Miss Finals...Major disappointment?

[DazloT]

http://www.espnscrum.com/australia/rugby/story/225127.html

Article from Brett Mackay, positive for the force and on the bandwagon. But a statement caught my eye....

"if they don't finish the job and qualify for the finals; and in all honesty, it will be a major disappointment if they don't make it."

Personally at the worst it would be a minor disappointment. With the log jam at the top and middle of the table, one off/unlucky game could be the difference. The fact we are more than competitive this season has made my year (and the teams, I'm sure).

IMHO the statement would make more sense next year.

[Nic]

Agreed.
I'm just happy the boys are being competitive! Can't ask for more than that, as long as we're finding ways to improve small areas of our game.

I would rather miss out on the finals with a team that plays for each other, over a team of individual superstars who do make the final.

Respect and honour are a key reason our supporters stick by our team, rain, hail or shine.

[DazloT]

Spot on Nic. Exactly the words I'd have written if I was any good at it.

[The InnFORCEr]

I too agree with the above sentiments, however it was only a matter of time before they found a way to bring negativity to our performance/s. Expect more of the same, especially from the grubs at ESPN.

[hertryk]

Nic so true.. and they have to find something negative.. if we won the final they would find something.. The "other team lost" because Blah!BlaH! Blah!...PLONKERS.. !!!

[GIGS20]

Yeah, he talks about the Finals as if it's a goal that should be put on the KPIs, but there are far too many variables involved in doing that. I would much rather they target a win every week, but have a new long-term target of an achievable number of victories (I would even go so far as to suggest that they look at the remaining rounds, chalk up the ones they should win and call that the number)

If that number's 11, then we should be pretty much locked into the finals, if that numbers 10 we will have a pretty good chance, but might miss it, if that numbers 9 we are likely not to make the playoffs, but circumstances might work in our favour.

Looking at the run home
Round 14 - Stormers Away - Likely win, happy if they're not mortgaging the house on it.
Round 15 - Lions Home - Win
Round 16 - Crusaders Away - a Maybe, but I wouldn't count on it
Round 17 - Blues Home - Like the Stormers, there's a good chance we can win this one, but if they are not banking on it I wouldn't slash my wrists
Round 18 - Reds Home - Big win, with a bonus point or I'll be unhappy
Round 19 - Brumbies Away - Big game, would be the test of whether we're good enough to top the conference, personally I think not this year, but you never know!

So I show two that should be targeted as definite wins and four with varying chances. If the coaching staff are conservative, ten wins is achievable. A strong run to the finals would require 11 or 12 (12 wins wound be achieved by us winning three of the four maybe games and I don't think that is out of the realms of possibility)

It would be nice to end up with the Brums away and have those 3 under our belt.....we might only need the bonus point to take out the conference if that's the case......of course It would require another significant winning streak!

[sittingbison]

Just shows that the loss to the Rabble could bite us

[The InnFORCEr]

Any loss is equally as "costly" as the other. If we lose to the Lions at home will that then become the more costly one

[jargan83]

Looking at the run home
Round 14 - Stormers Away - Likely win, happy if they're not mortgaging the house on it.
Round 15 - Lions Home - Win
Round 16 - Crusaders Away - a Maybe, but I wouldn't count on it
Round 17 - Blues Home - Like the Stormers, there's a good chance we can win this one, but if they are not banking on it I wouldn't slash my wrists
Round 18 - Reds Home - Big win, with a bonus point or I'll be unhappy
Round 19 - Brumbies Away - Big game, would be the test of whether we're good enough to top the conference, personally I think not this year, but you never know!

So I show two that should be targeted as definite wins and four with varying chances. If the coaching staff are conservative, ten wins is achievable. A strong run to the finals would require 11 or 12 (12 wins wound be achieved by us winning three of the four maybe games and I don't think that is out of the realms of possibility)

Fairly spot on there with the assessment of the run home. If we want to play finals those likely wins are probably must win games.

Out of that run home the only game I think we may be pushing it uphill will be the Crusaders in Christchurch

[GIGS20]

Yep, I think we need to target both the stormers and the blues as our "ticket into the finals" games. If we lost to the Crusaders away I wouldn't be too fussed and I think the Brums might be a bridge too far.

If we did beat the Brums in Canberra in the last game of the season, I'd be thinking we might have the stones to win the whole bloody thing!

[Alison]

I agree with SB - had we won in Melbourne it would have given us a cushion. That said, I am overjoyed with where we've got to this season and the success the boys have had. It has been an outstanding season regardless of what happens from here on in :-)

[Alison]

I think we DO have the stones to win the whole thing! It's just the quality of the opposition and whether we can match our stones with our skills on the field that are the issues!

[MI5_Dog]

The Lions are no easy beats.
Even playing them at home after a long trip for both teams it will be a bit of a fight IMHO

[chibi]

One game at a time, we can win any match.

[Kept One]

What is in our favour with the Lions game is that they will be at the end of a fairly long tour and could be tired with one foot on the plane.