Autopsy Freo defeated by West Coast

[mightydockers]

anyone notice how s**t our midfield centre bounce set play is where we do some sort of three man weave running backwards? i'm ******* sick of seeing it - it is completely ineffective

 

[freo84]

For some reason we didn't have the courage to take the Eagles on and make them work for it - we just wanted to corral them, allow them easy outlets and basically own the ball all night. We should have been a lot fresher than them, we were off an 8 day break, they were off a horror trip to Melbourne. None of our guys seemed to want to break lines and run the ball, it was just so much easier to roost it high into the air for McGovern and Yeo to intercept time and time again. If we had run at them hard in the first half I think they would have been off their legs in the last and we might have got home. As it was they we able to keep the play slow, chip it around and conserve energy.

All the bleating about the umpires was silly. We expected to get reamed as we always do, but in this case it was our own stupidity that cost us the game, not the umpires. For those blaming the game plan, do you think the coaches told them to go out and bomb it long to Eagles outnumbers all night? The guys have been able to execute the last three weeks to varying degrees, tonight they did not, same as the first two weeks. The change of personnel helped lift the enthusiasm level for a few weeks but from the first few minutes tonight they did not look like winners. I think the Eagles crowd intimidated some of the new guys and we didn't see the smiles and energy from the last few weeks.

As far as players go, I am going to give an automatic pass for the young guys, Logue, Grey, Hughes and Balic just from the fact we wanted to play youth we have to expect some inconsistency. I thought my buddy was quiet, Logue did one or two nice things but was generally ineffective, Hughes was one of our better defenders and Balic was far from our worst.

Of the "next tier":

Crozier - this is what he has done for the past few years, he comes in and plays a couple of good games then he disappears. For those asking why he hasn't been playing all along tonight was exhibit A. He just needs to get more involved, present himself better and get more separation from his defender. Has to stay in, but would love to see him getting more of it and more importantly kicking goals.
Sheridan - I have never got what Ross sees in this guys. He is soft, looks lazy and he makes some of the most inexcusable errors deep in defense. I would be dropping him back to Peel to try to figure out what role he might be able to play in the team because it is not as a defender.
Tucker - has been disappointing. 11 possession is not enough and I thought he looked lost. Still have to persevere with him but needs to lift his workrate. He is one of our quicker guys and has good disposal, he needs to be getting a lot more of it and working a lot harder.
Weller - not as good as he has been the past few weeks but is definitely making himself part of our future. Has to learn to lower his eyes. Is one of our best kicks, but for some reason he was just bombing it in long all night. If he's going to do that we may as well bring in Danyle Pearce - he does the same bu has more possessions.
Langdon - one of the real triers, ended up with 31 touches and ran hard all night. Again, needs to lower his eyes going forward but he is certainly improving all the time and part of our next tilt at a flag.
Blakely - I thought he was the best of the young guys. Worked hard at the coalface all night and showed a few of the established stars up with his explosiveness in and around the packs. Developing nicely.

Of the trades:

McCarthy - was really the only one who looked like scoring when the heat was on in the first half. Is a natural forward and will be great for us once we get some sort of system worked out in the forward line. Died in the second half, but scores a pass just for his first half.
Kersten - very similar output to McCarthy, but his best work was all in the second half when the heat was out of the game. Still worth persevering with, but would like to see him more involved.
Hamling - I thought he had a poor game tonight, was completely owned by Kennedy much as he was in the JLT match. Was not entirely his fault as the service coming in from their midfield was unstoppable due to lack of pressure from our mids.
Hill - very disappointing for me, this was not a great game for him. Unlike Stephen he doesn't seem to be able to lift himself when it really counts. He is a guy who can run other players off their legs but did not do that tonight. Hopefully this is a one-off and not something we see to often from Brad.

Of the rest:

