Autopsy Autopsy in Every Sense of the Word - Freo Embarrassed by Geelong - Rnd 18

[ilikepotatoes]

That's the worst we've played under Longmuir.

We didn't rock up.

Fair play to Geelong they were great, but we missed unpressured 15 m kicks so many times it was ridiculous. We were our own worst enemy.

Hope we finally get some media heat too and see how the boys respond.

 

[bfff]

I think it would be absolute BS if he gets a week for that. Yeah, it's a bit late and in the back but there's zero head contact as far as I can see. We're playing ducking footy.
Just pay the free and be done with it.

On AOSP on Manta using BigFooty.com mobile app

Absolutely, gets paid as a free every time but a report? SOFT! Bullshit even if it’s a fine.

 

[Dockeroo]

I don’t think I’ve read a more incorrect, totally clueless post ever on BF & there is a lot of crap on here. fu** me at one stage he was leading the stats for all comers &
led our clearances despite not playing the last qtr. That doesn’t happen if you don’t have second efforts.

From the Cats board.

Whilst Darcy is not a recruiting option (having sign for further 2 years) was interesting to get a look at him. Strength and tap work was very good but looks overweight and lacking agility and ability to contribute 2nd efforts- Blitz, Stanley and Sav miles better in that regard. Darcy - Knee problems and overweight- no thanks.

You looked at the cats board after that -
Are you a masochist or something?!

if there is one place on BF I never go it’s opposition boards after a big loss!

 

[FreoRicci]

Not on Carr. JLos refusal to select Conca, Blakely and Crowden, plus his unwillingness to play Walters midfield, lead to these sort of results against the top 4 teams. To be clear, I am not arguing against JLo either - if his approach works, and this year's hard losses and beatdowns turn the kids into harder warriors and better footballers next season, happy days.

Just saying it ain't Carry that is the selection panel.

Crowden, Blakely, Conca ain’t going to lead this team further then where the team is currently so there’s no point playing them. I’d rather Valente in- who unfortunately is on leave.
Put Tucker in the midfield as his last chance.
Think this season has been passengers being carried by the top 5-10. Got caught with that tonight.

 

[Gekko71]

Owch.

This had all the hallmarks of a loss we had to have, in that it showed up the parts of our system that don't work yet.

I believe in the team, the coach, the players and the system were building, but this was also a real acid test of all four, and a few things jumped out at me.

I don't know if it's an unmeasured immaterial stat to Freo, or just a side effects of our team's youth, but I suspect Freo may currently have one of the lightest combined bodyweight teams in the comp. I don't know if this is WHY we prefer a space-control zone and an open play style of ball transition, or BECAUSE we play a space-control zone with open play transitions.

In either respect, we weren't just out-muscled all round the ground at stoppages and in congested play, we were out bulked. Part of why we weren't sticking tackles I reckon was because about 65% of our guys was about 7-10kg lighter than their direct opponent. Not surprising the heaviest guy on the team in Darcy was the only guy consistently not being pushed around physically. We really could have used a Crowley / Pav type mid or two tonight... We're currently a team without any real heavy and strong bull mids at all whereas Geelong seemed to have a surfeit of them at times, such was the average weight/strength mismatch. Nobody in our side was consistently winning their body-on-body battles tonight... There were no strength mis-matches in our favour at all anywhere on the field, except for maybe in the ruck. Fyfe's shoulder stopped him having much impact at stoppages, and it shows how much we've come to rely on his occasional ability as an extractor. Geelong knew Fyfe wouldn't be throwing his weight around much with his shoulder, so put a lot of effort into keeping Mundy quiet at stoppages.. and man it worked, as these two are our biggest bodied mids at the coal face currently. I literally lost count of how many times our younger smaller mids running out of or around stoppages were effectively blocked off the ball. It happened far too frequently and easily IMO. A few of our bigger framed lads need to hit the gym Big time over the off season methinks... Hope Valente comes good, were really going to need him next year. Failing that, if ever there was a time to try Griff in the midfield I reckon tonight was it, and maybe if Cox or Hamling hadn't been out for the season we could have tried it (though maybe Griff isn't the answer either... I dunno - we just seemed so light-on in congested play tonight and were pushed out of contests so easily)

I thought our typical open-play ball transition was non existent because we just couldn't get it to the outside cleanly... There was no free players out in space anywhere near Cooee of a stoppage, those that WERE in a position to receive our wide, were run down quickly and tackled so our possession chains constantly broke down. Plus for whatever reason I don't remember seeing a single switch of play across the field in defence all night from our guys. I'm assuming this was a deliberate decision on our part, but why this is I dunno... We really didn't use the width of the field much at all tonight and seemed to play very narrow down the wings, while hugging the boundary. This created more congestion on the wings, and we were then back to our congested play problems. Geelong did a great job of denying us the corridor too, intercepting transitioning play across the corridor and were always pushing us wide, which cut down on lateral movement going forwards out of defence.

