Autopsy Post-Match Fremantle Vs Sydney Discussion

[electricfeel]

Ross spoke about how it's been two weeks in a row now that Mundy hasn't turned up until half time in the presser. He said something like "Let's hope it doesn't happen again". He'll receive a spray no doubt.

 

[sportsmaniac89]

Well thinking long and hard about what to write, I still can't get my head around how painful watching that game yesterday truly was

Positives:
- Our back 6. Undermanned but yet fought on admirably. Alex Silvagni was exceptional on Buddy, Ibbotson in the first half in particular was brilliant and they continued to fight. A full strength back 6 and Sydney don't kick 93 points in my view.
- Pavlich. Absolute champion and kept us in the game virtually single handedly
- Fyfe. First quarter was quite good but faded out a bit as the match went on
- Mzungu. As a link in the chain, his gut running was really quite good.

Excused from criticism:
- Taberner. Yes he didn't play well and dropped a mark which would've given us reward on the scoreboard and that turnover in the last quarter was bad but he's young and he'll learn from it.

Negatives:
- Clarke. Shocking game and was too easily outmuscled. Shouldn't happen at all and he should be disappointed
- Ballantyne. Needed him to step up but he did nothing. Possibly a busted cheekbone too and I think it has something to do with the way he tackles.
- Mundy. For a leader of the club to play as poor as he did, it was disappointing. Couple of flashes of class but really, poor
- Pearce. I wasn't a fan of him when he first came and suggested that he was a bit of a downhill skiier. There have been times where I've been forced to swallow my words but yesterday was no such time sadly. When the pressure was really on, he went missing in a big way and it was disgusting. He's paid a lot of money and to serve that up in a big game, no wonder he got the vest.
- Clearance work. We may have won the clearances overall but in the first quarter we got utterly smashed. I also found that Sydney's clearances were at times a lot more smoother and classier than ours and it was a real shame.
- Disposal under pressure. Too many out on the fulls, too many smothered kicks, a lot of panicking with the ball and for AFL Footballers, it was not good enough
- Forward line. With the exception of Pav, it really didn't function well at all.

Diabolical:
- Channel 7 Commentary. It was a Buddy/Sydney wankfest and having an ex-Sydney Swan associated with it, just made it that bit more frustrating. Having said that though, Zempilas should be banned from commentating Freo games but also the commentators should be trained in how to be neutral (i.e. tone of voice in particular). Can confirm commentary box needed some cleaning up after wanking over Buddy all afternoon.
- Umpires. Need we say anymore. Consistency was lacking and at times there was a certain degree of bias. There seemed to be two sets of rules with holding the ball, legging players and holding in general being adjudicated quite differently for both sides. Sandilands and Pavlich were in particular held all afternoon for barely any free kicks. Some have suggested that we should learn to act a bit better and try to milk free kicks to get a fair go.....if it gets to that stage, then something truly stinks.
- Alleged incident with Ross Lyon. Spectators shouldn't be touching coaches so what the hell was that security guard doing? Do your ******* job security and stop living in la la land.

 

[electricfeel]

The worst moment for me yesterday was when Zac Clarke was beaten one-on-one by Hannebery which lead to an inside 50 for them and a goal.

Also, I think that's the first time I've seen a bad game from Walters since his 2012 emergence.

 

[Jezzitizle]

The worst moment for me yesterday was when Zac Clarke was beaten one-on-one by Hannebery which lead to an inside 50 for them and a goal.

Also, I think that's the first time I've seen a bad game from Walters since his 2012 emergence.

Thought Walters set up a few goals. The mids hardly gave him a chance. Slow ball movement down the wing, hardly the rebound footy we play when we score heavily. One thing I didn't love is the how little pressure we put on the sydney defense after a contest in the air. Too often were there 3 swans all over the spillage and no freo player trying to rove the footy. Pretty basic forward play. Credit to the swans defense though, they were magnificent. Didnt think their midfield was that great, just a little cleaner and used more common sense than we did. So often we went two or three handballs too many til we lost it. Maybe because we don't have anybody up forward who consistently takes contested marks.

