Mega Thread 2026 Media & Miscellaneous Thread

[Cappy71]

 

[stormee]

This years stealth jerseys are great!

The merch, not so much

I got a jumper and beanie. Very understated but love it.

 

[mattis117]

The whole notion of 'peaking too early' implies there is some sort of secret sauce that we'll mislay somewhere along the line.

The flipside is that the more we win, the more confident, and better, we'll get.

It's more about exposing what you're capable of and being at the top means you're getting analysed more than anyone else. This happened to Adelaide last year - it became too well known how to shut them down.

So, it's less about whether Freo will play at a lower level later, and more about whether other teams will find a way to pick us apart.

Thing is though, the way Freo are playing, good luck with that. They have demonstrated all season that if you take away Plan A, we beat you plan B, if you take away both Plan A and B, we have Plan C ready to go. If you beat us early, we beat you late. If we beat you early, we will hold you off.

Freo does appear to be the standout team in 2026 and it is not beyond the realm of possibility that they repeat what Essendon did in the year 2000.

All I keep saying is there is some incredible long term strategy playing out this season and with growing belief, it is becoming more difficult to see any side getting close to them unless our team has a bad week.

Finals are of course a different story. Can we maintain the 1 and 0 mantra when everything is on the line? I believe yes, but we have to wait to see now.

Peaking too early is a thing, but another things is having so much momentum you become an unstoppable force.

 

[Snuffaluphagus]

There's not really much to talk about for Freo which is the problem. When you win 12 on the trot, you just start rehashing the same talking points so the only thing to talk about is some derivative of "prove it in finals".

 

[Spirit Level]

It's almost like we need to lose one to give Gerard something to talk about/give something for King to blow his load over

 

[Snuffaluphagus]

It's more about exposing what you're capable of and being at the top means you're getting analysed more than anyone else. This happened to Adelaide last year - it became too well known how to shut them down.

So, it's less about whether Freo will play at a lower level later, and more about whether other teams will find a way to pick us apart.

Thing is though, the way Freo are playing, good luck with that. They have demonstrated all season that if you take away Plan A, we beat you plan B, if you take away both Plan A and B, we have Plan C ready to go. If you beat us early, we beat you late. If we beat you early, we will hold you off.

Freo does appear to be the standout team in 2026 and it is not beyond the realm of possibility that they repeat what Essendon did in the year 2000.

All I keep saying is there is some incredible long term strategy playing out this season and with growing belief, it is becoming more difficult to see any side getting close to them unless our team has a bad week.

Finals are of course a different story. Can we maintain the 1 and 0 mantra when everything is on the line? I believe yes, but we have to wait to see now.

Peaking too early is a thing, but another things is having so much momentum you become an unstoppable force.

I see one chink in the armour aside from praying our midfield contest is off on the day. Flood numbers back, win the repeat 50 battle by giving us nowhere to go out of D50 without pinpoint kicking and win the attrition.

Problem with that is we literally have the best 3 tall set up in the game led by the best contested marker in the comp. Treacy provides a cheat code for everything. Which is why Collingwood were almost able to beat us in the rain.

 

[Eski3]

I went back and looked at the 2015 season - from round 9 onwards we only scored 100 points once for the rest of the season, and were winning games scoring in the 60s and 70s falling over the line against lesser opponents. This is such a wildly different team in the way we score, move the ball and win that it's actually hard to compare

 

[Jezzitizle]

This whole peaking thing, we could also be at the beginning of a dynasty and not near peaking; it’s all just talking heads.

 

[Alfonz]

I really hate these stealth guernseys.

I reckon they are great, but it shouldn't just be a marketing gimmick and instead serve a functional purpose for being worn when it provides a better contrast than all purple or all white. We absolutely should have worn it in the North game (as per last year) ... the purple top and white shorts was an abomination against North's home strip.

As far as Geelong goes ... we've never had a clash if they wear their white strip, and black is probably about the same as purple as far as the contrast with navy. But removing the white chevrons might make the stealth work slightly better.

People complain about a lot of things wrong with the game, be it the umpiring or rules or music or whatever, but jumper clashes are my #1 grievance. It just shouldn't happen anymore, but every week there are usually a couple of shockers.

 

[freo84]

This whole peaking thing, we could also be at the beginning of a dynasty and not near peaking; it’s all just talking heads.

We are nearly on par with 2017 Richmond in the squiggle...who were just starting their dynasty run as well.

Team hasn't peaked yet but North got a taste of what we could do.

 

[Purple Suit]

It's more about exposing what you're capable of and being at the top means you're getting analysed more than anyone else. This happened to Adelaide last year - it became too well known how to shut them down.

So, it's less about whether Freo will play at a lower level later, and more about whether other teams will find a way to pick us apart.

Thing is though, the way Freo are playing, good luck with that. They have demonstrated all season that if you take away Plan A, we beat you plan B, if you take away both Plan A and B, we have Plan C ready to go. If you beat us early, we beat you late. If we beat you early, we will hold you off.

Freo does appear to be the standout team in 2026 and it is not beyond the realm of possibility that they repeat what Essendon did in the year 2000.

All I keep saying is there is some incredible long term strategy playing out this season and with growing belief, it is becoming more difficult to see any side getting close to them unless our team has a bad week.

Finals are of course a different story. Can we maintain the 1 and 0 mantra when everything is on the line? I believe yes, but we have to wait to see now.

Peaking too early is a thing, but another things is having so much momentum you become an unstoppable force.

