Review Freo beat the Dogs by 16 points

[ubiquitous226]

When you control the ball the defense works harder than the offence.
Making the ground bigger with switches.

Refusing to score to save a game open a massive gate for the other team to win.

Even Pavlich made the same observation as I did regarding kicking down the line.

Normally I'm inclined to agree, there is a big risk in playing to save a game too soon.
Even JLo mentioned we'd been prone to play it too safe, but there was some serious context for yesterday being our ruckman and another bench spot down.

If we went all out attack we would have run out of puff very quickly and pretty much handed them the game.
I actually thought the plan in that quarter was pretty clear, we just fluffed our two counter opportunities that should have been goals.

 

[oldgoat]

They're really gonna whinge in about 4.5 billion years time then

you genuinely funny Megs

 

[Fred Ziffel]

Inside the Fremante Football Club are two wolves. We saw both of them today.

What did you see?

I saw the difference a few quality newbies make plus the belated arrival of Luke Jackson
as the superstar we know.

 

[Dale147]

 

[Fred Ziffel]

Ryan and Cox are back.

 

[Snuffaluphagus]

Some have mentioned it but Jye deserves a bit more of a mention and thought. His last quarter was massive all things considered. Busted his arse off competing, marking and leading. He stood up as much as a key forward can considering it basically didn't cross the half-way mark.

Given it co-incided with losing one of Voss or Treacy to the ruck, I cant help but feel his form compared to that break out year is at least partially due to role. Still, the contest he showed that last quarter needs to be shown to him 50 times as the standard

 

[Gimme the Fyfe]

Was having a look at the rounds ahead.

Our next two are looking good, but wow - the second quarter of the 2025 fixture, rounds 7-12 has us up against the most in form teams going around.

 

[2big2strom]

Some have mentioned it but Jye deserves a bit more of a mention and thought. His last quarter was massive all things considered. Busted his arse off competing, marking and leading. He stood up as much as a key forward can considering it basically didn't cross the half-way mark.

Given it co-incided with losing one of Voss or Treacy to the ruck, I cant help but feel his form compared to that break out year is at least partially due to role. Still, the contest he showed that last quarter needs to be shown to him 50 times as the standard

He was really impressive, his competing in the air, leads, everything were immense.

Another last quarter shout out is to Sharp. He lowered his eyes and kicked much better all game, with a few decent I50s and a nice goal. But what really stood out for me was his repeated sprints in the D50 to cut off leading lanes. Sometimes saw him do 3 sprints in the same passage of play to cut off space in front of Darcy and other fwds, big part of Pearce and co not conceding much at all in the final quarter

 

[Purpletown]

We played the game we had to play in the final quarter with the injuries we had to contend with. Bolton passing the ball off when he had a reasonable track towards the goal was a bit of a brain fart. Never mind we did what was needed in the end.

 

[dropbear101]

i think people haven't talked about this. but i thought it was massive in the last term. our defensive MIDs were immense.

we were on the back foot losing jackson and o'driscoll. but the dogs didn't get good clean exits from congestion. brayshaws want to hunt and serongs sharking of taps were super important. but I thought johnson, o'mera and banfield (the wingman guarding the back of stoppage) were all really important.

o'mera and johnson always seemed to be positioned in a way which prevented them from getting a clean clearance from tim english's ruck taps. kinda like sam mitchell going to sandilands ruck taps when being tagged in the 2013GF.

banfield is an uber dilligent player. made sure he ran transition. guarded dangerous space. guarded space behind the stoppage. this stuff wouldn't get a statistic. but, without it. the dogs players would have run into that space trying to receive hands.

pat voss follow up was another aspect of preventing clean midfield exits. sharp running to recieve kicks out of the defence.

if our stars serong, brayshaw won us the game in the middle. then banfield, johnson, omera, sharp and voss prevented us from losing.

 

[Footskill]

i think people haven't talked about this. but i thought it was massive in the last term. our defensive MIDs were immense.

we were on the back foot losing jackson and o'driscoll. but the dogs didn't get good clean exits from congestion. brayshaws want to hunt and serongs sharking of taps were super important. but I thought johnson, o'mera and banfield (the wingman guarding the back of stoppage) were all really important.

o'mera and johnson always seemed to be positioned in a way which prevented them from getting a clean clearance from tim english's ruck taps. kinda like sam mitchell going to sandilands ruck taps when being tagged in the 2013GF.

banfield is an uber dilligent player. made sure he ran transition. guarded dangerous space. guarded space behind the stoppage. this stuff wouldn't get a statistic. but, without it. the dogs players would have run into that space trying to receive hands.

pat voss follow up was another aspect of preventing clean midfield exits. sharp running to recieve kicks out of the defence.

if our stars serong, brayshaw won us the game in the middle. then banfield, johnson, omera, sharp and voss prevented us from losing.

