Autopsy Dogs take revenge for last year’s Elimination Final - 118 to 69 (Not Nice)

[s_wd6]

I’m watching the second quarter and we’re playing damn well. Wtf happened?

Ethan Hughes lowering the eyes with two inside 50 kicks and Sturt’s two goals, nice!

Darcy beat English in the hitouts (Darcy looking really good first half).

Bont was probably off

 

[Wilksyy]

Umps love to give free kicks 20m away from Doggies goal.

 

[Footskill]

Got smashed in contested possessions and ground ball gets (again). We haven’t won the contested possession category in any of our 6 games yet this season. We just can’t seem to win our own ball, and then when we do, we play safe to keep possession so we don’t lose it again.

It starts with the midfield who have seriously underperformed with the exception of Serong, the mids performing well helps the forwards and backs immensely - more speed on the ball for forward entries and gives our defenders time to set up. The ball was LIVING in our defensive half for the entire first quarter and we were lucky to only be down by a goal. We’re seriously missing Mundy and Carr.

In saying that I’m very concerned about the form of Moose and Ryan, and to a lesser extent Cox and Young. They aren’t winning 1-on-1’s nearly as frequently and are sh*ting the bed with ball in hand.

I’m actually bullish on the forwards, Sturt (great rundown on the wing) and Corbett showed a bit with their limited opportunities, Amiss had a bad night but he’s a 19 year old spearhead, Frederick and Walters tried their guts out.

What was most disappointing was the context of the game: Our first Friday night game under lights at home, Len Hall tribute, Lobb’s return, etc. and we dish up that effort. After last week I was hoping for at least some fight to make it a close game in the last quarter but we went to water and frankly it was very embarrassing for our supporters. We deserved much better.

Yep. Starts from mid and back. Always blaming forwards. First half they couldn't get it down there

 

[Fyfster]

I get that but they only listed 4. Even then, no way Fred was in our top 6.

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4 Serong , Darcy ,Clarke ,???????? I would struggle to find 4 TBH

 

[Lach72]

There was a play where we managed semi fast ball movement and Johnson got it in space just forward of wing. The kid kicks like Mundy and he refused to go forward…

that’s the one that made me throw the toys out of the cot…he’s a kid, but a kid with elite skills should be pushing forward at every opportunity. That’s a coaching thing

 

[BeinPurplenGreen]

I tried to #eco a few weeks ago, I really did. But after one rousing come from behind win they sucked me back in. Every time I think I'm out, they pull me back in.

- So proud to support a club that put in yet another s**t the bed performance in prime time, to the point that the commentators resorted to talking about f**king grass. Though to be fair, I also wanted to switch over to the grass growing channel with 15 minutes to go. I'm usually steadfast to the end of every game looking for every little positive I can, but I'm so over this s**t that I spent the most of the last qtr barely paying attention.

- But also, f**k the commentators. You could have put me in the commentary box and I couldn't have been as biased towards Freo as they were to the Dogs. We already suffer the ignominious fate of being Freo supporters, do they have to heap extra misery on us by putting cheerleaders for the opposition on commentary?

- Also you could have put me umpiring in Freo's F50 and I still would have struggled to pull out as many soft I50 frees as the Dogs got. Talk about playing the game on easy mode.

- Pearce is just painful to watch atm. He looks like a scared baby giraffe on rollerskates.

- JOM is just a nothing player. Not terrible, not good. He's the personification of 2023 Freo who do nothing exciting and play boring, nothing football.

- I don't see anything in Wagner. For every one good thing he does there is 3 bad.

- Please don't ever take Amiss off, especially after he's just kicked a goal. I have nothing to look forward to as a Freo supporter other than brief glimpses of class from him. He's my entire reason for living this year.

- Despite all this I remain optimistic that this is just a down year from a young group after overachieivng last year. It just sucks so much that after looking forward to this season all summer, all life and joy has been sucked out of it in little over a month.

Esti my dude, say what??
You tried to lodge an Engineering Change Order #eco to fix this cruddola??
That is actually a great idea, get some engineers in, they'll sort stuff out right quick. Until Elon gets involved and then we'll have another explosion...

Seriously though, I feel your pain.

