Autopsy 2020 Season Review

[Snuffaluphagus]

Alright, I think 95% of us would think this season went almost as well as possible given the circumstances. I personally couldnt have expected much more from JL with 4 first choice defenders out for the majority of the year and trying to implement a new game plan with players only able to train in groups of 6 (ask Woosha how hard it is). This thread is to discuss the 2020 season, we'll discuss 2021 in a separate thread

Highlight: Emergence of the best young midfield in the comp, is their a young midfield core in the comp you would take over Baeshaw, Checkra and Soright?

Lowlight: Being cheated out of finals by the worst 10 seconds of umpiring in the history of the game

Your MVP: Luke Ryan - he and his merry band of men scrounged together a defence no one thought possible after Logue went down

Best young player (under 22): I'll go a bit different and say Cerra. Starting to be more consistent and more impact than his partners in crime. Want him re-signed asap

Most Improved: Easy to say the Crabernator but Schultz was a complete write-off before the start of the season, now has locked down a b22 until someone can kick him out.

Biggest surprise for the year: I honestly didnt think Mundy had it in him to keep outputting what he is, guy is a marvelous freak of nature

 

[Deathly]

I think overall we performed a lot better and consistently than what most Fremantle fans and the broader AFL community had predicted. But, shortened quarters and a smaller fixture - did these circumstances suit us more favorably compared to an actual season? It's hard to tell, but I think there were a lot more positive variables outside of that to suggest we have improved considerably as individuals and a group and for once, we end the season with an actual clear direction on the field.

Highlights

- The identification of a new game-plan that's understandable and executable by the players, looks good for the supporters, and can win games.
- Having a strong second half finish opposed to having a strong first half start. Invokes more optimism club-wide going into the pre-season.
- Our wins, beating Clarkson and the Saints come-back among our best.
- Taberner up forward.
- Serong, Cerra and Brayshaw being guided through the middle by a rejuvenated Mundy.
- Disciplined back-line holding up their end of the ground given our outs.
- Individual improvements, most likely JLo's doing.
- Out: Weber (TBC)

Lowlights

- Nearly a handful of deflating finishes to our losses.
- Forward-line structure and ability to keep the ball locked in the F50 are glaring issues.
- Midfield still have a lot of chemistry to build up amongst each-other.
- No obvious BHill + Langdon replacements.
- Lobb's season.
- Ruck competition / depth.

My MVP

- Cerra

Most Improved

- Schultz.

Biggest Surprise

- Cox's swing to defence and mostly being able to step up into that role and own it as quick as he did.

 

[Van_Dyke]

Highlights

• Clearly identifiable gameplan being put in place and clearly developed over the season
• Amount of games and responsibility given to the younger players
• How strong the 2nd half of the season was
• Serong (don't think I need to say any more)
• Cerra and Brayshaw taking big steps forward just as the pressure was being put on them
• Beating Clarko
• How well the backline stood up considering how many players were missing (one stage you could argue there was 2/7 of the best 22 defenders out there for us)
• Tabs (mostly) putting together a good full season

Lowlights

• Carlton
• How often passages of play where we just don't get the ball occur. Happened Q1 R1, Q3 R2, Q2 R3, Q2 R4 and came back again tonight which was annoying.
• Injuries depriving us of chances to see some of the young guns, 15 games into both Sturt and Young would have been massive, extra few games into Tucker as well
• The stagnation of Blakely, Matera
• Dardy
• Forward line still not clicking, inconsistent pressure being applied
• Lobb's tease in the preseason and R1 and being disappointing ever since

MVP: Has to be Luke Ryan, been crazy how well he's stood up
Most Improved: Cerra just ahead of Schultz
Best under 22: Best actual player Brayshaw, but given relative age and expectation Serong
Biggest Surprise: Schultz, still not sure if you want him to be B22 in a top 4 side but is so much better than last year it isn't funny.