Neale - tried hard all night and gave everything, that's all we can ask. Still not at his best but is building up to it.
Mundy - this was not one of his better games. He seemed out of sorts to me whether in the forward line or in the midfield.
Fyfe - again, where he has been able to lift the team in the last few weeks (along with Mundy) for some reason tonight he just didn't seem to be at his best. Had a long time out of the game and maybe the last few weeks have taken a lot out of these leaders.
Sandi - battled hard all night, took some nice grabs and gave his all. Pity he can't take a grab in the forward line, but I guess if he had the service from his mids and the umpires that the Eagles get he would be a big chance to kick a few. Pity the boys couldn't honour his 250th.
Johnson - has got a new lease on life and was superb all night. Not his fault we lost and I think he is enjoying the freedom of playing in the ruck.
Spurr - just a dumb, poorly skilled footballer who gets found out against good teams. Not quick enough in his decision making and can't hit targets by foot. He is very lucky there is really no like-for-like replacement at the moment because he is a real liability back there when under pressure.
Ibbo - a slightly taller version of Lee Spurr. Like a deer in the headlights when called on to make a quick decision, and is a very poor player under pressure. Both of these guys are 29 years old and are not part of our future. There were a few good signs from Luke Ryan, Ryan Nyhuis and particularly Sam Collins at Peel today, so for me Ibbo should go back to Peel next week.
Walters - a shadow of the player we all know he is, and has been pretty much all year. Trained the house down in the summer but he is carrying something now which is making him completely ineffective. Should not be playing until he is completely fit. We know what he can deliver, so all he is doing at the moment is keeping someone else out of the team. I'd rather see Tabs brought in, rotate McCarthy and Kersten in the midfield and play Brady, Harley Balic or even Pearce as small forwards until Sonny or Ballas is right.

So I guess we all asked them to play the kids so we have to expect some inconsistency, but that does not make it any less disappointing. I had the pleasure of seeing Peel get slaughtered by Eagles Lite, then Freo get slaughtered by the seniors. Literally.

Sorry this has been so long, I just needed to vent and you guys are the unfortunate beneficiaries

Most sensible rant I've ever read.



On SM-G930F using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[meesy]

I felt pretty calm through this game as it was still okay output, but seriously that decision against fyfe where nat and mcgovern both marked it at the same .... man that just killed me. Fyfe controlled the ball the whole time and it wouldn't mean much if ******* DANGERFIELD HADN'T BEEN PAID THE MARK FOR THE EXACT SAME 50/50 MARK 5 WEEKS AGO.

I'll see myself to the melt thread.

 

[wehavethepassion]

Would it be fair to say that was Blakely, Weller, Langdon and Balic's best game for the club?

Also Hughes stood up. Collectively Poor pressure in first Q and poor decisions making going Forward especially in first half McGovern had it gifted to him. The second half Yeo & Barrass took over from McGovern as the players kicked to ny the boys.

Sadly I think it's gorn past Tommy, Croz, Ibbo & Spurr

 

[PurpleEyes]

Fyfe shrugs off Yeo who is holding him illegally off the ball, right in front of an umpire and now the AFL are already writing it up saying he will have to wait on the MRP. If the corrupt AFL umpires were doing their job properly, Fyfe wouldn't need to throw an elbow, he would have instead been taking a free kick.

( http://www.afl.com.au/news/2017-04-29/five-talking-points-west-coast-v-fremantle )
"1. Is Fyfe in some strife?
Nat Fyfe led like a demon during the Dockers three-game surge to the brink of the top eight but Fremantle might have a nervous wait to see if the Brownlow medallist plays against the Bombers next Sunday. Fyfe started well in Freo’s Derby loss but cut a frustrated figure when he swung an elbow into Elliot Yeo’s face with such force that the Eagle stayed down for a minute or so early in the last term. That would suggest the impact was pretty hard and Fyfe’s Brownlow could hinge on how the Match Review Panel views the incident."

 

[Freoforever86]

Big fan of Kersten, but he goes missing a whole lot. Had a 10 min cameo with a few goals tonight, but needs to work harder and present like McCarthy.

Taberner needs to come in. Get all 3 of them working together.

 

[mightydockers]

For some reason we didn't have the courage to take the Eagles on and make them work for it - we just wanted to corral them, allow them easy outlets and basically own the ball all night. We should have been a lot fresher than them, we were off an 8 day break, they were off a horror trip to Melbourne. None of our guys seemed to want to break lines and run the ball, it was just so much easier to roost it high into the air for McGovern and Yeo to intercept time and time again. If we had run at them hard in the first half I think they would have been off their legs in the last and we might have got home. As it was they we able to keep the play slow, chip it around and conserve energy.

All the bleating about the umpires was silly. We expected to get reamed as we always do, but in this case it was our own stupidity that cost us the game, not the umpires. For those blaming the game plan, do you think the coaches told them to go out and bomb it long to Eagles outnumbers all night? The guys have been able to execute the last three weeks to varying degrees, tonight they did not, same as the first two weeks. The change of personnel helped lift the enthusiasm level for a few weeks but from the first few minutes tonight they did not look like winners. I think the Eagles crowd intimidated some of the new guys and we didn't see the smiles and energy from the last few weeks.