Our defensive transitions seemed off all night. We neither tackled well, nor pressured the ball carrier, nor shut down space, nor cut off passing lanes, nor intercept marked, nor took contested marks in defence very well tonight... Our guys seemed constantly about three to four metres out of position, and were late teaching and pressuring the ball as a result. Any mid-field turnover in the first and second quarters particularly (to me at least) lacked players in support as a result and Geelong would invariably have the numbers to take advantage when we lost possession. We forced very few turnovers ourselves 'cause again, Geelong were blocking players off the ball brilliantly everywhere.

We will get all these problems fixed with time and effort, but tonight we're were outplayed, out muscled, out coached, and didn't respond well or quickly enough. That's partially due to player development, partially physical maturity, and part developing game sense.

One thing we can't change however is our player's size. I really hate to say it because a lot of our smaller players are damn good, worth keeping, and are personal favorites of mine... But if we're going to keep so many sub six foot or light framed players on the same team, at a time when opposing sides are staying bigger and heavier right across the field, then we'd better develop a more flexible playing style to suit. We can't play bruise-free high-skill open transition-focussed footy all the time, every game without having a plan B, C, D, E and F to fall back on ...especially against bigger stronger teams, and especially in the wet - as today so painfully demonstrated.

 

[Quokka]

We Freo'd it

 

[mightymouse75]

Owch.

This had all the hallmarks of a loss we had to have, in that it showed up the parts of our system that don't work yet.

I believe in the team, the coach, the players and the system were building, but this was also a real acid test of all four, and a few things jumped out at me.

I don't know if it's an unmeasured immaterial stat to Freo, or just a side effects of our team's youth, but I suspect Freo may currently have one of the lightest combined bodyweight teams in the comp. I don't know if this is WHY we prefer a space-control zone and an open play style of ball transition, or BECAUSE we play a space-control zone with open play transitions.

In either respect, we weren't just out-muscled all round the ground at stoppages and in congested play, we were out bulked. Part of why we weren't sticking tackles I reckon was because about 65% of our guys was about 7-10kg lighter than their direct opponent. Not surprising the heaviest guy on the team in Darcy was the only guy consistently not being pushed around physically. We really could have used a Crowley / Pav type mid or two tonight... We're currently a team without any real heavy and strong bull mids at all whereas Geelong seemed to have a surfeit of them at times, such was the average weight/strength mismatch. Nobody in our side was consistently winning their body-on-body battles tonight... There were no strength mis-matches in our favour at all anywhere on the field, except for maybe in the ruck. Fyfe's shoulder stopped him having much impact at stoppages, and it shows how much we've come to rely on his occasional ability as an extractor. Geelong knew Fyfe wouldn't be throwing his weight around much with his shoulder, so put a lot of effort into keeping Mundy quiet at stoppages.. and man it worked, as these two are our biggest bodied mids at the coal face currently. I literally lost count of how many times our younger smaller mids running out of or around stoppages were effectively blocked off the ball. It happened far too frequently and easily IMO. A few of our bigger framed lads need to hit the gym Big time over the off season methinks... Hope Valente comes good, were really going to need him next year. Failing that, if ever there was a time to try Griff in the midfield I reckon tonight was it, and maybe if Cox or Hamling hadn't been out for the season we could have tried it (though maybe Griff isn't the answer either... I dunno - we just seemed so light-on in congested play tonight and were pushed out of contests so easily)

I thought our typical open-play ball transition was non existent because we just couldn't get it to the outside cleanly... There was no free players out in space anywhere near Cooee of a stoppage, those that WERE in a position to receive our wide, were run down quickly and tackled so our possession chains constantly broke down. Plus for whatever reason I don't remember seeing a single switch of play across the field in defence all night from our guys. I'm assuming this was a deliberate decision on our part, but why this is I dunno... We really didn't use the width of the field much at all tonight and seemed to play very narrow down the wings, while hugging the boundary. This created more congestion on the wings, and we were then back to our congested play problems. Geelong did a great job of denying us the corridor too, intercepting transitioning play across the corridor and were always pushing us wide, which cut down on lateral movement going forwards out of defence.

