Unofficial Preview AFLM Round 7: Geelong vs Fremantle- start the Kar[dinia]!

[Falconista]

Ah, Geelong, along with Hawthorn you are a team that Fremantle finds it hard to crack. At Kardinia Park, it’s even more rare to taste victory. Sorry, hang on, I’ve got an email from a ‘Stephen of Gingin’ who is asking me to remember back to Federal Election Day in 2013. Random, but I’ll go with it... He asks if I’ll recite the following to you all.

Sandilands the big fist,
Look at that Hill..
Somehow, off the interchange bench..
And into his hands..
Maybe it’s Fremantle’s day..
Walters is on, Hill keeps going..
This to send them into a home preliminary final...
For the FIRST TIME, IN THEIR HISTORY!


Thanks Stephen, that brings back some lovely memories. 15 phenomenal seconds. At Kardinia Park, versus Geelong, IN A BLOODY FINAL!!

Now that we’re all euphoric on this memory, let’s preview the match.



The good news is it’s a Fox Footy game so no Luke Darcy commentary and thus no repeats of last weeks shambles of calling our coach “Jason Longmuir” or our small forward “Sonny Williams”. Bad news though, it could well be a Dwayne Russell and Kelli Underwood duo. Regardless, this match shapes as a well-timed litmus test for Fremantle. You can only beat who is in front of you for which the Dockers have done 5 times in 6. The nagging question though remains, have the purple beaten anyone of substance?

In the author’s estimations, this match will be won or lost by the kicks inside 50. This season has seen both teams play a style much more offence focussed. For Fremantle, it has not been uncommon for chains of possessions to be followed by a long kick in to the forwards. Geelong with their superior skills and experience, kick the ball inside fifty with more precision often seeking their leading forwards. Geelong will be hoping that Fremantle continue the haphazard ‘bomb it in’ style as their defenders such as Stewart and Blicavs are excellent defenders who are accomplished aerial players. One suspects that the superior ball use of the Cats going forward is going to be too difficult to stop.

With COVID about there is no point speculating on the full teams four days out other than that Neil Erasmus will likely be in the squad [concussion test permitting] after he carved up in the WAFL.

• Sean DARCY/Lloyd MEEK: Whoever plays this week should comfortably win the hitout tally. Geelong are without a dominant ruck so hitouts to advantage are vital. Both will also be needed to cover extra metres to impede the tall Geelong forwards and stretch the Cat’s defence by taking marks or bringing the ball to ground for Schultz and Walters to go to work.
• Rebounding Irishmen Rick O’SHEA Zach TUOHY
  2

  Zach Tuohy

  Age

  34

  Ht

  187cm

  Wt

  94kg

  Pos.

  Mid

  Career

  Season

  Last 5

  D

  17.7

  4star

  K

  11.2

  4star

  HB

  6.5

  4star

  M

  3.7

  4star

  T

  1.7

  4star

  CL

  0.7

  3star

  D

  18.9

  4star

  K

  15.4

  5star

  HB

  3.5

  2star

  M

  3.6

  4star

  T

  1.1

  2star

  CL

  1.1

  3star

  D

  11.4

  3star

  K

  7.0

  3star

  HB

  4.4

  4star

  M

  2.6

  3star

  T

  1.0

  3star

  CL

  0.4

  3star

  : Has continued his excellent form of the past few years. Stopping his rebound a must for Fremantle.
• Mitch DUNCAN: Rarely wastes a possession. Has been a little down on form so far in 2022 so might be due a big game.
• Sam SWITKOWSKI: I’m very late to the party, but after the match vs Carlton last week, I finally understand what the fuss is about. Switkowski could have a profound impact in this contest as his excellent ball use assists greatly his fellow forwards.

No pressure, Lachie!


All in all, this match might be the most important of our season. It likely won’t be a win, however, the wins will be how the younger players cope against a young side and how willing the team is to both muck in and endure a Geelong wave. A non-thrashing loss that isn’t reliant on Luke Ryan, Brayshaw, Mundy #chasing4hundy or SonSon is imho, a good result. Get smashed and we just prove, yet again, that we are the footy equivalent of a man with a terrible comb over.

Go well and let’s hope come Saturday evening we’ll be able to hold our heads high as Dockers fans.