As far as players go, I am going to give an automatic pass for the young guys, Logue, Grey, Hughes and Balic just from the fact we wanted to play youth we have to expect some inconsistency. I thought my buddy was quiet, Logue did one or two nice things but was generally ineffective, Hughes was one of our better defenders and Balic was far from our worst.

Of the "next tier":

Crozier - this is what he has done for the past few years, he comes in and plays a couple of good games then he disappears. For those asking why he hasn't been playing all along tonight was exhibit A. He just needs to get more involved, present himself better and get more separation from his defender. Has to stay in, but would love to see him getting more of it and more importantly kicking goals.
Sheridan - I have never got what Ross sees in this guys. He is soft, looks lazy and he makes some of the most inexcusable errors deep in defense. I would be dropping him back to Peel to try to figure out what role he might be able to play in the team because it is not as a defender.
Tucker - has been disappointing. 11 possession is not enough and I thought he looked lost. Still have to persevere with him but needs to lift his workrate. He is one of our quicker guys and has good disposal, he needs to be getting a lot more of it and working a lot harder.
Weller - not as good as he has been the past few weeks but is definitely making himself part of our future. Has to learn to lower his eyes. Is one of our best kicks, but for some reason he was just bombing it in long all night. If he's going to do that we may as well bring in Danyle Pearce - he does the same bu has more possessions.
Langdon - one of the real triers, ended up with 31 touches and ran hard all night. Again, needs to lower his eyes going forward but he is certainly improving all the time and part of our next tilt at a flag.
Blakely - I thought he was the best of the young guys. Worked hard at the coalface all night and showed a few of the established stars up with his explosiveness in and around the packs. Developing nicely.

Of the trades:

McCarthy - was really the only one who looked like scoring when the heat was on in the first half. Is a natural forward and will be great for us once we get some sort of system worked out in the forward line. Died in the second half, but scores a pass just for his first half.
Kersten - very similar output to McCarthy, but his best work was all in the second half when the heat was out of the game. Still worth persevering with, but would like to see him more involved.
Hamling - I thought he had a poor game tonight, was completely owned by Kennedy much as he was in the JLT match. Was not entirely his fault as the service coming in from their midfield was unstoppable due to lack of pressure from our mids.
Hill - very disappointing for me, this was not a great game for him. Unlike Stephen he doesn't seem to be able to lift himself when it really counts. He is a guy who can run other players off their legs but did not do that tonight. Hopefully this is a one-off and not something we see to often from Brad.

Of the rest:

Neale - tried hard all night and gave everything, that's all we can ask. Still not at his best but is building up to it.
Mundy - this was not one of his better games. He seemed out of sorts to me whether in the forward line or in the midfield.
Fyfe - again, where he has been able to lift the team in the last few weeks (along with Mundy) for some reason tonight he just didn't seem to be at his best. Had a long time out of the game and maybe the last few weeks have taken a lot out of these leaders.
Sandi - battled hard all night, took some nice grabs and gave his all. Pity he can't take a grab in the forward line, but I guess if he had the service from his mids and the umpires that the Eagles get he would be a big chance to kick a few. Pity the boys couldn't honour his 250th.
Johnson - has got a new lease on life and was superb all night. Not his fault we lost and I think he is enjoying the freedom of playing in the ruck.
Spurr - just a dumb, poorly skilled footballer who gets found out against good teams. Not quick enough in his decision making and can't hit targets by foot. He is very lucky there is really no like-for-like replacement at the moment because he is a real liability back there when under pressure.
Ibbo - a slightly taller version of Lee Spurr. Like a deer in the headlights when called on to make a quick decision, and is a very poor player under pressure. Both of these guys are 29 years old and are not part of our future. There were a few good signs from Luke Ryan, Ryan Nyhuis and particularly Sam Collins at Peel today, so for me Ibbo should go back to Peel next week.
Walters - a shadow of the player we all know he is, and has been pretty much all year. Trained the house down in the summer but he is carrying something now which is making him completely ineffective. Should not be playing until he is completely fit. We know what he can deliver, so all he is doing at the moment is keeping someone else out of the team. I'd rather see Tabs brought in, rotate McCarthy and Kersten in the midfield and play Brady, Harley Balic or even Pearce as small forwards until Sonny or Ballas is right.

So I guess we all asked them to play the kids so we have to expect some inconsistency, but that does not make it any less disappointing. I had the pleasure of seeing Peel get slaughtered by Eagles Lite, then Freo get slaughtered by the seniors. Literally.

Sorry this has been so long, I just needed to vent and you guys are the unfortunate beneficiaries

Wow this review is bang on especially regarding Ibbo and Spurr - have been spudding it up for a long time now and both need to go.

