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

[TheNewAnchor]

Ive followed this team since the first WCE game and I can say now after last years poor effort and losing Shuey and Hurn we now have our worst ever list and not only won't we win 1 game but we will be called mid season to have put the game into disrepute. The AFL will step in after about our 5th 100+ point loss. People in here will say this a mega melt but bookmark this post mid season, we are so bad it is not funny. We won't win one game and it will go down as one of the worst seasons by any team ever in the history of VFL/AFL. I wish I could see some light but we have nothing, can't win the ball and can't kick goals if our life depended on it.

You are indeed you a ray of sunshine, after one practice game you've decided we can't win a game and we'll bring the game into disrepute etc, etc. You do know that anti-depressants are supposed to be taken orally and not anally?

 

[DeckedOut20]

Thought I’d sleep before writing anything. I think the Flynn news just prior to the bounce was gut-wrenching for all of us supporters. Especially given it’s probably going to be around 12 weeks, roughly half his season is gone from a captains run. Flynn was going to significantly assist us around the contests, however, we must now look to plan B and we have two-three weeks to get that sorted.

For the team to then back up that news with a sub-optimal performance, albeit in a practice match, really triggered a lot of people. For the ones calling for Simmo’s head now, I take great comfort in knowing Don has worked under Longmire for the last three years, who is rated as one of the better coaches in the league, if he isn’t content with what he sees with Simmo, he will make changes. I believe the days of what felt like zero accountability with all staff at the club under Nisbett, are gone.

Whilst it wasn’t a pleasant watch, there were some positives and it wasn’t all doom and gloom.

Right now, ourselves, Fremantle and every other team are all level on points for the season.

Here’s hoping everyone pulls up okay, we learn plenty from last night and we move forward.


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[CoastersFlag No.5]

Well with the context of 8 fresh players coming on for Freo at half time our fadeout is more understandable. Looking forward to Culley, Hewett, Flynn, Sheed and Ryan returning long term and Gov, JD and Brockman short term. Thought Rawlinson and Livingston were highlights. Reid will learn when and how to break tackles. The midfield will learn mostly the hard way how to work with Williams. Pressure was decent as was the team defence. Overall pretty much what was expected really coming off our worst ever season.

 

[WCErevival]

I think its going to take a good half a season to see anything resembling a gameplan and a settled 22 and even then its not like we will be winning every week.

 

[frenchconnection]

"While Fremantle played with greater dash, particularly in the second half, they also switched in eight fresh players at after half-time while the Eagles used the same list throughout and 75% of them got injured or were not interested resulting in the bloated scoreline”

75% got injured? A bit of an exaggeration I would say as from what I heard there was only Ginbey (concussion) and then Hough possibly although the Club said post match it was only cramp.

 

[daddy_4_eyes]

I ******* hate what we have become as a club, I'm one of the most passionate supporters and enough is enough. Simmo must go and we have to start targeting local talent, we have far too many non WA players collecting a wage.

 

[Yeahnahmate]

Some great lols in this thread, thanks. It was 14 points at the half and Freo played close to full strength, made 8 swaps at the major break & notoriously play to win in these types of scratchies. In my opinion far too much is being gleaned from this by emotional supporters.

The other thing that happens in these is some sides show most of cards with game style, some mix it up to experiment. Some sides play through these in the middle of a training load upswing, and use it to gas players for added endurance training. Some sides literally tell players to play within themselves contest wise, in the air, and with body spoils etc to reduce injury risk.

Next week will be a bigger indication, yeah - but it’s still quite impossible to weigh up how far we may have come and what exactly has changed going into the season proper. Still remember Carlton tearing up a pre season comp only to be insipid during that same season.

Relax, pray for no injuries, notice little things here and there that may hint at development and take a massive chill pill for now. It will be a rebuilding season again as we know but I think we will grow through it, lose by less, and uncover some gems still as we do it. I can’t wait for this year to see us build tbh

 

[Campaigner for good]

I dunno, I try not to put too much stock in a pre-season game. After all, Freo annihilated us in the pre-season of 2018.

Having said that, this squad is not as talented as that squad and this result is almost certainly not an aberration... I just wanted to see a few more green shoots, like Harley's kick in and Yeo's left foot kick to find Waterman.

 

[Yeahnahmate]

Side note: Long is elite in his reading of the play and movement through stoppage. I say he’s a midfielder, and I really hope that eventuates

 

[mat11]

Disappointing-

Thought experience players like Cole, witherden and duggan had horrible games. I'll accept the justification of injuries to mcgovern/bazzo/h.edwards for lack of structure but in particular cole/witherden playing loose on emmet/Frederick was horrendous early in the first half.
Simmo, don't put reid/ginbey in tagging positions there kids just let them find there own way. Yeo and fyfe have always gone well head to head why throw reid under the bus like that. Ginbey entire 2023 year spent tackling and tagging opposition's best mid and you tried to do the same thing with reid last night let these kids flourish. Tagging role is for role players like connor west (shouldn't of been delisted) not top 10 draft picks we've seen the development of daicos/sheezel why not follow suit.
Injuries, culley, h.edwards and maybe 1 or 2 soft tissue injuries is fine but what the actual * are these groin and hamstring strains?? Too much gym? s**t surface? Sort it out pyke looks like nisbitt has left a legacy in that department.
Fringe players- Gaff, j.williams, petrucelle really aren't doing themselves any favours


