Autopsy Autopsy in Every Sense of the Word - Freo Embarrassed by Geelong - Rnd 18

[Ysaye]

One thing I took out of yesterday was that Henry brought the ball to ground a number of times where he was double teamed against bigger bodies with entries that weren't at all to his advantage - he converted certain rebounding goals to either ball ups or boundary line throw ins. Of course that shouldn't be his job and it highlights that we could have really use a tall forward in the line up or two as well as better decision making going into the forward line, but what is new?

I didn't think the pressure of the forward line was the issue; rather it was the fact that the midfielders weren't manning up their opponents. Geelong had many more difficulties bringing it out of the forward line than they did moving it through the midfield.

The other thing was our switching out of the defence which has been a strength and we would have kept the pressure on them except we messed up those way too often, mostly with players slipping over or miss kicks. Arguably the weather played a part but to beat a team like Geelong we just have to make those kinds of opportunities sting. It raised for me an issue about rushing Hughes back in within the scheme of the overall defensive unit; I actually thought he did a good defensive job but taking Walker out reduced our attack coming out of defence.

Of course the total annihilation in the midfield was the biggest reason for the loss, and even more frustrating given the dominance of Darcy. When the game was still on the line, I actually thought for once that the inside midfielders were okay, it was the players coming off the wing / half back(Cerra, Aish, Acres) that were the real let down; they didn't keep with their players and when it was their turn they kicked to 40% / 60% competitions down the line way too much.

 

[SPEEDWAGON]

We all laughed at suma

but he was ******* right IMO, the game plan needs tinkering

we are trying to emulate west coast 2018, that doesn’t work anymore. Plus we don’t have the team for it.

 

[CapitalA]

We all laughed at suma

but he was ******* right IMO, the game plan needs tinkering

we are trying to emulate west coast 2018, that doesn’t work anymore. Plus we don’t have the team for it.

How so?

 

[jwint43]

Went to the game as I have a soft spot for Freo. Oh my word, they shoot themselves in the foot so much. Was up on level 5 so had a view of the whole field, I can distinctly remember two passages in the 2nd where the most basic skill execution was required and Freo were on over the top with overlap (when the game was still definitely alive) and they turned it over in comical fashion, it was so frustrating! It's so much more annoying when you can see whats on ahead of the play and they turn it over in the back half, so I can only imagine how you guys feel. Sorry for intruding but I had to share my frustration haha

 

[mightymouse75]

Went to the game as I have a soft spot for Freo. Oh my word, they shoot themselves in the foot so much. Was up on level 5 so had a view of the whole field, I can distinctly remember two passages in the 2nd where the most basic skill execution was required and Freo were on over the top with overlap (when the game was still definitely alive) and they turned it over in comical fashion, it was so frustrating! It's so much more annoying when you can see whats on ahead of the play and they turn it over in the back half, so I can only imagine how you guys feel. Sorry for intruding but I had to share my frustration haha

Last game I watched. Western Bulldogs in Melbourne 2 years ago.
Clumsy football.
But the silence.
You can hear the dogs players calling out to each other at the docklands when the noise echoes off the roof.
The Dockers were dead quiet.
Found it very odd.
No communication at all.

 

[PH Docker]

We all laughed at suma

but he was ******* right IMO, the game plan needs tinkering

we are trying to emulate west coast 2018, that doesn’t work anymore. Plus we don’t have the team for it.

We didn’t follow the game plan , that was the problem!

 

[Yeti]

Maybe JLo listened to Suma and tinkered with the game plan and that was the result?

 

[blue shark]

It’s not all doom and gloom, it was a finals type performance from the Cats.
That’s what we could expect if we made top 8 this year.
It highlights what is missing, I remember the first derby of 2015 we smashed WC. Simmo learned from that and never looked back.
I’d say midfield, forward will be drastically altered next year.
But it’s the little things that you can work on straight away that should be fixed.
Tackling, keeping your feet, falling over like Balla?
That’s VFL footy history and it’s what wins games in the wet or
under pressure.
It’s why Malthouse succeeded at WC, No stone left unturned.
On a fast track WA teams have always looked good, skilled.