 

[estibador]

What pisses me off is the first free that was blatantly ignored may have got us going....

Horrible

It's infuriating because you 100% know they would have paid it if the teams were reversed... as was proven about a minute later.

 

[Square Peg]

The perpetual complaining about umpires derailed the pregame, game day and now seemingly the post game thread. Why don't one of you whingers just start an umpire thread and take yourself and your mates there?
I think we did OK, we had one bad quarter and it cost us the game. Still a hell of a lot to like. I'm more pissed by Fyfe and Walters than I am in Logue and Grey. Give me this loss over the Port game twice a day and thrice on Saturday

 

[PapaJ]

Kind of went how I'd expect. Without doing a full analysis, the first quarter wasn't dissimilar to the much of the first half (certainly the 2nd quarer) of last week. The difference is that WC are a far better team at creating scoreboard pressure when you let them get the ball on their terms.

WC shape supper well to take advantage of when you give them the ball, along with their down hill skiers and a quality FFWD who knows how to kick goals, they did what I thought would happen, score efficiently on our stuff-ups and take us out of the game. Having said that, I was so disappoint we didn't create enough real pressure on them. Someone posted it above, we just didn't make it hard enough for them in that opening quarter especially. Fact is, they played it well enough, but we made them look a far better team than they are.

Still, we've got a longer term goal in mind, so you've got to wear this sort of game on the way. Hopefully we learn from this and can sort some of this stuff out.

 

[Freo Big Fella]

Can only really be philosophical about that - felt like it was always going to happen. Think we'll be better for it in the long run, as it kind of highlights the areas where we've still got a lot of work to do.

The panicky long bombs were particularly frustrating, given how much it played into their hands.

 

[Freo Big Fella]

Langdon - 7 I50s and 0 GA from them. ******* woeful with ball in hand, costs us so much.

 

[imperial_oz]

Was Mitchell always a diving flog or has he enhanced the skill since he has moved west

Well, he's always been a dirty sniper but you cannot underestimate the specialist training he will have been given after moving West.

Lets not forget that Margetts and Dalziell both provide specialist training to the eagles in how to best behave to gain free kicks when they attend the eagles training. Funny how that works when they umpire so many eagles games isnt it?

 

[wayToGo_]

1. We had the dominant ruck (52 hit outs!) and yet lost the clearance count. Our midfield, even sans SHill, should far better than that. It's supposedly our strength but it was far from it tonight.
2. Inside 50 entries in the first half were atrocious. It was 52 to 51 inside 50 entries in the end but we got spanked on the scoreboard. Pretty simple equation if we can improve both our delivery to and structure inside 50. We were also generally slack locking it in I thought as well so maybe we need to pivot and give Tabs another go alongside McCarthy and Kersten (not instead of).
3. We still don't quite have the right personnel in the back line. I don't think another KPD would have made any difference tonight. I think it's more about skills and speed. I'd probably reward Sutty with another chance either for Sheridan, Spurr or Ibbo immediately (as he's the only one ready atm). Although we need Ryan and his 60m+ reliable kick asap. Possibly also need to try Nyhuis with his speed, versatile lock down ability and composure with ball in hand - thought Spurr looked really slow tonight.

The first quarter burst was our thing in early 2015 and tonight is was the exact opposite. Whatever we did in early 2015 to get our guys up and firing from the first bounce we need to find out and do again!

 

[estibador]

Try Mitchell's one handed 'handballs' in full view of the umpires and not a peep. Exactly as predicted.

I'd love to see a freeze frame of that one. The ump literally couldn't have been better placed to see it. Right. In. Front. Of. Him.

Like you say, it was a deliberate choice to ignore it, because it's those things they know they can get away with claiming they didn't see it compared to full blown in the backs etc.

 

[wild side]

1. We had the dominant ruck (52 hit outs!) and yet lost the clearance count. Our midfield, even sans SHill, should far better than that. It's supposedly our strength but it was far from it tonight.
2. Inside 50 entries in the first half were atrocious. It was 52 to 51 inside 50 entries in the end but we got spanked on the scoreboard. Pretty simple equation if we can improve both our delivery to and structure inside 50. We were also generally slack locking it in I thought as well so maybe we need to pivot and give Tabs another go alongside McCarthy and Kersten (not instead of).
3. We still don't quite have the right personnel in the back line. I don't think another KPD would have made any difference tonight. I think it's more about skills and speed. I'd probably reward Sutty with another chance either for Sheridan, Spurr or Ibbo immediately (as he's the only one ready atm). Although we need Ryan and his 60m+ reliable kick asap. Possibly also need to try Nyhuis with his speed, versatile lock down ability and composure with ball in hand - thought Spurr looked really slow tonight.

