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Review Fremantle vs Sydney QF

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Some of the doomsday posts on this thread are insane.

Whoever thought earning our 2nd ever home Prelim in our 21 year history could receive such vitriol? All day I've seen glum faces and heard glum voices about our finals prospects - you'd think we'd lost on the weekend.

Some people are acting as if we're Manchester United - won the Cup just about every year and all of a sudden fall to pieces when it doesn't all go to script. We haven't won a flag yet; we've played a handful of finals in our club history and we've got a home prelim in two weeks. We got problems but man this is so much damn better than my freakin' childhood where from age 6 we didn't get into our first final until I was 15, and only won our first final after high school. Childhood feels like forever and every finals game Freo are in I have to pinch myself.

I think 3 years of straight Top 4 finishing and 4 years of finals have addled some of our minds. That damn Ross Lyon making us play in Finals every year since hes been here; who does he think he is? I wish we could be more like West Coast - wooden spooners to Top 4, bundled out of the eight towards the bottom again and then back to Top 2. Such a better prospect for us.
 
StingBitten said:
Some of the doomsday posts on this thread are insane.

Whoever thought earning our 2nd ever home Prelim in our 21 year history could receive such vitriol? All day I've seen glum faces and heard glum voices about our finals prospects - you'd think we'd lost on the weekend.

Some people are acting as if we're Manchester United - won the Cup just about every year and all of a sudden fall to pieces when it doesn't all go to script. We haven't won a flag yet; we've played a handful of finals in our club history and we've got a home prelim in two weeks. We got problems but man this is so much damn better than my freakin' childhood where from age 6 we didn't get into our first final until I was 15, and only won our first final after high school. Childhood feels like forever and every finals game Freo are in I have to pinch myself.

I think 3 years of straight Top 4 finishing and 4 years of finals have addled some of our minds. That damn Ross Lyon making us play in Finals every year since hes been here; who does he think he is? I wish we could be more like West Coast - wooden spooners to Top 4, bundled out of the eight towards the bottom again and then back to Top 2. Such a better prospect for us.
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Nah I prefer to be like Richmond. Beat all the contenders, play attractive footy, be hyped up by all the Victorian media and then bundle out of the finals for the third year straight.

Aside from that, I totally agree. I know we can play better, I hope we can play better but we have such a huge chance from here and I still have a lot of faith. This is damn better than everything pre-2012 at FFC.
 
StingBitten said:
I think 3 years of straight Top 4 finishing and 4 years of finals have addled some of our minds. That damn Ross Lyon making us play in Finals every year since hes been here; who does he think he is? I wish we could be more like West Coast - wooden spooners to Top 4, bundled out of the eight towards the bottom again and then back to Top 2. Such a better prospect for us.
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Eagles aren't so silly, if you don't need to get bums on seats or keep sponsors on board and you can't finish top four then you are better off finishing near the bottom of the ladder for obvious reasons. Ross on a 5 year contract should have duffed it teaching his game style for 2 years got early draft picks and then got going in the 3rd year. Probably a discussion for a different thread.
 

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Snake Plissken said:
Eagles aren't so silly, if you don't need to get bums on seats or keep sponsors on board and you can't finish top four then you are better off finishing near the bottom of the ladder for obvious reasons. Ross on a 5 year contract should have duffed it teaching his game style for 2 years got early draft picks and then got going in the 3rd year. Probably a discussion for a different thread.
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That's what Mark Harvey did. Except no-one was certain we'd rise under his guidance. We got finals one year only to miss the next. We haven't missed finals yet under Ross. I think supporters forget how hard it was to make finals for the previous 2 decades.
 
Banker said:
Disappointing that opposition supporters can't visit without insults and no discussion to counter his post.

Sure he came across as a flog but he brought up some good points.
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Half back flankers flocking together. What a shock.
 
