WPM R3 vs Auckland FC | Sat 2nd Nov | 5pm | RoF / Sky Sports 2 | March 4pm

queenofthequail

ballane wrote:

As for Paulsen dont care if he was booed and jeered during the game his display after both goals makes some of what he has said since leaving BS. Wouldnt mind betting if it hadnt been for those displays he would have got a big cheer and applause after the game but  no way was i doing that.

What did he do? I'm desperate for an excuse not to miss him.
Come on, I'll take anything lol

After being booed all game he celebrated their goals like he'd scored them himself, jesturing to YF's section - fair play to him, but a little bit of humilty in the face of some jeering would have been nice.

Not at my best today. Football results can do that to you....

Monto

How many headers did we win yesterday when it was 50/50? Think Chiefs comments regarding not needing more hight in our attacking line is just not true. We need someone that can win the ball in the air in both the midfield and the penalty box. Not the players faults, they can't magically grow taller, that's a management problem.

Also am I going crazy or was Sutton quite poor? Looked like he was really struggling to retain possession whenever we got pressed. Admittedly that was true of a lot of our team.

I really do think that some of our players hitting absolute form seasons last season papered over some of the cracks with Chiefs tactics. I know that's an unpopular opinion because of coming second but really I think we got very lucky and happened to have a lot of quality individuals, especially in the goalkeeping and center back department.  I completely refute that we had the best defense in the league last season, if we did we wouldn't have conceded as many shots as we did. We had the best goalkeeper not the best defence, it's not the same thing. These problems are gonna come back to haunt us this year as I don't think the proper recruitment has been done to rectify it.

Pretty shark performance in front if what will be out biggest crowd of the season, it's a shame that we weren't even that entertaining in the loss either. Missed opportunities, story of the last 17 years.

Anyway, we're gonna win the league.

Yes we did win games last season but often only by a very very fine margin. Now we've lost some good players and whilst I like the Japanese imports, overall we've lost quality and it's costing us.

Everyone is hurting (rightly so) from what can only be described as a lackluster, mainly pedestrian performance from our side in the derby. It just wasn't enough, especially at home.

But hey, it's only round 3 and we've had far worse starts under Uffie let's not forget. Let's wait and see what happens when we're full strength and judge then.
No doubt we will improve, by how much is the question...

From what I've seen so far AFC are probably the most complete team in the comp. Adelaide, Sydney and Victory are up there too. But I do think if they stay injury free that Auckland have the team that is capable of going all the way and... I'm gonna finish the sentence there actually. The images that come to mind are too painful to type here 🤐

Before some people get too dramatic about our start to the season, we are not having a bad start at all. One win, one draw, and one loss – that is the definition of middle of the road. Not good, not bad. Average. So while there is room to improve, there is still a lot of quality. Onwards and upwards. I still think we will make the top six. Any better than that? Who knows.

Have I been banned from this sub forum?

Edit - maybe not. Maybe forum issues. Many things “Forbidden”

ahmad

Have I been banned from this sub forum?

Edit - maybe not. Maybe forum issues. Many things “Forbidden”

Definitely the not but it was a little odd....  ;-)

loyalgunner

Before some people get too dramatic about our start to the season, we are not having a bad start at all. One win, one draw, and one loss – that is the definition of middle of the road. Not good, not bad. Average. So while there is room to improve, there is still a lot of quality. Onwards and upwards. I still think we will make the top six. Any better than that? Who knows.

Average doesn't win the league, nor does it win the big matches.

When do we as fans stop celebrating being losers?

Looks good with the ball at his feet, but also looks likely to blunder a goal.
Agile, with fast reflexes and probably makes some spectacular saves.
Hasn't dominated the 6 yard box IMO, and isn't much of a sweeper keeper. At a guess this is what's held him back, and maybe Italiano thinks it's fixable.
One more clanger though and AKH might be in.

…

dairyflat

ahmad

Have I been banned from this sub forum?

Edit - maybe not. Maybe forum issues. Many things “Forbidden”

Definitely the not but it was a little odd....  ;-)

Sorry correction it should have read *have I not been banned from this sub forum? 🤪

Agreed. Losing is in the club's DNA. 17 years, zero trophies, no other clubs can say that. Every time the nix make the playoffs they lose, except for in two seasons that were both over 10 years ago. Anytime they build up momentum and attract a decent crowd, they get stage fright and lose and scare away any possible new fans they might have made. Lost the game against the Mariners last year which lost them the plate. There is no other way of spinning it. It isn't like the fans have that much influence but they should always at the very least try to demand more from the team, not accept such consistent mediocrity. 

