Piggy Smalls
Piggy’s in the middle
- Nov 30, 2018
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Yes and that became 8.4 with three very gettable misses. 11.1 to 2 goals would have been a huge gap mentally.
Review Freo storm home against North
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Was 4th for us in metres gained despite having a much lower number of possessions than the rest of the top 5. Suggests he knows what he's doing.
It's funny, I never felt like we were completely out of that - even when they were tearing us to shreds.
I think a lot of people have unrealistic expectations about our ball movement and how clean they want it to be - no side in the current comp (give or take Collingwood with both Daicos brothers flying) gets in 100 per cent every time given the nature of the modern game, but that run in the third quarter was as good as it gets.
We need to stop thinking of the slow starts as a team-wide problem, and start looking at them as a near-exclusively midfield problem, because that's where the issues are. For whatever reason, Caleb and Andy take time to work their way into games - think the slightly different mix we're employing this year will go a ways to addressing that, but it will take time.
In terms of negatives, Hughes remains a perennial worry (even if they're not going to drop him) and Tabs is always going to keep doing Tabs things (although if he pops up and kicks a couple of critical goals each game I'm not going to complain.)
I think a lot of people have unrealistic expectations about our ball movement and how clean they want it to be - no side in the current comp (give or take Collingwood with both Daicos brothers flying) gets in 100 per cent every time given the nature of the modern game, but that run in the third quarter was as good as it gets.
We need to stop thinking of the slow starts as a team-wide problem, and start looking at them as a near-exclusively midfield problem, because that's where the issues are. For whatever reason, Caleb and Andy take time to work their way into games - think the slightly different mix we're employing this year will go a ways to addressing that, but it will take time.
- Jackson will be top three in the Brownlow this year if he gets an extended run in the ruck; calling it now. There's almost an argument for keeping him as number one ruck while using Darcy as an impact player when he comes back in.
- 100 points on the board without Jye or Treacy really firing, 11 goalkickers - when we get it right in the midfield, the forward line is humming.
- Moose absolutely monstered Larkey - thinking the skipper has his mojo back.
- Draper looks like he belongs despite a couple of wobbly moments.
- Thought the intangible pressure stuff Treacy did was immense.
In terms of negatives, Hughes remains a perennial worry (even if they're not going to drop him) and Tabs is always going to keep doing Tabs things (although if he pops up and kicks a couple of critical goals each game I'm not going to complain.)
Jordan Clark has been huge for us in these first couple games. Really good pickup for us and keeps getting better.
Random thoughts:
- Lots of guys that didn't get much of the ball had significant impact on the game through their pressure - this included Switkowski (8 possessions, 8 tackles), Emmett (9 possessions) and Frederick (8 possessions, 3 tackles) - you could argue that this combined with Brayshaw's pressure and Banfield's running saw us across the line.
- Amiss had a quiet game; partially because I reckon there was a focus on filling the space in front of him by North, but also poor delivery and I reckon there was a few times where we let them drag our own players in there as well
- Jackson had a game of two sides; I thought early on he didn't do enough in the ruck to stop North (particularly Sheezel) getting a clean run at it in the first two quarters and hurting us big time, and I thought Treacy in the middle was working better initially. However, on the other side, Jackson kept running and leaping, ending up with a heap of possessions and heap of marks plus two goals and being close to best on ground. Still wishing though that we had Darcy back to make better use of his (Jackson's) strengths and to better own the ball at centre clearances.
- I watch the game with no commentary; this filters out a lot of the "noise" that influences the perception of the game. One thing I thought today was that the umpires were giving North a lot of early "handicap" free kicks that I would not expect them to give to other sides. But on the flip side I totally expected that they would try and even it up later which they did (16 frees each team) so if we could make use of the easy free kicks later I expected that that would help us storm home.
- Sharp is doing okay and his strengths suits our team, whilst the impact of his weaknesses (no contested game, inconsistency) are kind of also minimized by the way we play anyway. I note though that Banfield is also playing wing a lot and is probably ahead of him at this stage.
- I reckon having Serong as the standout possession midfielder is putting oppositions in two minds; North didn't do anything and arguably hurt later in the game through the sheer weight of the amount of ball he was getting. I reckon others will try and shut him down and that will help us in other ways.
- Sep 29, 2013
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I thought the first half showed why Swaggy is important. The north ruckman used his big body very well against Jacko.
Hats off to Banners for an excellent game.
Walker’s willingness to run was wonderful to see.
Draper didn’t embarrass himself and will be happy to tick his first game off with a win.
