Prediction Round 2: Changes v Melbourne

[Stevooo3940]

Jeez there's some overreaction following what was a pretty decent performance. Yes, they got pipped but there was some great footy and some even bigger growth to come from the likes of McVee, Amiss, Young, Bolton, Brayshaw, Voss, Pearce etc. What i saw on Saturday in the first 2.5 quarters was better footy than I have seen since 2015.
Don't be surprised if we are 6-1or 5-2 by round 7 and playing footy that everyone loves.

 

[Docker82]

Jeez there's some overreaction following what was a pretty decent performance. Yes, they got pipped but there was some great footy and some even bigger growth to come from the likes of McVee, Amiss, Young, Bolton, Brayshaw, Voss, Pearce etc. What i saw on Saturday in the first 2.5 quarters was better footy than I have seen since 2015.
Don't be surprised if we are 6-1or 5-2 by round 7 and playing footy that everyone loves.

Didn't see it as a pretty decent performance tbh. Seemed we had a decent opposition change their method on us mid game as we couldn't cope.

It's slightly concerning but I do agree a lot on here have overreacted.

Against a lot of teams I don't think the opposition will maintain a suitable gameplan to nullify ours and score themselves. Reality is we need to get better before we face another top quality opposition.

 

[Lach72]

If Fredrick is fit and available, bring him in

He’s out for 4-6

 

[Snuffaluphagus]

Before the game on the weekend, I would have said Darcy over Cox without even thinking and thought it was ridiculous for many to be clamoring for Cox due to beating up an Adelaide 2nd gamer in a preseason game of all things. After that game, and just seeing the state his body seems to be in, Darcy needs to sit at Peel. The 2nd ruck that can let Jackson go on ball a bit while resting forward is a perfect use of the American.

Now, big Hodor is a far better player than Cox when fit but he needs to prove it over a pro longed time. Go to Peel, run out full games and take the piss like you should be. He clearly couldnt have been doing that with how he played on the weekend.

Picking Darcy was clearly a pretty big mistake by match committee, made look worse by the (valid) complaints on round zero horseshit. It'd be nice if they dont double down on it but I'm pretty sure they will.

 

[Taylor]

I think my opinion of it is tainted by that shot of Darcy looking like he has a spare tyre.

 

[mattis117]

What I would give for 2021 Darcy and 2022 Brayshaw. Don’t know what happened to Brayshaw; he was close to best player in the league and the next season had a heap of games off for illness or something that was never clear to me… and he’s never really been the same again. Bugger. Why can’t we have nice things?

What's all this about Brayshaw. He has had a slow start but his form last year was great. He has lacked consistency for sure and didn't have a great performance in the pre season or round 1, but he is far from a major concern.

Darcy on the other hand, yeah alarm bells ringing.

 

[Stevooo3940]

Yep - I would have taken Darcy 100 times out of 100. After being at the game and watching it pretty closely, i agree, send him back and bring Cox in. Cox will kick a goal or two, stretch the backline and give Jackson ample time to take the p155 while he roams.

On the Brayshaw stuff, i saw Hamish Brayshaw posted last night on insta saying Freo have lost the plot playing Andy on a HFF. I barely noticed it, but his stats clearly took a hit. Might re-watch the game and see if thats accurate.

 

[Snuffaluphagus]

Yep - I would have taken Darcy 100 times out of 100. After being at the game and watching it pretty closely, i agree, send him back and bring Cox in. Cox will kick a goal or two, stretch the backline and give Jackson ample time to take the p155 while he roams.

On the Brayshaw stuff, i saw Hamish Brayshaw posted last night on insta saying Freo have lost the plot playing Andy on a HFF. I barely noticed it, but his stats clearly took a hit. Might re-watch the game and see if thats accurate.

That's a bit of a cop out from Hamish (though I get looking after your bro). For one, everyone bar Serong needs a 2nd position for midfield rotations to work, for two, I'm less concerned with output then seeing him look slow, fumbly and making poor decisions. That has nothing to do with where he's playing

 

[Stevooo3940]

Andy is a pure mid. He is one of the worst shots on goal in the team. Yes, they need to be flexible but forward aint his go.

 

[Taylor]

If I am to believe the stats then Brayshaw recorded the highest number of centre bounce attendances for Freo.

 

[Wizard]

Andy is a pure mid. He is one of the worst shots on goal in the team. Yes, they need to be flexible but forward aint his go.

Swap Andy and Ras over IMO. Andy is a connector and a link man (he is a shit stoppage player as an inside mid) while Ras is a strong tough stoppage player, they're both in the wrong spot IMO.

 

[Count Moriarty]

I thought my eyes were deceiving me on Saturday when they were informing me that the chubby version of Darcy had returned. Only a few weeks ago he was looking positively sylphlike.

 

[Fat Nyfe]

So, everyone fully expects us to bounce back this week at home right? So it would be the most Fremantle thing ever to trip over our own feet against a Melbourne side with something to prove, and to dig ourselves another 0-2 hole to start the year.

 

[The Round House Drunk]

So, everyone fully expects us to bounce back this week at home right? So it would be the most Fremantle thing ever to trip over our own feet against a Melbourne side with something to prove, and to dig ourselves another 0-2 hole to start the year.