Good take. Few here don't realise how important the team defense and lockdown was. We were already out on our feet and then on top of that to go chasing on a break out would of exhausted us even more. The periods of locking it down allowed us to catch out breath

 

[Paracleet]

i think people haven't talked about this. but i thought it was massive in the last term. our defensive MIDs were immense.

we were on the back foot losing jackson and o'driscoll. but the dogs didn't get good clean exits from congestion. brayshaws want to hunt and serongs sharking of taps were super important. but I thought johnson, o'mera and banfield (the wingman guarding the back of stoppage) were all really important.

o'mera and johnson always seemed to be positioned in a way which prevented them from getting a clean clearance from tim english's ruck taps. kinda like sam mitchell going to sandilands ruck taps when being tagged in the 2013GF.

banfield is an uber dilligent player. made sure he ran transition. guarded dangerous space. guarded space behind the stoppage. this stuff wouldn't get a statistic. but, without it. the dogs players would have run into that space trying to receive hands.

pat voss follow up was another aspect of preventing clean midfield exits. sharp running to recieve kicks out of the defence.

if our stars serong, brayshaw won us the game in the middle. then banfield, johnson, omera, sharp and voss prevented us from losing.

Voss's decision making and goalkicking are both crosses meaning he's violating the two cross rule for an AFL player, but geez some of his ticks are very big ones. His ground game is genuinely A grade for an key forward for instance.

 

[Mags98]

that last ten minutes must have felt like an eternity for the boys out there, could see they were all absolutely buggered but kept on pushing themselves! hopefully instils some resilience and confidence in the group going forward

also **** me do we need a better song for the boys to be able to sing with some actual gusto after a performance like that, felt so flat hahah

 

[Lach72]

He was really impressive, his competing in the air, leads, everything were immense.

Another last quarter shout out is to Sharp. He lowered his eyes and kicked much better all game, with a few decent I50s and a nice goal. But what really stood out for me was his repeated sprints in the D50 to cut off leading lanes. Sometimes saw him do 3 sprints in the same passage of play to cut off space in front of Darcy and other fwds, big part of Pearce and co not conceding much at all in the final quarter

He ran 17km.
Huge effort and a lovely goal.

 

[Dockeroo]

that last ten minutes must have felt like an eternity for the boys out there, could see they were all absolutely buggered but kept on pushing themselves! hopefully instils some resilience and confidence in the group going forward

also **** me do we need a better song for the boys to be able to sing with some actual gusto after a performance like that, felt so flat hahah

Andrew Gaze said on the bounce after the match that Fremantle had the worst song in the comp

 

[BStaff17]

I actually thought Amiss was good, saw a bit of the f negative commentary on here.

He competed hard - have a look at Dudley’s goal and it sums up his game. And he was outstanding in the last as the lone key forward competing on those get out kicks, whilst outnumbered.

He’s not dominant but he’s still young, and, at the current rate tracking to kick 36 goals for the year.

If his form builds could easily go 40+.

He took some crucial marks in the last quarter on the wing.

Derm paid credit to him for making an impact in the 4th even if he didn't impact the scoreboard or have much of it in the first 3 quarters.

 

[gungho]

Was having a look at the rounds ahead.

Our next two are looking good, but wow - the second quarter of the 2025 fixture, rounds 7-12 has us up against the most in form teams going around.

We might (touch wood) have a full strength team by then and also have Shai warming into the season.

 

[Black Saab]

Andrew Gaze said on the bounce after the match that Fremantle had the worst song in the comp

Pardon the intrusion but I like the Freo theme song. Get stuffed Gazey, go and pot a 3 pointer instead.

 

[Rhufus]

I agree with all the posters before me, (post game euphoria).
Just some notes

Cox, after basically being injured for much of the last 12 months, is actually getting fitter by the week and played his best game for the club in at least a year.
Banners, the Uncanny X Man, had a very good game. Im not saying he keeps his spot when the cavalry comes back but credit to him, good on ya Banners.
The Wombat: have you ever seen a guy get boot to ball and take instantaneous correct first options better than Duds? Ok you have but hes up there.

