Coach Fremantle: where to now after Lyon?

caspian

Team Captain
Jan 6, 2019
416
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Beat the saints by 5 points
Beat the lions by 1 point
Beat the magpies by 4 points

Lost to the suns by 3 points
Lost the derby by 13 points
lost to the crows by 17 points
lost to the bombers by 8
lost to melbourne by 14
lost to carlton by 4 points

yep broken even on close games.....
The derby was over at quarter time, the suns were by far the better team, Essendon were the better team a day, Adelaide never really looked like being a win..

I get that you want to be defensive, especially when an eagles fan critiques your team but I just can’t for the life understand why you’d be satisfied with where your team is at & where it’s headed

Gonna be 10-0 before you guys finally get one back 😛
 

MadMundy

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Mar 29, 2019
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I understand how some of our fans are defending the rebuild but honestly I'm sick of the excuses. With the list we have, we should replaying finals, and it's looking likely that we won't now. Yes, injuries are a concern, I get that. But that just means that our depth have no choice but to step up in those roles and take them head on. Bringing in Sandilands was a mistake this week and I personally wouldn't play him again unless it's for a retirement match at our last home game. Stephen Hill is listed as a test but I hope to God they bring him in through Peel for a couple of weeks so he actually has match fitness. We've brought in underdone players too much over the last few years and have suffered because of it. I feel that these list changes need to happen at the end of the year

Retire:
Sandilands
Ballantyne
Bennell

Delist:
Kersten
Colyer (please)
Giro

If Brad Hill does legitimately want to return to Victoria, then we should look at packaging him in a trade to bring in Tim Kelly, since supposedly the reason that he wanted to avoid Fremantle was due to one of the Hills.
 

woosha24

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Apr 5, 2015
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I understand how some of our fans are defending the rebuild but honestly I'm sick of the excuses. With the list we have, we should replaying finals, and it's looking likely that we won't now.

Couldn't agree more. You're coming to the end of this mythical "5 year rebuild" that's supposed to make your club more competitive, and instead you're treading water missing finals again. What's been achieved? A bunch of youth has been brought in and are either not getting games or being played out of position, kids like Neale who were supposed to be the future are leaving the club, and your recruiters keep drafting players with perpetual injury clouds over their heads from other clubs in the hope that they will "come good" one day (Hogan, Lobb, Bennell, etc). FFS I still keep seeing Tabener being touted as the Great Purple Hope of your forward line. F*cken TABENER!

Bell needs to crack heads together next year and sort this sh*t out. Sure as shootin' Lyon's crap wouldn't be tolerated at West Coast. As much as I enjoy it when Freo are eating sh*t, this is beyond a joke now.
 
Aug 20, 2010
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Couldn't agree more. You're coming to the end of this mythical "5 year rebuild" that's supposed to make your club more competitive, and instead you're treading water missing finals again. What's been achieved? A bunch of youth has been brought in and are either not getting games or being played out of position, kids like Neale who were supposed to be the future are leaving the club, and your recruiters keep drafting players with perpetual injury clouds over their heads from other clubs in the hope that they will "come good" one day (Hogan, Lobb, Bennell, etc). FFS I still keep seeing Tabener being touted as the Great Purple Hope of your forward line. F*cken TABENER!

Bell needs to crack heads together next year and sort this sh*t out. Sure as shootin' Lyon's crap wouldn't be tolerated at West Coast. As much as I enjoy it when Freo are eating sh*t, this is beyond a joke now.
Don’t worry, more and more supporters are starting to see the light on this
 
Aug 20, 2010
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I’ve changed my mind about the dockers needing to get rid of Lyon, after hearing him speak in an interview

“You can’t be defined by your results”

“You’re only as good as your next moment “

All good, down at Freo 👍🏼
Well after all it is a moving feast and the numbers are confusing
 
Sep 5, 2013
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Think I read it best on another thread with the following.
Your club has sold it's future to load up on forwards whilst gutting the midfield and neglecting a poor backline.

The list has a gaping hole in the 21-22 year age bracket. Even if the young talent in your squad develops as hoped, it is likely (especially being a WA club where travel fatigue prematurely curtails careers) that anyone aged 26 or above on your list in 2019 will have retired before the new generation peak.

That would include:
  • Fyfe
  • Mundy
  • S.Hill
  • B.Hill
  • Walters
  • Colyer
  • Matera
  • Conca
  • Bennell
  • Wilson
  • Lobb
  • Hamling
  • Kersten
  • Taberner
The recruitment policy is inherently bipolar - trying to top up whilst conducting a complete rebuild.

If you exclude those who are 28 or older next season, the Fremantle midfield is comparable to Gold Coast's - with a much lower ceiling.

Lyon is now doing what Lyon does - he's selling your future to keep his job. It will get ugly; and that will pale in comparison to how ugly things will get after he leaves and you discover that your list has been completely hollowed out and you need another decade-long rebuild to repair the damage. Just ask the Saints.
 

Total_Juddshanks

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Good to see Ross has such a high opinion of the 'hysterical' Fremantle fan base.

