Review Freo Drowned in GC by Suns - Rd 9 Review

Yeti

Premiership Player
Feb 17, 2012
4,448
13,037
Newcastle
AFL Club
Fremantle
Positives
  • The season so far. A bad loss like that hurts but we've been pretty bloody good so far. Gold Coast certainly played to their strengths.
  • Logue was pretty good, there was a possession in maybe the 3rd quarter where he pretty much tapped it all throughout the D50 and eas able to clear it under a mountain of pressure. Kept his feet and didn't s**t the bed.
  • Brodie did well against his old side.
  • We're in the top 4 going into round 10 with games against Collingwood / Melbourne to come I'd be pretty happy considering the last few years.

Negatives
  • Continually using the bench side wing wo transition the ball and then bombing it long made me feel pretty s**t.
  • While the conditions weren't great for switching we barely did it.
  • Our tall forwards were non existent due to them playing a loose defender while their KPF (who isn't even good) kicked 4. It's a bad look.
  • Beaten on the spread
  • Wet weather footy doesn't mean just kick it high to take metres. Seemed we weren't keen on trying chaos balls or having our forwards leading back into an open F50.
 

Descent

All Australian
Oct 10, 2019
929
2,316
Ascendant
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Outworked, outcoached, outplayed.

Last time we played like that Walker was out. JL had to pick Logue in a way and Logue was ok (although Chol was the best forward in the game) but Walker seems to complete the back 6. Could be coincidence but I think he has to play.

Banfield beats up on poor team with no pressure but offers nothing when the tempo goes up.

Lobb was useless in the wet. Darcy had little influence. Beaten by Witts.

We sorely missed Switta and Walters.

Its time for Sturt and at this stage I'm playing Amiss in front of Treacy as he has footy smarts. Treacy is a blunt instrument with good hands but doesn't seem to have much game sense.

Aish isn't suited to pure wing role. His inside 50 entries were poor, as were Acres'. Notice what happened when Walker came on and started kicking the ball at leading targets. Admittedly the heat had gone out but we suddenly looked to have purpose.

Hopefully we learn from it as we did with the Saints game.
The criticisms of Walker "fumbling" are just so minor. He attacks the ball at pace, kicks with precision and purpose, and applies enormous pressure. So disappointed that we went so tall in the wet, particularly with a mediocre forward line. Our forwards are so dependent on fast, precise rebound off half-back. We function so much better when our entries are off the back of fast rebound from defence.
 

Dockeroo

Norm Smith Medallist
Nov 1, 2019
8,778
22,197
AFL Club
Fremantle
People calling for Amiss are well off the mark. He’s still a child!
Would have been monstered out there today.
The real issue we have is that Matt Taberner cannot stay on the park. There’s no chance for any consistency in that area of the ground. It’s maddening and it happens year in year out.
I love Tabs but he plays in such a crucial position in the field and can’t stay fit. What can we do??
 

StingBitten

The Midland Steal
May 31, 2012
6,720
13,190
Bayswater
AFL Club
Fremantle
The last 6 weeks have blown expectations way out of proportion. We probably aren't a top 4 side just yet and are going to continue to occasionally put these sorts of horrific performances in while the squad matures.

In saying that, it's disappointing to see we weren't able to remotely adjust to the conditions. Agree that there seemed little in the way of a 'plan B', and if there was the players simply didn't execute it at all. Our forward 50 work is still a massive weakness at times. The difference between us and a Melbourne or Brisbane is that they have enough quality to make chances out of nothing/score even if the entries aren't clean.

Lots to work on but it's not the end of the world. We aren't winning a flag this season.

Important to see a strong response next week.

My hope for this season is the same as it was preseason - play finals, retain a reasonably healthy list and traject upwards. I think we can do that still and I'm hoping for a home final.

If we're not careful though we could slip a few more and be 8-5 at the bye. You'd take that pre-season every day of the week but our back half of the season is going to be a tussle to get the remaining 4-5 wins.
 

blue shark

Norm Smith Medallist
Aug 15, 2009
5,452
4,851
perth
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Fremantle
People calling for Amiss are well off the mark. He’s still a child!
Would have been monstered out there today.
The real issue we have is that Matt Taberner cannot stay on the park. There’s no chance for any consistency in that area of the ground. It’s maddening and it happens year in year out.
I love Tabs but he plays in such a crucial position in the field and can’t stay fit. What can we do??
Play dangerous forwards, and changes too wet weather footy.
Freddy is for a dry fast track, Sturt with Neil for starters.
But honestly bombing the ball forward is a bad joke.
I’ve said it before but Banfield forward will cost us long term.
The beauty or Erasmus is that he can play dual positions.
Fyfe, Mundy, are the same, a mis-match can turn a game.
A coaching issue more than player availability I think.
 