 

[Spirit Level]

I started enjoying footy again, so there's that

 

[Channels]

For a season where I expected very little, I was pleasantly surprised.

Highlights:
- Midfield. If we can keep them all, multi pronged midfield with Cerra, Brayshaw and Serong each with different strengths, for the next 10 years. Walters, Mundy, Fyfe, Tucker can all roll through to offer the grunt.
- Backline depth. Ryan career best year and had been wrong about Cox, he has improved out of sight. Hopefully we can sort out Hamling's issues to be able to take the Hawkins/Dixon's of the comp next year
- Tabs. Career best year, contested marking beast.
- Coaching - JL should take a bow, in a really tough year to implement a new system given the restrictions on training, clearly an excellent communicator/teacher of his his system.
- Skills - My pet hate for the last 5+ years. We can kick accurately now!
- Last year's trades - Would thought we would struggle to replace Brad Hill, haven't noticed his absence at all. Aish the quiet achiever.
- The future - So much potential. Sturt, Young

Lowlights:
- Injury management. It can only get better from here
- Scoring. Excluding the game against the North Melbourne witches hats, we haven't been able to transition well into attack. Hopefully in the preseason the team can unleash the attacking potential.
- Valente, disappointing we haven't yet seen him on the field although happy JL isn't gifting games. Hopefully he avoids the list cuts andhe is fit for the preseason.

 

[gungho]

For a season where I expected very little, I was pleasantly surprised.

Highlights:
- Midfield. If we can keep them all, multi pronged midfield with Cerra, Brayshaw and Serong each with different strengths, for the next 10 years. Walters, Mundy, Fyfe, Tucker can all roll through to offer the grunt.
- Backline depth. Ryan career best year and had been wrong about Cox, he has improved out of sight. Hopefully we can sort out Hamling's issues to be able to take the Hawkins/Dixon's of the comp next year
- Tabs. Career best year, contested marking beast.
- Coaching - JL should take a bow, in a really tough year to implement a new system given the restrictions on training, clearly an excellent communicator/teacher of his his system.
- Skills - My pet hate for the last 5+ years. We can kick accurately now!
- Last year's trades - Would thought we would struggle to replace Brad Hill, haven't noticed his absence at all. Aish the quiet achiever.
- The future - So much potential. Sturt, Young

Lowlights:
- Injury management. It can only get better from here
- Scoring. Excluding the game against the North Melbourne witches hats, we haven't been able to transition well into attack. Hopefully in the preseason the team can unleash the attacking potential.
- Valente, disappointing we haven't yet seen him on the field although happy JL isn't gifting games. Hopefully he avoids the list cuts andhe is fit for the preseason.

 

[gungho]

Could be a bit pessimistic here but I don't think Aish (or Acres) had a good season. Reckon they both need to be pushed out of the best 22 if we ever become a premiership team.

 

[FreoRicci]

Could be a bit pessimistic here but I don't think Aish (or Acres) had a good season. Reckon they both need to be pushed out of the best 22 if we ever become a premiership team.

Aish is quality. Full season as an attacking minded winger, whereas he was planted as a half back type at Collingwood. Same for Acres. Played every position imaginable at St Kilda, then comes across and plays his first full season in his natural position.
They ll be underrated pick ups over the next few seasons, just what we need to make finals and beyond.

 

[FreoRicci]

Highlights
Finishing season with 7 wins after starting 0-3 and looking at a horrible possibility losing to Adelaide to make it 0-4. 7-7 thereafter was great.

Emergence of youth- Cerra, Brayshaw, Serong all in midfield. Exciting times.

Taberner- finally. Finally plays a full season. Shows exactly what he’s capable of when he’s fit and firing. Should’ve had 35+, that’s the only downside.

Defence- somehow held firm with massive casualties. Hughes, Ryan, Duman (starting to come good), Cox just developed a synergy and understanding. Never soundly beaten apart from GWS. Kept us in virtually every game.