Our defensive transitions seemed off all night. We neither tackled well, nor pressured the ball carrier, nor shut down space, nor cut off passing lanes, nor intercept marked, nor took contested marks in defence very well tonight... Our guys seemed constantly about three to four metres out of position, and were late teaching and pressuring the ball as a result. Any mid-field turnover in the first and second quarters particularly (to me at least) lacked players in support as a result and Geelong would invariably have the numbers to take advantage when we lost possession. We forced very few turnovers ourselves 'cause again, Geelong were blocking players off the ball brilliantly everywhere.

We will get all these problems fixed with time and effort, but tonight we're were outplayed, out muscled, out coached, and didn't respond well or quickly enough. That's partially due to player development, partially physical maturity, and part developing game sense.

One thing we can't change however is our player's size. I really hate to say it because a lot of our smaller players are damn good, worth keeping, and are personal favorites of mine... But if we're going to keep so many sub six foot or light framed players on the same team, at a time when opposing sides are staying bigger and heavier right across the field, then we'd better develop a more flexible playing style to suit. We can't play bruise-free high-skill open transition-focussed footy all the time, every game without having a plan B, C, D, E and F to fall back on ...especially against bigger stronger teams, and especially in the wet - as today so painfully demonstrated.

Nailed it.
Our scrawny players are all out muscled & chicken s**t of getting hurt. Bunch of pussys who don't like the heat.
No idea what Josh carr is coaching because the midfield is lazy. They are mostly ball watchers.
Hale has had 5 years & the forward line gets worse every year.
Wtf is going on.

 

[Purple Maverick]

Not a great result, but feeling ok about it. The West Coke loss earlier in the season I was really sad about and close to going postal.

Within the first 5 minutes you could tell Geelong had it in the bag. They were cleaner, their midfield were strong and big bodied, the team wore the right boots and barely slipped over and they were comfortable in the conditions.

The drivers of the loss were age of the team and experience in the conditions.

 

[Yeti]

At one stage in I think the 2nd quarter Schultz ended up 1 on 1 with Dangerfield in the Geelong F50 and made the ball come to ground.

It was a great effort. Why the * he was 1 on 1 with Dangerfield in our defensive 50 is another question entirely but I don't have the energy to be annoyed anymore.

We are mediocre and any wins we get are a pleasant surprise.

 

[Dockeroo]

Owch.

This had all the hallmarks of a loss we had to have, in that it showed up the parts of our system that don't work yet.

I believe in the team, the coach, the players and the system were building, but this was also a real acid test of all four, and a few things jumped out at me.

I don't know if it's an unmeasured immaterial stat to Freo, or just a side effects of our team's youth, but I suspect Freo may currently have one of the lightest combined bodyweight teams in the comp. I don't know if this is WHY we prefer a space-control zone and an open play style of ball transition, or BECAUSE we play a space-control zone with open play transitions.

In either respect, we weren't just out-muscled all round the ground at stoppages and in congested play, we were out bulked. Part of why we weren't sticking tackles I reckon was because about 65% of our guys was about 7-10kg lighter than their direct opponent. Not surprising the heaviest guy on the team in Darcy was the only guy consistently not being pushed around physically. We really could have used a Crowley / Pav type mid or two tonight... We're currently a team without any real heavy and strong bull mids at all whereas Geelong seemed to have a surfeit of them at times, such was the average weight/strength mismatch. Nobody in our side was consistently winning their body-on-body battles tonight... There were no strength mis-matches in our favour at all anywhere on the field, except for maybe in the ruck. Fyfe's shoulder stopped him having much impact at stoppages, and it shows how much we've come to rely on his occasional ability as an extractor. Geelong knew Fyfe wouldn't be throwing his weight around much with his shoulder, so put a lot of effort into keeping Mundy quiet at stoppages.. and man it worked, as these two are our biggest bodied mids at the coal face currently. I literally lost count of how many times our younger smaller mids running out of or around stoppages were effectively blocked off the ball. It happened far too frequently and easily IMO. A few of our bigger framed lads need to hit the gym Big time over the off season methinks... Hope Valente comes good, were really going to need him next year. Failing that, if ever there was a time to try Griff in the midfield I reckon tonight was it, and maybe if Cox or Hamling hadn't been out for the season we could have tried it (though maybe Griff isn't the answer either... I dunno - we just seemed so light-on in congested play tonight and were pushed out of contests so easily)