Snake Plissken said:
Eagles aren't so silly, if you don't need to get bums on seats or keep sponsors on board and you can't finish top four then you are better off finishing near the bottom of the ladder for obvious reasons. Ross on a 5 year contract should have duffed it teaching his game style for 2 years got early draft picks and then got going in the 3rd year. Probably a discussion for a different thread.
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So we should slingshot it by aiming for top 4 and the wooden spoon the next year like the Egirls do?
 

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Righteo said:
No buts.
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Ok he was a flog lol.

Though my point stands, some people in here go straight to insults instead of arguing the post. And I am talking about this occurring with Freo vs Freo supporters which is even more dissapppointing. To call another Freo fan an Eagle supporter is a disgrace, most 'freagles' would have gone back to the Eagles by now with their recent success.
 
Sydney brought more intensity than Hawthorn, although they had to as they would have been wiped off the park had they not. Their injuries essentially cost them the game. In two weeks time, if Hawks do get through, they'll bring the same intensity as Sydney did and execute far better. To make the GF, we have to lift our game.

What worried me was the lack of intensity from some of the usual suspects. Clarke and Suban were woeful, and if we're serious about winning the premiership, should not play again this season. Griffin has more appetite for the contest than Clarke despite not being as naturally talented. Clarke's natural talent has never delivered against the Hawks.

Suban has never been any good and is lucky to have made 100 games. Taberner and McPharlin also demand selection, and other than Clancee, it would be difficult to make a case for anyone else being dropped.

Everyone else was reasonably OK to good.
 
Banker said:
Ok he was a flog lol.

Though my point stands, some people in here go straight to insults instead of arguing the post. And I am talking about this occurring with Freo vs Freo supporters which is even more dissapppointing. To call another Freo fan an Eagle supporter is a disgrace, most 'freagles' would have gone back to the Eagles by now with their recent success.
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Yes I agree that's a bit rough.
 
Deveraux said:
I'm no WC hater, infact I've been enjoying watching their run & gun this year.

HOWEVER, there can be no shadow of doubt whatsoever that the Hawthorn that played last Friday were nowhere near the typical Hawthorn. Perhaps a little of that can be attributed to WC pressure and finals nerves but Hawthorne were missing targets under no pressure even when momentum was with them. Their efficiency inside 50 was woeful, the dropped marks astounding.

I can understand how it would be hard for WC fans too see/believe this fact (and one/some of ours) as they were the ones enjoying the spectacle with rose coloured glasses on. TBH I think a lot of us would think the same (myself included) if we had come up against the same Hawthorne. All in all I think the WC win was not as ground breaking as a lot of media types are making out.

Anyway... I would like to think that some of the reason for Hawthorne form was that they didn't travel so well. When/if we meet them again it will be after a bruising Crows game and another trip West.

I am undecided on our own game vs Swans, still digesting that one but one thing is for sure, we are in this up to our eyeballs.
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Good post. I took the time to rewatch the game tonight. We had a strong first quarter, 50:50 second quarter, bad 50% of the third quarter and bad 50% of the last quarter. Got out of jail with that victory as Swans were finishing stronger and our guys seemed out on their legs in the last quarter.

I noticed that things which normally always happen - as an example, Pav hitting his targets - just didn't seem to be happening. Experience would support that the most logical explanation for this was the strong wind playing havoc with disposal. There were also a large number of moments where something just went wrong at the last moment of a long chain of effective play which stopped a certain scoring opportunity from happening, such as a finger of a Sydney player or a fumbled handball or an odd bounce. Probably resulted in 2-3 less goals than we would normally have got. We got those goals plus the one Sandi should have got in the goal square from the unpaid mark and we would have hit 13 to 14 goals which would have been a good result in that type of highly contested game.

The incessant tight handballing back into congestion was really pronounced and our spread was generally poor. This stopped our run and capacity to rebound out of defense. Again, I'm not sure whether this was a result of concerns about the wind impacting on disposal over a distance or being unwilling to take risks and take the game on.

Hopefully the coaching staff can address the skills and decision making over the next fortnight and the conditioning staff can get the team's match fitness back to peak levels (as they started the season).
 