The first quarter burst was our thing in early 2015 and tonight is was the exact opposite. Whatever we did in early 2015 to get our guys up and firing from the first bounce we need to find out and do again!

Yep, how slow did we look in transition? When we had the ball, we waited for the eagles to run back and defend.
Simple s**t, and I agree with the mids, Stone should have been better tonight on this. Particularly as Vardy was winged for most of the game.

 

[PurpleEyes]

The perpetual complaining about umpires derailed the pregame, game day and now seemingly the post game thread. Why don't one of you whingers just start an umpire thread and take yourself and your mates there?
I think we did OK, we had one bad quarter and it cost us the game. Still a hell of a lot to like. I'm more pissed by Fyfe and Walters than I am in Logue and Grey. Give me this loss over the Port game twice a day and thrice on Saturday

I won't blame Fyfe if he leaves Freo.
Why would he want to stay at a team that gets reamed by umpires so badly that opposition players can appear to illegally hold and block him off the ball and the result is he gets scrutinised by the MRP and then even by some of his so called fans.

 

[PapaJ]

1. We had the dominant ruck (52 hit outs!) and yet lost the clearance count. Our midfield, even sans SHill, should far better than that. It's supposedly our strength but it was far from it tonight.
2. Inside 50 entries in the first half were atrocious. It was 52 to 51 inside 50 entries in the end but we got spanked on the scoreboard. Pretty simple equation if we can improve both our delivery to and structure inside 50. We were also generally slack locking it in I thought as well so maybe we need to pivot and give Tabs another go alongside McCarthy and Kersten (not instead of).
3. We still don't quite have the right personnel in the back line. I don't think another KPD would have made any difference tonight. I think it's more about skills and speed. I'd probably reward Sutty with another chance either for Sheridan, Spurr or Ibbo immediately (as he's the only one ready atm). Although we need Ryan and his 60m+ reliable kick asap. Possibly also need to try Nyhuis with his speed, versatile lock down ability and composure with ball in hand - thought Spurr looked really slow tonight.

The first quarter burst was our thing in early 2015 and tonight is was the exact opposite. Whatever we did in early 2015 to get our guys up and firing from the first bounce we need to find out and do again!

I think you're right on the Sutty part. As for those young kids (Ryanb and Nyhuis) though I rate both, they'll find the pace of AFL a big step, as do nearly all young kids, and they not even close to match fit enough for AFL either - I do look forward to them playing because they have what we need, but they're a long way off yet.

 

[imperial_oz]

I'd love to see a freeze frame of that one. The ump literally couldn't have been better placed to see it. Right. In. Front. Of. Him.

Like you say, it was a deliberate choice to ignore it, because it's those things they know they can get away with claiming they didn't see it compared to full blown in the backs etc.

Mate, I predicted before the game that it would be the unpaid frees that hurt us the most and was told that I was simply paranoid. Well, it just goes to show that paranoids have enemies. I was right on all calls but it was such an obvious call I can't take much credit.

The umpiring was so biased tonight that the AFL needs to come out and explain why they chose 3 umpires, all with massive conflicts of interest, to control this game when there were alternatives available.

The AFL is complicit in what happened in this game and all the bullshit about crowds and noise will never justify their outrageous conduct.

 

[Carnthedockers]

For some reason we didn't have the courage to take the Eagles on and make them work for it - we just wanted to corral them, allow them easy outlets and basically own the ball all night. We should have been a lot fresher than them, we were off an 8 day break, they were off a horror trip to Melbourne. None of our guys seemed to want to break lines and run the ball, it was just so much easier to roost it high into the air for McGovern and Yeo to intercept time and time again. If we had run at them hard in the first half I think they would have been off their legs in the last and we might have got home. As it was they we able to keep the play slow, chip it around and conserve energy.

All the bleating about the umpires was silly. We expected to get reamed as we always do, but in this case it was our own stupidity that cost us the game, not the umpires. For those blaming the game plan, do you think the coaches told them to go out and bomb it long to Eagles outnumbers all night? The guys have been able to execute the last three weeks to varying degrees, tonight they did not, same as the first two weeks. The change of personnel helped lift the enthusiasm level for a few weeks but from the first few minutes tonight they did not look like winners. I think the Eagles crowd intimidated some of the new guys and we didn't see the smiles and energy from the last few weeks.

As far as players go, I am going to give an automatic pass for the young guys, Logue, Grey, Hughes and Balic just from the fact we wanted to play youth we have to expect some inconsistency. I thought my buddy was quiet, Logue did one or two nice things but was generally ineffective, Hughes was one of our better defenders and Balic was far from our worst.