 

[Lach72]

One thing I took out of yesterday was that Henry brought the ball to ground a number of times where he was double teamed against bigger bodies with entries that weren't at all to his advantage - he converted certain rebounding goals to either ball ups or boundary line throw ins. Of course that shouldn't be his job and it highlights that we could have really use a tall forward in the line up or two as well as better decision making going into the forward line, but what is new?

I didn't think the pressure of the forward line was the issue; rather it was the fact that the midfielders weren't manning up their opponents. Geelong had many more difficulties bringing it out of the forward line than they did moving it through the midfield.

The other thing was our switching out of the defence which has been a strength and we would have kept the pressure on them except we messed up those way too often, mostly with players slipping over or miss kicks. Arguably the weather played a part but to beat a team like Geelong we just have to make those kinds of opportunities sting. It raised for me an issue about rushing Hughes back in within the scheme of the overall defensive unit; I actually thought he did a good defensive job but taking Walker out reduced our attack coming out of defence.

Of course the total annihilation in the midfield was the biggest reason for the loss, and even more frustrating given the dominance of Darcy. When the game was still on the line, I actually thought for once that the inside midfielders were okay, it was the players coming off the wing / half back(Cerra, Aish, Acres) that were the real let down; they didn't keep with their players and when it was their turn they kicked to 40% / 60% competitions down the line way too much.

thats largely true…BUT…

Switta, Walters amd Henry did not have a single tackle for the night…how is that even possible?

 

[Purple_Turtle]

We all laughed at suma

but he was ******* right IMO, the game plan needs tinkering

we are trying to emulate west coast 2018, that doesn’t work anymore. Plus we don’t have the team for it.

About 90% of the reason Sumich was laughed at was his inability to respond to "how so." He shouldn't get much credit for a very broad claim he obviously didn't think through.

 

[Ysaye]

thats largely true…BUT…

Switta, Walters amd Henry did not have a single tackle for the night…how is that even possible?

You missed out Shultz (and Lobb) as well who also had no tackles. Banfield and Treacy were the only forwards who had tackles with 4 and 3 respectively.

The answer was that it was hardly in our forward line and Geelong played an almost completely uncontested kicking game. The only place they were going to get a tackle was in our backline.

 

[Purpletown]

Trouble is it’s was predictable that we would slip over, I said to my cousin sarcastically pre-game that we always chose the right boots and won’t slip over at crucial times!

What else could we expect? Ballas has the contract to supply boots to the FFC.

 

[malpaso]

You were having a shot , admit it .Well now I,m criticising you. Get of the fence, that performance last night was unacceptable from the CEO, coaches, players down to the bootstudder.
I noticed you didn't have the same she'll be right attitude after a loss in the bad Lyon years.
Longmuir was out coached last night, it's not the end of the world, it will happen again. Get used to it,

Hope you feel better.

 

[malpaso]

We all laughed at suma

but he was ******* right IMO, the game plan needs tinkering

we are trying to emulate west coast 2018, that doesn’t work anymore. Plus we don’t have the team for it.

Every team has to tinker during and after every season. Suma said nothing..

 

[Bicco]

You missed out Shultz (and Lobb) as well who also had no tackles. Banfield and Treacy were the only forwards who had tackles with 4 and 3 respectively.

The answer was that it was hardly in our forward line and Geelong played an almost completely uncontested kicking game. The only place they were going to get a tackle was in our backline.

We had 38 I50's with only 2 marks. Given that Geelong didn't take 36 defensive intercept marks, there was plenty of opportunity for at least 1 tackle I would've thought.

 

[Freofalcon]

Worst moment for me was early in the first when Fyfe told Cerra to get off Dangerfield so he could defend him, ball was kicked inside 50 and Fyfe sagged off the contest out the back, Danger went in third man and took an easy mark - shanked the kick but embarrassing from a captain

Worst moment for me was in the first quarter with a couple of minutes to go.

We were in possession and working the ball through the middle. As is so often the case, we fall over and the turn over results in a goal to the opposition killing any momentum we had.

So Freo.

 

[BettercallSaul]

We had 38 I50's with only 2 marks. Given that Geelong didn't take 36 defensive intercept marks, there was plenty of opportunity for at least 1 tackle I would've thought.

Seems to me when our band of merry short men play well they have very good games. When not playing well they almost seem to disappear, no tackles or goals.

