Unofficial Preview Fremantle vs Port Adelaide - Key Areas\Matchups

rustyg70

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Jul 24, 2011
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You guys just need to be aware of Ports attacking moves.
They like to switch the play with long kicks as often as possible to allow their running players to get on the end of it.
I think that Hill should line up on Matt White, as he is their go to man for the fast break, and Hill should have the speed to cover him, then hurt him going the other way.
Sandi v Lobbe will be a crucial match up also.
Lobbe has been in good form, but he is really their only genuine ruckman.
Both Sandi and Clarke needs to run him around and/or drag him deep into your forward line as much as possible.
Pittard is another that needs to looked at, as he provides a lot of rebound from their defensive 50. Might be a job for de Boer.
Crowley to Boak at the start as he is the instigator of a lot of their stoppage breaks.
Would Lee Spurr be able to run with Gray or he he best suited staying back on Wingard??

I reckon you guys will win this one, and win it well.
 
Jan 30, 2012
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I am confident we will win.

Lets just remember Carlton gave no pressure to Port. The boys have been working back into grinding sides into dust the last several games. We are working into genuine finals intensity. Put the panic into port - make them backpass - handball. Tackle, pressure, swarm, dominate - get it foward to Crozier, Ballantyne and Walters who have been cutting up.

Port are dangerous no doubt. But so are we... give them no respect, dont give them an inch. Get in their face and bring the finals pressure.

We are at home. The crowd should and will appreciate the finals have started a week early.

Lyon has been priming the boys for this. TIMING is everything.

We will win. Bookmark it.

Time to sort the pretenders from the contenders. We win and win well and take the momentum over to Sydney where we will really need it.
 

JamFrank

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Jul 4, 2014
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It seemed like Port's recent slump was due to two things: trengove and carlisle being out, and teams figuring out how to stop them like Collingwood & Richmond - shut down their outside runners so there are no easy kicks over the back, force them to handball and cause turn overs. That's the key to stopping Port from scoring, the two defenders returning just makes it a bit harder to score against them. But we have many avenues to goal, primarily forcing the defensive turnover after we shut down any kicking options, but also we are very dangerous at forward 50 stoppages, and can also play the slingshot/coast to coast running goal game (see Freo vs Hawthorn).

RTB will know what Port's achilles heel is, and hopefully the players can follow the instructions to exploit it.
 
Very uncool. No one should ever wish an injury on any player!!! Poor form.

Sonnyboy, is that you with a new alias?
I wouldn't normally wish an injury on a player... but if Wingard adjusts his hair mid play, as he likes to do, I hope he gets hit by a low flying elephant.
 

Fred Ziffel

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Very uncool. No one should ever wish an injury on any player!!! Poor form.

Sonnyboy, is that you with a new alias?

I know what you are saying is the politically correct thing but I will fess up here.
I am guilty of wishing an injury on an opposition player. In the past and still do.
I want Joel Selwood to suffer a broken jaw or severe neck injury from Ducking into an opponent and from his tactic of arm raising to draw high contact.
I also have hoped that Jack Darling ruptures a disc in his neck from excessive head chucking.

I probably shouldn't but stuff 'em.
 
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yoong

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May 9, 2013
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I know what you are saying is the politically correct thing but I will fess up here.
I am guilty of wishing an injury on an opposition player. In the past and still do.
I want Joel Selwood to suffer a broken jaw or severe neck injury from Ducking into an opponent and from his tactic of arm raising to draw high contact.
I also have hoped that Jack Darling ruptures a disc in his neck from excessive head chucking.

I probably shouldn't but stuff 'em.

But Selwood is a special case though. He has been tempting fate with his ducking to milk for frees. One of these days he is going to cop one big one and it'll be ugly. Pity the bloke that had will be suspended for 4 weeks for the accidental hit.
 

Kingfish73

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Mar 24, 2014
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Sure - pressure and intimidation getting "into opposition faces" can work. But gee it can back fire if you get rolled. Ports generals in trengove, carlile, boak, Hartlett, Monfries and Schulz thrive on it. 4 quarter pressure will win the day
 

Grape Bear

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Apart from SonnyDay, who is a bit of an aberration, are a whole lot of us trash talking Port on their own board and talking up our chances? There seem to be a fair few of them blowing their trumpet here.