Monto

loyalgunner

Before some people get too dramatic about our start to the season, we are not having a bad start at all. One win, one draw, and one loss – that is the definition of middle of the road. Not good, not bad. Average. So while there is room to improve, there is still a lot of quality. Onwards and upwards. I still think we will make the top six. Any better than that? Who knows.

Average doesn't win the league, nor does it win the big matches.

When do we as fans stop celebrating being losers?

Yeh derby! Fair play the Port and traveling fans of generic FC. 

But let’s never lose a game like that again. Boo. Down with that kind of thing. 

@ImaNix that DNA argument makes zero sense unless you believe it and the players believe it. Rufer sure af doesn’t. 

Have to wait and see on Chiefy this season, but he created expectations last season. 

Winning enough games to be better than 10 teams (?) in the league is not losers DNA. 

Kosta and Ishige are not converting chances. Colakovski is not making or converting chances. I doubt he sees himself at the Nix in 2 years. Maybe he does, but that he hasn’t exuded that winning desperation or determination. Tbf few have.
Payne moved to CB. This is our main problem. No other keeper is giving us the ball in space with no markers on the 6 yard line. 

We can’t win if we don’t score. Who’s guna score for us? Not sure? I’d say that goes for everyone and is our main problem. 

martinb

@ImaNix that DNA argument makes zero sense unless you believe it and the players believe it. Rufer sure af doesn’t. 

Have to wait and see on Chiefy this season, but he created expectations last season. 

Winning enough games to be better than 10 teams (?) in the league is not losers DNA. 

Kosta and Ishige are not converting chances. Colakovski is not making or converting chances. I doubt he sees himself at the Nix in 2 years. Maybe he does, but that he hasn’t exuded that winning desperation or determination. Tbf few have.
Payne moved to CB. This is our main problem. No other keeper is giving us the ball in space with no markers on the 6 yard line. 

We can’t win if we don’t score. Who’s guna score for us? Not sure? I’d say that goes for everyone and is our main problem. 

I agree with him and think your missing the point its not so much about making the finals or having a winning season, but this
" Anytime they build up momentum and attract a decent crowd, they get stage fright and lose and scare away any possible new fans they might have made. Lost the game against the Mariners last year which lost them the plate."
There is no denying in our history it happens time and again we pull a decent crowd only for the game performance to be a let down dosnt always mean a loss just like the recent Waitangi Day we pull a decent crowd and get a not very exciting draw.

ballane

mykey

ballane

AucklandPhoenix

So did the ultras from the Port cause any trouble or was the Dome star, security immense?

Havnt heard of any major problems but think its safe to say they put on the worst display we have seen from travelling fans in 17 years. Not sure why they had to launch so much shark onto the field in front of them looked like a tip apparently even showering their own players.
Had a couple of drunken guys when i was leaving on my own carrying the drum say come lets grab their drum until i turned around and told them to FK off and they decided yeah na.
Otherwise had a great chat with some guys at the Featherston  with plenty of good natured banter thrown by both sides all taken in the good humour it was intended. does seem like the Port dosnt want to engage in that sort of fandom.

What do you mean “the worst display we have seen from travelling fans in 17 years”?

I thought they were bloody impressive, contributed to an awesome atmosphere. Good on them. Hope they continue to travel in numbers
The nix fans down that end of the field were loving it, especially the kids some watching them just as much as watching the game and giving it back. 

Did you only read part of the post and only bother with the first sentence because the second clearly says why i said that. I made no reference to their contributing to the atmosphere at all. Also mentioned talking to some of their fans.

Oh right, worst display in 17 years seems a bit dramatic for leaving a bit of rubbish on the field. I’d imagine fever leave a bit of a mess in front of our section in big games, beers flying all over the place when we scored in the semi. 

still not feeling...good....

ballane

martinb

@ImaNix that DNA argument makes zero sense unless you believe it and the players believe it. Rufer sure af doesn’t. 

Have to wait and see on Chiefy this season, but he created expectations last season. 

Winning enough games to be better than 10 teams (?) in the league is not losers DNA. 

Kosta and Ishige are not converting chances. Colakovski is not making or converting chances. I doubt he sees himself at the Nix in 2 years. Maybe he does, but that he hasn’t exuded that winning desperation or determination. Tbf few have.
Payne moved to CB. This is our main problem. No other keeper is giving us the ball in space with no markers on the 6 yard line. 

