Review FIFTEEN POINTS!!! WE DID THE WEES AND POOS BY FIFTEEN FREAKING POINTS!!!

[FreoGirl]

What is the penalty? I thought you were off for the game if you didn’t use the gates.

on tv they said it was at least 50 metres

 

[theGav56]

Oh trust me there is plenty of debate on our page about that particular strategy as we speak.

Honestly was a disappointing night for both Meek and Reeves (thought Ramsden showed a little bit).

Losing to Jackson I can almost cop cause he is a freak but getting your colours lowered by a 35 year old Mason Cox is not a great days work at the office.

It sticks in the craw because Mitchell gets highlighted as some kind of genius, while being out coached by Longmuir.

Despite your very good season, I reckon Mitchell deserves a bit of scrutiny.

 

[dockerfemme]

What is the penalty? I thought you were off for the game if you didn’t use the gates.

It is a free kick and 50 m penalty.

 

[theGav56]

I was not a believer in JL but you have to give him his flowers. He has evolved and improved. Got the boys bought in and absolutely humming. And playing at times a really aggressive and exciting brand of footy. I'm firmly a believer now.

LETS F^%$ING GO!!!!!

I'm sure he has evolved and improved. It has been awhile after all.

The question for me is always around if there is a better option. I mean a proven option, especially with an already substantially rebuilt list.

Another rookie coach is a massive risk in that situation: Drum and Harvey come to mind.

A hungry, semi-proven coach like Blight or Malthouse is my preference. And yeah, Ross.

But the club chose a different route which was to provide a breadth of support across all aspects of the club's operations.

And now it's wharfie time, and that's a good time to be a Docker supporter.

 

[Piggy Smalls]

What did we change up to protect the corridor at half time? Was it as simple as instructing the fat side wing to hold his width?

 

[ilikepotatoes]

From about the 6 minute mark of this vid was a very interesting watch and appeared to be similar to how Cox played off and in front of Gunston in the last 2.5 quarters.

 

[Sumwun]

Gotta say for a guy who cant kick for goal after the siren for shyte, Jye has a super impressive resume of clutch goals. Goldcoast after the bolton tacke, 50m out in the pouring rain and wind vs pies and this one.

Jye's normal run up from 45m+ deviates from the line by a metre or two. After the siren kicks require you to not deviate and kick over the mark which throws his rhythm off. Needs to practice more. Jeremy Cameron has the same problem.

 

[Randomizor]

On the "fitness vs game plan" thing, IMO its definitely both, and its definitely a deliberate strategy.

IMO, this week's performance has been coming and planned for, for a very long time, and is part of the coaching panel's long term plans.

To establish why I think this, we need to go back about one or two seasons.

I remember a game one or two years back, where we were two or three players down on the bench at half time (it was both Switta and Jackson injured from memory).

Freo then came out after the break and played two quarters of the most deliberately slow, boring, pedestrian, lateral chip-kick footy you've ever seen. It was pretty dull to watch, but we also won the game.

I remember commontaters and fans absolutely roasted JL and the team during the match, and others on these boards then followed up on it, questioning why we didn't put the hammer down and play a running flowing game.

The logic was that us playing slow deliberate footy invited pressure all over the ground... which in fairness was perfectly true.

My reply to these posts was 'it was always a team management measure' on JO'S part. As we were way down on players and rotations, playing a flowing game would have drained our players energy and exhausted us before the fourth quarter was over, and our opposition would have rolled us.

I remember Freo's media team even coming out and saying the exact same thing in their posts the following week, to try and deflect / lessen all the scorn JL was being subjected to in social and mainstream media.

My point being, JL and the coaching team have a history of taking tatical steps with the game plan, in order to conserve and manage player energy throughout the course of a game, and across the season in general.

Next, think back on all those close wins we've had over the last two previous seasons, where the team made a huge effort late in the game, to squeak over the line for a win. People have rightfully complained its better if we were blowing them away early... and that's both true, and fair enough.

But for that to happen, our opponents have to let us, and most teams out there really aren't that sucky at their jobs. To thrash an opponent, they need to be sufficiently bad enough, all over the ground, for four quarters straight, for us to easily trounce them. (Yes, I'm looking at you here WCE).

