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Review Dees v Freo: the Good, Bad & Ugly

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Freo too good, serious energy in the second half. Dee's just seemed a mile off, always 2 steps behind. Something is very wrong with trac
 
Freo too good, serious energy in the second half. Dee's just seemed a mile off, always 2 steps behind. Something is very wrong with trac
You don't park your best player in the square in a tight game if they're fully fit (unless Goody has been drinking the Chris Scott 2020 GF Koolaid)
 

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Credit to Freo and after 17 in a row and a flag we were due a loss. Not to mention Petty and May going down in the same game.

Good
Oliver’s first half
Bedford
Freo

Bad
The midfield in the 2nd half
Lobb the pea heart dominating
Petracca
Gawn and Jackson

Fugly
Won’t happen but I don’t want to see Sam Weideman gently prancing about the field in a Melbourne jumper again. Ditto Melksham, played some good games for us, but is absolutely cooked.
12.3 to 1.6 is horrific in the 2nd half.
You’d also love to owe Ben Brown money.
 
(Am drunk)

Really uninspiring 2nd half, was wondering what the hell was happening. Honestly we were crap against WC and North, haven’t enjoyed watching us play for a few weeks, the whole ‘getting the job done’ schtick is wearing a little thin tbh, play 4 quarters of footy you campaigners.

Ah well, 10-1, really need a strong response against Sydney.
 
Eh most teams wouldn’t have much of a game plan either if they lost their two best kpd. Didn’t help none of our tall forwards offered much either. As soon as we were on the canvas they tagged Oliver and the rest is history
 
I'm with everyone else saying this was coming for a while, we've been off the last few weeks. Teams have been coming hard at us all year, North are putrid but had a real hard crack last week same with Coast. May going down hurt us big time and Freo pounced. Freo are a good young team and are going places. These things happen, Richmond pumped hawthorn in 2013 when they were at their peak. I reckon we'll back to our best after the bye.
 
Actually really enjoyed watching Freo today - played brilliantly and couldn't do a thing wrong in the second half.

Ben Brown's marking and contest has been average for 3-4 weeks - today he was embarrassing (even though the kicking to him was garbage).

May has been holding the backline together for a while now with Lever struggling. Gonna miss him next week against the Swans even though Buddy looks to be suspended.

Our team defence was so sloppy. Didn't use our spare well at all and didn't shut down their outlets coming out of defence.

Just one of those days.
 

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Good
Bedford
Kossie
Oliver

Bad
The majority of the side only playing well for 10-15mins

Ugly
May's concussion
Some questionable coaching decisions:
  • Playing Petracca for most of the game in the forward line, if he has an injury or niggles going into the game it would've been preferable to rest him and try and keep our structure intact.
  • Leaving the wings to cover key backs whilst May and Petty were off the ground.
 
There's no such thing as a "loss we needed to have" but I think we'll take more from that game than we would from beating up on teams like WC and NM. A lot of things went wrong and we just didn't adjust or respond. I think that's probably the first time in the past two seasons that we've just rolled over without giving a yelp, and that's got to be the most disappointing thing (and hopefully a strong future motivator) for all the blokes out there. A lot of the cracks that were papered over by wins against weaker opposition were exposed today.

I'm not going to do a good/bad/ugly, but a few observations:

  • Not an excuse, but the May / Petty injuries really ****ed us up. Gave them the chance to get a few cheap goals from their talls earlier in the third, and from there we just couldn't get the momentum back.
  • Smashed in the air. I can forgive Brown and Weid not taking marks, but they just couldn't even get to the contest. I think a lot of teams are going to look at the work that Cox put into Brown especially (standing in front of him and blocking his run every time) and it's good to learn about that now so that we can find a way to deal with it in the future. If Brown is beaten that comprehensively, then we need to find another way forward other than just bombing it to him all the time.
  • On that note, Jackson is just totally noncompetitive in the air sometimes. He does a lot of things that ruckmen can't do, but he often struggles to do the things that ruckmen should be able to do. Getting outbodied and beaten in the ruck contest by David ****ing Mundy sums it up perfectly. Based on his form this year, there's no way he's worth $700k+, and if Freo or WC want to offer him that then we ought to take the draft picks and run.
  • Midfield completely outworked in the second half. They smashed us at both the contested ball and the spread. We can sometimes absorb that when the back six are working well, but take May out of the team and we've got no chance when the midfield can't at least match the opposition.
  • If Petracca's knee is bothering him, then he shouldn't be playing. If it isn't, then we shouldn't be hiding him at full forward when the game is on the line.
  • I think that's Melksham's last game for the team, and Spargo isn't a winger. If Langdon gets injured at the pointy end of the season, we're in trouble because there just clearly isn't any cover for him.
  • Bedford was really good in the first half, and I think he makes the forward line more dynamic when he's there instead of Spargo. Might be some interesting selection calls in the next few weeks.
  • Hunt is actually a really good defender now. Fight me.
 

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Fair play to freo who were great in the second half and their coaching moves (that I could notice) seemed to come off. Tagging Oliver in the second half went a long way as we couldn't seem to buy a centre clearance after that. Not sure what's up with Trac... Talls were almost all droppably terrible while freos were great. Not full melt time yet but we'll get the same result against Sydney if we bring a similar level.
 
They didn’t make the most of the advantage in the second quarter also. Fair enough to not drop the hammer before you know May and Petty are going to go off in a H&A game but it’ll cost you.

Bizarre the way the midfield just rolled over and died in the second half, you hate to see it. Especially when you’re playing with a decimated backline of Rivers, Bowey, Brayshaw, Hunt and Lever, and relying on Jordon and Spargo to get back there.
 
Be very interesting to see what they do with him when Salem and Hibberd are available.

Im sure hell play over Hibberd in defense, if Jordon or Langdon miss any games though he will get moved back to the wing.
 
Would have been a good game for TMac to play. Still probably would have lost but at least the defence would have been more settled once May went down.
Agree. TMac, love him or hate him is a swing player and that's his value. Dual roles also means if he's struggling at one end moving him (if required) gives him the opportunity to get in the game.
 

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Review Dees v Freo: the Good, Bad & Ugly

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