Great trade pick ups- Aish for the price is a bargain, Acres is going to be good. Conca was great for us second half of season.

JLo- Great first season as coach. Was thrown everything at him, including a pandemic and lockdown. Injuries, players on the list from Ross Lyon’s hard work effort first regime. Did as well as expected. Transformed the defence and high uncontested possession helped keep the team in games plus beating others using the same tactics. Refreshing. The plan is coming good.

Lowlights

Finished above the dumpster fire of Essendon, the underwhemlingly overrated Gold Coast and finished 0.6 % behind the ever pessimistic Carlton. Loss to all 3. Inexcusable for this club. All had chances to win against all three, just one or two quarters. Had we won 2 or 3, finals was stamped. Iron out those stupid losses to these teams, and we re well on our way to top 6. Frustrated that we missed finals when at times the football we played was arguably better then St Kilda’s, Melbourne’s, Bulldogs’ and Collingwood- all which finished above Fremantle .

Lobb. Had a career worst season. Yikes. Never seen such a terrible kick for goal. Hopefully just a blip, but honestly this guy needs to use his body and size to advantage. Just so weak/tame most games. First game was raving about Lobb being our ruck messiah whereas Darcy was unfit, incapable. The complete opposite transpired by the end of the season.

Forward line- struggled to even kick 5 goals most games. Dominated games for clearances, possessions, marks but that final third was just poor. Hogan needs a full uninterrupted pre season. He’s vital for structure and with a full season alongside Tabs, would both kick 30-50 goals no worries. The lack of small forward power is worrying. Schulz doesn’t do enough some games. Henry is so far off the pace, Crowden is a good tackler nothing else really.

Lastly
Injuries. Killed the early part of the season and played catch up ever since. New off field staff required and probably the most important signing/trade won’t be a player but just who

 

[Channels]

Lobb should be the litmus test for a forwards or skills coach. Fix the goalkicking routine as a test of coaching ability.

 

[Joao]

Lobb should be the litmus test for a forwards or skills coach. Fix the goalkicking routine as a test of coaching ability.

That's a bit harsh when it only comes out on game day. Sounds to me that he needs a mental coach, not a skills coach.

 

[gungho]

Positives:
Emergence of Serong, some genuine excitement from Young and Sturt before being injured, Justin Longmuir (his ability, temperament and strategic game day nous) - make no mistake, he's the real deal and our best change of success in the future.
Mundy played with the vitality of a 25 year old and hoping he keeps that up for next year. Ryan was a marvel in defense. Taberner, Brayshaw and Cerra had career best years. Improvement of Schultz (at the start of the year I did not rate him at all), Duman, Watson, Hughes and Wilson and Crowden.
Jess Hogan - he didn't set the world on fire but we desperately need him up forward for structure.
Injuries - weird one but I am going to put this in the positives - to do as well as we did without Hamling, Pearce and Logue is a testament to Longmuir and all defenders. This just shows our scope for improvement if we deal well with injuries next year.
Peter Bell - He is a key, capable of being ruthless and is a hugely passionate and intelligent individual, hell bent on seeing the Dockers return to the top of the ladder. Very happy we are having an over haul to the assistant coaches and S&C department.

Negatives: Not many to be honest. Lobb has lost his way and relevance to the side. Not imposing enough for ruck, and not reliable enough a kick for a key forward. Stephen Hill also looks lost (so does Frederick) and Blakely probably doesn't have the kicking skills to keep on the list. Jason Carter was a flash is the pan after all our effort with him and Henry looks off the pace (he is young though and needs a big preseason) We have weakness on the wings after losing B Hill and Langdon. I will get shot on here for saying this but I do not rate Acres or Aish very highly (Aish has excellent disposal but is not competitive enough in my opinion and Acres gets it a lot of it but does not put his body on the line enough and is wasteful by foot)

 

[gungho]

Aish is quality. Full season as an attacking minded winger, whereas he was planted as a half back type at Collingwood. Same for Acres. Played every position imaginable at St Kilda, then comes across and plays his first full season in his natural position.
They ll be underrated pick ups over the next few seasons, just what we need to make finals and beyond.