Essentially the club's message to the longest suffering group of fans in AFL history is 'you're idiots for being upset about losing your 9th derby in a row by 91 points. Ps, membership renewal is in the mail'
 

Bestbird

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Nov 18, 2004
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It is an interesting rebuild looking at the last 4 drafts. They have traded fairly well but have had only 5 draft picks inside the top 30 in the last 4 drafts
 

Whatname

Club Legend
Feb 17, 2011
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The problem with objectively judging Ross' performance is that a large percentage of people just don't like him.
This lack of objectivity I feel clouds people's judgement of him.

In my opinion his time at Freo can be split into two halves.

Firstly he took over half a list in 2012 and nearly took us to a flag, mainly on the back of Pav, Sandi and McPharlin.
Problem was we cooked the list trying to top up through 2012-15 to win that flag and by 2016 the list needed a major overhaul.

The second is this current post 2016 phase we are in.

His performance from 12-15 earned him the chance to rebuild the list, whilst 5 years seemed excessive to some that is generally the time needed to turnover a list and get it back to the finals. Brisbane and Melbourne 2013-18 case in point.
We could have gone for someone else but would it have been any better.
Look at how constantly changing coaches went for Carlton, Melbourne and going back Richmond.

Anyway since 2016 the curve has been slowly trending upwards, whilst there have been some horrendous performances there has been some real positives as well. Overall I would say the list is in a good position and playing some good footy yet like most developing teams we are prone to put up some stinkers. The biggest challenge a developing team has is arresting negative momentum, in game and in season.

The big question though is Ross the right man????

We will find out over the next 12 months.
If we don't win another game this season or don't look like making finals next year then there will be a new coach.
I will happily come in here and watch you all piss on his grave.

In the meantime forget about your "age of outrage" reactions and for some blatant trolling and just see what unfolds.
I, like most reasonable minded Dockers fans, hope that the light at I see at the end of this tunnel is a successful run and not an oncoming train.

Another thing to take into account is that a new coach could set us back another 5 years.
 
Apr 10, 2010
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I'm pretty firmly in the 'no extension' camp, I'm looking forward to a change in coach and hope the new guy brings in a change of assistant coaches with him. I don't expect Lyon to be sacked early (kind of hope another club puts together 'an offer he can't refuse') but the guy is right about a couple of things.

"We're a rebuilding team. We're 7-8. Three weeks ago I was being lauded. So I never fell for it then and I'm not falling for it now."

He's not wrong to be fair, 3 rounds ago Fremantle were 7-5 and considered to be right on track with Lyon doing a great job. Those last three rounds were about as pitiful a display as you could imagine and he deserves some heat for it, but it's still knee jerk to expect an immediate change of course by the club. Maybe, hopefully, a review at the end of the season about whether he's the man for 2020.

and secondly, asked about a fan poll to have him sacked;

"I think my wife has a look and says: "you know, most of them are West Coast supporters".


yeah, he's probably right there as well.
 
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Total_Juddshanks

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Think I read it best on another thread with the following.

The recruitment policy is inherently bipolar - trying to top up whilst conducting a complete rebuild.

If you exclude those who are 28 or older next season, the Fremantle midfield is comparable to Gold Coast's - with a much lower ceiling.

Lyon is now doing what Lyon does - he's selling your future to keep his job.

This is just so spot on its almost painful.

In the last few years Fremantle have traded for Nathan Wilson (26) Matera (27) Colyer (27), Lobb (26) Conca (26) Hogan (24)

Those are the kind of players a team might recruit if they think their flag window is opening and they need a bit of extra class to put them into contention.

But at the same time they've sent Neale and Weller east for high draft picks.

So what on earth are they doing?

If Freo are a young squad in full rebuild mode why are they clogging their list with guys who will be getting past it when Darcy, Brayshaw and Cerra are in their prime? Shouldn't those spots be going to genuine 19-22 youth in a quest to get them to the magic 100 game figure as quick as possible.

There is only one real answer and it's the obvious one - those recruits are there to inflate freos ladder position and give the illusion that ross knows what hes doing and the rebuild is on track, only to be conveniently forgotten when the huge losses occur- then suddenly freo are sending kids out to play apparently.

Every day Ross Lyon amazes me more, he is wasted as a football coach when he could be flogging dodgy roof repairs to unsuspecting pensioners.
 
Aug 13, 2018
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Such a smug toss bag.
Makes out like he's the smartest bloke in the room but he's actually clueless.
Taking the Dockers to hell. Spoiling a good list. Spoiling the game with his s**t style.

He used to be able to justify the boring footy by saying he got results.

Not any more.

Now he serves up boring footy and big losses.

Week in week out.
 
May 3, 2007
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The derby was over at quarter time, the suns were by far the better team, Essendon were the better team a day, Adelaide never really looked like being a win..

I get that you want to be defensive, especially when an eagles fan critiques your team but I just can’t for the life understand why you’d be satisfied with where your team is at & where it’s headed

Gonna be 10-0 before you guys finally get one back 😛
It seems you looked at the games differently like I do.

If we were talking about last weeks derby then I would agree. but the Earlier derby? I disagree. You guys were leading 8.5.53 to freos 4.12.36 at 3 quarter time and won 10.9.69 to freos 7.14.56.

Freo sprayed their shots in that game.

The suns were sloppy too, but freo had the lead for large parts of the game. Essendon were better on the day but Again, freo were close and got the lead in some Parts of that game too.

You can only control what you can. you cant control injuries which have hurt freo this year. I assure you if Freo had crap all injuries like the saints in 2016, freo would of easily played finals.
 
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