 

[BettercallSaul]

Henry in particular seemed very confused where to stand when zoning for kick ins. It was disappointing that nobody seemed to be telling him either.

 

[SiempreFreo]

I think a lot of the story was written last week.

Flown all over, needed to absorb a near miss v Blues, they performed magnificently in alien territory while carrying the weight of expectation of Fyfey's 200th. They played themselves out. A crash landing after a mini-final was always on the cards.

 

[Bicco]

If we're to win a GF, which I hope is the one thing that collectively we all want, then the team will likely need to travel in consecutive weeks, playing Geelong like teams for 3/4 weeks in a row. There's a hell of a lot of excuses from people around travel after playing Carlton (good but not great), Hawthorn (awful) and the Geelong (very good). Travel can not be an excuse to a bad performance. It's a part of what we need to do to win a GF. Supporters and the club need to get over travel as an excuse. It's almost as bad as blaming the weather. The things we can control are our attitude, skill level and effort. We failed dismally on all 3 Thursday night.

 

[Mr Cheese]

If we're to win a GF, which I hope is the one thing that collectively we all want, then the team will likely need to travel in consecutive weeks, playing Geelong like teams for 3/4 weeks in a row. There's a hell of a lot of excuses from people around travel after playing Carlton (good but not great), Hawthorn (awful) and the Geelong (very good). Travel can not be an excuse to a bad performance. It's a part of what we need to do to win a GF. Supporters and the club need to get over travel as an excuse. It's almost as bad as blaming the weather. The things we can control are our attitude, skill level and effort. We failed dismally on all 3 Thursday night.

True if we're Geelong, but we are a very young side, who are inconsistent by their nature. They were flat and clearly gassed and ran into a formidable Geelong team playing some of their best footy, I don't think many sides would've lived with them. We've seen across the comp, teams don't deal well when facing high pressure, especially young sides (we beat Sydney for example). The test now is whether they can get themselves back up for an important run of games.

Give it a season or two and we should weather these circumstances very differently, which as you said, we'll need to if we're going to get that GF win.

 

[Johnny Dalmas]

If we're to win a GF, which I hope is the one thing that collectively we all want, then the team will likely need to travel in consecutive weeks, playing Geelong like teams for 3/4 weeks in a row. There's a hell of a lot of excuses from people around travel after playing Carlton (good but not great), Hawthorn (awful) and the Geelong (very good). Travel can not be an excuse to a bad performance. It's a part of what we need to do to win a GF. Supporters and the club need to get over travel as an excuse. It's almost as bad as blaming the weather. The things we can control are our attitude, skill level and effort. We failed dismally on all 3 Thursday night.

Where is that double-like button.

 

[Johnny Dalmas]

True if we're Geelong, but we are a very young side, who are inconsistent by their nature. They were flat and clearly gassed and ran into a formidable Geelong team playing some of their best footy, I don't think many sides would've lived with them. We've seen across the comp, teams don't deal well when facing high pressure, especially young sides (we beat Sydney for example). The test now is whether they can get themselves back up for an important run of games.

Give it a season or two and we should weather these circumstances very differently, which as you said, we'll need to if we're going to get that GF win.

There is no shame in losing. But we were demolished. Being tired isn't much of an excuse for that.

Especially when some of our weak points (turnovers due to poor disposal, poor goalkicking, ineffective stoppage defence) are chronic problems.

 

[Freofalcon]

True if we're Geelong, but we are a very young side, who are inconsistent by their nature. They were flat and clearly gassed and ran into a formidable Geelong team playing some of their best footy, I don't think many sides would've lived with them. We've seen across the comp, teams don't deal well when facing high pressure, especially young sides (we beat Sydney for example). The test now is whether they can get themselves back up for an important run of games.

Give it a season or two and we should weather these circumstances very differently, which as you said, we'll need to if we're going to get that GF win.

Oh geez. The good old five year plan theory.

Not even Stalin would of had the balls to submit our “How do we fix Freo” to the Politburo.

 

[Freomaniac]

What else could we expect? Ballas has the contract to supply boots to the FFC.

Some people bag out Ballantyne and Chris Mayne for having bad games. But both could at least provide forward pressure in the forward 50.

Having Lobb, tabs Ballantyne, Mayne and Walters in their prime years of 24-28 years old would make us a finals side