Review Freo Get Stomped by GWS

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Why on earth are we talking about Ross Lyon?

He's irrelevant to anything currently happening at the club save for the fact that we'd have Neale, Langdon, Hill etc if he'd left earlier. But that's also irrelevant. We've even clawed back all the members who left in droves.

On the game: Here's a bizarrely interesting stat. Brisbane and Freo had the same amount of entries for their games - 44

If you're not sure where the problem is, now go and have a look what Freo scored with 44 entries, and then quickly glance at what Brisbane did with them. I warn you though - you'll be absolutely furious so best not look too long.
 
I missed the first quarter thankfully, but thought better of causing myself a massive amount of angst by watching the remainder of the game ☹️

The issue of our slow starts needs to be rectified as an absolute priority. We generally play better after the first quarters, perhaps as a result of having to play with more run to play catch up.

If we can generally play decent footy to get back into games then why can't we play that same footy from the start?
 

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Yeah it was in the rooms at half time. As Ryan's walking off, jlo is still talking and Luke says something over his shoulder and keeps walking
Hmmmm...I think the incident I saw in the last quarter and Ryan's reaction when the long bomb came in and he got out marked was as if he was signalling something to the bench or JLo. It was like throwing up his hands as if I've had enough. Similar to the as to the GC game he was pissed off up the ground as they weren't stemming the tide of balls coming in.
 
Why on earth are we talking about Ross Lyon?

He's irrelevant to anything currently happening at the club save for the fact that we'd have Neale, Langdon, Hill etc if he'd left earlier. But that's also irrelevant. We've even clawed back all the members who left in droves.

On the game: Here's a bizarrely interesting stat. Brisbane and Freo had the same amount of entries for their games - 44

If you're not sure where the problem is, now go and have a look what Freo scored with 44 entries, and then quickly glance at what Brisbane did with them. I warn you though - you'll be absolutely furious so best not look too long.

Don't need to rewatch; I remember as if it was yesterday - oh wait! I saw the "highlights" again this morning.

Obviously some of the bits that stuck out were:
  • The O'Driscoll bomb into the 50m which went straight to the opposition and they rebounded and scored a goal from - that and the Young kick across half back were the game killers for mine.
  • Multiple Caleb Serong kicks into 50 that felt 50%/50% - stat sheet said he had the most inside 50s of the whole team with 7, with DE% of 43%. Caleb also missed two gettable goals.
  • One particular kick that Hughes had kicking it straight to the opposition inside 50 (he had 3 inside 50s)
  • Luke Jackson kicking it straight to the opposition inside 50.
  • Sturt getting marks from kicks (I think O'Meara and Switkowski?) but missing two gettable goals. He also got two later and kicked those goals
  • Amiss (getting marks from Fyfe inside 50 kicks but) not making the distance on two shots from a sharp angle.
  • Henry's kicks were generally on song yesterday but his one inside 50 won late in the third or in the fourth where it was cut off?
  • I did have to wonder whether Shultz and Switkowski were out there TBH. I got the sense that Shultz was playing a lot further up the ground.
  • Banfield getting one over the back and getting run down going for goals.
Outside of the stuff inside 50, there were heaps of times we broke down just outside of the 50m as well, so we could have had a lot more shots than we did.

But fair play to GWS, they did the hard work and got back quickly whereas we slipped over and moved the ball slowly and also disposed pretty badly.
 
Also Serong was not solely developed by a "coach I hate". JLO came in well after Serong had his habits formed.

Ross Lyon's assistants and structures were the core of Serong's first year and a half, and his training discipline. The utter hate towards Ross completely disregards how much of a rock he was in developing the habits, attitude and structures that fed Brayshaw, Young, Serong, Darcy and Clark into what they are today.

Conversely JLo is burning multiple young players just so Banfield, Hughes and JOM can keep getting games.



I’m no Ross hater but Serong and Young were drafted in the 2019 draft the same year Ross Lyon was let go. Also Clark came to the club after ross was coach too. They weren’t even playing when Ross was coach.


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I’m no Ross hater but Serong and Young were drafted in the 2019 draft the same year Ross Lyon was let go. Also Clark came to the club after ross was coach too. They weren’t even playing when Ross was coach.


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Apparently Lyons assistants and structures were still in place despite Serong on young being drafted 4 months after Lyon was sacked in august! Read the whole post! JL had nothing to do with their development it was all Ross!
 
If players aren't following structure instructions that is an absolute failure of coaching. If the coach isn't responding to that "failure to follow instructions" by taking immediate action then he is a failure as coach.
This is my position as well.

For example, Ryan predominantly sending kick ins to the same position is either the actual coaching plan, or very easy to remedy by giving the role to someone else.

And if it doesn't change, then it is the plan.
 
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I think the thing I've read on here that I wholeheartedly I agree with and most concerns me is about us not having a plan B.

If we don't win clearance were cooked.
I hear what you are saying but to my eye when we are beaten in the clearances we are smashed, making it difficult for any plan B to be executed.
 
I think it’s just that all ability to transition the ball from defence has been lost. This seems a coaching issue as much as anything because we have some of the best attacking defenders in the comp and a midfield that generally runs hard both ways.

There is some reason we can’t transition which means when win contest and stoppage we look great (as most teams do) but when we don’t, we basically can’t score.