Yeah our recent history in this fixture (first home game after playing R1 away) isn’t great:

2025 - loss to Sydney
2023 - loss to North Melbourne
2022 - loss to St Kilda

 

[DocT]

So, everyone fully expects us to bounce back this week at home right? So it would be the most Fremantle thing ever to trip over our own feet against a Melbourne side with something to prove, and to dig ourselves another 0-2 hole to start the year.

How we played against Geelong would have beaten 12-14 of the other teams in the comp. There is nothing to suggest that we should not have a solid win at home vs the Dees...apart from the fact that we are the Mighty Freo Footy Club.

 

[BREATHLESS_987]

So, everyone fully expects us to bounce back this week at home right? So it would be the most Fremantle thing ever to trip over our own feet against a Melbourne side with something to prove, and to dig ourselves another 0-2 hole to start the year.

We’ll win, I’m not doing another year where we finish strongly only to miss top 4 due to falling over ourselves in the front half of the season.

 

[chaosball32]

Okay this is the last thing I’m saying about the Darcy situation but the above is a graphic from footy classified last night.

Now it’s not a great graphic because they’ve got the TOG the wrong way around and they’ve miscalculated the number of contests because that’s not the number I got from the official AFL app, I think they’ve just added the clearances numbers together and not every ruck contest has a clearance.

Regardless, the scores from stoppages is the important part here. That is unfathomably bad. We can complain about getting the raw end of the deal having to play a team who’d already played, but the decision to not only play an unfit Darcy but keep him in the middle for a whole quarter whilst Jackson was having a career-best game is what cost us the game.

If Darcy is named in the side this week, JL might as well hand in his resignation papers.

 

[Fat Nyfe]

We’ll win, I’m not doing another year where we finish strongly only to miss top 4 due to falling over ourselves in the front half of the season.

So we’ll win because you can’t bear the thought of losing? The club probably thinks the same. That’s why when the heat comes at some point during the game from the opposition, we’ll physically tighten up, with pressure and expectation loaded on our shoulders, stop running, and… we’ll see. But this club does tend to repeat the same mistakes over and over again.

 

[BREATHLESS_987]

So we’ll win because you can’t bear the thought of losing? The club probably thinks the same. That’s why when the heat comes at some point during the game from the opposition, we’ll physically tighten up, with pressure and expectation loaded on our shoulders, stop running, and… we’ll see. But this club does tend to repeat the same mistakes over and over again.

I get your point, and I was being half facetious (and half serious regarding my ability to cope) in my initial response -but I do genuinely believe we’ll win.

To pull from my trusty Ross Lyon quote book - “regression to the mean”. We had so many quality players have uncharacteristically bad quarters/halfs. I would be flabbergasted if we saw a repeat. And Max Gawn just played the game of his life, which I’m dubious he can back up.

In general, despite all the disappointment of the Geelong game, our team will absolutely be better for the run, and we’ll be back on the nice open expanse of Optus. So yep, looking forward to Saturday, still very excited to see the boys run around and see what we can do this year.

 

[Mags98]

I get your point, and I was being half facetious (and half serious regarding my ability to cope) in my initial response -but I do genuinely believe we’ll win.

To pull from my trusty Ross Lyon quote book - “regression to the mean”. We had so many quality players have uncharacteristically bad quarters/halfs. I would be flabbergasted if we saw a repeat. And Max Gawn just played the game of his life, which I’m dubious he can back up.

In general, despite all the disappointment of the Geelong game, our team will absolutely be better for the run, and we’ll be back on the nice open expanse of Optus. So yep, looking forward to Saturday, still very excited to see the boys run around and see what we can do this year.

expecting a bounce back from clark and brayshaw in particular. we should have their midfield covered, though i do have some ptsd from what pickett did to us last time.

 

[Fat Nyfe]

I get your point, and I was being half facetious (and half serious regarding my ability to cope) in my initial response -but I do genuinely believe we’ll win.

To pull from my trusty Ross Lyon quote book - “regression to the mean”. We had so many quality players have uncharacteristically bad quarters/halfs. I would be flabbergasted if we saw a repeat. And Max Gawn just played the game of his life, which I’m dubious he can back up.

In general, despite all the disappointment of the Geelong game, our team will absolutely be better for the run, and we’ll be back on the nice open expanse of Optus. So yep, looking forward to Saturday, still very excited to see the boys run around and see what we can do this year.

I mean on paper, yeah we should smash them by 10 goals we have a far better team.

 

[freo84]

expecting a bounce back from clark and brayshaw in particular. we should have their midfield covered, though i do have some ptsd from what pickett did to us last time.

We have Walker this time.

 

[Stevooo3940]

Maybe Switta and be present and do something as well.... even better, blood Murray or Scerri. Can't do much worse than 9 touches to be fair.

 

[GingerDocker]

We have Walker this time.

I always thought it was a quirk that the fastest guy on our list had his surname.

 

[Seattle Mariners]

Watch the 2023 Qualifying Final.

Cox has always given Gawn a few issues.