Spargo wrote:the milky bar kid wrote:North Melbourne in the top 4 (they showed how far away they are last year, biggest pretenders around)
Alright champ, I'll bite.
Came from 6 goals down & won 1st elimination final.
The following week won a cut throat final against Geelong, arguably the most hardened finals team the last decade (only the third time a team goes out in straight sets since final 8 started IIRC).
Sure they were outclassed by Sydney, but so would everyone else have been - bar Hawthorn.
North took a few more steps forward last year, beating all top 4 sides at some stage. They're not in the same category as the two grand finalists, but they are next in line.
If this makes them pretenders, then apart from probably Port, the rest of the comp has no hope at all.
Nice troll though.
Should have never been 6 goals against Essendon.
The battle hardened Geelong, a shadow of its former self were on hands and knees after throwing every weapon they had at Hawthorn the previous week.
If lined up against Hawthorn, Port or even Fremantle, the result would've been similar to the Sydney game.
North definitely took some steps forward, but still lack big game players to pull the group along with them when put against the good teams in a finals atmosphere. They still have big laspes during games & I can't really see them improving enough to stop this.