I have not seen them as being as good as what others rate them on here, but i hope you are right for 2021.

 

[freodog]

I’ll be honest. After years of rebuilding I expected to make finals last year under Ross & would have made it if not for injuries. This year again I thought we had a good enough team to make it (even with a new coach & the loss of Hill/Langdon).

I’ll give them a bit of an out with the disruption of COVID particularly at the start of the year not getting any home games.

I hope we won’t accept mediocrity again and have a meaningful finals campaign next year.

 

[Joao]

I’ll be honest. After years of rebuilding I expected to make finals last year under Ross & would have made it if not for injuries. This year again I thought we had a good enough team to make it (even with a new coach & the loss of Hill/Langdon).

I’ll give them a bit of an out with the disruption of COVID particularly at the start of the year not getting any home games.

I hope we won’t accept mediocrity again and have a meaningful finals campaign next year.

I think with 2 of Hamling, Pearce and Logue available all year we probably would have.

If we can get a decent injury run I am pretty sure we play finals next year.

 

[Snuffaluphagus]

I’ll be honest. After years of rebuilding I expected to make finals last year under Ross & would have made it if not for injuries. This year again I thought we had a good enough team to make it (even with a new coach & the loss of Hill/Langdon).

I’ll give them a bit of an out with the disruption of COVID particularly at the start of the year not getting any home games.

I hope we won’t accept mediocrity again and have a meaningful finals campaign next year.

I get that but there is always a learning period with a brand new coach and per the Duff article today, at no point during the year were we not missing 6 of our best 22...

The pass mark for me next year is making and I would argue winning finals, especially if we have a decent injury run.

No excuse for not making finals next year IMO - even with an injury list similar to this year

 

[Square Peg]

Brayshaw, Cerra and Logue all showing they are worthy first round picks and we haven't screwed the rebuild is my main highlight. I was in the hopeful but not convinced camp before the season began, but even the biggest sceptic can see we have an outstanding base now and Serong is the very large juicy cherry on top. The fact that later picks in Darcy, Cox and Ryan are also top players or on their way to it doesn't hurt one bit either. There are good times ahead people.

I have to agree that the lowlight was injuries, no surprises there. Sturt, Logue, Young and Tucker especially as they were all looking so good when they went down. Second lowlight was trying to turn Hogan into a defender, thank god that disastrous idea is dead and buried.

Ryan is my MVP. Hughes definitely most improved, he looks like a proper footballer now. The biggest surprise is that we still have the same second rate board and not one of them has fallen on their sword in shame, amazingly our off field mediocrity hasn't permeated down to the team yet but poorly run clubs don't win flags and the *ers on the board are going to hold us back sooner or later.

 

[mightymouse75]

Great year after the past 4 or 5.
Players have signed up for the jlo game plan
Kids are developing better than under Lyon.
S & c team to take a different direction.

Excited for next year & getting back to the top 8

 

[Channels]

Positives:
Emergence of Serong, some genuine excitement from Young and Sturt before being injured, Justin Longmuir (his ability, temperament and strategic game day nous) - make no mistake, he's the real deal and our best change of success in the future.
Mundy played with the vitality of a 25 year old and hoping he keeps that up for next year. Ryan was a marvel in defense. Taberner, Brayshaw and Cerra had career best years. Improvement of Schultz (at the start of the year I did not rate him at all), Duman, Watson, Hughes and Wilson and Crowden.
Jess Hogan - he didn't set the world on fire but we desperately need him up forward for structure.
Injuries - weird one but I am going to put this in the positives - to do as well as we did without Hamling, Pearce and Logue is a testament to Longmuir and all defenders. This just shows our scope for improvement if we deal well with injuries next year.
Peter Bell - He is a key, capable of being ruthless and is a hugely passionate and intelligent individual, hell bent on seeing the Dockers return to the top of the ladder. Very happy we are having an over haul to the assistant coaches and S&C department.

