Nostradamus Speaks

Having spent the weekend in Melbourne and watched three games of football and have now watched seven teams play, I have now concluded that the following will significantly influence the remainder of the season.

1. Way to go Freo – in the bottom three teams. Their recruiting in recent years has left them in shambles.
2. Ross Lyon will depart Fremantle at the end of the season. I think his contract is pretty water tight.
3. Aaron Sandilands will create a record number of knock outs this year under the new laws.
4. Nat Fyfe has not fully recovered from his broken leg.
5. The Bulldogs are a class act and Travis Cloke up forward will make them even more formidable.
6. Liam Picken just keeps getting better and betterer.
7. Footscray will finish top 3.
8. Buddy Franklin will continue to lift his team but they will only finish 6^th at the end of the home and away season. The team has lost its mojo.
9. The Bont will be top three for The Charlie.
10. Umpires will continue to pay free kicks on the forward line despite some of them being questionable. In each of the four games I have seen this has been the case.
11. Hawthorn have lost a great deal of ground through the loss of S.Mitchell and J. Lewis
12. They will fight it out with North Melbourne for 8^th.
13. No disrespect to Jarryd Roughead but was making him captain a big mistake given his illness for the last 2 years?
14. Adelaide are a class act and I have them favourites for the flag at this stage. The forward line has five players capable of kicking a swag of goals any given week and  McGovern will be the player of the year.  Has fantastic hands like his brother.
15. For 14 to occur though Sam Jacobs will have to stay fit and nurtured throughout the year.
16. Crows Scott Thompson will struggle to get back in the team while the other Scott Thompson will have to watch out or his career will be cut very short.
17. A star player will be seriously hurt unless the umpires crack down on players who hold these stars down on the ground until the ball is out of their zone. It is a blight on the game and is not being policed.
18. Geelong have added a bit of grunt to their team and will finish 4^th by the end of the season. Badly in need of a competent ruckman although most clubs seem to have ideas of how to cope with the two-up.
19. Tomahawk could win the Coleman this year.
20. North with their big clean out at the end of last year will play a part in the final make-up of the eight.
21. Bit worried about the results of last week and if you did not pick 9 winners then your footy nous needs looking at. Can’t recall when picking all the winners was so easy. Does that mean that the season could be ordinary?

Have yet to see the other 11 teams live but have been very impressed with the Eagles, Demons and Power.

Only time will tell whether these prognostications will come true.

About Bob Utber

At 84 years of age Citrus Bob is doing what he has always done since growing up on a small farm at Lang Lang. Talking, watching and writing sport and in recent years writing books. He lives in Mildura with his very considerate wife (Jenny) and a groodle named 'Chloe on Flinders' and can be found at Deakin 27 every day.

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