Review Fremantle vs. Essendon

[XXRL]

Mrs bought the new baby to his first ever AFL game. Was a ripper. If you were in or around block 334 and saw a cute little baby with his parents, that was us.

I sit in 334 row K - my missus certainly noticed some young children around the place; I was too busy watching the footy tbh

 

[MadDocker]

Nice an close we are row N. Ours is only a little guy, 6 weeks old so would go close to being the youngest at the ground probably. We sit just on top of the stairs behind the concrete barrier thing. Few people stopped us to check him out and have a chat etc when we were walking around. Mrs was happy haha.

 

[poshman]

Conceding least hitouts to advantage is as much a result of his raw size and positioning. That part will never change as he's not going to get any shorter. Translating his dominance to an advantage is where he needs to improve.

Averaging more contested marks than the competition is a good stat, but I was looking at whether Sandi has improved against himself.

I agree with you that his body use has improved though - especially laying blocks for others to help the mids out.


Spending more time up forward should result in an increase in goals, and in marks/contested marks don't you think?

The difference with him on the ball and not is still significant. I get what youre saying about the goals... also think that he rarely gets frees for despite people climbing on him and he gives off too many when 40 metres out. He has handed off two or three this year for goals iirc. If he was hungrier and backed his kicking (which i think is very good) he would have had another two to three goals this year. Would love to get a 20 goal season from him.

Still think he is underrated by us supporters because he has been so damn good for so long!

 

[Mr Peabody]

Sandilands in isolation, I disagree. He's getting into good positions to help out, but statistically speaking he's down across the board so far this year. 1 tackle this year, between 26-29% hitouts to advantage (if I recall), below the 30-32% you see with other dominant rucks. He's a mammoth to go up against, so other rucks struggle against him - which works in his favour, but around the ground he's not as effective this year. Less marks, less disposals, less goals.

My 'Buddy Expectations' are in italics below and his actuals so far this year are bolded alongside.
Overall marks per game are marginally down, but contested are up which I think is more important.

A GRADE

• Takes more marks/game (career average of only 3.7) 2015 YTD 3.5
• Takes more contested marks/game (2014 average of only 1.8) 2015 YTD 2.3
• Maintains 2014 taps/game (38) but improves rate to advantage 2015 Taps/Game 33.8
• Enjoys another good run with injuries (misses < 4 games) Looking the goods so far
• Asserts himself & takes hold of games more often like that shown in the Geelong 2013 QF It'll come.

What's making him look better is that our midfield has chemistry right now and good systems so we win the clearance even if the tap isn't perfect. The taps you remember are the few that work out. Not the ones where he puts it down the throat of an opposition player, or to nobody in particular and we win the clearance anyway through the grunt of our mids.

While Sandi's Taps/game are down, our clearance differentials as a team have been highlighted to have improved markedly this year which is a function of the chemistry and good systems as you note above.

In summary, what you're seeing is my Buddy still quietly dominating and going about his business while those around him improve and take the glory (when not revealing their butt cheeks).

 

[Arcassius]

Incidentally - they ran the stats on rucks during the WCE game. Nicnat had some ridiculous hitouts to advantage %, while Sandi was further down. I can't find it anywhere to verify, but it's worth tracking over the year. Last season he ran somewhere around the 29-30% mark if I recall.

 

[Boppo]

Re watched the third qtr we were totally dominant without much scoreboard hurt. We've lots of improvement yet especially kicking into forward 50. APearce definitely gets another run this week.

 

[Dockernut]

Much as I enjoyed giving the Dons a touch up on Saturday, I am deeply concerned by the rub of the green we seem to be getting with the umps. Maybe it's the years of us getting reamed that has made me gunshy, but I can't help feeling like there is a massive turnaround in the offing where we'll only cop the old 3 or 4 free kicks for the game (probably happen against the Saints). Just the ticky touchwood ones in front of goal against the Bombers that have me a bit rattled. Probably explained by us being first to the contest more often this year or some shit, but yeah, eerie feeling.

 

[gaskin]

I'd hardly call it rub of the green. Besides, it's nice after 20 years of being shafted.

 

[Kram]

People on this forum from all teams spend way too much time crying about bloody umpiring.

 

[AAACockburn]

People on this forum from all teams spend way too much time crying about bloody umpiring.

I assume it boils down to our over policed, political correct lifestyle that we live in here in this Country.
And we try to escape it by watching sporting events.
The last thing you want to see when a brilliant free passage of play,is when it gets interrupted by some canary in yellow with a whistle like a siren.

