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

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BigRang

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Mar 11, 2011
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Meh, non question, you have to consider the age profile / experience / conditions / relative motivations of the teams. Fast forward 18months to 2 years with the same cattle on a dry day at Optus then yeah we probably do win.
This.
I really couldn't understand a lot of the board being all like 'This is a 50/50 game for us' etc. We are a young side, sitting at the bottom of the 8 due to other teams losing games, we beat the sides below us but struggle against teams above us. We played a genuine flag contender last night, skilled, hardened, drilled. Yeah it's disappointing that we lost, but it really just reinforces that we are where we should be. I'm not worried. We're still trending upwards IMO.
 
Jan 14, 2008
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This.
I really couldn't understand a lot of the board being all like 'This is a 50/50 game for us' etc. We are a young side, sitting at the bottom of the 8 due to other teams losing games, we beat the sides below us but struggle against teams above us. We played a genuine flag contender last night, skilled, hardened, drilled. Yeah it's disappointing that we lost, but it really just reinforces that we are where we should be. I'm not worried. We're still trending upwards IMO.

I thought we were trending upwards last season ?How many more seasons do we need to trend upwards before we actually reach the pinnacle?.
 

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muckypup

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Apr 20, 2009
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Like we've been doing for the last 20 odd years , she'll be right .Just wait until next year.
There are no guarantees in footy mate. Teams work from the draft up or they recruit. Recruiting ready made means you inevitably run into salary cap issues. Given that a lot of players simply *will not* move west that also limits this option for the western clubs. We have a good young group. What they make of themselves is down to the club environment. We have plenty of talent.
 
Jan 14, 2008
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There are no guarantees in footy mate. Teams work from the draft up or they recruit. Recruiting ready made means you inevitably run into salary cap issues. Given that a lot of players simply *will not* move west that also limits this option for the western clubs. We have a good young group. What they make of themselves is down to the club environment. We have plenty of talent.

Yeh ok mate. You got me , she'll be right all good. ;)
 

vidwhal

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Oct 4, 2012
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They had to make one flight. We've been going back and forth and there is a cumulative effect of travelling every week. I challenge you to fly to Melbourne and back 3 times in a few weeks and see how good you feel. I watched Mundy closely and the old fella could barely move. He had 6 kicks in the entire game, and you can't question the effort he would give (if he could). Fyfe was absolutely rooted. Same with our young mids. Flat footed, on their heels.

It's not an excuse. It's just the reality. We turned up gassed against maybe the best side in the competition, and look what happens. I bet if we played them on Sunday we would have lost by say 30-40 points instead of 70.
Yep, the human body does have its limits but some people comfortably parked in their armchairs think otherwise.

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Polly

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May 2, 2006
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It was clearly evident that we are a team of short people. I couldn’t see one matchup where we had a size advantage. This became a major issue in the clearance work and ultimately the failure of the midfield unit.
The handball game requires a defensive effort by the opposition in a much smaller area and the Cats brought great pressure on that and we crumbled.
Aish, Acres, Tucker, Hughes, Walters ( sorry he’s cooked), Henry (I’m just not seeing it), Schultz are place holders as far as I’m concerned. If we can replace these guys we might start getting somewhere.
Certs can go, won’t be any tears from me.
 

vidwhal

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He’s normally fast enough, big enough or clever enough to get a hand in somewhere but Hawkins beat him easily one on one several times. It’s not criticizing, just fact. Hawkins is one of the very best power forwards in the game & is at the peak of his powers.


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Tom Hawkins is a physical beast of a man. When it's delivered how he likes it, no one is stopping him.

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vidwhal

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I don’t think I’ve read a more incorrect, totally clueless post ever on BF & there is a lot of crap on here. fu** me at one stage he was leading the stats for all comers &
led our clearances despite not playing the last qtr. That doesn’t happen if you don’t have second efforts.

From the Cats board.

Whilst Darcy is not a recruiting option (having sign for further 2 years) was interesting to get a look at him. Strength and tap work was very good but looks overweight and lacking agility and ability to contribute 2nd efforts- Blitz, Stanley and Sav miles better in that regard. Darcy - Knee problems and overweight- no thanks.
I'm fine with the Geelong board coming to that assessment of Darcy.

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May 2, 2017
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I lot of them won't get any better though.
Some of them won't, you're right. Some are going to get a lot better.

For example, Guthrie was whipping boy for Geelong fans all the way to 2019. Suddenly he is an AA mid.

Geelong aren't the most talented team (they are still pretty good), but they are by far the most experienced and it shows.
Tom Hawkins is a physical beast of a man. When it's delivered how he likes it, no one is stopping him.

On AOSP on Manta using BigFooty.com mobile app
Yeah there is no defender who could defend him with the midfield dominance they had.

I'm fine with the Geelong board coming to that assessment of Darcy.

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The funniest part is that he thinks he has to turn him away, dude, Darcy isn't in to you.

It's like me playing hard to get with Margot Robbie.
 
I really want to know how a midfield that had Darcy knocking it down their throats got so badly fustigated.

He was winning the taps AND hitting them to advantage...

Fumbles. They couldn't take clean possession.
 

wild side

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Mar 29, 2010
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Our midfield boys when the ball was tapped to them were under pressure immediately. A few times the Geelong mid already had hold of our mid before the ball got to them. Particularly Mundy, he was being hampered professionally, and probably illegally.
 