But even when we are trouncing a team (most recent example being the last derby), our players are also putting the cue in the rack early, backing off late in the last quarter, and allowing a few junk time goals to be scored against them.

Sure it costs us percentage (a common refrain about freo's performances over the last two to three years), but it also keeps our players fresher at the end of the game, reduces the risk of injury during a game, it makes recovery easier during the following week, and means our players aren't carrying little niggles or a lack of rest/healing time with them, during long haul flights to the east coast and back the following week.

Point being, Freo's players reserve their strength when necessary, and only go all out when they have to (both during a game, and over the season). This is clearly also a coaching directive, and part of Freo's season planning through sheer necessity to minimise the long term effects of our annual travel schedules

Thinking back also to this year's pre-season (and last year's too), during both those periods, Freo players were all hitting PBs in the gym with their weight training. Meanwhile, a lot of our runners were also hitting PBs during early pre-season running time trials. (I also seem to recall Ryan was put on notice for not hitting the necessary running times.)

Poi t being, it takes at least two to three years of continual effort and slowly increasing loads to build muscle mass properly. Get that wrong, or try to build muscle mass too quickly, and you risk longer term soft tissue injuries (like Youngie went through).

In other words, the seeds of Freo's greater strength, fitness and endurance which was on display this week, we're all plantedAT LEAST two to three years ago:

...back when Youngie and Freddie were skinnier with less upper body development,

...back when Sean Darcy was heavier,

...back when Jackon didn't have the more solid bulk and greater core strength he currently has,

...and back when Mr Murphy GCMG Read had an 18 year oldest strength, and lacked the necessary tank to spend quite as much time in the midfield as he currently is.

Now fast forward to the start of this year, and the implementation of the five-player bench, plus the death of player in game substitutions.

While that change itself was recent, the planning push behind it stretches back at leadt two or three years now. IIRC, JL and Freo's senior management were always a fan of the idea from the very start, and have always lobbied hard for it to be implemented.

If you ask me, both the new 5-man bench, and Freo's focus on drafting deep on midfielder and rotating them forward to rest, all played a very big part in Freo's latest win.

Our players were fresher for longer, and had more run and carry in them at the close. JL, plus many other coaches, have made repeated mention of their teams ability (or inability) to see out games properly, and finish a game with the exact same levels of energy as they started it.

Carlton have clearly wrestled with this all season, and their team performance and injury list clearly demonstrates how vulnerable you are when you get fitness training and mid-game player management wrong.

This week, Freo deminstrated during the fourth quarter just what is possible when you get all those variables right.




If you go Re-watch that forth quarter again, you can see it clearly.

Even though both teams had young players out yhere, and they were all pretty gassed by this point:

- - We still had better run late in the game,

-- We still we maintained physical pressure better,

-- our closing speed was better,

-- we maintained field position better,

-- we cut off passing lanes better,

-- our defenders managed open space in the forward line better,

-- Our smaller defenders like Clarkie and McVee made it to the fall of the ball on time with any F50 entry kicks, and completed an intercepting mark, rather than have the ball goes to ground


...pont being, we were fresher, faster, and just played better overall late in the game. This all happened when our opponents were at their weakest, were most tired, and had the lowest possible capacity to respond sufficiently to any changes in tactics, strategy or execution.

Sure it would have been great to blow Hawthorn away early like they were the Eagles, but they're simply too good a team for that.

In order to surge hard and blow them away, we had to wait for the right moment to do so -- and that opportunity only really presented itself at the very end of the game.

People can put this win down to us simply being fitter or stronger if they like. Certainly there's heaps of truth to that...

...but if it WAS just fitness, then the seeds of that fitness was first laid over two to three years ago, because that's how long it takes to build the human body up.

People can put the win down to us having better players if they want, that is also certainly true.

But if that IS the cause, then the seeds of that win were planted years back, when we first drafted each player on the list, and chose to give them playing time on the main list instead of sending them back to the WAFL.

There were no talented, fresh-faced, 1st year draftees out there this week, delivering via pure inherent raw ability.