Of the "next tier":

Crozier - this is what he has done for the past few years, he comes in and plays a couple of good games then he disappears. For those asking why he hasn't been playing all along tonight was exhibit A. He just needs to get more involved, present himself better and get more separation from his defender. Has to stay in, but would love to see him getting more of it and more importantly kicking goals.
Sheridan - I have never got what Ross sees in this guys. He is soft, looks lazy and he makes some of the most inexcusable errors deep in defense. I would be dropping him back to Peel to try to figure out what role he might be able to play in the team because it is not as a defender.
Tucker - has been disappointing. 11 possession is not enough and I thought he looked lost. Still have to persevere with him but needs to lift his workrate. He is one of our quicker guys and has good disposal, he needs to be getting a lot more of it and working a lot harder.
Weller - not as good as he has been the past few weeks but is definitely making himself part of our future. Has to learn to lower his eyes. Is one of our best kicks, but for some reason he was just bombing it in long all night. If he's going to do that we may as well bring in Danyle Pearce - he does the same bu has more possessions.
Langdon - one of the real triers, ended up with 31 touches and ran hard all night. Again, needs to lower his eyes going forward but he is certainly improving all the time and part of our next tilt at a flag.
Blakely - I thought he was the best of the young guys. Worked hard at the coalface all night and showed a few of the established stars up with his explosiveness in and around the packs. Developing nicely.

Of the trades:

McCarthy - was really the only one who looked like scoring when the heat was on in the first half. Is a natural forward and will be great for us once we get some sort of system worked out in the forward line. Died in the second half, but scores a pass just for his first half.
Kersten - very similar output to McCarthy, but his best work was all in the second half when the heat was out of the game. Still worth persevering with, but would like to see him more involved.
Hamling - I thought he had a poor game tonight, was completely owned by Kennedy much as he was in the JLT match. Was not entirely his fault as the service coming in from their midfield was unstoppable due to lack of pressure from our mids.
Hill - very disappointing for me, this was not a great game for him. Unlike Stephen he doesn't seem to be able to lift himself when it really counts. He is a guy who can run other players off their legs but did not do that tonight. Hopefully this is a one-off and not something we see to often from Brad.

Of the rest:

Neale - tried hard all night and gave everything, that's all we can ask. Still not at his best but is building up to it.
Mundy - this was not one of his better games. He seemed out of sorts to me whether in the forward line or in the midfield.
Fyfe - again, where he has been able to lift the team in the last few weeks (along with Mundy) for some reason tonight he just didn't seem to be at his best. Had a long time out of the game and maybe the last few weeks have taken a lot out of these leaders.
Sandi - battled hard all night, took some nice grabs and gave his all. Pity he can't take a grab in the forward line, but I guess if he had the service from his mids and the umpires that the Eagles get he would be a big chance to kick a few. Pity the boys couldn't honour his 250th.
Johnson - has got a new lease on life and was superb all night. Not his fault we lost and I think he is enjoying the freedom of playing in the ruck.
Spurr - just a dumb, poorly skilled footballer who gets found out against good teams. Not quick enough in his decision making and can't hit targets by foot. He is very lucky there is really no like-for-like replacement at the moment because he is a real liability back there when under pressure.
Ibbo - a slightly taller version of Lee Spurr. Like a deer in the headlights when called on to make a quick decision, and is a very poor player under pressure. Both of these guys are 29 years old and are not part of our future. There were a few good signs from Luke Ryan, Ryan Nyhuis and particularly Sam Collins at Peel today, so for me Ibbo should go back to Peel next week.
Walters - a shadow of the player we all know he is, and has been pretty much all year. Trained the house down in the summer but he is carrying something now which is making him completely ineffective. Should not be playing until he is completely fit. We know what he can deliver, so all he is doing at the moment is keeping someone else out of the team. I'd rather see Tabs brought in, rotate McCarthy and Kersten in the midfield and play Brady, Harley Balic or even Pearce as small forwards until Sonny or Ballas is right.

So I guess we all asked them to play the kids so we have to expect some inconsistency, but that does not make it any less disappointing. I had the pleasure of seeing Peel get slaughtered by Eagles Lite, then Freo get slaughtered by the seniors. Literally.

Sorry this has been so long, I just needed to vent and you guys are the unfortunate beneficiaries

Spot on assessment. Exactly how I saw it.