I'm on the pessimist bandwagon myself, to be honest, but if we can't be bullish about our team on our own board without being told every other comment by opposition supporters how ABSOLUTELY AWESOME their team is and how our team couldn't possibly have any answers to their players and gameplan - we might as well all hie off to the bay.

It's getting old.
 

Grape Bear

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And as for our s**t early season form and form slump, it just shits me how people go on and on about Port's form slump being a result of injuries with people now coming back in, whereas they just conveniently forget that we have had key injuries and suspensions ourselves through the year and have managed to claw our way through a tougher draw and play through a lot of adversity to be where we are on the ladder.

Media and flogs can just stuff it. (End of rant.)
 

pokerspiv

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Jun 23, 2013
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A big part of our early season form slump was that we refused to pick attacking players and instead kept trying to plug away with a 3 man forward line. We really only finally cracked the code in the game vs Geelong a few weeks ago. The early games against Sydney and North Melbourne in particular were notable for our lack of scoring power.


Blaming injuries isn't telling the full story.
 

leeloo

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Apart from SonnyDay, who is a bit of an aberration, are a whole lot of us trash talking Port on their own board and talking up our chances? There seem to be a fair few of them blowing their trumpet here.

I'm on the pessimist bandwagon myself, to be honest, but if we can't be bullish about our team on our own board without being told every other comment by opposition supporters how ABSOLUTELY AWESOME their team is and how our team couldn't possibly have any answers to their players and gameplan - we might as well all hie off to the bay.

It's getting old.

I think the Port posters have been fine on our board? Maybe I have missed something.

Slowest week ever. Will be checking twitter constantly today for the teams. Will be hoping for Barlow to play but not expecting it.

I really think our small forwards will be the key. Not sure if Port can keep them both under control but our midfield needs to fire.
 

Grape Bear

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I think the Port posters have been fine on our board? Maybe I have missed something.

Slowest week ever. Will be checking twitter constantly today for the teams. Will be hoping for Barlow to play but not expecting it.

I really think our small forwards will be the key. Not sure if Port can keep them both under control but our midfield needs to fire.

They haven't been as bad as the Geelong supporters, to give them credit. But then, no one is in recent years on Big Footy. I don't know, maybe I am just irritable.
 

Slawk

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Apr 18, 2010
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Can't believe Channel 7 will have a 2 hour delay! No foxtel, no ticket to the game and 3 kids in tow means I am watching it at home..2 hrs after it starts!!!!!. Channel 7 ....******* campaigners!

What's the deal with that? One of the most important games of the year barring finals, involving a WA team - I would've thought it'd be a cert to be on TV.

My prediction - the first 5 minutes of the Hannah Montana movie has a very high viewership of confused and annoyed football fans.
 
Apr 16, 2014
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Port supporters want to claim that they are both the better side and the underdog. They definitely seemed to have got a lot of confident from that training drill against Carlton. No way do they get anywhere near that amount of time against us. At least our confidence comes from beating an almost a full strength Hawks without our leading goal kicker and one of our AA defenders.

Dockers by 4 goals (even without Fyfe, Barlow)
 

free at last

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I think the Port posters have been fine on our board? Maybe I have missed something.

Slowest week ever. Will be checking twitter constantly today for the teams. Will be hoping for Barlow to play but not expecting it.

I really think our small forwards will be the key. Not sure if Port can keep them both under control but our midfield needs to fire.

Our small forward set up is the best in the business.There is no way Port will be able to contain Walters,ballas and Croze IMO.

I wouldn't be one bit surprised if ballas boots 5-6gls on Saturday.
 
Sure - pressure and intimidation getting "into opposition faces" can work. But gee it can back fire if you get rolled. Ports generals in trengove, carlile, boak, Hartlett, Monfries and Schulz thrive on it. 4 quarter pressure will win the day
I'll be surprised if you get within 5 goals of us with that s**t combination of nobodies. There is no way your club can match us for 4 quarters.
 

Mogumber

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Nov 20, 2013
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Would Lee Spurr be able to run with Gray or he he best suited staying back on Wingard??

No Spurr will have his work cut out regardless. RTB loves him though.
But he got cut up by Wingard last time, and Robbie Gray would have too big a tank for him.
I reckon Spurr/Wingard and Duffield/Gray when he goes forward.
 
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Square Peg

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Jul 20, 2014
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Port supporters want to claim that they are both the better side and the underdog. They definitely seemed to have got a lot of confident from that training drill against Carlton. No way do they get anywhere near that amount of time against us. At least our confidence comes from beating an almost a full strength Hawks without our leading goal kicker and one of our AA defenders.