If we could somehow steal a decent Richmond or Collingwood assistant this year it’s be amazing given how incredibly they transition the ball (Richmond loses games in SPITE of their rebound / transition work).
 
We aren't taking enough marks between the arcs again, particularly from our talls. Again.

I am resigned to the reality that it will take time for the likes of Jackson, Amiss and Treacy to be so physically developed so as to win more of those contests with a contested mark. Amiss is great on a lead for this already, even under intense body pressure, he's a star.

If we are dominant at the stoppages it's much less of a problem, but if we are shut down in the air between defense and attack it's only a matter of time before opposition frontal pressure force a turnover. It's our own game plan turned on us.

Long story short, we need more marking power when moving the ball. Fyfe needs to lift. Jackson needs to be more involved if possible. Darcy needs to present as a target. Treacy needs to clunk some. Amiss needs to be deeper towards goal and not get involved in any of this so he can have most of the forward fifty to himself to lead into.

I haven't checked the stats but I don't think Sturt or Banfield were good enough in taking marks moving the ball forward, both playing small outside of the forward fifty when we really need their size securing field position with marks.
 
I think it’s just that all ability to transition the ball from defence has been lost. This seems a coaching issue as much as anything because we have some of the best attacking defenders in the comp and a midfield that generally runs hard both ways.

There is some reason we can’t transition which means when win contest and stoppage we look great (as most teams do) but when we don’t, we basically can’t score.

If we could somehow steal a decent Richmond or Collingwood assistant this year it’s be amazing given how incredibly they transition the ball (Richmond loses games in SPITE of their rebound / transition work).
Other teams have transition coaches. We should definitely have one of those
 
I think it’s just that all ability to transition the ball from defence has been lost. This seems a coaching issue as much as anything because we have some of the best attacking defenders in the comp and a midfield that generally runs hard both ways.

There is some reason we can’t transition which means when win contest and stoppage we look great (as most teams do) but when we don’t, we basically can’t score.

If we could somehow steal a decent Richmond or Collingwood assistant this year it’s be amazing given how incredibly they transition the ball (Richmond loses games in SPITE of their rebound / transition work).
The main assistant responsible for the fast ball movement at Richmond ended up coaching at the Giants. Now look how they are playing. Port apparently during their preseason just drilled ball movement from the back line non stop. The solution is right infront of us so the nous is on the club to fix it.
 
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I think it’s just that all ability to transition the ball from defence has been lost. This seems a coaching issue as much as anything because we have some of the best attacking defenders in the comp and a midfield that generally runs hard both ways.

There is some reason we can’t transition which means when win contest and stoppage we look great (as most teams do) but when we don’t, we basically can’t score.

If we could somehow steal a decent Richmond or Collingwood assistant this year it’s be amazing given how incredibly they transition the ball (Richmond loses games in SPITE of their rebound / transition work).
Do you think we should look at making Clark our main rebounder like a Saad? To me we don’t make the most of his pace and kicking.🤷‍♂️
 
Do you think we should look at making Clark our main rebounder like a Saad? To me we don’t make the most of his pace and kicking.🤷‍♂️
Definitely feels like we don’t use him or Young enough or maybe Clark doesn’t work hard enough to get in position to move the ball.

I don’t think it’s a backline thing though, I think it’s a whole team thing where it’s far far to easy for teams to just complete stop us moving the ball. Either mindset or positioning or both I don’t know, but someone who really knows how those top transition teams work would help a lot
 
We aren't taking enough marks between the arcs again, particularly from our talls. Again.

I am resigned to the reality that it will take time for the likes of Jackson, Amiss and Treacy to be so physically developed so as to win more of those contests with a contested mark. Amiss is great on a lead for this already, even under intense body pressure, he's a star.

If we are dominant at the stoppages it's much less of a problem, but if we are shut down in the air between defense and attack it's only a matter of time before opposition frontal pressure force a turnover. It's our own game plan turned on us.

Long story short, we need more marking power when moving the ball. Fyfe needs to lift. Jackson needs to be more involved if possible. Darcy needs to present as a target. Treacy needs to clunk some. Amiss needs to be deeper towards goal and not get involved in any of this so he can have most of the forward fifty to himself to lead into.

I haven't checked the stats but I don't think Sturt or Banfield were good enough in taking marks moving the ball forward, both playing small outside of the forward fifty when we really need their size securing field position with marks.
It can’t just be a marking thing though, Collingwood and Richmond don’t have what I would think of as some amazing aerial prowess but they run in waves and on angles that seem to open the whole thing up whether they mark it or not
 
Do you think we should look at making Clark our main rebounder like a Saad? To me we don’t make the most of his pace and kicking.🤷‍♂️
What frustrated me in the Essendon game was where in one instance, Ryan took a mark about 20m out and Clark was running behind him with no player on him to receive the handball. Ryan just ignored him, took few more sec to make decision then bombed it.
 
I think the thing I've read on here that I wholeheartedly I agree with and most concerns me is about us not having a plan B.

If we don't win clearance were cooked.
Think this goes for most team. You get smashed at clearances and stoppages, it's huge issue. The defense can only repel so much before it cracks. They may start playing self preservation and slowing down the play or clearing out of there regardless. Forward lose their structure as they need move up the ground
 

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