Game Day Preseason Scrimmage -West Coast v Fremantle, Sat 24/2 : Let the melts begin

[Doashuey]

Freo smarter than us?

Looking at our blokes going down like 9 pins in the last quarter, surely the smartest thing would have been to do what the Dockers did and introduced at least 2/3 fresh players in the fourth?

Jones was a class above in the next game and could easily have played the last quarter of the first game and then the 2nd and 3rd of the last.

If Barnett isn’t up to pitching in to help out in the 4th quarter of a praccie match so we could leave a 1st yr Livingstone fwd, then looks as if we have screwed the pooch on Harry.

Number 1 in the second match (thanks Schoey for not mentioning any names) looked good out of the middle and would have been super handy jumping in to help our flagging runners.

All in all, seemed we gained almost nothing from this exercise.

Are Freo smarter than us or just want to win a meaningless scratchy more? We want to get our squad fit and playing out a full 4 quarters so bringing in another 4 or 5 players to minimise a loss in a scratchy makes 0 sense. Especially if we are easing guys back into it like Jones in coming back from injury. Better to have 22 run out the game when the oppo bring in fresh legs as it will help match fitness during the season
It was a hit out, no need to compromise plans and load management just to lessen a 50pt loss.

 

[mattyc75]

Are Freo smarter than us or just want to win a meaningless scratchy more? We want to get our squad fit and playing out a full 4 quarters so bringing in another 4 or 5 players to miniseries a loss in a scratchy makes 0 sense. Especially if we are easing guys back into it like Jones in coming back from injury.
It was a hit out, no need to compromise plans and load management just to lessen a 50pt loss.

I agree there's no need to go all out in a game like that but are you suggesting we're a smart club?

On SM-G973F using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[ziad]

Are Freo smarter than us or just want to win a meaningless scratchy more? We want to get our squad fit and playing out a full 4 quarters so bringing in another 4 or 5 players to minimise a loss in a scratchy makes 0 sense. Especially if we are easing guys back into it like Jones in coming back from injury. Better to have 22 run out the game when the oppo bring in fresh legs as it will help match fitness during the season
It was a hit out, no need to compromise plans and load management just to lessen a 50pt loss.

Free may see value in getting work into more players, they look to have doubled up some in the later run. Different strategy and may meet their needs. Not at all concerned that we went for a heavy load a few weeks from round 1, noting some we are de-loading (the word for 2024)

 

[Shuestar13]

I agree there's no need to go all out in a game like that but are you suggesting we're a smart club?

On SM-G973F using BigFooty.com mobile app

We absolutely have been a smart club over the journey

No club is perfect and we have made some mistakes, but there is a level of faith that we are working our way through this period and with a change in management - new CEO, new fitness and medical managers, soon to be new list manager, there is a plan and path forward.

 

[Ambrose Burnside]

You’ve got Dylan82 and wce_phil, two of the more analytical posters on this board coming out of yesterday afternoon with unfavourable sentiment which I agree 100% with.

To say it’s unreasonable melts and you can’t take anything out of a preseason game is a bit of a polar reaction the other way for mine.

If we had been reasonable over the last 2.5 years I'd also shrug it off.

But we have been beyond shit and our major weaknesses remain the same.

 

[Goroyals22]

Not necessarily, maybe Simmo prefers the boys have a big week on the track before hand and come in partly fatigued already, to try to push them a bit harder

That’s all well and good and comes down to open communication wrote the event. It after the game…

Put out that it’s been a heavy workload week and we are doing that because of this and we hope to see this happen during the game…


No one is specifically annoyed at the scoreboard result it was the complete lack of anything different from the last 4 years that we witnessed…

Short kicks to the back picked and the kicker then running pass to kick it 50 metres up the line to the wing doesn’t count as a move away from a hurn long kick to a contest on the right side of the field..