BStaff17

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Aug 1, 2016
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Looks like we used all our luck last week with those upsets.

Most disappointing aspect for me is just the basics at football we simply aren't good enough. Poor goal kicking not as much last night but generally through out the year.

Our tackling pressure and actually sticking the tackles is atrocious. We haven't been a good tackling team since the 2013 PF against sydney where we tackled any swan that moved on the night.

Luke ryan i am fan love his background and rise to All Australian but i reckon some his attempts at tackles last night were horrible from his usual standard.

Compared to Geelong who ran us down i reckon 10 times from behind. We are lucky most weeks to get 3.

Plus some of the slipping over constantly was embarrassing yet again what boots were they wearing obivously wasnt addressed before the game when they surely knew the ground was slippery due to the rain. Poor attention to detail
 

StingBitten

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May 31, 2012
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Owch.

This had all the hallmarks of a loss we had to have, in that it showed up the parts of our system that don't work yet.

I believe in the team, the coach, the players and the system were building, but this was also a real acid test of all four, and a few things jumped out at me.

I don't know if it's an unmeasured immaterial stat to Freo, or just a side effects of our team's youth, but I suspect Freo may currently have one of the lightest combined bodyweight teams in the comp. I don't know if this is WHY we prefer a space-control zone and an open play style of ball transition, or BECAUSE we play a space-control zone with open play transitions.

In either respect, we weren't just out-muscled all round the ground at stoppages and in congested play, we were out bulked. Part of why we weren't sticking tackles I reckon was because about 65% of our guys was about 7-10kg lighter than their direct opponent. Not surprising the heaviest guy on the team in Darcy was the only guy consistently not being pushed around physically. We really could have used a Crowley / Pav type mid or two tonight... We're currently a team without any real heavy and strong bull mids at all whereas Geelong seemed to have a surfeit of them at times, such was the average weight/strength mismatch. Nobody in our side was consistently winning their body-on-body battles tonight... There were no strength mis-matches in our favour at all anywhere on the field, except for maybe in the ruck. Fyfe's shoulder stopped him having much impact at stoppages, and it shows how much we've come to rely on his occasional ability as an extractor. Geelong knew Fyfe wouldn't be throwing his weight around much with his shoulder, so put a lot of effort into keeping Mundy quiet at stoppages.. and man it worked, as these two are our biggest bodied mids at the coal face currently. I literally lost count of how many times our younger smaller mids running out of or around stoppages were effectively blocked off the ball. It happened far too frequently and easily IMO. A few of our bigger framed lads need to hit the gym Big time over the off season methinks... Hope Valente comes good, were really going to need him next year. Failing that, if ever there was a time to try Griff in the midfield I reckon tonight was it, and maybe if Cox or Hamling hadn't been out for the season we could have tried it (though maybe Griff isn't the answer either... I dunno - we just seemed so light-on in congested play tonight and were pushed out of contests so easily)

I thought our typical open-play ball transition was non existent because we just couldn't get it to the outside cleanly... There was no free players out in space anywhere near Cooee of a stoppage, those that WERE in a position to receive our wide, were run down quickly and tackled so our possession chains constantly broke down. Plus for whatever reason I don't remember seeing a single switch of play across the field in defence all night from our guys. I'm assuming this was a deliberate decision on our part, but why this is I dunno... We really didn't use the width of the field much at all tonight and seemed to play very narrow down the wings, while hugging the boundary. This created more congestion on the wings, and we were then back to our congested play problems. Geelong did a great job of denying us the corridor too, intercepting transitioning play across the corridor and were always pushing us wide, which cut down on lateral movement going forwards out of defence.

Our defensive transitions seemed off all night. We neither tackled well, nor pressured the ball carrier, nor shut down space, nor cut off passing lanes, nor intercept marked, nor took contested marks in defence very well tonight... Our guys seemed constantly about three to four metres out of position, and were late teaching and pressuring the ball as a result. Any mid-field turnover in the first and second quarters particularly (to me at least) lacked players in support as a result and Geelong would invariably have the numbers to take advantage when we lost possession. We forced very few turnovers ourselves 'cause again, Geelong were blocking players off the ball brilliantly everywhere.

We will get all these problems fixed with time and effort, but tonight we're were outplayed, out muscled, out coached, and didn't respond well or quickly enough. That's partially due to player development, partially physical maturity, and part developing game sense.

One thing we can't change however is our player's size. I really hate to say it because a lot of our smaller players are damn good, worth keeping, and are personal favorites of mine... But if we're going to keep so many sub six foot or light framed players on the same team, at a time when opposing sides are staying bigger and heavier right across the field, then we'd better develop a more flexible playing style to suit. We can't play bruise-free high-skill open transition-focussed footy all the time, every game without having a plan B, C, D, E and F to fall back on ...especially against bigger stronger teams, and especially in the wet - as today so painfully demonstrated.

You've completely summed it up.

We are short a few stronger bodies, and clearly have needed to draft more tall forward options too.

Having this eternal mosquito fleet works against bottom chuggers like Hawthorn but not against the real Men.

These changes are going to take us another 3-4 of seasons of drafting unfortunately.
 
Apr 14, 2018
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Game summary and player ratings
 

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