 

[electricfeel]

Thought Walters set up a few goals. The mids hardly gave him a chance. Slow ball movement down the wing, hardly the rebound footy we play when we score heavily. One thing I didn't love is the how little pressure we put on the sydney defense after a contest in the air. Too often were there 3 swans all over the spillage and no freo player trying to rove the footy. Pretty basic forward play. Credit to the swans defense though, they were magnificent. Didnt think their midfield was that great, just a little cleaner and used more common sense than we did. So often we went two or three handballs too many til we lost it. Maybe because we don't have anybody up forward who consistently takes contested marks.

I agree with that. The midfield didn't give Walters, Ballas, Tabs a chance. Even when our chips are down, Walters generally kicks a few goals and plays pretty well. This was the first time in a long time that he hardly made an impact, so that was just an observation from me.

I couldn't believe how many times a Swans player smothered the ball. We just couldn't move the ball well at all. We were given no time and space.

 

[johnthegardener]

Just had a look at some of the statistics and one I noticed in particular. The Sydney defenders, basically Richards, McVeigh, Shaw, Rampe, Smith & one other had 79 uncontestewd possessions. This compared to our back six getting only 55 uncontested possessions. It tells me that there was an obvious lack of pressure from our forwards accentuated by so many of our forwards moving up into the defensive area leaving the Sydney defenders free to pump the ball back into the F50.

Watching the game it was very obvious that Syudney had free players hanging around waiting for our quick kick out of defence and the statistics confirm our visual assessment.

Something needs to be done to correct this situation, but what?

 

[Jello_B]

Hi guys, watched the game yesterday, thought it was a fantastic effort and could have gone either way. Think the 2 best teams are Freo and Swans.
Just wondering who you would rather play next week, us or tigers?

I went to the Freo PAFC game a week ago and thought that was a cracking game as well and you guys were too good. Would love to go to a rematch next week.

Good luck for the rest of the finals.

 

[free at last]

Sydney has two shocking grounds to play footy,both a s**t size for playing footy on.

 

[Cobbler]

Hi guys, watched the game yesterday, thought it was a fantastic effort and could have gone either way. Think the 2 best teams are Freo and Swans.
Just wondering who you would rather play next week, us or tigers?

I went to the Freo PAFC game a week ago and thought that was a cracking game as well and you guys were too good. Would love to go to a rematch next week.

Good luck for the rest of the finals.

I'd personally rather play Tigers for a few reasons. One of them is that it would be the 3rd week in a row that they traveled and just think they'd have to be flat. I think our midfield would destroy theirs. I also just think they aren't as good a side.

Now all of that said, if we were to play them it would mean that they'd have won 10 straight and Sydney and Port in the last 2 weeks away from home, so they'd obviously be going well.

 

[free at last]

Hi guys, watched the game yesterday, thought it was a fantastic effort and could have gone either way. Think the 2 best teams are Freo and Swans.
Just wondering who you would rather play next week, us or tigers?

I went to the Freo PAFC game a week ago and thought that was a cracking game as well and you guys were too good. Would love to go to a rematch next week.

Good luck for the rest of the finals.

Definitely Richmond,your team are going to be extremely difficult to beat next week.

 

[mightydockers]

Positives
Pav - the champ is hitting some seriously good form
Sydney aren't unstoppable - we can beat them if we don't have passengers. would love to play off with them in the GF if we can make it :S
Mz - Mr reliable
Sandi in the second half... why does it take us a half of footy for our midfield to click???
Silva, dawson, spurr

Negatives
Umpiring was beyond a joke... just re-watched coz there was too much emotion in the game to make a call on it but still reckon it was pathetic
zac clarke in career worst form - he's a ball watcher but probably still best 22
ballantyne can't get it done in finals footy - needs to turn this around. danyle pearce is the same

 

[couldhavebeen]

Mundy has been mostly ordinary this year and this has extended into the finals. Taking nearly a half to get going is poor from the leader of the midfield.[/QUOTE

Clogged sometimes I agree with your posts but seriously Mundy Sandi and Fyfe kept us in the game all day .
Pearce was ineffectual and went missing for long periods as did Hill . Barlow was also second rate and Neale wasn't much better .
RTB stated that we were beaten in the midfield and he was right but not all of our midfielders were beaten .