We can’t win if we don’t score. Who’s guna score for us? Not sure? I’d say that goes for everyone and is our main problem. 

I agree with him and think your missing the point its not so much about making the finals or having a winning season, but this
" Anytime they build up momentum and attract a decent crowd, they get stage fright and lose and scare away any possible new fans they might have made. Lost the game against the Mariners last year which lost them the plate."
There is no denying in our history it happens time and again we pull a decent crowd only for the game performance to be a let down dosnt always mean a loss just like the recent Waitangi Day we pull a decent crowd and get a not very exciting draw.

Yes there is definitely mentality at play. Not an expert in the field but it does seem a problem within the club that when stakes are high, we generally flounder.

mykey  When was the last time a shark load of stuff was launched from the zone on to the field of play. So again your wrong if anything gets launched in the zone  its pretty quickly shut down by those around the person. I cant recall a game in 17 years where the fever zone has been responsible for launching a shark load of stuff onto the ground.
Big difference from beers being thrown in the air when a goal is scored and launching stuff onto the field.
Standby what i said cant recall another group of away fans or the fever who launched so much stuff onto the field.
Happy to be corrected. 
Oh yeah i forgot there was Dave and his balloons which terrified security staff.
Sorry for the bold have no friggen idea how that happened (tech dumb)

There’s only a mentality if you build it up into one. Otherwise there’s tasks that need to be completed to win. We did those well last season. Missing the composure on goal so far. 

I mean what happens when we win? We accidentally forget to do what is programmed in our DNA? If we still had Paulsen would he have this same issue? Old? 

We ignored our DNA until Rua Conchie was 5m too deep against Doka? Strange mutant DNA that exists only after we’ve lost a game.

This club DNA argument is a load of defeatist crap.

dairyflat

still not feeling...good....

Can relate

martinb

There’s only a mentality if you build it up into one. Otherwise there’s tasks that need to be completed to win. We did those well last season. Missing the composure on goal so far. 

I mean what happens when we win? We accidentally forget to do what is programmed in our DNA? If we still had Paulsen would he have this same issue? Old? 

We ignored our DNA until Rua Conchie was 5m too deep against Doka? Strange mutant DNA that exists only after we’ve lost a game.

This club DNA argument is a load of defeatist crap.

Yep saying its a club DNA thing may be crap. What cant be denied is that we have often over time not performed at games at the stadium during the season that have been deemed to be big games. 
Could be any of a 1st game at home after an extended time away,1st game after a good run of results, a public holiday not talking about a loss could have been a dour draw. Even last season which was our best ever many were let down on Waitangi Day by a draw.
Its not even about maybe disappointing Nix fans but not living up to the hype those casuals that have been enticed to come along expect. It just cant be denied that over there years it has happened a number of times.
The last thing i can be accused is being a defeatist   if anything i get accused of being to optimistic i was one of the few last season who stated before the season started we could be top 4.

If we think statistically it’s likely. We’ve also produced some big performances for big crowds. Against WU. Iffil against Newcastle (iirc). 

But then again we’ve had absolute outliers like some dude scoring for the first time in 150 games. Some guy scoring the opening goal with his hand. 

A couple of times I think we’ve underperformed our table position in the finals series. This is what is particularly I guess we’re getting at. 

At moments we’ve had distracted players ie Hemed v Davila. Or distracted teams with talk of contracts up, players off to different A league clubs etc. 

Perhaps that demand at all costs to win from the city to the fans down through layers of management to the team isn’t there. 

But also perhaps the players, coaching staff and tactics we had, apart from a couple of times, took us to about where we could reasonably expect. 

CC? Arnold, Montgomery, the other Scot (sorry sir) the academy and it’s not actually that far from the main population centers so some decent Aussies.

Uffie and Chief have had us top 4 and top 2. Even Rudan despite his flaws. We’ve yet to sustain a satisfying season from their work. Losing Davila, Hemed and Steven Taylor as we did with Uffie. Losing Kraev and Pennington from last season and not yet replacing Zawada. As well as the 3 Kiwi boys. 

I think it’s fair to say it’s much more likely we’d win that yesterday with Paulsen. 

Usually clubs hit a run of a few years near their peak. I’m hoping the next 3-4 years are ours. 