I thought our typical open-play ball transition was non existent because we just couldn't get it to the outside cleanly... There was no free players out in space anywhere near Cooee of a stoppage, those that WERE in a position to receive our wide, were run down quickly and tackled so our possession chains constantly broke down. Plus for whatever reason I don't remember seeing a single switch of play across the field in defence all night from our guys. I'm assuming this was a deliberate decision on our part, but why this is I dunno... We really didn't use the width of the field much at all tonight and seemed to play very narrow down the wings, while hugging the boundary. This created more congestion on the wings, and we were then back to our congested play problems. Geelong did a great job of denying us the corridor too, intercepting transitioning play across the corridor and were always pushing us wide, which cut down on lateral movement going forwards out of defence.

Our defensive transitions seemed off all night. We neither tackled well, nor pressured the ball carrier, nor shut down space, nor cut off passing lanes, nor intercept marked, nor took contested marks in defence very well tonight... Our guys seemed constantly about three to four metres out of position, and were late teaching and pressuring the ball as a result. Any mid-field turnover in the first and second quarters particularly (to me at least) lacked players in support as a result and Geelong would invariably have the numbers to take advantage when we lost possession. We forced very few turnovers ourselves 'cause again, Geelong were blocking players off the ball brilliantly everywhere.

We will get all these problems fixed with time and effort, but tonight we're were outplayed, out muscled, out coached, and didn't respond well or quickly enough. That's partially due to player development, partially physical maturity, and part developing game sense.

One thing we can't change however is our player's size. I really hate to say it because a lot of our smaller players are damn good, worth keeping, and are personal favorites of mine... But if we're going to keep so many sub six foot or light framed players on the same team, at a time when opposing sides are staying bigger and heavier right across the field, then we'd better develop a more flexible playing style to suit. We can't play bruise-free high-skill open transition-focussed footy all the time, every game without having a plan B, C, D, E and F to fall back on ...especially against bigger stronger teams, and especially in the wet - as today so painfully demonstrated.

Great post.
I felt that we looked so much weaker physically tonight. Guys like Dangerfield, Tuohy etc were just rag dolling our lads at times.
At times I was reminded of the Geelong VFL v AFL academy game earlier this year when watching them bully us around the park last night. You are right that we rely on Fyfe so much to add that physicality and he’s clearly not 100%.
Even Griffin Logue and Pearce, two of our “bulls” were outmuscled several times by Esava and Hawkins.
The problem is where is the physicality coming from?
Conca is not the answer. Crowden is also too small. Blakely maybe - he deserves a spot ahead of Tucker any day on current form.
Next year I think Nathan o Driscoll could have bulked up - he has a frame that could put on serious muscle.
Hughes normally adds some steel but jeez he was poor last night.
I sometimes forget the raw power of Dangerfield. He is an absolute contested animal, and we had no answer to him in the contest last night.

 

[Fat Nyfe]

I’m not angry, just sad for the club.
People around the country, a new generation of kids would have watched us for the first time ever last night and that will be the last time they watch us for some time. Both by choice and the fact that will be our last national exposure game for the year (years?). Didn’t get any fans out of that, and reinforced to everyone externally that the club is a joke.

I actually agree with most that the team was gassed, everything went wrong and we’re better than that. Doesn’t matter now though the damage is done.

 

[Channels]

I hope people are still not wondering why we don’t get prime time games.

 

[muckypup]

In attempting something positive:
1) I love Switta, one of our best tonight and one of the few who plays his role every week
2) Darcy is a legitimate superstar already
3) I might alone here but I actually thought Henry showed a fair bit again. Contested when he had no right to and one of the only ones that could pick the ball up off the ground

Have to disagree on 3 and i watched Liam pretty closely last night. Wet is obviously not his thing.

 

[muckypup]

I was critical on Henry during his first handful of games, but he does need to stay in the senior side now. He really does try and compete, and he's going to need AFL game experience of all those plays he's involved in if he really wants to develop and improve. He's not going to learn & trial and error solutions to that stuff at training or in the WAFL. He is our small forward future.

You dont get continued games of AFL football on *development* you have to *show something*.

 

[Kram]

Surely some of our players were wearing the wrong type of boots out there?

The team from the other side of the country didn't seem to have that problem so much.

 

[Cesoir]

Surely some of our players were wearing the wrong type of boots out there?

The team from the other side of the country didn't seem to have that problem so much.

I think Ballas was in charge of handing out the boots.

 

[Joao]

I know its selfish, but I am stoked this performance will confine us to mostly Sundays for the next 20 games. I hate us playing early in the round.