Positives-

I liked the energy, attack and aggression around the contest unfortunately fitness fell apart and freo were able to get on top.
Fitness could be better but the disposal efficiency isn't great. It doesn't matter how fit a player is if there are bulk turnover players are going to get gassed pretty quickly.
Development of long, hough and maric is pleasing.i think l.edwards can be ok but his skills under fatigue need addressing. Depth players like Waterman and jameison although not blessed with a heap of talent play with a lot of heart in unflattering positions

Moving forward-
Just give reid one position (back flank) and let him get comfortable it would be hard enough with the pressure he's on to play well than to move him around to 3 positions.
Skill errors need improving by foot immediately or wce be chasing ass all year.
Keep attacking quickly up the middle of the ground I liked that.
Hopefully the injuries can get better (mcgovern, j.jones, bazzo, brockman, flynn) and we get some continuity. The spine of our team is reasonably good still but we're going to have to really play smart and tighten up our disposals to avoid the bottom 3.

Probably a bit behind in our rebuild than I thought/hoped will need to grind out another solid year and address the draft/FA very hard next year again

 

[garlic munchers]

Also it's noted in the club article...

"While Fremantle played with greater dash, particularly in the second half, they also switched in eight fresh players at after half-time while the Eagles used the same list throughout."

So they 100% had fresher legs after half time.

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.

 

[Art OF war]

Do love these melts but not sure what melters were expecting? We just finished last and copped regular 100 point beatings.

The positive is that we held the ball in the front half with repeat entries in the first and second quarter and had the same amount of shots. Last year we had the worst 2nd quarter performances of any side (stats WC Phil). If we can make that quarter more competitive then we continue to improve.

Maybe next year our young guys can run out games to the end of the 3rd quarter and the year after that we can run out a full game. Simplistic I know.

If you thought we were going to make some magical jump up the ladder, that’s on you - As Scott Seiss would say “Look Inward”

 

[Cuzz09]

when the Adelaide v WCE thread opening?

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[garlic munchers]

Tbh, I can’t be arsed


Minds are made up and the pitchforks are out

I mean it was definitely a disappointing result and there’s areas of concern most notably our inability to field anything approximating a best 22

We were missing Ryan, Sheed, Hewett, Brockman, McGovern, Flynn and Darling as likely starters plus Jones who was on managed time to n the B game. Lost Ginbey before half time

Also not best 22 but unavailable were A Reid, Trew, Hall, Bazzo, Rotham, H Edwards and Culley

All up 14 players watched from the stands tonight. By comparison Fremantle had 5 with Cox and Chapman the only ones who’d be considered best 22

Despite that at half time the score was 6.6 (42) to 3.9 (27) which might have been closer had we converted a couple more scoring opportunities

There were positives to take away

After half time, Fremantle rolled out something in the order of 8 fresh players throughout the 2nd half whilst we maintained the same side (24 plus Chesser as basically a sub who replaced Ginbey in Q2)

No surprise then that they looked fitter and ran out the game better but a fact that seems to be ignored in the post mortem

Several players had games they’d not be happy with but I’m going to focus on the ones who were thought did well

• Waterman provided a good target both up the ground and inside F50 but didn’t finish his work as well as he’d like
• Gaff is a popular whipping boy but he had some good moments in particular a couple of strong tackles. Ran into space and tried to keep the ball moving which hasn’t always been his strength
• Hunt tried to take the game on and his run is important. One of our best
• Yeo got through a full game in the middle and had an influence despite looking a tad rusty
• Reid got his first taste of AFL and found himself struggling to adapt to the pace of the game. Still showed what he’s capable of at moments. Felt that Freo made a point of pressuring him at every opportunity which curtailed his game
• Kelly was our best mid, especially to half time
• Allen presented well and took some strong marks
• Long is a gun. His gather at full speed in Q2 was pure sex. Future AA forward pocket
• Chesser found a bit of the ball in the second half but needs to tidy up his kicking
• Hough made some very good defensive plays and will have learned a lot playing as a 3rd tall
• Williams has retained his competitive streak. Hopefully Flynn isn’t out for too long as I think they’ll work well in tandem
• Rawlinson was a pleasant surprise with his forward half pressure especially his ability to stick tackles. Definitely something there to build on
• Barrass did a pretty admirable job in defence
• Livingstone is very raw but showed a base to build upon in coming years
• Jamieson wasn’t terrible in defence and I hope we persist with him back there (preferably in the WAFL for now though)
• Maric is a very smart player who just needs time to develop

Turns out to could be arsed although I’m still somewhat bewildered by some posters who’ve been saying all off season we’re s**t are somehow surprised that we are

I think the disappointment is not with the players abilities.