Yoshiga is full of nothing. Cause I can't say shark

Still gutted….. but I haven’t given up on the season. If I remember correctly we weren’t that flash at the start of last year and players like Paulson and Old had no where near the form they had at seasons end.
I have been pondering the playing out the back tactic. Sure it can work but it requires a considerable level of technical ability and coordination by the players. The jury is out for me that we have these players. The youngsters and imports may get there but it could take valuable time to get them up to speed.

 For that first goal we conceded AFC had four players pressing in our box. That means somewhere down field we had an overload of players. You don’t have to long ball it. But you see teams being heavily pressed often pass over the press. IMO we need to mix it up more. Rufer is the obvious target and he could then lay it off to our quick nimble attackers. AFC pressed all match because they knew we would persist with playing it out. Expect other teams to do the same

nixin

Looks good with the ball at his feet, but also looks likely to blunder a goal.
Agile, with fast reflexes and probably makes some spectacular saves.
Hasn't dominated the 6 yard box IMO, and isn't much of a sweeper keeper. At a guess this is what's held him back, and maybe Italiano thinks it's fixable.
One more clanger though and AKH might be in.

As someone else pointed out Oluwayemi is an import and therefore we should expect a lot more from him than a local player. I might forgive an import keeper making a mistake that jaw-droppingly bad once in three seasons but this guy's managed it in just three games. And ok he's only 23 and will learn from his mistakes but this isn't a development league for overseas players. I hope he can turn it around.

Other than that I thought we defended well, as we have generally done in all the games so far. The front third isn't clicking yet but it's a work in progress with some firepower still to come back into the lineup. Only a late brain fade prevented us from being unbeaten after three rounds.

I’ve got some salty words from Uffie you can all enjoy from last week: 

“Disappointed to concede the way we did from a set piece. I believe it’s a handball which leads to the goal…we had one similar last year… disallowed so I dunno how VAR missed that and even before that I think it’s a foul on Poppa with a shove in the back. 

That’s my opinion. I just feel that when both goals were scored it took a lot of time to look at how to disallow a goal that we scored and they went very quickly to allow the goal on the other side so disappointed in the end to lose 1-0.” 

Winning Corica style…better than an Alex Brosque flop, but not by much…
https://aleagues.com.au/videos/press-conferences/all/page/4/

ballane

mykey  When was the last time a shark load of stuff was launched from the zone on to the field of play. So again your wrong if anything gets launched in the zone  its pretty quickly shut down by those around the person. I cant recall a game in 17 years where the fever zone has been responsible for launching a shark load of stuff onto the ground.
Big difference from beers being thrown in the air when a goal is scored and launching stuff onto the field.
Standby what i said cant recall another group of away fans or the fever who launched so much stuff onto the field.
Happy to be corrected. 
Oh yeah i forgot there was Dave and his balloons which terrified security staff.
Sorry for the bold have no friggen idea how that happened (tech dumb)

Bare in mind this was your biggest away crowd ever I believe. The Port also put out a statement today encouraging people that it’s not who they ate and to “Cut it out”. Look after each other, show respect to opposing teams (keep it full of banter etc but no throwing things on the field or at all as it’s dangerous)

Being the biggest away crowd is no excuse to be honest and good on the Port for coming out with that statement. To do that they must have also considered that behavior is not something they want to be associated with. 

Just by way of explanation havnt brought this up just as a way to have a crack at the away fans.
As football fans we should all be well aware the media in both New Zealand and Australia just love to blow the slightest thing out of proportion while ignoring similar stories in the oval ball codes. Look what they did with key board warriors before the Derby.
Just dont think we should be doing anything to feed them.

Before we get too carried away with the doom and gloom, I thought to add a couple comments that hopefully may help.
I am not buying at all into the "choking is in our DNA" argument (sorry if the exact words were different but that was what I understood from them in any case).  The reason we lost to AFC was due to on-field performance and not due to our team mentality.   I may concede that the players we lost like Old, Kraev or Surman liked to assert themselves on the field, and perhaps their replacements have not got that attitude, or perhaps not yet.  But this is a minor point.
The main point for me was that we were flatfooted all 95 minutes against AFC, and persisted with playing out from the goal in face of a hard press. More often than not that ended with the ball lost around halfline or thereabouts, which points to a better reading of the game plan by Corica than by Chiefy.  
Further, some posters here focus on the goalie mistake/s, but for me we lost the game by being strangely toothless in creating chances upfield. Those that we did were created from crosses from Payne and Ishige, but Kosta got almost no service centrally at all. David Ball might have been the type of a player we missed late in the game, since he is a provider rather than a finisher.  Having a a central player like that might have threatened the AFC defence more. As it was, they saw that if we did not get much progress on one wing we would play back all the way to the halfline before trying on the other wing, giving them time to regroup.    
So far, we had one goal scored by Kosta (against WU), while both goals against Perth were headers scored by our defenders.  It may suggest something is not yet meshing correctly in our setup if we are unable to create more scoring opportunities for Kosta and for Ishige.
I am not too concerned against losing against a good team, or a better team, which AFC definitely looked on the day, but I would like to see some more work being done with the players we have to give us a fighting chance this season.