Negatives: Not many to be honest. Lobb has lost his way and relevance to the side. Not imposing enough for ruck, and not reliable enough a kick for a key forward. Stephen Hill also looks lost (so does Frederick) and Blakely probably doesn't have the kicking skills to keep on the list. Jason Carter was a flash is the pan after all our effort with him and Henry looks off the pace (he is young though and needs a big preseason) We have weakness on the wings after losing B Hill and Langdon. I will get shot on here for saying this but I do not rate Acres or Aish very highly (Aish has excellent disposal but is not competitive enough in my opinion and Acres gets it a lot of it but does not put his body on the line enough and is wasteful by foot)

Agree with you on Acres. If I could choose between Bewley & Acres, I'd choose Bewley. I don't think Acres is a wing, I think he would be better as the big body mid distributing to the outside. Again last night the crucial turnover from a few of his kicks just sucked out the momentum.

 

[Lach72]

I won't know until Bradey turns up

 

[Gimme the Fyfe]

"Your MVP: Luke Ryan - he and his merry band of men scrounged together a defence no one thought possible after Logue went down"

Biggest surprise for the year: I honestly didnt think Mundy had it in him to keep outputting what he is, guy is a marvelous freak of nature


Private Ryan and "Hail Mundy, full of grace"

 

[Gimme the Fyfe]

Your MVP: Luke Ryan - he and his merry band of men scrounged together a defence no one thought possible after Logue went down
Biggest surprise for the year: I honestly didnt think Mundy had it in him to keep outputting what he is, guy is a marvelous freak of nature

'Private Ryan' and "Hail Mundy, full of grace"

Good calls.

Tabs' consistency and the forward line coming together for the last few games have been great to see. Longmuir's presence has percolated through the squad. Bring on 2021, can't wait!

 

[Bring back Drum]

Highlight; Serong easily then St Kilda game.
Lowlight; Injuries easily then the Carlton abortion.
MVP; Ryan 1, Fyfe 2, Tabs 3, Cerra & Brayshaw =4, Mundy 6.
Best Youngen; Serong, but very happy with Brayshaw & Cerras development.
Most Improved; Sean Darcy. The injury niggles seemed to have gone & the fact we no longer talk about him means he’s going well.
Biggest Surprise; Brennan Cox, his laconic style is far more suited to defence than up forward & he got better as the games went on. Still interested in him forward though & whether his new found belief can transfer to good footy there.

Next year, I don’t want to have to blame injuries if we fail. If we’re not good enough, then fine, but please give us the opportunity with a healthy list!!

 

[go_the_dockers]

Highlight; Serong – hit the ground running and kept it up all year. His handball’s in congestion are a thing of beauty (always to a player in a better position)
Lowlight; Matera – I am not the biggest fan, and he did not meet my low expectations. Lobb is the other one.
Injuries
MVP; Luke Ryan – Held the back line together.
Best young player (under 22); Serong has been great all year, Cerra and Brayshaw has taken another step forward.
Most Improved; Taberner – Almost put it all together.
Biggest Surprise; Mundy – ageless (I think the shorter quarters suited him, and he may struggle next year).

 

[freo84]

Highlight; Watching arguably the best young midfield in the comp grow with every game.
Lowlight; The train wreck Carlton game. It was disgraceful and should never have happened. I've never been more disappointed in the umpiring.
MVP; Luke Ryan – What a massive year of growth. Deserves AA
Best young player (under 22); Serong is already a gun and still has so much growth left. Future captain and brownlow medallist. Will be rising Star.
Most Improved; Tabs is an obvious one but Cox has shown a lot in defence and I think he will be a mainstay now.
Biggest Surprise; Logue showing everyone why he was taken early. Will be an absolute monster in the years to come.