Watched the replay last night. Suban played on Goodes when he was in the midddle and the Kennedy when Goodes went forward.
Deboer was ok through the game and very good in the last when he went into the centre square.
Dawson got caught out a couple of times by Tippett but had a pretty good game overall
Barlow had a very good second half.
Sutcliffe had a good one, although Heeney may have been injured
Sandilands, Sheridan very good as well as the usual suspects.
Looks like Ibbo had a bit of trouble with Towers, if I got the match-up right there. Didn't look very closely at that one.
Gu looked like he was on Hanneberry for at least part of the game. Seemed to be nowhere near him though.
D Pearce didn't have his best game but was very effective when he got it.
Just my perceptions on the game fwiw
 

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simpsonwillo said:
If they do, we WILL win the flag.
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Agreed! Although not sure how they'd go about doing that in the space of 2 weeks.

I sure hope we do...desperate for a flag and also to shut up the Hawks and Eagles fans (amusing that the hawks are already debating Grand Final tactics for their rematch with West COast).
 
Marty Whitelaw said:
Agreed! Although not sure how they'd go about doing that in the space of 2 weeks.

I sure hope we do...desperate for a flag and also to shut up the Hawks and Eagles fans (amusing that the hawks are already debating Grand Final tactics for their rematch with West COast).
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Sometimes it just goes 'BANG!' Let's hope :rolleyes:
 
apuchar said:
Watched the replay last night. Suban played on Goodes when he was in the midddle and the Kennedy when Goodes went forward.
Deboer was ok through the game and very good in the last when he went into the centre square.
Dawson got caught out a couple of times by Tippett but had a pretty good game overall
Barlow had a very good second half.
Sutcliffe had a good one, although Heeney may have been injured
Sandilands, Sheridan very good as well as the usual suspects.
Looks like Ibbo had a bit of trouble with Towers, if I got the match-up right there. Didn't look very closely at that one.
Gu looked like he was on Hanneberry for at least part of the game. Seemed to be nowhere near him though.
D Pearce didn't have his best game but was very effective when he got it.
Just my perceptions on the game fwiw
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Watched the replay too. I agree with everything said above. Suban and Clarke both had shockers. Id add that I thought our skills were better than I thought watching the game live. IMO Ballantyne misjudged the footy in the air a couple of times, Clarke too and this made our skills look worse than they were in reality. Im more optimistic than most in our premiership chances after watching the game again. We handled the swirling windy conditions a ton better than our grand final loss. Tabs in will definetly help.
 
Good example of poor umpiring in the game - Natanui's tackle on bourgouyne in the 1st qtr on friday night - gets paid holding the ball. Almost an identical tackle made by Fyfe, with the same result on a swan's player (ends up trying to kick it but misses his boot because he's off balance from the tackle), not paid holding the ball. When Fyfe asked "why wasn't that holding the ball" the umpire said "the tackle didn't stick. he has to be tackled." That rule did not apply to Natanui's "tackle".

I don't think I've seen a game where so many Freo players have stopped playing because there was an obvious free kick, only for play on to be called: the Sandi "mark" - about five players stopped and turned with their arms out, only for Sydney to run away with the ball, Ballantyne getting pinged for a throw because he was sure he got a push in the back. Not sure if that's a criticism of freo or the umps, but it's not a good look either way.

I had to stop watching the replay, I got way too frustrated at the umpiring.
 
Since RTB has been coaching Freo (2012-current), Freo have played 8 finals games. Freo has been on the wrong side of the Free Kick ledger in 7 of those with a combined Free Kick tally of 121 Frees For vs 166 Frees Against. That's a free kick differential of -45.
 
PurpleEyes said:
Since RTB has been coaching Freo (2012-current), Freo have played 8 finals games. Freo has been on the wrong side of the Free Kick ledger in 7 of those with a combined Free Kick tally of 121 Frees For vs 166 Frees Against. That's a free kick differential of -45.
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Can you do contested possession differentials for those games too? Just to debunk the fallacy that first to the ball=more frees.
 

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Review Fremantle vs Sydney QF

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