Mega Thread 2016 Media Thread

[CakeEater]

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/20...on-preview-fremantle-dockers-and-sydney-swans

Interesting article- cant say I agree with him fundamentally.

I wouldnt have us 7-9th, have us in the top 4.

 

[scon]

Yesterday he did Ricmond and the Bullies:2016 AFL season preview: Richmond and Western Bulldogs

 

[E Shed]

I agree with most of what Johnson says actually. I'm not sure we will miss the 8 but I don't think we will be at the pointy end of things.
Interestingly the Guardian who are pretty measure in their assessments have us sliding too.
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/20...on-preview-fremantle-dockers-and-sydney-swans

 

[CakeEater]

I agree with most of what Johnson says actually. I'm not sure we will miss the 8 but I don't think we will be at the pointy end of things.
Interestingly the Guardian who are pretty measure in their assessments have us sliding too.
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/20...on-preview-fremantle-dockers-and-sydney-swans

Beat you to the punch already E Shed two posts up.

 

[Lach72]

I agree with most of what Johnson says actually. I'm not sure we will miss the 8 but I don't think we will be at the pointy end of things.
Interestingly the Guardian who are pretty measure in their assessments have us sliding too.
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/20...on-preview-fremantle-dockers-and-sydney-swans

"Down in the backline, it’s oldies Michael Johnson, Zac Dawson plus the inconsistent likes of Alex Silvagni, Clancee Pearce and Alex Pearce. That’s a concern, no matter how well the midfielders function within a team defence structure."

That's lazy...apparently Ibbotson, Spurr, Sheridan and Sutcliffe don't play

 

[E Shed]

I actually prefer being under the radar. no one gives us a chance this year while the pressure will be all on the Eagles.
They've been able to claim underdog status in derbies for a while now but this year they will be expected to win.

 

[balthazarthedonk]

I agree with most of what Johnson says actually. I'm not sure we will miss the 8 but I don't think we will be at the pointy end of things.
Interestingly the Guardian who are pretty measure in their assessments have us sliding too.
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/20...on-preview-fremantle-dockers-and-sydney-swans

Guardian may be balanced, generally, but not Russell Jackson. He doesn't like Freo. He's picked us to slide every year recently and one of his less insightful comments in the 2013 finals series was: "I don't think Freo can win. Some of the reasons are rational and some of them are irrational". He's not interested unless it is a Victorian team.

 

[E Shed]

Guardian may be balanced, generally, but not Russell Jackson. He doesn't like Freo. He's picked us to slide every year recently and one of his less insightful comments in the 2013 finals series was: "I don't think Freo can win. Some of the reasons are rational and some of them are irrational". He's not interested unless it is a Victorian team.

interesting. didn't know that.

 

[Frank J Moose]

Leigh Matthews has just come out and said that Nic Nat can lead the Eagles to a flag. Two years ago he called Sandilands overrated because all he did (incorrectly) was win hit outs.

 

[PurpleEyes]

Freo lost 5 Home and Away games in 2015. 1 against the eventual premiers (R15 vs Hawks in Tassie), another (R23 vs PA) playing their B-Side.
The other 3 were all top 8 teams (with the usual umpiring bias, tally of 50 Frees For vs 69 Frees Against).
For Freo to slide to 7th - 9th, they would be expected to lose around 8 to 10 games ... I don't think so Mr Russell Jackson.
And using Freo's players age as an argument doesn't really hold much water when Hawthorns Preliminary Final team was older than Freo's.

 

[Harry Reems]

Two weeks ago, Kim Hagdorn said on 882 that Ross Lyon and Fremantle know that this is not their year and have decided to focus on next year instead.

He says that Fremantle will have Cale Hooker and Cam McCarthy next year and will be aggressively trading for Jesse Hogan as well.

This was the reason that they decided to extend Ross Lyon's contract now rather than later so that he can coach this year without any pressure.

By the way we played on Sunday, I'm starting to get the "Haggers Horn."

 

[G Mus]

Two weeks ago, Kim Hagdorn said on 882 that Ross Lyon and Fremantle know that this is not their year and have decided to focus on next year instead.

He says that Fremantle will have Cale Hooker and Cam McCarthy next year and will be aggressively trading for Jesse Hogan as well.

This was the reason that they decided to extend Ross Lyon's contract now rather than later so that he can coach this year without any pressure.

By the way we played on Sunday, I'm starting to get the "Haggers Horn."

View attachment 229803

You'd think a plan like that would correlate with putting experience into newer players though (early days still but)

 

[Nickos66]

Two weeks ago, Kim Hagdorn said on 882 that Ross Lyon and Fremantle know that this is not their year and have decided to focus on next year instead.

He says that Fremantle will have Cale Hooker and Cam McCarthy next year and will be aggressively trading for Jesse Hogan as well.

This was the reason that they decided to extend Ross Lyon's contract now rather than later so that he can coach this year without any pressure.

By the way we played on Sunday, I'm starting to get the "Haggers Horn."

View attachment 229803

Honk honk.

 

[Unique Name]

Two weeks ago, Kim Hagdorn said on 882 that Ross Lyon and Fremantle know that this is not their year and have decided to focus on next year instead.

He says that Fremantle will have Cale Hooker and Cam McCarthy next year and will be aggressively trading for Jesse Hogan as well.

This was the reason that they decided to extend Ross Lyon's contract now rather than later so that he can coach this year without any pressure.

By the way we played on Sunday, I'm starting to get the "Haggers Horn."