Nor were there any players out there who were 'promising but somehow strangely ignored WAFL fringe-list miracle workers, who were merely disguised as spuds up till now'.

Every player on that winning team, worked hard to get there, and deserved to keep their spot.


I'm as delighted with the win as anybody -- and I've been waiting for our team to play this well, just as much as anybody else.

But mych as im delighted at the win, in hindsight I'm not really that surprised at all the moving pieces that made it possible.

All the things we saw: the better list, the better fitness, the better strength, the better coordination between players, the amazing blind, over-the-head handballs to players in position, the better closing speed, the better management of space, the better management of playing loads and fatigue for the whole team (across not just one game but across three games with three consecutive back to back 6-day breaks)....

All the early signs, of all the above puzzle pieces, were all there on display in previous matches and previous seasons, over the last two to four years.

Nothing that happened yesterday was an accident IMO. There were no miracles out there this week

Even us drafting Murphy Read in late 2024 (the closest thing we have to an actual honest to God miracle worker) was not a flash-in-the-pan decision. Freo were following his development for years before drafting him.

Sure, us actually getting to draft him on the day was a stroke of wondetful luck. But us identifying his potential early in the first place was frankly anything but... it too was the result of both lots of hard work, and lots of forward planning.


I've said a lot more in this particular post than I normally do, and pointed out a lot of things that were glaringly obvious, as well as other things that weren't.

My apologies for that folks... but that's not exactly an accident either.


Literally for years now, there have been hundreds of individuals, publishing literally thousands upon thousands of posts on these boards, screaming incessantly, that Fremantle needs to fire J Lo, as he's a bloody useless coach.

I don't need to name anybody who's done it, and I don't need to prove that its happened.

Frthermore, nobody who has ever called for J Los sacking in the past, has to justify the fact they did so.

They are entitled to their opinions, and those opinions were all based in facts.

In the past, there was plenty of evidence to justify debating whether or not he was worth keeping -- so all of that is fair enough

All I'm trying to say with this massive essay of a post, is:

... if you look hard enough at Freo's previous matches over the last few years, you can see the beginnings of where we are today....

...and while there may have been plenty of grounds to debate JL's worth, his tactics, and his long term plans for the team in the past, I would argue there is no longer any rational basis to hold such views.

So far as I'm concerned, any further bagging of J Lo from here on in, is nothing but groundless hate.

The guy has always had a plan... it just took a long time to implement, and he didn't see fit to share all of that plan with us, all of the time.

Personally, I'm okay with that.

Hopefully going forward as a group of passionate Fremantle fans, we can now all put the JL-Directed trash talk behind us.

How about going forward for the rest of the year, we all just sit back, enjoy the ride, and wallow in the warm comforting glow of just how wrong (or just how right) our previous opinions about him actually were.

Could you expand on this a bit more?

 

[anchor man]

The AFL have ticked off that interchange. The steward saw it and reminded Hawthorn to stick to the rules. So if the steward feels like it, wriggle room is provided. The trouble is the rules don’t seem to provide wriggle room.

Should have been a free from the centre for Freo, but instead it cost us a goal. Could have been crucial.

 

[stax on the mull]

Could you expand on this a bit more?

There's extras on the audiobook version.

 

[sdfc]

Only real umpire howler was the illegal field entry that lead to a hawks goal. Treacy probably lucky to avoid a 50 in the last, swatted the ball from Sicily then complained to the umpire while holding it. Otherwise I thought it was the best umpired game all year

I thought Treacy got a hand to it and it was a bad decision to pay the mark. Will have to watch it again.

 

[anchor man]

I'm sure he has evolved and improved. It has been awhile after all.

The question for me is always around if there is a better option. I mean a proven option, especially with an already substantially rebuilt list.

Another rookie coach is a massive risk in that situation: Drum and Harvey come to mind.

A hungry, semi-proven coach like Blight or Malthouse is my preference. And yeah, Ross.

But the club chose a different route which was to provide a breadth of support across all aspects of the club's operations.

And now it's wharfie time, and that's a good time to be a Docker supporter.