At least after every behind kicking up the middle and trying things from there you can see a change… trying to centre the ball through the corridor.. who care if it gets turned over , show some sort of change…

All we got was the same stuff with mostly the same blokes in the same spots performing how they mostly do…

 

[stallon]

That’s all well and good and comes down to open communication wrote the event. It after the game…

Put out that it’s been a heavy workload week and we are doing that because of this and we hope to see this happen during the game…


No one is specifically annoyed at the scoreboard result it was the complete lack of anything different from the last 4 years that we witnessed…

Short kicks to the back picked and the kicker then running pass to kick it 50 metres up the line to the wing doesn’t count as a move away from a hurn long kick to a contest on the right side of the field..

At least after every behind kicking up the middle and trying things from there you can see a change… trying to centre the ball through the corridor.. who care if it gets turned over , show some sort of change…

All we got was the same stuff with mostly the same blokes in the same spots performing how they mostly do…

Im not talking about anything other than the fatigue, and fitness levels that some people are using to call the year a write off already.

Just because the club hasnt said specifically that theyve come in off a heavier load than Freo doesnt mean they have to tell us, could just be that we had a normal load and Freo had a light load, who knows.

 

[Campaigner for good]

I'm inclined to let the kick out strategy slide for a pre-season game. No sense in letting the new strategy get unpicked before the real stuff starts.

Less inclined to let the poor skills and lack of teamwork slide. You can't just switch those aspects on an off and even if you could what would be the point?

 

[Keys]

FYI here are the unofficial stats for the game compiled by an account on Twitter



We used 24 players in the first match. The Dockers used 33 by comparison

Ginbey who was forced to leave in Q2 due to his concussion and Chesser who replaced him were the only players of ours not to play all 4 quarters

There’s a reason we looked spent in comparison

 

[Priddis Is Done]

Concerned about Ginbey. Maybe he'll get it late in his career.

 

[Farang83150]

Didn't realise HR was tagging or is that BS?

 

[CoastersFlag No.5]

Didn't realise HR was tagging or is that BS?

BS he stood Brayshaw and Fyfe at times like most midfielders did. Somehow that became tagging.

 

[Farang83150]

BS he stood Brayshaw and Fyfe at times like most midfielders did. Somehow that became tagging.

Yeah thought so, some absolute crazys getting around on here today.

 

[greatwhiteshark]

Didn’t care about the result but was a tad disappointed in how we approached and applied ourselves.
I would have thought the list would have been told in no uncertain terms that you will not only be the fittest you have ever been but our goal is to be the fittest club in the league period. Also that everything we do going forward will be attempted to be at our best, no one will show more effort, more passion, and more endeavour. The club will wear the consequences of that.
So for us to come out pretty meek and mild and see Freo being the ones hungry, and show all the quality signs a coach wants to see then that is what I felt a tad disappointed in.
It is only the first hit out so let’s see what happens this week.
Like it or not these hit-outs actually have some meaning for us as opposed to other clubs, it shows intent for what you will bring.
So that being said I will watch with interest this week because what I watched yesterday was the sane old players going through the same old motions. Some of the young guys I liked their efforts.

 

[CoastersFlag No.5]

Yeah thought so, some absolute crazys getting around on here today.

Wait until the melts in round 1 gonna be like Chernobyl.

 

[EagleMan87]

We will most likely be bottom 2 to 4 this year and next with our current list. Only Geelong, Richmond and Collingwood look likely to fall down the ladder in this time, but none of those teams have trouble getting established players from trades or free agency. We are still loosing old stars and becoming younger each year. I think unless we have huge success in our development of our recent draftees we will occupy the bottom 4 unitil 2027. I just cant see who will fall lower than us in this time frame. We need lube.

Essendon?

 

[Cornelius Roy]

If we had been reasonable over the last 2.5 years I'd also shrug it off.

But we have been beyond s**t and our major weaknesses remain the same.

100% agree

 

[nameless]

Concerned about Ginbey. Maybe he'll get it late in his career.

Seems lost out there doesn't he?
The intra club and yesterday he doesn't seem to get good position and looks very flustered.

I think once he gets belief in his body and confidence to break tackles he'll be better.

 

[Icanwalk]

No I meant the first rounder this year, which we apparently put on the table without caveats or anything coming back for a crack at Curtin.