After doing the match preview, watching that video of our first ever game against Footscray back in 1995 (I watched all 4 quarters at least twice), and then seeing what we dished out last night, you know what the most depressing conclusion for me as an old man long term day 1 supporter was?

It is this:

with a much less talented squad, and way less support resources, Neesham had the 1995 team playing light years better, with real commitment and effort despite limited ability, than what Bell and Longmuir dished up last night or the rest of this year. ​

​

Our issues are absolutely list management, game plan, coaching, preparation and selection.

Good news is with a change in messaging and better effort / buy in from the players, we can turn some of it around quickly (eg kick in strategy, using a ******* tagger from the start of the game, having better forward structure, not kicking to 4 on 1s (we kicked to Walters 5 times last night when he had 3 or more defenders on him!! He's a genius player but no one can beat 3 or more opponents!! ).

This team has the capacity and talent to perform better.

They have to care enough to want to change.

We need to stop playing injured players (Brayshaw, Pearce, Cox and Walters all carried serious issues into last nights game) and simplify the game plan to speed, one on one contests and not flocking to the ball like a bunch of seagulls swamping a half eaten chip in the gutter.

Bob Murphy has the ability to help the guys fix this - but he needs to be allowed to get involved, not be micro managed by a tyrant like Bell.

In terms of the longer term issues, I don't see anything changing until Bell is gone.

 

[King Tenz]

Lmao nothing in it. * this campaigner for trying to start the campaign to get him suspended

 

[Wilksyy]

From the vent thread I thought it was going to be worse. Yeah, we’re not the worst team in the comp.

A few of our mids need to start lifting their game though. Serong can’t do it all

 

[BeinPurplenGreen]

Probably not a good time to tell you JOM was given a 4 year deal....

They initially reported it as 3? It is a 4 year contract??
That is just a freakin' atrocity, especially given we refused to offer longer term deals to Acres or Logue. Bell is such an arrogant knob.

 

[Wilksyy]

Brodie’s defensive work is crap. The coke head has to improve that.

 

[Lach72]

Farken lol

 

[Wilksyy]

Dear god, Alex Pearce

25

Alex Pearce

Age

28

Ht

201cm

Wt

98kg

Pos.

Def

Career

Season

Last 5

D

10.6

3star

K

5.2

2star

HB

5.4

4star

M

3.4

3star

T

1.8

4star

MG

106.3

2star

No current season stats available

D

11.0

3star

K

5.0

2star

HB

6.0

4star

M

4.4

4star

T

0.8

3star

MG

103.2

2star

is an absolute crab. Dont ever let him kick it

 

[Cobbler]

Dear god, Alex Pearce is an absolute crab. Dont ever let him kick it

If the opposition can’t find an open or leading target they just kick it to Pearce.

It’s a solid plan executed to win the ball back!

 

[Van_Dyke]

Brayshaw protects himself and goes for the contest as you’d expect someone to do, Libba doesn’t protect himself and goes head first into brayshaws leg. Joke if that goes to the tribunal

 

[s_wd6]

Brayshaw protects himself and goes for the contest as you’d expect someone to do, Libba doesn’t protect himself and goes head first into brayshaws leg. Joke if that goes to the tribunal

Absolutely. There was another angle where Brayshaw is clearly leaning down to pick up the ball and then Libba dives forward and takes out his legs while Brayshaw braces for that contact. If anything it should've been a free kick our way.

 

[Rob]

I’m watching the second quarter and we’re playing damn well. Wtf happened?

Ethan Hughes lowering the eyes with two inside 50 kicks and Sturt’s two goals, nice!

Darcy beat English in the hitouts (Darcy looking really good first half).

Have a look at the next 3 centre clearances after we got to within a goal.

 

[Heart Of Purple]

Very naive take mattis. You think young driven players are going to sit around for a couple of years waiting for some nervous geeky stepdad type in JL, who appears to have the charisma of a gone off carrot, to lead them back to relevancy?
We are only on week 6 of a long season and it’s already over. Wait until the agents start digging around, finding out who is available, and you start reading the rumours on Twitter from Jon Ralph and the like. How attractive is Adelaide looking to Brennan Cox right now for example?