Harvey was not a coach. Why Fremantle offered him the job is beyond me. He never applied for a coaching job in his life.
Drum I had time for, not a good coach but could talk and was a footy tragic. And I think he loved Fremantle.
JL applied for the job for all the right reasons. He felt he let Fremantle down as a player, wanted to finish the job and coach them. And he had done his apprentiship as assistsnt coach.
I think he coaches differently to a lotbof othrrs but doesn't make a song and dance about his position. It is all about the players and the team. And he does make changes when the pressure is on. He and the others make decisions on the run. Decisions that most time work.
He gets my vote.

 

[funguy1984]

 

[Nolo180]

So for those there was last night's croud louder then say 2013 Prelim final

I don't reckon. Subi could get darn loud for the size. Plus the Freo chant went for ever. + no Mexican wave last night...

 

[Bringbacktheeighties]

I divide my time between Fremantle and Thailand. I have a condo in chatuchak district, Bangkok.
I have lifestyle A and lifestyle B. Sewasdee krup.

Great market. I won’t clog up this thread , just nice to meet another THAI farang.

 

[Purpletown]

felt calm throughout the game especially when Moose handballed to a Hawthorn player inside our 50 (that resulted in a Jack Gunston goal) because I knew we would run over the top of them and we controlled the second half.


I am with you. I thought we turned the game in the third quarter. We blocked their free running and stopped the passage that they had for Gunston early on.Our only problem was we could not score.At that end and in the right forward pocket, the players slipped and slid a few times just when we looked like scoring.

Freo won the arm wrestle in the third quarter by stopping the Hawks scoring. Without that we couldn't of overrun them in the final quarter.

 

[Quay Club]

Some of the players were saying after the game Jackson was walking around the room saying " I am built different" and isn't he just.

That was the best he has played since the Dee's Perth GF where he turned the game for them.

What a win that was and I plan to be guts up on the MCG after the GF!

 

[estibador]

I watched the replay tonight and a few new thoughts:

- Fox/Kayo needs to educate their callers on wharfie time. They didn't even acknowledge it was happening when the bell went off. I don't think it's too much to ask that they at least recognise the most iconic moment in Australian sport when it's happening

- I'm sure I saw some people on here say Ras had an ordinary game. He was excellent I thought

- Switta had a shocker. Fumbled everything he touched. Now I've never been a great Switta fan so I might be biased, but it seems to me we now have a younger, faster, and longer kicking version of him who's been sent back to the ressies, so he'd want to find form real quick

- I loved seeing Vossy go all antagonistic on Sicily from the first bounce. Voss should have a licence to get suspended as many times as he wants during the season imo. He plays better like that, and we need some campaigners in our line up.

 

[PrancingPony]

Some of the players were saying after the game Jackson was walking around the room saying " I am built different" and isn't he just.

That was the best he has played since the Dee's Perth GF where he turned the game for them.

What a win that was and I plan to be guts up on the MCG after the GF!

In the words of some of the boys at the club, he's a special unit.

 

[oldgoat]

Let’s see how Norman is going come finals time. He’s obviously no spring chicken and as we saw last night in the last qtr he was absolutely lame.

 

[Daddoo]

What did we change up to protect the corridor at half time? Was it as simple as instructing the fat side wing to hold his width?

Luke Ryan said after the game on Triple M that JL was very calm at halftime and very clear in his instructions to the players. Ryan said JL acknowledged they were giving up the corridor, which he attributed to a few players playing too close to the boundary. So, JL just told some of the players to move 5m inside to tighten things up and it worked. Simple as that.

 

[Heart Of Purple]

The AFL have ticked off that interchange. The steward saw it and reminded Hawthorn to stick to the rules. So if the steward feels like it, wriggle room is provided. The trouble is the rules don’t seem to provide wriggle room.

Tbf, it's clear as mud that missing the gate by 0.5m is not what the rules there for. Sometimes playing to the rule book kills a game /leads to over umpiring.
I'm personally happy to have that called play on - the intention of the rule has to count for something.

On the same hand, the stand rule (and most others) should be treated more similarly. Still gets massaged & interpreted 4/5 different ways each game.