 

[bruzaar62]

People on this forum from all teams spend way too much time crying about bloody umpiring.

people on this forum spend to much time crying about people crying about the bloody umpiring

 

[tacopavlich]

people on this forum spend to much time crying about people crying about the bloody umpiring

If there weren't so many people crying about the umpiring then there would be less people crying about the people crying about the umpiring.

 

[Clems Knee]

people on this forum spend to much time crying about people crying about the bloody umpiring

People on this forum spend too much time crying about people crying about people crying about the bloody umpiring.

 

[Alfonz]

As for the crying about umpiring, it was genuinely warranted over the last few years. Free kick differentials can be taken with a grain of salt, but when you add it up over the course of the year, our standing last year was so statistically anomalous that it was basically proof of a clear bias against us.

Not saying the umpires deliberately tried to screw us, but we have been thought of as a scragging/infringing type of side, and subconsciously this can influence the umpire's decisions.

This year, I don't know what has happened, but we clearly are getting a fair go from the umpires. It's quite a turnaround ... from 18th (and by a huge amount over 17th) in free kick differentials to 2nd. Is it as simple as getting Crowley out of there? Did we make some detailed submission to the umpiring department over the summer? Have some of the new interpretations helped? A change in gameplan (e.g. less tackling) that helps our cause? Whatever the case, it is nice to not feel like we are getting screwed.

 

[ydraw]

A lot of was simply Crowley. Umpires just decided at one point that he wasn't playing the way they wanted him to, and sought to drive him out of the game by blowing frees against him whenever he went near the ball.

 

[Tazmania]

We had margetts down at Fremantle during the pre-season. I wouldn't be surprised if that was intentionally done by the club to try and change the Frees against stats. If he gave advice to the players about "do this and not this" then I'm very happy because it seems to have worked.

 

[Taylor]

We had margetts down at Fremantle during the pre-season. I wouldn't be surprised if that was intentionally done by the club to try and change the Frees against stats. If he gave advice to the players about "do this and not this" then I'm very happy because it seems to have worked.

..and went back to umpire training with stories about what nice guys the Freo players are.

You would think it shouldn't impact the calls, but it does.

 

[theGav56]

I would think that they do not want the same situation as last year with Fyfe either.

 

[gaskin]

How many free kicks did Crowley realistically give away? 1 maybe 2 a game on average? I highly doubt it's got anything to do with him not being in the side anymore.

 

[clogged]

How many free kicks did Crowley realistically give away? 1 maybe 2 a game on average? I highly doubt it's got anything to do with him not being in the side anymore.

No, it isn't entirely him, but it has to do with perception as well.

With him in the team the umpires would have been coached to watch for Crowley infringing, which keeps their mind on watching Freo players infringe in general. There are so many incidents in games which could potentially be frees but aren't called as such, it depends on umpire's perception for them to be called as such.

 

[Kram]

Not sure exactly what's behind it but I think there is some merit in the perception that we are getting a noticeably better run with the umps than usual this season.

 

[go_the_dockers]

How many free kicks did Crowley realistically give away? 1 maybe 2 a game on average? I highly doubt it's got anything to do with him not being in the side anymore.

http://afltables.com/afl/stats/2014.html#8

Here is some interesting stats.
Dawson - 28 FA in 22 games
Crowley - 35 FA in 20 games
Fyfe - 29 FA in 20 games

I think having Fyfe getting free's instead of giving them away, plus not having Crowley and Dawson in the team has helped. Plus another ball midfielder has helped us get 1st to the ball and improved our perception to the umpires which has helped.

http://afltables.com/afl/stats/2015.html

Just checked the stats, Fyfe gives away a lot of frees.Mundy, Barlow and Neale the golden boys in the umpires eyes (13/2, 6/1 and 8/2)

de Boer stats are 3/8 this year (one bad week I think he was 0/5) and other than that we have no player that has a bad free kick differential.

 

[ozzie69]

Add to the list that Ballas has recently missed a couple of games. Ballas give off free kicks just because his name is Ballas - for one third of our games this year we have not had Ballas and last week he wasn't as involved as we've come to expect.

 

[Purple Suit]

We had margetts down at Fremantle during the pre-season. I wouldn't be surprised if that was intentionally done by the club to try and change the Frees against stats. If he gave advice to the players about "do this and not this" then I'm very happy because it seems to have worked.

Was he seen leaving Freo with a large suitcase and notes protruding from the seal?

 

[Tazmania]

Was he seen leaving Freo with a large suitcase and notes protruding from the seal?

I hope so...