Adelaide losing Rankine was a huge blow for them. He was the x-factor in the midfield and plus they had zero finals experience. We don't have much but more than a few previous teams that have gone all the way.

 

[Outshined]

If you want a laugh, listen to the 3AW crew have a good old whinge about North selling their home games.



Yet another example of the interstate teams being given a huge leg up against the long suffering Victorian sides.

 

[Spirit Level]

That Fox Footy premiership zone is going to look interesting now that we're ranked #2 for offense and #1 for defense

 

[ubiquitous226]

Strategy - as others have mentioned winning a lot early will get you analysed a lot more, for example specific strategies to counter our long down the line success, however we clearly have different modes and aren't as reliant as Sydney appear to be

Form - this can go up and down, and be impacted by injuries, JLo keeping the team grounded will be important but it's human nature to be thinking forwards

I think Adelaide from last year is a perfect example to keep grounded, finished top of the ladder and went out in straight sets. Although there was plenty of scepticism because there was a strong theme of losing to the top teams (5 losses were Gold Coast away, Cats home, Freo away, Collingwood away, Hawks away), particularly looking like a pretty different team away so you would have backed them to win one final at home at least.

To keep the rest of us grounded, so far we are;
Top 4 record - 1/2 (2 to play)
Top 6 record - 2/3 (4 to play [+2])
Top 10 record - 5/6 (7 to play [+3])
Rest of the games - 7/7 (3 to play)
2 of our wins were coin flips, and we won both.
On one hand if we do well in our top 6 games for the remainder there will be a small question mark because we play Hawks, Sydney and GC only at home, but on the other that would highly likely result in a top 2 spot - but Adelaide proved that still may not be enough come finals.

 

[Andy Brennan]

I kind of wonder if the stealth jumper will become an official 3rd jumper. Or, controversial as it would be if the club would ever adopt the black with purple trim and white with purple trim as the colours and de-emphasize the purple.

 

[Hamann188]

If you want a laugh, listen to the 3AW crew have a good old whinge about North selling their home games.



Yet another example of the interstate teams being given a huge leg up against the long suffering Victorian sides.

How does the AFL mandating every team plays a regional game help the poorer clubs!? I mean, do these peanuts think North sold their home game so that they could bring AFL footy to locals of Bunbury!?

These idiots have completely missed the point. It's like they started on the right track about the reason for North selling the home game, but somewhere along the way they got lost and went driving off on a tangent about AFL mandated regional rounds. They've already got that and it still f@(ks us over, it's called gather round.

The real reason they want these AFL mandated regional rounds is because they want the games played in Vic. Bloody Victorians! They honestly believe they are Australia and every other state is just visiting.

BTW, no offence to our Victorian supporters. You're all lovely people, it's "the other ones" that bother me.

 

[Nefarias_Bredd]

I kind of wonder if the stealth jumper will become an official 3rd jumper. Or, controversial as it would be if the club would ever adopt the black with purple trim and white with purple trim as the colours and de-emphasize the purple.

They can't ever de-emphasize the purple. It is our main colour and a distinct colour at that.

 

[Andy Brennan]

They can't ever de-emphasize the purple. It is our main colour and a distinct colour at that.

I agree but they've definitely made it darker and less obviously purple over time which makes me wonder. I prefer the older lighter purple we had

 

[Heave Ho Bro]

Anybody saying we have peaked obviously have not watched us play and are just looking at the streak. We've been patchy as f*** up until the Roos game. Blowing teams away in a quarter or 10 minute burst. Coasting in 2nd and 3rd gear is not peaking.

 

[swanny1234]

If you want a laugh, listen to the 3AW crew have a good old whinge about North selling their home games.



Yet another example of the interstate teams being given a huge leg up against the long suffering Victorian sides.

What I found funny about this is they were going on and on about how they need to take games to the regions - like Ballarat and Mildura, conveniently completely forgetting that Bunbury is literally further from Perth than Ballarat is from Melbourne, so is quite literally, the regions.

 

[David Bubb]

 

[David Bubb]

Some nice words from Jimmy on Joel Corey

Joel Corey

Age

44

Ht

191cm

Wt

88kg

Pos.

Mid

Career

Season

Last 5

D

22.4

5star

K

11.5

4star

HB

11.0

5star

M

4.0

4star

T

4.1

5star

CL

3.9

5star

No current season stats available

D

12.4

4star

K

7.8

3star

HB

4.6

4star

M

2.2

3star

T

1.6

4star

towards the end, who probably doesn't get appreciated by a lot of supporters - myself included

 

[Grape Bear]

I went back and looked at the 2015 season - from round 9 onwards we only scored 100 points once for the rest of the season, and were winning games scoring in the 60s and 70s falling over the line against lesser opponents. This is such a wildly different team in the way we score, move the ball and win that it's actually hard to compare

I think the mindset in ‘15 was also very different - there was an element of feeling like we were running out of time because Pav and the rest of our old guard were likely on their last roll of the dice. We were top but it just didn’t feel joyful at all that year, it felt like each game was being played through gritted teeth. This year feels more like the 2013 year, there’s just something about it.

 

[theGav56]

Serong, Darcy, Cox and Johnson to come into the best 23 sooner rather than later.

They all improve us.

I'm curious why people are talking about us peaking too early.

 

[theGav56]

Some nice words from Jimmy on Joel Corey towards the end, who probably doesn't get appreciated by a lot of supporters - myself included

Bartel is always worth listening to.