austin111

Still gutted….. but I haven’t given up on the season. If I remember correctly we weren’t that flash at the start of last year and players like Paulson and Old had no where near the form they had at seasons end.
I have been pondering the playing out the back tactic. Sure it can work but it requires a considerable level of technical ability and coordination by the players. The jury is out for me that we have these players. The youngsters and imports may get there but it could take valuable time to get them up to speed.

 For that first goal we conceded AFC had four players pressing in our box. That means somewhere down field we had an overload of players. You don’t have to long ball it. But you see teams being heavily pressed often pass over the press. IMO we need to mix it up more. Rufer is the obvious target and he could then lay it off to our quick nimble attackers. AFC pressed all match because they knew we would persist with playing it out. Expect other teams to do the same

Playing out from the back is the "tactic de jour" it seems, and Im sure all coaches and acadamies are playing to it. 

Its not a bad tactic in itself, but like any tactic its rubbish when its predictable.
Auckland generally lined up 3+2 as a high press, and others behind were quick to join in as soon as we started playing short passes in the box.

So, as you say, there are opportunities behind, and I think the keeper is key to recognising when the press is exceptional and hit over the top to where there HAS to be more space. And with a couple of minutes to go in the game, that was certainly the time to chose that option. We played out like that well a few times, but generally hitting the long aerial ball at kosta and expecting him to win it asked a lot.

austin111

Still gutted….. but I haven’t given up on the season. If I remember correctly we weren’t that flash at the start of last year and players like Paulson and Old had no where near the form they had at seasons end.
I have been pondering the playing out the back tactic. Sure it can work but it requires a considerable level of technical ability and coordination by the players. The jury is out for me that we have these players. The youngsters and imports may get there but it could take valuable time to get them up to speed.

 For that first goal we conceded AFC had four players pressing in our box. That means somewhere down field we had an overload of players. You don’t have to long ball it. But you see teams being heavily pressed often pass over the press. IMO we need to mix it up more. Rufer is the obvious target and he could then lay it off to our quick nimble attackers. AFC pressed all match because they knew we would persist with playing it out. Expect other teams to do the same

Playing out from the back is the "tactic de jour" it seems, and Im sure all coaches and acadamies are playing to it. 

Its not a bad tactic in itself, but like any tactic its rubbish when its predictable.
Auckland generally lined up 3+2 as a high press, and others behind were quick to join in as soon as we started playing short passes in the box.

So, as you say, there are opportunities behind, and I think the keeper is key to recognising when the press is exceptional and hit over the top to where there HAS to be more space. And with a couple of minutes to go in the game, that was certainly the time to chose that option. We played out like that well a few times, but generally hitting the long aerial ball at kosta and expecting him to win it asked a lot.

 🤞 

Have a listen to Joe Hart talking about this here 

Irrespective of what you think of Hart (or Ange), he makes a lot of sense re playing out from the back.

This one hits hard because it doesn't feel like that long ago that we were completely deflated by the Victory loss. It's just so frustrating. Lots of people have been saying that we always blow it in the big games, and it always feels like that for all fans when they lose an important match - but for us we genuinely always do. What makes something a big game is hard to qualify, but I had a look at the stats for finals games and finals qualification for all teams across the league over the last 10 seasons and this is how it looks:

finals 2.png 38.05 KB

We're 5th out of 12 for number of times we've made finals (obviously Macarthur and Western haven't been around for 10 seasons yet), but also 5th for the average point total at the end of the season. Really healthy numbers and shows that mostly, over the last decade, we've been competitive in the league.