 

[SPEEDWAGON]

the eagles get belted all week in the media


they come out and to their credit their pressure was really good im the first half and forced us to bomb the the ball to mcgovern who took 7 intercepts before half time - world record is ten in a whole game

eagles got cheap goals from frees with our defenders panicing in q1
defenders panic because mids turn it over under pressure bombing and then eagles good ball use our midfield not accoutnable ? or eagles cheat and run forward knowing thr interceptions are coming ?



when i watched the hawks game a week before i noticed the hawks didnt bomb if under pressure they appeared to kick shorter 30m kicks


also do the coaches not read the game - if we under pressure bombing them we needs to make sure we can compete in front of the ball - maybe we accept the pressure amd struvture for it not joit instruct not to kick there when the pressure dictates it ?


a player like apness if he ever turns into anything is what we need positioned well wih smalls around to feed - mccarhy amd kersten wider in space for cleaner ball

 

[DudleyDocker]

I think you're right on the Sutty part. As for those young kids (Ryanb and Nyhuis) though I rate both, they'll find the pace of AFL a big step, as do nearly all young kids, and they not even close to match fit enough for AFL either - I do look forward to them playing because they have what we need, but they're a long way off yet.

Although Sutty got 36 touches today I thought he was pretty ineffective - a number of poor kicks resulting in turnovers and just didn't seem to be damaging. For me he is interchangeable with Sheridan - neither of them has the hard edge or explosiveness you need to get out of trouble or shut down an opponent.

Not sure what Sam Collins has to do to get a recall - he had 13 marks today, and many of them were contested. He is the nearest thing we have to a McGovern type intercept mark, and while his kicking is far from elite he is certainly not a liability with ball in hand. Maybe get him in and let Johnno play the loose man in the backline?

 

[Rob]

2 major problems (which have been pretty well covered but im still pissed so i'll repeat)

Delivery into F50 was shite, and
Backline was rubbish - not enough marks were taken and when the ball hit the ground we were conceding soft goals.

I thought we were also pretty soft around the stoppages, we got hassled off the ball far too easily and let them get too many clear takeaways. We should have dominated the clearances given we got first hands on the ball pretty consistently.

 

[tek87]

our first quarter was woeful. little pressure on their kicking and they did what they pleased. funny thing is we won the first three centre clearances . Kersten is a big guy but rarely crashes a pack and needs to impose himself more. To be fair our inside 50 kicking that first half was extremely poor. uncontested intercept marking in our forward 50 drives me nuts! Overall we are 3-3 (albeit with a poor %). At best I thought we can win 8 games and more realistically 6, so happy how we have done so far . But if similar injuries happy to key players like Stephen Hill we will spiral downwards as we have bottom 4 talent imo. Well done to Aaron Sandilands. rarely beaten in the ruck. I would like to see Fyfe play more forward than David Mundy. If we start bottoming out which I expect we will I think most of those youngsters deserving a crack will get one. Need to beat the Bombers to keep some belief going but I have my doubts without arguably our most damaging mid in Stephen Hill

 

[PapaJ]

For some reason we didn't have the courage to take the Eagles on and make them work for it - we just wanted to corral them, allow them easy outlets and basically own the ball all night. We should have been a lot fresher than them, we were off an 8 day break, they were off a horror trip to Melbourne. None of our guys seemed to want to break lines and run the ball, it was just so much easier to roost it high into the air for McGovern and Yeo to intercept time and time again. If we had run at them hard in the first half I think they would have been off their legs in the last and we might have got home. As it was they we able to keep the play slow, chip it around and conserve energy.

All the bleating about the umpires was silly. We expected to get reamed as we always do, but in this case it was our own stupidity that cost us the game, not the umpires. For those blaming the game plan, do you think the coaches told them to go out and bomb it long to Eagles outnumbers all night? The guys have been able to execute the last three weeks to varying degrees, tonight they did not, same as the first two weeks. The change of personnel helped lift the enthusiasm level for a few weeks but from the first few minutes tonight they did not look like winners. I think the Eagles crowd intimidated some of the new guys and we didn't see the smiles and energy from the last few weeks.

As far as players go, I am going to give an automatic pass for the young guys, Logue, Grey, Hughes and Balic just from the fact we wanted to play youth we have to expect some inconsistency. I thought my buddy was quiet, Logue did one or two nice things but was generally ineffective, Hughes was one of our better defenders and Balic was far from our worst.

