke]

fonzi, your dead right, this is our first final in a way. if we lose on friday night we probably will finish 7th or 8th. if we knock em off who knows what will happen, we could finish in the top 4.

The next three weeks we MUST win atleast 2, and believe it or not i see essendon as being the hardest 1. they always seem 2 have it over us the pricks.

[STOKA35]

Next 3 weeks will show if we are contenders or pretenders.Malthouse says we are better than we are I believe him as he has'nt let us down yet.
Adelaide will be tough everyone remember the wizard cup final Clarke dominated thats one area to close down or negate and hopefully the crowd can generate some noise as i was at that game and it was a pretty quiet crowd that night.

If we are a good side we should win at sydney,brisbane has played one game at the g this year and they beat us so what is the difference its all in the mind.

[Rowdy26]

i hate that site dillo haha... its scarey and at the same time intriguing. Like others have said we NEED to win at least 2 of the last 3 to hold onto 4th. It will be tough, but if we expect to do any good in the finals then it has to be doable.

We MUST beat Adelaide this week. Cmon boys - no more slow starts! Adelaide have clearly won the most 1st quaters of any team this year (15 times they've won first quaters to the next best only 11 times) so it is vital we get off to a good start and then continue on for the rest of the match. Our no-name defence will have to work brilliant once again as they have done so many times before.

damn i wish we played melbourne twice this year!
(not that the result would effect the placement of our team but it would also be lovely to see the bulldogs pull off a win over the saints at york park in round 21).

[wimmey]

Even if we finish 3rd or 4th we'll probably still have to play an interstate finals game.

[The Prototype]

[bucks_for_brownlow]

How important is the double chance though really.

Ok, say we run 4th. 4th is most liekly as high as we can get. We go away to AAMI stadium against Port (yes i know we did it last year..) get beaten by 6 or 7 goals. After all the media hype it is most likely Port won't choke first hurdle. We are down on confidence we put big pressure on ourselves next game face a danger team like Sydney who are up on confidence and the 'nothing to lose' attitude. Down. Out of the race.

Conversely. Run 5th. Play someone shit like Freo who we convincingly FLOGGED earlier. So we play them in front of 60,000 pies fans at the G. Flog their arses. Big on confidence going into next phase.

I know that it will make it a long run home. But coming fourth is most likely where we will finish if in top 4. What i am saying is week 2 in competition our confidence could be a deciding factor.