 

[arsesmart]

You dont get continued games of AFL football on *development* you have to *show something*.

That depends entirely on what the coach wants and what else is available. Obviously he has been showing something to the coaches etc to get continued games. Small forwards rarely produce week in week out unless they're in an elite patch of form. It probably wouldn't be a bad thing for him to get a couple of weeks building back in the WAFL at some stage, but last night would've been a horror show to be a deep forward.

 

[Taylor]

This would be the third time now this season that we have dominated the midfield, winning well, then the following week our midfield is absolutely belted at the contest and we get stomped.

It happened after we belted GWS' midfield, after the one way traffic against the Roos and now the Hawks.

The skill errors last night were so bad.

Darcy Tucker

13

Darcy Tucker

Age

27

Ht

184cm

Wt

83kg

Pos.

Mid

Career

Season

Last 5

D

15.9

4star

K

8.3

3star

HB

7.6

5star

M

3.3

3star

T

3.3

5star

CL

1.5

4star

D

14.0

3star

K

8.5

3star

HB

5.5

3star

M

2.6

3star

T

3.3

4star

CL

2.4

4star

D

14.4

4star

K

8.0

3star

HB

6.4

4star

M

3.0

3star

T

2.8

5star

CL

2.2

4star

's don't argue is more of a come hither because it doesn't create space for him, he just gets pinged - I like a player trying to make the play and create something by breaking through but he might need to fall back on giving the handball first instead of trying to get two steps closer to his team mate before doing it.

Alex Pearce

25

Alex Pearce

Age

28

Ht

201cm

Wt

98kg

Pos.

Def

Career

Season

Last 5

D

10.6

3star

K

5.2

2star

HB

5.4

4star

M

3.4

3star

T

1.8

4star

MG

106.3

2star

No current season stats available

D

11.0

3star

K

5.0

2star

HB

6.0

4star

M

4.4

4star

T

0.8

3star

MG

103.2

2star

had no chance when he is one on one with a midfield kicking to Hawkins' advantage most of the time, the umpires will let a player like that move his defender under the ball with force to his back and win the contest.

We didn't have any marking power on the field after about half time.

No midfield gave our backline a massive task and the forwards weren't hit up on the leads short, meanwhile Geelong worked harder.

Oh well, I found myself falling asleep at the ground, I don't know what it was like watching at home but I thought to myself that the season is done now, before the injuries.

 

[arsesmart]

I know its selfish, but I am stoked this performance will confine us to mostly Sundays for the next 20 games. I hate us playing early in the round.

Our record is just horrific on Friday nights. I'd be happy if they only played these Thu/Fri night games if told and never lobby for them again.

 

[salim malik]

Hypothetical question, if we had a full list available, minimum injuries would Freo have won that game ? If not what does it say about next season?

 

[Piggy Smalls]

Hypothetical question, if we had a full list available, minimum injuries would Freo have won that game ? If not what does it say about next season?

No and nothing. Geelong are a top 4 side and grand finalists from last year. They beat us because they were more adaptable to the conditions, bigger, smarter and much more clinical. We are a side 5 years after a complete list overhaul with a second year coach. We are well and truly in flat track stage but we need losses like last night to understand how far away we really are.

 

[G Mus]

Not on Carr. JLos refusal to select Conca, Blakely and Crowden, plus his unwillingness to play Walters midfield, lead to these sort of results against the top 4 teams. To be clear, I am not arguing against JLo either - if his approach works, and this year's hard losses and beatdowns turn the kids into harder warriors and better footballers next season, happy days.

Just saying it ain't Carry that is the selection panel.

Walters has been majority mid for 3 weeks now

 

[Fat Nyfe]

I hope people are still not wondering why we don’t get prime time games.

It's still a fair gripe. We've been shafted heavily by the AFL while all other bottom 10 sides get prime time slots. North Melbourne get smacked by 130 points in a standalone Friday early this year, get a second chance last Monday and win over the footy world.

It's the same argument as wanting experience at the G, they need to handle prime time if we're ever going to get anywhere. You can't hide on a Sunday arvo if you're playing finals. The club needs to pick itself up from last night, make a decent fist of the rest of the year and continue to push for prime time slots next year.

 

[G Mus]

Worst moment for me was early in the first when Fyfe told Cerra to get off Dangerfield so he could defend him, ball was kicked inside 50 and Fyfe sagged off the contest out the back, Danger went in third man and took an easy mark - shanked the kick but embarrassing from a captain