Hats off to Banners for an excellent game.
Walker’s willingness to run was wonderful to see.
Draper didn’t embarrass himself and will be happy to tick his first game off with a win.
Peak Freo for the first quarter and half. A bit Jekyll and Hyde with a switch to the good Freo after that carp start.
Draper was decent and should hold his spot for next week.
Draper was decent and should hold his spot for next week.
I’m at work and may have missed about 15 minutes combined but this is how I saw it.
Good : the third quarter special (reminds me 2022 when we made a habit of doing that), Clark and Walker in traffic are weapons, Brayshaw’s and Tracey’s willpower
Bad : Jackson getting killed in the ruck, Banfield in defence (his impact forward was way better, kicked nice goals too)
Ugly: getting smashed in clearances by a bunch of kids (admittedly talented kids but kids nonetheless)
That lid should stay on for now. Play like that against Sydney or GWS or Carlton and see what happens. I may be a paranoid long suffering Freo fan but I don’t trust this team just yet. Luckily there’s still time to adjust/fix that.
Edit: forgot Switta in the good column, we need to multiply him few times, that’s the sort of effort we should expect from everyone
Good : the third quarter special (reminds me 2022 when we made a habit of doing that), Clark and Walker in traffic are weapons, Brayshaw’s and Tracey’s willpower
Bad : Jackson getting killed in the ruck, Banfield in defence (his impact forward was way better, kicked nice goals too)
Ugly: getting smashed in clearances by a bunch of kids (admittedly talented kids but kids nonetheless)
That lid should stay on for now. Play like that against Sydney or GWS or Carlton and see what happens. I may be a paranoid long suffering Freo fan but I don’t trust this team just yet. Luckily there’s still time to adjust/fix that.
Edit: forgot Switta in the good column, we need to multiply him few times, that’s the sort of effort we should expect from everyone
And if LDU was any more of a protected species he'd have a World Wildlife Fund webpage.
Easy to look like a million dollars with three umpires riding shotgun.
Easy to look like a million dollars with three umpires riding shotgun.
The forums a happy place again this week
Is Banfield and Sharp the wing pair we've been looking for? Banfield is great at playing up and down the ground and does some good work in defence. The role suits him much better than being purely a forward. Sharp we know can run all day and just keep width for when we can use him, Banfield gets his hands dirty and drifts forward for opportunist goals.
Johnson is an inside midfielder pure and simple. Dump O'Meara, play MJ in the mids and let Simpson play sub for some pace and dare when we need it.
Johnson is an inside midfielder pure and simple. Dump O'Meara, play MJ in the mids and let Simpson play sub for some pace and dare when we need it.
Josh Treacy was really good in The first quarter
- Mar 29, 2019
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Oh no, according to opposition fans and journalists, Jackson is better alone and bringing Darcy back will make him a worse player!!!
Like I always say, if you want an idea of how much somebody knows about football, get their opinion the the Jackson and Darcy duo.
Was fantastic in the ruck across the game.
It is clearly the wing pair that we are leaning on the most atm, with Johnson also doing some time there and off half back.
The Fyfe, Serong, Brayshaw, Young combination would be hard to move away from in the short term (even with the slow starts which I thought in today's game at least was heavily due to their ruck getting on top of ours), so I think MJ and Erasmus (and Brodie) will just have to bid their time a bit. Johnson was barely in the middle today and still got decent possession numbers (22 from 74% game time) and used the ball better on the outside, so I think the coaching team will be happy with that setup and what he is doing.
Banfield as a winger reminds me of Chris Mayne's reinvention as a winger.
All of our bottom end were ok. Banfield, Hughes, Taberner all regularly cop a caning on here, but Longmuir clearly sees roles for them.
The weak links in this game were developing players: Emmett, Amiss, Sharp, Draper. That's not a negative either. It's upside.
The weak links in this game were developing players: Emmett, Amiss, Sharp, Draper. That's not a negative either. It's upside.
His hands are lightning fast. We got ourselves a very solid player there
Did you notice though that when Fyfe went off we started losing out of the middle again till Johnson went in and we won the next one with 2 involvements from Johnson.
We need that big body for Serong and Brayshaw to get to work around. It's why we got killed last year without Mundy. Young helps but he doesn't yet have the craft of Fyfe or even Johnson at the ball ups. Young might actually do better on the wing and let MJ play inside.
Ah, these modern day kids, wouldn’t know how to change gear. To use to coasting in automatics.
Drop the clutch and off we go.