If anyone wants actual hard cold visual data to support the concept that The Unicorn could become the leagues greatest giant ruck rover I give you Exhibit A: todays tape.
Bruce: at first I was joking with my Eagle tool mates that our Reid was better than theirs, not any more. Literally I would now draft him ahead of theirs.
First time in 50 years of watching Wafl/Afl that Ive said to my family “ do you think the Umpires could actually be corrupt and cheating?” Yes, it was that bad.

 

[2big2strom]

He took some crucial marks in the last quarter on the wing.

Derm paid credit to him for making an impact in the 4th even if he didn't impact the scoreboard or have much of it in the first 3 quarters.

sometimes derm absolutely shits me, with his condescending over explaining or hypothesise, and other times he makes really good observations like this, and he has a huge appreciation for a lot of footy work that may go unnoticed or doesn't count as a stat

(yes, I did get home from the game and immediately watched the kayo mini highlights)

 

[MadMundy]

I have to say, I'm probably one of the biggest critics of both Ryan and Cox on here, I've called them lazy, unfit, lethargic and many other things in the past, but they were brilliant yesterday, more of that from them please.

Also extremely happy to see Bolton get a couple of goals on the board, you could tell the crowd were excited to see him finally get them too. He's going to be massively popular for us, I think yesterday was his official arrival.

 

[BettercallSaul]

Andrew Gaze said on the bounce after the match that Fremantle had the worst song in the comp

Well he is on the worst show on tv so I respect his opinion.

 

[Outshined]

Add me to the list of people who still aren't convinced by Longmuir but recognise the need to give him credit, that was a big win.

The last ~10 minutes of the second quarter were scintillating. That's another high water mark for the sort of footy this squad is capable of playing. It's unrealistic to expect 120 minutes of that each week but we need to see it more, especially to capitalise on periods of possession dominance. Far too often we'd have gone into half time 2 goals up and ultimately lost another close one because we didn't have a big enough buffer when shit hit the fan in the third quarter.

One that note, criticism of the last quarter is misplaced IMO. I made peace with the fact we'd fold with one fit player on the bench on a hot day. It was completely logical to slow the game down and conserve energy at each possible moment by turning it into a controlled, stop-start affair. I'm not sure how you can reasonably expect a team with minimal rotations coasting on fumes to try and go full throttle and bury the opposition. They played it perfectly and ultimately the proof is in the 4 points.

Individual performances have all been rightly highlighted already but it was great to see a few of the whipping boys like Frederick and Sharp really impact the game. Doesn't excuse some of the previous invisibility but it's refreshing nonetheless.

Now don't be Dokery next weeks ffs.

 

[Minz]

Add me to the list of people who still aren't convinced by Longmuir but recognise the need to give him credit, that was a big win.

The last ~10 minutes of the second quarter were scintillating. That's another high water mark for the sort of footy this squad is capable of playing. It's unrealistic to expect 120 minutes of that each week but we need to see it more, especially to capitalise on periods of possession dominance. Far too often we'd have gone into half time 2 goals up and ultimately lost another close one because we didn't have a big enough buffer when shit hit the fan in the third quarter.

One that note, criticism of the last quarter is misplaced IMO. I made peace with the fact we'd fold with one fit player on the bench on a hot day. It was completely logical to slow the game down and conserve energy at each possible moment by turning it into a controlled, stop-start affair. I'm not sure how you can reasonably expect a team with minimal rotations coasting on fumes to try and go full throttle and bury the opposition. They played it perfectly and ultimately the proof is in the 4 points.

Individual performances have all been rightly highlighted already but it was great to see a few of the whipping boys like Frederick and Sharp really impact the game. Doesn't excuse some of the previous invisibility but it's refreshing nonetheless.

Now don't be Dokery next weeks ffs.

A full quarters worth of the second half of the second quarter would bury most teams. This is what I meant when I said the team needed downhill skiers in the Bolton thread…got the opponents down? Pile on!!

 

[dockerfemme]

I just finished watching the replay. One of the things that struck me was that in the first half of the last quarter I was thinking ‘how did we hang on here? They are all over us’. In the second half of the last quarter I felt like we evened the ledger and could have hung on for ever.