Dockers by 4 goals (even without Fyfe, Barlow)

Yep, hit the nail on the head
There is only two things keeping Port potentially competitive in this game, the six day break (which I don't think we have managed well) and Barlow/Fyfe gone
We are better than them
 

yoong

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May 9, 2013
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Apart from SonnyDay, who is a bit of an aberration, are a whole lot of us trash talking Port on their own board and talking up our chances? There seem to be a fair few of them blowing their trumpet here.

I'm on the pessimist bandwagon myself, to be honest, but if we can't be bullish about our team on our own board without being told every other comment by opposition supporters how ABSOLUTELY AWESOME their team is and how our team couldn't possibly have any answers to their players and gameplan - we might as well all hie off to the bay.

It's getting old.

For me it's just the one poster who made one or two startlingly obvious observation and proceed to repeat the same thing over and over again on every single thread. I suppose every team have these sort of posters :(

Other than that, Port fans are ok. I'll welcome them to post here if they have interesting information to share.
 
Jan 30, 2012
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Sure - pressure and intimidation getting "into opposition faces" can work. But gee it can back fire if you get rolled. Ports generals in trengove, carlile, boak, Hartlett, Monfries and Schulz thrive on it. 4 quarter pressure will win the day

Fremantle's generals love to apply pressure. The soldiers follow and swarm the opposition.

Ingredients for a great game.

Getting in the face.. well it's not really a common H&A thing... but this isn't really a H&A game. The finals have started early. Freo' have been ramping it up big time for almost a month. Fremantle have evolved into following this plan since Lyon came over in regards to approaching finals. No point to being April Premiers. It's no coincidence. If you listen to his interviews this week, Ross Lyon embraces the challenge. Port Adelaide are certainly not facing Carlton like pressure this week - I can assure you.

The rest of the top 4 really hope we smash the s**t out of each other.

Raise the stakes...
 

Tex200

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I know you can never isolate just one thing when fortunes turn around, but I've always thought Walters is just about your most important player.

Amongst the overall team lift, the return of Walters was always going to have a huge impact in Freo's fortunes. I think he's a dead set gun of the AFL and he gives a whole different dimension to your forward structure.

The quintessential high half forward that Robbo was banging on about last night. I think he's the difference.
 

yeewww

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Fremantle's generals love to apply pressure. The soldiers follow and swarm the opposition.
The rest of the top 4 really hope we smash the s**t out of each other.

Raise the stakes...

totally agree, but richmond ain't going to take it easy on sydney seeing richmond want 8th and can say the same for collingwood v hawks. Whilst we might play game of the round there is allot of great contests this weekend with allot of sore legs at least in the first week of finals
 

strobe00

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Apart from SonnyDay, who is a bit of an aberration, are a whole lot of us trash talking Port on their own board and talking up our chances? There seem to be a fair few of them blowing their trumpet here.

I'm on the pessimist bandwagon myself, to be honest, but if we can't be bullish about our team on our own board without being told every other comment by opposition supporters how ABSOLUTELY AWESOME their team is and how our team couldn't possibly have any answers to their players and gameplan - we might as well all hie off to the bay.

It's getting old.
And a double like.
 

strobe00

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A big part of our early season form slump was that we refused to pick attacking players and instead kept trying to plug away with a 3 man forward line. We really only finally cracked the code in the game vs Geelong a few weeks ago. The early games against Sydney and North Melbourne in particular were notable for our lack of scoring power.


Blaming injuries isn't telling the full story.
It isn't, true... but when we were lacking sonny and balla for the North game it had a pretty massive impact on our ability to score. Not sure what other options we had for that game that would have made a difference.

Can't remember if crozier played or was wafling for that game.

Edit: Just checked. Crozier played the North game. We had Pav, Mayne, Tabs and Crozier that are all forwards. Sonny was injured and Balla was suspended. What other changes would you have wanted?

As for the Sydney game, we had Balla, Tabs, Clarke and Mayne that game. No Crozier admittedly. The thing that stood out clearest in my memory of that game was our wretched inability to prevent Sydney's easy handballs out the flank of stoppages, which allowed for Shaw and Malceski to fly on past and cut us up with a quick run and kick. Our clearance defense was p*ss poor that game. And as for our scoring ability, delivery into the forward line was an issue there from memory... as it was against North.
 
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