Quazar

Cancelled
Aug 31, 2017
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Outworked, outcoached, outplayed.

Last time we played like that Walker was out. JL had to pick Logue in a way and Logue was ok (although Chol was the best forward in the game) but Walker seems to complete the back 6. Could be coincidence but I think he has to play.

Banfield beats up on poor team with no pressure but offers nothing when the tempo goes up.

Lobb was useless in the wet. Darcy had little influence. Beaten by Witts.

We sorely missed Switta and Walters.

Its time for Sturt and at this stage I'm playing Amiss in front of Treacy as he has footy smarts. Treacy is a blunt instrument with good hands but doesn't seem to have much game sense.

Aish isn't suited to pure wing role. His inside 50 entries were poor, as were Acres'. Notice what happened when Walker came on and started kicking the ball at leading targets. Admittedly the heat had gone out but we suddenly looked to have purpose.

Hopefully we learn from it as we did with the Saints game.
I enjoy a lot of your insights, they always seem very well thought out and accurate to me. Don't think that Sturt or Amiss would have made a huge difference today; I think we struggled with continuity all through out the park - but I agree, it's time to blood them properly and try to meld them into the team style so that the can be in positions to take marks/kick goals. Banfield might get a few goals here & there but he misses a lot of his marked set shots and it just let's so much air out of the balloon for a team that has struggled to pile on goal-fests ala Brisbane etc. We need proper forwards out there, doing proper forward things... Sturt if he gets his craft going isn't missing much with his technique, ditto Amiss. Amiss' biggest knock is probably his size right now & his inexperience as a draftee, he's as raw as - but I also agree Treacy, sadly, just isn't working out. I like his aggression and his physicality, given his age - but he's just not contributing enough. He's only got the 1 goal now, as a tall. I appreciate he hasn't played a lot in the first team this year to date, but just feels like he needs a spell back at Peel.

I agree with Dockeroo too, we are missing Tabs BADLY, but have this issue with him every season - he just can't get on the park consistently. It's super frustrating because in the J-Lo years, he's kicking goals for fun. Our forwardline AND our entries in are still an issue though - even against North it was evident we were prone to long-bombing, we just had the luxury of playing a poorer side and on home soil.

Lots to ponder, lots to ponder Coaching staff......
 

Yeti

Premiership Player
Feb 17, 2012
4,448
13,037
Newcastle
AFL Club
Fremantle
I forgot to add:

Izak Rankine has a real punchable face.
 

Quazar

Cancelled
Aug 31, 2017
1,829
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Fremantle
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Manchester United, Colorado Aves
Play dangerous forwards, and changes too wet weather footy.
Freddy is for a dry fast track, Sturt with Neil for starters.
But honestly bombing the ball forward is a bad joke.
I’ve said it before but Banfield forward will cost us long term.
The beauty or Erasmus is that he can play dual positions.
Fyfe, Mundy, are the same, a mis-match can turn a game.
A coaching issue more than player availability I think.
I'm trying to work out if this is a poem?! :p
 

Arkhitect

Bleeding Purple
Jun 11, 2013
576
2,424
AFL Club
Fremantle
65 inside 50's for 4 goals and 9 points - that's 29 more than GC and sums up the match. CG played the game exactly how some of us predicted, a scrap. They did what they had to do to come away with the win (a little bit of luck too with a couple of their goals).

If it was a dry track we would have easily won considering how much the ball was coming into our F50. The team simply refused to adjust to the conditions all day when moving the ball forward, which is hugely disappointing. It reminded me of us playing WC when McGovern, Hurn and Barrass would regularly mop up every one of our forward entries.

We also got smashed in the centre, but our defence & zoning mitigated CG's advantage there. We need Fyfe back ASAP.
 
Jul 18, 2010
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Let’s take a vote, who thinks Fyfe might help this team when he returns.

I see everyone does, yeah thought so.

Couldn’t believe the concern his return was causing some critics!
Even Nat in a wheelchair parked in the goal square may well have put in a better performance than our forwards today :(
 
Aug 22, 2018
1,035
1,054
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Fremantle
One thing I did notice is that Brayshaw took quite a few teeth rattling contacts today. He will be a sore boy in the recovery session tomorrow.

Should be a few pause moments in the review where the Team is shown examples of how to attack the ball.
 
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Outshined

Norm Smith Medallist
Jul 12, 2009
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15,873
WA
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Fremantle
My hope for this season is the same as it was preseason - play finals, retain a reasonably healthy list and traject upwards. I think we can do that still and I'm hoping for a home final.