Finals 1.png 55.58 KB

Finals 3.png 47.45 KB

But when it comes to finals games, it's insane how bad we are, even comparatively across the league. It's shambolic that we haven't had a single win in the finals in the last 10 years (only club that can say that), especially given we've played a pretty healthy number of total finals matches. Not only have we not seen the Nix win but we've barely even seen a finals goal. Our goals per game in the finals is beyond belief.

I don't really think I buy into it being a club mentality thing, but it's also SO bad that I don't know if it's just plain unlucky.

Mainland Analyst

Regardless of the score, I have been so impressed by Rufer. So much passion for the club. His battles with Howieson have been great, a lot of needle there. Rufer leaving many late ones on Howieson all game. Two players who go way back and will likely be going for the same AW slot too.
Big ups to Payne as well who also looks like this game is personal. 

Poor guy had pretty much no one stay around for his and Kosta’s presentation. 

austin111

Still gutted….. but I haven’t given up on the season. If I remember correctly we weren’t that flash at the start of last year and players like Paulson and Old had no where near the form they had at seasons end.
I have been pondering the playing out the back tactic. Sure it can work but it requires a considerable level of technical ability and coordination by the players. The jury is out for me that we have these players. The youngsters and imports may get there but it could take valuable time to get them up to speed.

 For that first goal we conceded AFC had four players pressing in our box. That means somewhere down field we had an overload of players. You don’t have to long ball it. But you see teams being heavily pressed often pass over the press. IMO we need to mix it up more. Rufer is the obvious target and he could then lay it off to our quick nimble attackers. AFC pressed all match because they knew we would persist with playing it out. Expect other teams to do the same

Not that Flash at the beginning of last season but we had 13 points from the first 5 games. So not bad either.

imanixsupporter

I'm rather frustrated that the Nix have yet again put on a bad show for a big crowd. They always do it. I think the only time they've won in front of an unusually large crowd that I can remember was the homecoming game against Western United.

I understand everyone's frustration at Josh, but I'll again say that he was excellent today prior to the first goal. He actually looked really assured passing it around and made some decent stops. It truly was a moment of madness, not something that was inevitable or coming. I agree with others that he did not inspire confidence against Western United, and I'll be honest I didn't properly watch the Perth game, but I was impressed today and thought before the goal that maybe he was worth that contract extension after all. So I feel like a few people here are allowing the incident to warp their view of him, and I think we should give him a break and hope that it is just a blip, because it really could be. 

I’m old enough to remember when the Nix put on a GOOD showing for big crowds. But now I’m starting to sound like your old man. 

Josh has a shocker with that pass but has to be given credit according to Pineys post on twitter he stayed out and signed autographs for people. That takes guts given what happened would probably have felt like going straight to the changing rooms.

being based in Melbourne and seeing completely shark the bed each time they come regardless of how good or bad the opponent is at the time, it does feel like a mindset issue.. When you talk to Victory or city fans here about the Nix, the general vibe is "Ah, they're the loveable losers". No one really has any negative feelings towards the club as deep down they all know we wont challenge team. Even last season, many on social media were like "Wait till the finals, they will choke" or "cant wait for them to lose when it matters" Ultimately, winning breeds respect among your opponents and oppositions fans, and until the Nix start winning when it counts, they will always be the loveable loser who are just nice, they have nice players, nice coaches, really nice fans who can occasionally have good seasons but you know deep down, wont get over that hurdle...

Jazzy Jeff

This one hits hard because it doesn't feel like that long ago that we were completely deflated by the Victory loss. It's just so frustrating. Lots of people have been saying that we always blow it in the big games, and it always feels like that for all fans when they lose an important match - but for us we genuinely always do. What makes something a big game is hard to qualify, but I had a look at the stats for finals games and finals qualification for all teams across the league over the last 10 seasons and this is how it looks:

finals 2.png 38.05 KB

We're 5th out of 12 for number of times we've made finals (obviously Macarthur and Western haven't been around for 10 seasons yet), but also 5th for the average point total at the end of the season. Really healthy numbers and shows that mostly, over the last decade, we've been competitive in the league.

Finals 1.png 55.58 KB

Finals 3.png 47.45 KB

But when it comes to finals games, it's insane how bad we are, even comparatively across the league. It's shambolic that we haven't had a single win in the finals in the last 10 years (only club that can say that), especially given we've played a pretty healthy number of total finals matches. Not only have we not seen the Nix win but we've barely even seen a finals goal. Our goals per game in the finals is beyond belief.

I don't really think I buy into it being a club mentality thing, but it's also SO bad that I don't know if it's just plain unlucky.