I've no doubt Curtin is a gun, but there's every chance we have pick one or two here. Probable, even.

I think we dodged another list management error bullet here.

I can't comprehend why we had our F1 on the table last year, given our young midfield cohort is sorely lacking skill and class, and that we'd likely (almost certainly) hold pick 1 or 2 in the 2024 draft and thus have a shot at FOS, who looks tailor-made to address this deficiency.

I can only assume it's because our young defensive cohort looks even more deficient in this regard, and Curtin would have been a great fit with his skills and versatility. Plus getting him in a year earlier than FOS and the fact he's a local boy probably tilted the scales in his favour. I don't agree with this reasoning, so I'm glad we were saved from ourselves by the GWS recruiter's fetish for small forwards.

 

[Bender_]

I think we dodged another list management error bullet here.

I can't comprehend why we had our F1 on the table last year, given our young midfield cohort is sorely lacking skill and class, and that we'd likely (almost certainly) hold pick 1 or 2 in the 2024 draft and thus have a shot at FOS, who looks tailor-made to address this deficiency.

I can only assume it's because our young defensive cohort looks even more deficient in this regard, and Curtin would have been a great fit with his skills and versatility. Plus getting him in a year earlier than FOS and the fact he's a local boy probably tilted the scales in his favour. I don't agree with this reasoning, so I'm glad we were saved from ourselves by the GWS recruiter's fetish for small forwards.

It's also fair to assume that (despite historical evidence proving otherwise) that the club thought we'd get our injured veterans back on the field and we'd not stink as much.

I'm not pointing the finger, but already we've got Darling, Sheed, Ryan and McGovern not 100%. So they were probably trying to back in the clubs rehabilitation program to have a realistic shot of having our best 22 on the field consistently and that kinda already feels a bit dead in the arse. They probably thought we could push up to 15th with that ideal list scenario and then Curtin would've been worth the pick 7ish we traded for him.

At the time I was supportive of the idea, coz Clarko had double bluffed me into thinking we needed to trade our pick 1 for pick 2 to make sure we could get Curts. But I'm leaning towards it being fortuitous that it didn't work out.

 

[JADED]

We were pretty ineffective (more so than I thought we'd be)

But I have it on good authority from a mathmetician friend of mine, that 50% of teams will lose these scratchies.

 

[JADED]

I think we dodged another list management error bullet here.

I can't comprehend why we had our F1 on the table last year, given our young midfield cohort is sorely lacking skill and class, and that we'd likely (almost certainly) hold pick 1 or 2 in the 2024 draft and thus have a shot at FOS, who looks tailor-made to address this deficiency.

I can only assume it's because our young defensive cohort looks even more deficient in this regard, and Curtin would have been a great fit with his skills and versatility. Plus getting him in a year earlier than FOS and the fact he's a local boy probably tilted the scales in his favour. I don't agree with this reasoning, so I'm glad we were saved from ourselves by the GWS recruiter's fetish for small forwards.

We supposedly not only had it on offer for Curtin at 6/7, but Duursma Caddy at 10.
(EFA)

 

[WA footy mad]

What worries me are the kick ins same as the past 2 years, The poor guy kicking out has no options, we get almost the whole team down in the backline so he has no other option but to bomb it. We need to hold our position and have some open space for players to run into & give the FB some options. Just watch next time how our forwards are at CHB, & the defenders only has the option of bombing it. At least i saw 2 times the full back ran it out and tried to get over the crowded HBF's.

 

[Monocle]

We supposedly not only had it on offer for Curtin at 6/7, but Duursma at 10.

Duursma was already off the board, he went earlier with the beggars second pick, it was Caddy who were targeting at 10.
He and Harley are good mates.

 

[CountryLad]

Haven’t actually had a chance to watch the game yet, will hopefully tomorrow so maybe a 50+ point loss is going to look worse than what I’m expecting.

We will win somewhere between 3-8 games at best this season. Reign in the expectations campaigners.

The number of posters in here already after Simmo or running down players after a match sim is hilarious but also kinda sad.