Of the "next tier":

Crozier - this is what he has done for the past few years, he comes in and plays a couple of good games then he disappears. For those asking why he hasn't been playing all along tonight was exhibit A. He just needs to get more involved, present himself better and get more separation from his defender. Has to stay in, but would love to see him getting more of it and more importantly kicking goals.
Sheridan - I have never got what Ross sees in this guys. He is soft, looks lazy and he makes some of the most inexcusable errors deep in defense. I would be dropping him back to Peel to try to figure out what role he might be able to play in the team because it is not as a defender.
Tucker - has been disappointing. 11 possession is not enough and I thought he looked lost. Still have to persevere with him but needs to lift his workrate. He is one of our quicker guys and has good disposal, he needs to be getting a lot more of it and working a lot harder.
Weller - not as good as he has been the past few weeks but is definitely making himself part of our future. Has to learn to lower his eyes. Is one of our best kicks, but for some reason he was just bombing it in long all night. If he's going to do that we may as well bring in Danyle Pearce - he does the same bu has more possessions.
Langdon - one of the real triers, ended up with 31 touches and ran hard all night. Again, needs to lower his eyes going forward but he is certainly improving all the time and part of our next tilt at a flag.
Blakely - I thought he was the best of the young guys. Worked hard at the coalface all night and showed a few of the established stars up with his explosiveness in and around the packs. Developing nicely.

Of the trades:

McCarthy - was really the only one who looked like scoring when the heat was on in the first half. Is a natural forward and will be great for us once we get some sort of system worked out in the forward line. Died in the second half, but scores a pass just for his first half.
Kersten - very similar output to McCarthy, but his best work was all in the second half when the heat was out of the game. Still worth persevering with, but would like to see him more involved.
Hamling - I thought he had a poor game tonight, was completely owned by Kennedy much as he was in the JLT match. Was not entirely his fault as the service coming in from their midfield was unstoppable due to lack of pressure from our mids.
Hill - very disappointing for me, this was not a great game for him. Unlike Stephen he doesn't seem to be able to lift himself when it really counts. He is a guy who can run other players off their legs but did not do that tonight. Hopefully this is a one-off and not something we see to often from Brad.

Of the rest:

Neale - tried hard all night and gave everything, that's all we can ask. Still not at his best but is building up to it.
Mundy - this was not one of his better games. He seemed out of sorts to me whether in the forward line or in the midfield.
Fyfe - again, where he has been able to lift the team in the last few weeks (along with Mundy) for some reason tonight he just didn't seem to be at his best. Had a long time out of the game and maybe the last few weeks have taken a lot out of these leaders.
Sandi - battled hard all night, took some nice grabs and gave his all. Pity he can't take a grab in the forward line, but I guess if he had the service from his mids and the umpires that the Eagles get he would be a big chance to kick a few. Pity the boys couldn't honour his 250th.
Johnson - has got a new lease on life and was superb all night. Not his fault we lost and I think he is enjoying the freedom of playing in the ruck.
Spurr - just a dumb, poorly skilled footballer who gets found out against good teams. Not quick enough in his decision making and can't hit targets by foot. He is very lucky there is really no like-for-like replacement at the moment because he is a real liability back there when under pressure.
Ibbo - a slightly taller version of Lee Spurr. Like a deer in the headlights when called on to make a quick decision, and is a very poor player under pressure. Both of these guys are 29 years old and are not part of our future. There were a few good signs from Luke Ryan, Ryan Nyhuis and particularly Sam Collins at Peel today, so for me Ibbo should go back to Peel next week.
Walters - a shadow of the player we all know he is, and has been pretty much all year. Trained the house down in the summer but he is carrying something now which is making him completely ineffective. Should not be playing until he is completely fit. We know what he can deliver, so all he is doing at the moment is keeping someone else out of the team. I'd rather see Tabs brought in, rotate McCarthy and Kersten in the midfield and play Brady, Harley Balic or even Pearce as small forwards until Sonny or Ballas is right.

So I guess we all asked them to play the kids so we have to expect some inconsistency, but that does not make it any less disappointing. I had the pleasure of seeing Peel get slaughtered by Eagles Lite, then Freo get slaughtered by the seniors. Literally.

Sorry this has been so long, I just needed to vent and you guys are the unfortunate beneficiaries

Quality post.

On Weller, I'm hoping as he matures he learns to find that split second to make better decisions with ball in hand. It takes a while to adjust to the intensity and pace of AFL and there's no doubt it rushes the younger players, but as you see the quality players who have a bit of maturity about them, the game doesn't seem to rush them. We wont know for sure, but hopefully Weller gets that feel for the game over the the next year or so rather than simply developing bad habits which seems to impact some players no matter how much they play.

So with that in mind, I'm happy to just put this one in the bank that builds towards that day when Weller is considered elite (or close to it), because in terms of raw ability and skill set, I think he has it.