If we're not careful though we could slip a few more and be 8-5 at the bye. You'd take that pre-season every day of the week but our back half of the season is going to be a tussle to get the remaining 4-5 wins.

Same here. I don't think it's been quite appreciated how far ahead of any reasonable projections we've reached this last month or so. Top 4 is of course still possible, but it would be a huge overachievement given we're tasking a significant number of <100 game youngsters with incredibly important roles.

IMO it's totally fine for us to fall back into the 5-8 pack as the season develops. I expect we will given the fixture. There have been the most clear signs of progression in terms of player development and gamplan since 2016, which bodes beautifully for 2023 onwards.

Just as we were liable to drop a game like today, I also think we're a sneaky chance to knock Brissy off at home.
 

Belnakor

Brownlow Medallist
Apr 10, 2005
26,274
18,834
Perth
AFL Club
Fremantle
To add insult to injury, why the hell did we end up with David King commentating our game??? It couldn't be any other week, it had to be this week. 🤦‍♂️
The campaigner has never rated us even back when he was a player he basically treated us with complete contempt. He spent the past couple of weeks pumping us up waiting for us to drop a game so he could slam us.
 

Ysaye

Norm Smith Medallist
Nov 10, 2005
5,146
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I'm trying to work out if this is a poem?! :p

It is a set of propositions; all you now need to do is:
  • Assign True / False to each, or a value between 0 to 1 if you want to do fuzzy logic
  • Use predicate logic such as AND, OR, XOR, etc. to combine them to see if you can make a Truth Function that captures The Case
  • The world is all that is the case.
 

Quazar

Cancelled
Aug 31, 2017
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It is a set of propositions; all you now need to do is:
  • Assign True / False to each, or a value between 0 to 1 if you want to do fuzzy logic
  • Use predicate logic such as AND, OR, XOR, etc. to combine them to see if you can make a Truth Function that captures The Case
  • The world is all that is the case.
o_O


I'll just drink my cuppa tea if that's alright with you :drunk:
 
Sep 22, 2011
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Positives
  • The season so far. A bad loss like that hurts but we've been pretty bloody good so far. Gold Coast certainly played to their strengths.
  • Logue was pretty good, there was a possession in maybe the 3rd quarter where he pretty much tapped it all throughout the D50 and eas able to clear it under a mountain of pressure. Kept his feet and didn't s**t the bed.
  • Brodie did well against his old side.
  • We're in the top 4 going into round 10 with games against Collingwood / Melbourne to come I'd be pretty happy considering the last few years.

Negatives
  • Continually using the bench side wing wo transition the ball and then bombing it long made me feel pretty s**t.
  • While the conditions weren't great for switching we barely did it.
  • Our tall forwards were non existent due to them playing a loose defender while their KPF (who isn't even good) kicked 4. It's a bad look.
  • Beaten on the spread
  • Wet weather footy doesn't mean just kick it high to take metres. Seemed we weren't keen on trying chaos balls or having our forwards leading back into an open F50.
This club and wet weather is such an enigma.
Wet weather football means chaos, kick it along the ground, create the small forwards to pressure. What did we do? 60-70m Fremantle just continuously bomb the ball listlessly and their spares just mopped it up. Kick it sideways, even kick it in the corridor instead of the bomb to the wing. So predictable. The forwards had no chance of creating chaos or one on ones. Collins just too comfortable down back.
 

Madas

Norm Smith Medallist
Aug 16, 2020
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Can we swap Banfield , Freddy and Treacy for Fritsch

3 for 1 offer
 

WaywardSonSon

Cancelled
Coney Island Warriors - Sweet F.A.
Jun 27, 2020
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It'd be great if we could have a Ben Brown for free as well.
 

Madas

Norm Smith Medallist
Aug 16, 2020
5,791
7,256
AFL Club
Fremantle
Simple. Sturt is our Fritsch
Bring it on then
Sick of the speculation TBH

I reckon he’s soft and adds no pressure but more than happy to be proven wrong

He is surely up for selection next week , straight in for Freddy
 

Boppo

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Mar 21, 2008
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Not that fussed with the loss, they were waaay better than us and hard as nails in conditions that suit. Showed up our game plan and skills in poor weather and showed how ineffectual our Smalls can be if they’re not able to generate outside run. Really missed Switta at the drop of the ball. Logue was good in his 50th.
 

cardamon

Senior List
Apr 15, 2018
267
804
AFL Club
Fremantle
Yeah i'm still positive, gold coast in the wet will happen to a few good teams this year

Interesting for us that when the inside 50s are off, they are real off. Today and st kilda we never looked like scoring for ages

Guys we were always going to drop a few games. Just gotta make sure we keep pinching a few against good teams
 
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