 

[Jayran]

i think our mids should carefully review the handball game of sydney, they don't do the loopy handball or the handball to a player less than a metre away.

It's not often our midfield is embarrassed this heavily by another outfit.

Spot on observation in my opinion. Sydney's hand passes from contests was a highlight of their game and difference between the two sides.

 

[PeelnThunder]

So did anyone get injured?

 

[Tazmania]

I thought it pretty poor from channel 7 that the shite they showed before the game about the glory of grand finals etc focussed on Sydney/Hawthorn from 2012. They've done this a few times now. Apparently Hawthorn/Freon 2013 never happened. Clearly everything is aimed at the NSW market at the moment and whilst I'm not a conspiracy theorist you have to wonder.

 

[JoseMourinho]

Positives
- Silvagni did very well
- Defence overall did very well
- Pav

Negatives
- Ballaz, Mayne, The Midfield, Clarke and Pearce - where the hell are ya?
- Tabs, i mean come on man. You did so well last week. Bloody stage fright, just treat it like a normal game.
- Umpiring - Fyfe's holding the ball and silvangis "chopping the arms" really set the tone of how sydney was going to win this game.
- Fumbling and panicing while disposing of the ball
- Kicks getting smothered.
- I'll forgive Hill for not playing well because he was openly being held multiple times and was getting nothing for it. (Who knows).

 

[pokerspiv]

Not sure I'll be able to forgive that dropped mark for some time either, I remain a fan of his but he should have been subbed out today.

You don't sub people out as punishment for dropping a mark.

 

[Righteo]

You don't sub people out as punishment for dropping a mark.

I don't think I'll ever be able to take you seriously until you stop this s**t habit of yours, re-read my post again and point out where I said he should have been dropped BECAUSE of the mark.

All you ever do is construct pissweak strawman arguments. He should have been subbed out before the dropped mark.

 

[Midnite65]

You don't sub people out as punishment for dropping a mark.

No you sub them out for being a passenger all day which is what Tabs was

 

[pokerspiv]

who says we cant make the grand final the long way! get home tonight, recover diligently with the extra day's break, smash whoever we face on saturday and then load up for the Hawks in Melbourne, who are gettable make no mistake...

Well for one thing, we now have to beat Hawthorn at their home ground, something we haven't done for 6+ years, let alone when they've had a week's break and we haven't. That's assuming we beat Port first.

We will be at extremely long odds in the Hawthorn game.

 

[pokerspiv]

He should have been subbed out before the dropped mark.

Considering he's in the team for primarily structural reasons, he's an unlikely target to get subbed even if he does play badly.

Besides which, Lyon suggested that they had no choice with the sub, as Pearce was cooked.

 

[billybunter]

Guys,

This is the game we had to lose (similar to the Paul Keating Quote) - If this is such a thing? We will come back bigger and stronger as 4 hrs on the trip home after an honorable loss is worth 12 hours of hard slog on the track, special sides do special things and as of now - The boys are about to unleash - Be afraid, be very afraid all who take on the business unfinished Dockers - Play your best game but bring some more because we have been to the mountain and yes the mountain is a hill yet to be climbed - Given the chance, this year we will will take the grail back to Fremantle - Book your accommodation or I will see you all with your sleeping bags and girlfriends at the Little Ships Park - what a place to celebrate - West of the most Western Australia!!!!!!!!

 

[Allikat]

I thought StKilda was the game we had to lose

 

[PapaJ]

So did anyone get injured?

News, mostly unofficial, about the place:

- Balla may have (re)fractured his cheek.
- Sutty did something to his knee, played the game out of course, but my guess is he did so with a jab.
- Talk Barlow has done something to his ankle

 

[db swannie]

It was a bloody hard contest, just watched the replay today. At the ground it felt like you were in it all the way, watching the replay our midfield felt more on top. Pav as always, a champion, and Sandilands, sheesh he's dangerous everywhere around the ground. His ruck work in the fourth was outstanding.

I think you will beat Poort, then a big assignment against Hawks. We did it in 05 (and WC did it in 06), so coming back from the first final loss not impossible.