View attachment 229803

Pav wouldn't have gone around again unless he believed we were going for a flag.

 

[Deveraux]

You'd think a plan like that would correlate with putting experience into newer players though (early days still but)

I tend to agree with you here, if this is the case we should be blooding youth as soon as possible.

With this in mind perhaps the 'play your way in, play your way out' mentality of the club was a bit of a hurdle for progress here.

Maybe what we actually saw on the weekend was a seasoned team with the facade of giving everyone their chance to keep their seat on the bus all the while implementing a new game plan which doubled as the new approach we're taking AND giving management the oppurtunity to demote fringe players to get experience into a younger team.

Not sure that makes sense? Maybe only in my head, haha. Possibly a bit cynical too but we all know how ruthless this side of footy can be.

Obviously might be way off the mark here but just chucking it out there.

 

[Purpletown]

I think 2013 was our best shot at the Premiership (so far) because we were playing our best footy at the right end of the season with a finals win in Geelong and destroying $ydney in the Prelim at Subi.

Last season saw us play some outstanding footy early in the year but poor form and injury caused us to tail off towards the end of the season and we were not playing our best footy at the right time of the year. A lot still went right however disappointing it was to miss the GF.

Our problem is lack of goals as most on this board agree. To solve that problem we need better forwards and one (or two) big forward capable of standing up in the big games.....How do we fix that problem?

Play our best small forwards such as Walters as forwards and not as midfielders will help. We have plenty of young players to develop into mids and if they are not up to it move them on. Drafting mids and then playing our best two small forwards in Walters and Ballas as mids while the draftees go around for Peel makes no sense imo.

Draft key forwards......the pickings are thin by the time we get a go at it and it's a long term process to then develop those players. We will get lucky one day no doubt but who knows when that will be?

Develop the players we have who are not playing in the league side most weeks.....judging from Peel's game on the weekend I think the club is starting the process of sifting through the players down there to see who can play that role. Smith did ok but needs to back it up. Pearce has shown he can stand up in the AFL but it remains to be seen if he can do so as a forward. The Ape man is a long shot at best because of those knees. Collins could be a player but more as a backman from what I understand. I have never seen any of the others at Peel play so can't comment about their ability to play a key forward role.

Trade for forwards? Good luck with this option. I am reasonably confident the club can snare Cam McCarthy and if he is fit and on the park in purple for 2017 he would be our best bigish forward post Pav. To get Hogan will be bruising and I just hope the club are willing to lose some skin to have a realistic crack at him.

Talk that Ross has got security of tenure until 2020 so is less motivated is idiotic rubbish. He is one of the most driven and professional coaches of his era. He is also a realist who would understand the limitations of his list and would be working his backside off to get the best out of it with the long term goal of winning that elusive premiership at Freo. Let's hope he succeeds.

 

[leeloo]

I think 2013 was our best shot at the Premiership (so far) because we were playing our best footy at the right end of the season with a finals win in Geelong and destroying $ydney in the Prelim at Subi.

Well, without wanting to sound condescending, considering it is the only time we have been in a grand final, yes it was our best shot at a premiership! Sadly, we ran into a Hawthorn which a lot of pundits agree was the strongest team out of their three grand finals.

 

[Mudd]

He says that Fremantle will have Cale Hooker and Cam McCarthy next year and will be aggressively trading for Jesse Hogan as well.
View attachment 229803

The only way Melbourne would give up Hogan is for a Fyfe + Walters trade.

 

[Deveraux]

What happens if he nominates Freo?

 

[Stuart88]

Our problem is lack of goals as most on this board agree. To solve that problem we need better forwards and one (or two) big forward capable of standing up in the big games.....How do we fix that problem?

Our problem since the start of last year has been ball movement (speed & skill), especially from our defense, this leads to our inability to score from turnovers. It doesn't matter who we have up forward when they're not getting it delivered quick enough to them and not to their advantage.
Just look at the weekend, every time we had the ball we were slow to move it forward, often kicking sideways, backwards and trying to move the ball forward down the boundary. It doesn't f&*king work!
We have to start moving the ball quicker (maybe injecting some youth may help), with more accuracy, taking more risks through the guts of the ground and getting the ball to our forwards before the opposition has time to flood back. Only then will we start scoring more goals.
Even if we had McCarthy & Hogan, we still wouldn't be scoring because we can't score from the turnovers we create due to shitty ball movement.

 

[Redgum]

A very good article by Brad Hardie:
http://www.smh.com.au/afl/afl-news/...ain&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=paid outbrain

 

[scon]

Shows he's still reading this board.
Or maybe getting someone to read it for him

 

[E Shed]

Yeah nothing there that we haven't said. About a million times for about 2 years now.

 

[E Shed]

Interesting take on defence v offence when it comes to winning a grand final.
Bit of a variation on the squiggle thread but it doesn't paint a rosy picture for our chances.
http://www.smh.com.au/afl/afl-news/...premiership-with-defence-20160322-gnokkd.html

 

[One_Wing]

A very good article by Brad Hardie:
http://www.smh.com.au/afl/afl-news/brad-hardie-why-fremantle-and-ross-lyon-should-copy-the-geelong-template-20160328-gnstct.html?eid=cpc:nnn-14omn2215-optim-nnnutbrain-outbrain_paid-dom-displayad-nnn-smh-nnn&campaign_code=15caf001&promote_channel=sem&utm_source=outbrain&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=paid outbrain

Jesus the "Geelong template" and this was written before they even won a game. I would hate to see how people rate Geelong now that they defeated(barley) a very depleted Hawks.