 

[StingBitten]

Awesome preview!

With Darcy out I think this match tips in their favour with the narrow ground and shitty time slot (effectively playing at 9.30am in their body clocks).

I'd love us to beat them on heir home deck - if we play like we did on the weekend it could be within a kick.

 

[Frigate]

Great work Falconista, that was quite brilliant, I really enjoyed it! It will be an interesting game for both clubs, because our speed will be a big factor, but just if we can get past there big bodies on a narrow ground. They have good skills, but are slower so our pressure will need to at its best. Geelong are beatable, but they are a still a genuine contender. I hope Clarke has a good game.

 

[mightymouse75]

Clarke will be well reved up for a blinder.
If not we always have banfield to substitute in

 

[wild side]

Go Freo! Meek to show them why they should seek him as a standalone Ruck

 

[Confucius]

This is such a hard game to tip. Sportsbet says we lose by 23 points, Squiggle says we lose by 29 points. None of the pundits will be tipping us. My head says a loss of less than 6 goals is a massive improvement on recent history against the cats and won't dent our finals tilt, but...

We are a very young team and the one thing you can guarantee from young teams is inconsistency. But that's what's so surprising about this team at the moment. We're not letting opposition teams get a run of goals against us, we've won more individual quarters of footy than any team bar Melbourne (Freo have 17 qtr wins out of 24 VS Geelong with 13 Qtr wins) and we've won both of our away games. Maybe we'll show up and play 4 hard quarters of footy...

Other than Tassie, there's no harder place for a WA team to win than in Geelong. Theoretically, a young side like ours should be ready for a significant drop in form this weekend, but I'm not convinced that Kardinia Park is too skinny for our game plan. David King reckons our consistent desire to switch the ball out of defence never works in Geelong. He reckons it'll be fine at the 'G, so a loss this week won't dent our finals chances. BUT, there was also an article (in The West?) this week that suggested that we rarely use the boundary line to attack, instead we switch to the "outer corridor" which maybe suggests that we don't need the full width, we just switch to the fat side of centre enough to open things up to give our multitude of runners some space. That will be harder on a narrower ground but maybe there's still enough room...

The catch here is that if we do get stuck having to use the long kick down the line, we will really notice the absence of Darcy, Taberner and Fyfe. If this starts to become a problem, a win will depend on Lobb, Treacy and Meek's ability to clunk a couple and more importantly bring the ball to ground to give our runners a chance. Maybe our big men are ready to prove themselves against one of the best contested marking teams in the comp...

And how good are the cats?

They are a high scoring team, but I don't think their huge scores against Essendon or the Roos are really relevant here. What's more interesting is that against good defensive teams Sydney and Brisbane, they scored 77 and 80 points. (The Hawks also kept them to 80 points too.) Freo have conceded 2 goals less per game than Sydney and Brisbane. If we're switched on from go to woe, and the narrow oval doesn't spook us, I think we can keep them keep them to a low score. Those are the big "IFS" though.

If we can lower our eyes and not kick it straight to Stewart (like we did for Weitering for the first quarter against Carlton), and kick straight in front of goal (another big IF) then I think we can kick a score that'll win. Anything over 80 points should do it. We've only kicked less than 80 points once this year and that was against the Saints who are significantly better defensively than the Cats.

My head says the experienced, big bodied Cats win on their home deck by about 3 goals in a hard fought low scoring contest. But deep in my bones I remember what I whispered to my Dad who was standing next to me in the second tier of the stand at Kardinia Park just moments before Stephen Hill

32

Stephen Hill

Age

33

Ht

183cm

Wt

82kg

Pos.

Def

Career

Season

Last 5

D

19.5

5star

K

11.7

4star

HB

7.8

5star

M

3.0

3star

T

2.9

4star

MG

223.5

3star

D

13.5

3star

K

8.8

4star

HB

4.8

3star

M

4.8

4star

T

0.8

1star

MG

223.5

3star

D

11.2

3star

K

5.4

2star

HB

5.8

4star

M

2.2

3star

T

2.8

5star

took a second and third bounce right in front of us and pumped the Sherrin to it's rightful home... "I think we might win this..."

 

[Okinakashi]

if we play like we did on the weekend it could be within a kick.

Good call!