Rather it’s the repetitive break down of structures and disconnect between mids and fwds (at best we had 2 easy entries to Fwds in a ‘praccie’ match).

I reckon you could roll out grandad Malthouse in his wheelchair and he would impart (enforce) a better structure to this schmozzle than Simmo can.

It’s hard to argue that Simmo hasn’t lost the players and wouldn’t be dead man walking if the Board hadn’t squibbed it amongst the threat of being impaled in the back by knitting needles from the we love Simmo sycophants.

 

[bzparkes]

I think the disappointment is not with the players abilities.

Rather it’s the repetitive break down of structures and disconnect between mids and fwds (at best we had 2 easy entries to Fwds in a ‘praccie’ match).

I reckon you could roll out grandad Malthouse in his wheelchair and he would impart (enforce) a better structure to this schmozzle than Simmo can.

It’s hard to argue that Simmo hasn’t lost the players and wouldn’t be dead man walking if the Board hadn’t squibbed it amongst the threat of being impaled in the back by knitting needles from the we love Simmo sycophants.

I'm guessing you never saw Malthouse when he was at Carlton, I gather?

 

[Byron_Clanger]

Was at the wrestling so I missed out on seeing this debauchery, thank God

 

[BeornJ]

Even though my internet was crap and i kept missing sections... These are my best five players.

5 Hunt
4 Allen
3 Long
2 Jamieson
1 Hough

 

[sharps24]

Not sure what else you could have of Allen.

He either led up the wing and took a contested mark, turned and had no one to kick to. Or he killed the ball over the line.

Otherwise, he was usually double or tripled teamed in the forward 50.

I just said I would have liked to have seen a more influential game. Freo have a strong defence and Allen was consequently well held on a day of limited opportunity. This is one of the problems with captains that are sitting at full forward. Meanwhile Duggan is a fair way off from being our most influential mid or defender. Not criticism of either of their individual games, just noting that there seemed to be a bit of a void of leadership out there and it wasn't obviously being filled by either of them. Which I'm going to guess becomes a bit of a recurring theme this year because they play in relatively awkward positions for captains.

 

[KERRPOW]

Watching that was about as much fun as getting kicked in the balls.


Beaten everywhere, couldn't stop bleeding from the stoppage, incapable of defending any kind of opposition spread and then ran out of legs before three quarter time.

As for offensive gameplan, unless Allen takes a contested mark the ball doesn't progress beyond halfway.


It's one thing to be a young team that is trying to build, but it remains no excuse for the number of missed tackles, questionable field positioning, incredibly poor level of disposal by hand, and AusKick-style stoppage setups (where everyone rushes in only to leave the opposition with multiple players free in space once it comes out).


Up forward, all Fremantle were doing is run a two man block and run against Barrass, but nothing was done to counter that.

Was a move made to drop a player back into lead-up space in the corridor to help Barrass should he get blocked out? Nope.

Better yet, why not drop the ruck back post-stoppage onto one of those two forwards and allow Barras to function as effectively a spare marking tall in such circumstances?



Same alarm bells as last year, and the year before, and the year before that.

Having copped a few kicks to the balls the last few years.

Id take a bullocking to the balls than watch this sort of play.


Im holding onto hope that its just a match sim.

 

[Farang83150]

Also it's noted in the club article...

"While Fremantle played with greater dash, particularly in the second half, they also switched in eight fresh players at after half-time while the Eagles used the same list throughout."

So they 100% had fresher legs after half time.

Yeah seems a lot here that don't realise Freo named 40 players.

 

[Farang83150]

You too young to remember LeCras?

Tony Evans...

 

[UseR2006]

 

[PremiershipNo4]

I think the disappointment is not with the players abilities.

Rather it’s the repetitive break down of structures and disconnect between mids and fwds (at best we had 2 easy entries to Fwds in a ‘praccie’ match).

I reckon you could roll out grandad Malthouse in his wheelchair and he would impart (enforce) a better structure to this schmozzle than Simmo can.

It’s hard to argue that Simmo hasn’t lost the players and wouldn’t be dead man walking if the Board hadn’t squibbed it amongst the threat of being impaled in the back by knitting needles from the we love Simmo sycophants.

Saying it like it is, thumbs up from me

 

[CoastersFlag No.5]

 

[Deepthroat]

I am not sure what the focus of the training was over summer but it does not appear as “disposal composure” was part of it.

80% of the kicking last night fit into two categories;

1. “No look blast forward”. Was just so sad to witness how quickly the players lost all confidence and basically just wanted the ball to exit their area and become someone else’s problem.

2. “Easy 20m sideways layoff “. Disposal efficiency looks great after the game but in the meantime the opposition have set a 2024 perfect zone for the next bloke to contend with. This kick is less efficient in the end than the “no look blast forward”.

The other glaring item (particularly in the 2nd half) was fitness. Consistently outnumbered around the ball and then when the ball was released consistently outnumbered in the next area. A significant level of slow jogs happening in transition. Zero dynamic running.