The performance of Sam Sturt last night was absolutely DAMNING on this coach. He should have about 50 games played at this stage, not bloody 5!!
Ethan Hughes and Banfield have played nearly 200 games between them for the freo dockers. That’s an entire career of an elite AFL footballer for fcuks sake! Wasted on honest battlers that would spend the entire season in the VFL if they were on the List of any other finals side.
Matthew Richardson who knows a thing or two about kicking goals was raving about Sturt leading like a natural forward and wondering where this guy came from?
Imagine if we’d even given TWENTY of the games given to Banfield in the last 3 years to Sam Sturt??

Shambolic stuff.

The other part to this though is Sturt had only 5 touches and 1 tackle last night. Take away 2 goals and thats 3 touches in 4 quarters of footy.

All of that - and he's one of our best on.

Need to temper expectations and understand that he's not a 10-15 possession game/5+ tackle player, but he's a game winner that must be picked.

Problem I can see is if we get beat and he doesn't kick a goal, he'll be on the chopping block ... even though he should be one of the first picked!
Needs to be given a run of 10+ games before they even think about his place in the side.

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[s_wd6]

The other part to this though is Sturt had only 5 touches and 1 tackle last night. Take away 2 goals and thats 3 touches in 4 quarters of footy.

All of that - and he's one of our best on.

Need to temper expectations and understand that he's not a 10-15 possession game/5+ tackle player, but he's a game winner that must be picked.

Problem I can see is if we get beat and he doesn't kick a goal, he'll be on the chopping block ... even though he should be one of the first picked!
Needs to be given a run of 10+ games before they even think about his place in the side.

On SM-N975F using BigFooty.com mobile app

Also had two crucial smothers i50 that indirectly lead to goals (or scorings shots i cant remember) for us

 

[Rockmelon]

This guy obviously watched the game. Couldn't agree more.

Definitely makes a strong case that it’s a coaching problem not a personal problem

 

[kp junior]

Also had two crucial smothers i50 that indirectly lead to goals (or scorings shots i cant remember) for us

I mean it wasn’t a perfect game by him, he has to stay involved a lot more. But he obviously has some tools- the kicks from 50, elite speed, size- that Banfield,Schultz,Switta etc will never have.


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[BettercallSaul]

Good patch by Hughes in the 2nd quarter with the double baulk and then lace out pass to Freddy, who misses, followed by a lovely hand off to Brayshaw who misses a wide open Walters by kicking 3m over his head.


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The kick from Andy to Walters should never have been attempted for my money. Too many of our blokes don’t want to take responsibility for a kick at goal. IMHO Andy should have taken a shot.

 

[s_wd6]

We need to stop playing injured players (Brayshaw, Pearce, Cox and Walters all carried serious issues into last nights game) and simplify the game plan to speed, one on one contests and not flocking to the ball like a bunch of seagulls swamping a half eaten chip in the gutter.

Apart from Brayshaw and his knee what were the other guys carrying?

 

[Cobbler]

I like what Sturt brings when he brings it. The problem is he just goes missing for 98% of the game.

Personally, I just think we now need to alter thought process and get games into a young forward mix which will be our future.

Keep Walters for guidance and direction.

Then just load up on Amiss, Treacy, Sturt.

Taberner and Fyfe are done.

Switkowski, Shultz and Frederick provide speed.

At some stage see if Kuek, Emmett and Corbett offer anything.

Jaeger as a half forward is horrible.
Jackson too… but I guess he’s worth persisting with in the front half.

The reality is our forward line is like a very fresh pizza cut into 8 slices and we’re asked to pick 6 slices.

No matter what 6 you choose you’re going to get the same meal.

 

[BeinPurplenGreen]

Apart from Brayshaw and his knee what were the other guys carrying?

Brayshaw isn't a knee, he hasn't recovered full aerobic capacity since he had COVID late last year.
Cox ankle, rolled it late last week, Walters calf and hamstring strains, Pearce back and (less significant) ankle.

 

[Cobbler]

Apart from Brayshaw and his knee what were the other guys carrying?

Just the weight of expectation.

Possibly regrets over votes in leadership group.

Disappointment that they didn’t leave last year.

The internal realisation that we’re miles off it.