Review Freo Just not Quite Good Enough - Rd 23 Review

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If Johnson and Erasmus don’t show signs next year of coming on we’re seriously screwed.

id almost go hell for leather for GC pick 4 to try and get an elite mid it’s that bad.

which sucks because we need an elite small forward to replace Sonny
I can't help thinking Erasmus can only push one of Brayshaw or Serong out of there, not add to them. Johnson needs to fast track. He is the only one with a bit of pace and skills aren't too bad. I think Brayshaw needs to make way as soon as we have viable options. He looks more likely to succeed elsewhere than Serong does.
May as well have a high pick one year sooner if it doesn't damage us too badly. Not sure what elite midfielder would be available in this draft though.
 

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Meh. It looked to me like Port were the bigger, stronger, more skillful and experienced team out there - and playing as if the season still counted for something, which for them it certainly does.

I’m not sure how much more there is to read into it than that, for now . I understand the frustration that we simply didn’t match it with them - but we were damn close. And as mentioned above, just look to where they were 12 months ago.

Assuming our future (Ie. Premiership window) midfield is Brayshaw, Serong, Young, Johnno and Ras- they’r far too young as a group to consistently measure up against the best of the best right now.
 
With some of the comments you would think the future is hopeless and we had been blown off the park and flogged by 10 goals. We had more possessions and inside 50's, more chances to score, the pressure/tackling was first rate, and we just fell short due to skill errors. Same against Brisbane. I think the last part of our year has been pretty good. Played the #2 and #3 seeds and pushed them hard.
 
I’m one of the few it seems who liked him as a forward in the Lyon era - good overhead and a respectable kick on goal, plus a big body. Would’ve liked to see more of Cox forward plus Ryan on wing - while of course this begs question re who or what remains in our defence.
I really wanted him to go forward last year, and chuck Logue down back. But that was ruined when he started playing at AA level down back and we moved Logue forward instead.
 
With some of the comments you would think the future is hopeless and we had been blown off the park and flogged by 10 goals. We had more possessions and inside 50's, more chances to score, the pressure/tackling was first rate, and we just fell short due to skill errors. Same against Brisbane. I think the last part of our year has been pretty good. Played the #2 and #3 seeds and pushed them hard.
Pretty much. People go on about how they can't see us as a finals contender yet we played two teams competing for top 2 and lost by 3 points, and then by 16 points due to our worst set shot performance of the year.

We probably executed more htb tackles today then any other game this year too.
 
Question.
If you had a hypothetical draft tomorrow morning and 18 year old Andy Brayshaw, 18 year old Caleb Serong and 18 year old David Mundy were all in front of you, who would you pick?

For me it’s
1. Mundy

Daylight

2 & 3 either or.

Good ball users trump everything else. I am so convinced not having Mundy hurts our scoring rate so much this season. The amount of score involvements that guy had was something else. Usually though top class delivery i50.
We need a Mundy replacement in that midfield. It was supposed to be Johnson but the kid has a very long way to go if you ask me…
 
As far as I can see even if we beat Hawthorn by 100 points and West Coast beat Adelaide by 100 we won't be jumping them on the ladder so we are now locked in for a bottom six fixture next season. So probably WC and Adelaide twice.
Hawthorn in Launceston.

We won’t get north twice anyway
 
Question.
If you had a hypothetical draft tomorrow morning and 18 year old Andy Brayshaw, 18 year old Caleb Serong and 18 year old David Mundy were all in front of you, who would you pick?

For me it’s
1. Mundy

Daylight

2 & 3 either or.

Good ball users trump everything else. I am so convinced not having Mundy hurts our scoring rate so much this season. The amount of score involvements that guy had was something else. Usually though top class delivery i50.
We need a Mundy replacement in that midfield. It was supposed to be Johnson but the kid has a very long way to go if you ask me…
I think people are overrating Mundy's impact last season to be honest. He was far from his best. I remember the Melbourne game before he announced his retirement he had like 4 kicks out on the full. In terms of clearances and score involvements, JOM this year is pretty much identical in averages.

Mundy's leadership was the biggest loss.
 
I said we need more class on the half back line because that's where we lost it in my opinion. That panic out of Worner, Wagner etc after the fumbles and dropped marks there cost more to me that the poor delivery going forward. We got turned around and mismatched in defense all day.

I've already said what I want for the midfield next year. Nathan O'Driscoll at the stoppage as the defensive minded mid. He is huge, has the speed to react like a cat and hurt them the other way before a kick that isn't going to be much worse than what we already have.

We looked good with Switta in there making space with run and closing them down when they got it to the outside but for the most part controlled their movement out of the middle - I think we had our chances to win that and we didn't have the composure - particularly across half back.
We need more speed and class in our midfield as well imo. Wagner got most right iirc, Worner didn't. Love the NOD idea. If he makes it, he will fix a lot of our weaknesses in there but we would still need to find some class on the outside. Henry tried but his skill seem to have deserted him.
We looked a lot more dangerous when Switta was in there. He has the dynamism that the others lack.
 

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We need more speed and class in our midfield as well imo. Wagner got most right iirc, Worner didn't. Love the NOD idea. If he makes it, he will fix a lot of our weaknesses in there but we would still need to find some class on the outside. Henry tried but his skill seem to have deserted him.
We looked a lot more dangerous when Switta was in there. He has the dynamism that the others lack.
Not sure about switta. Has the speed and agility but when used in midfield gets caught alot or lacks awareness, which was less when used in fwd line. Note, this was when he was kicking goals
 
With some of the comments you would think the future is hopeless and we had been blown off the park and flogged by 10 goals. We had more possessions and inside 50's, more chances to score, the pressure/tackling was first rate, and we just fell short due to skill errors. Same against Brisbane. I think the last part of our year has been pretty good. Played the #2 and #3 seeds and pushed them hard.
The point is we had more possessions and i50 and we couldn't do anything with it because we lack skill and good decision-making . It isn't hopeless but I just question whether anything will be changed to fix our deficiencies and improve the team when it has the ball. Bad kicking and decision-making lost it for us against Brisbane. Good performance losses won't cut it next year.
 
It's actually amazing we got within 3 goals TBH. I look back at some of the big deficiencies in our game and wonder how we got that close.

Forward pressure - non existent
Midfield pressure - awful when they got the ball. It seemed like most of their clearances were super clean
Ball movement - treacle slow

Some positives though - backline was really good, our skills weren't dogshit, and our passengers were players that wouldn't normally be best 22.
 
Not sure about switta. Has the speed and agility but when used in midfield gets caught alot or lacks awareness, which was less when used in fwd line. Note, this was when he was kicking goals
I think we need a Switta type in the mix.
Serong looks tired but nobody fumbled more than him today.
 
As far as I can see even if we beat Hawthorn by 100 points and West Coast beat Adelaide by 100 we won't be jumping them on the ladder so we are now locked in for a bottom six fixture next season. So probably WC and Adelaide twice.
Adelaide will take their frustration out on WC and try to get Tex the Coleman. They'll jump Essendon and Richmond most likely and the loser of Geelong v Dogs.
 
As far as I can see even if we beat Hawthorn by 100 points and West Coast beat Adelaide by 100 we won't be jumping them on the ladder so we are now locked in for a bottom six fixture next season. So probably WC and Adelaide twice.

Adelaide in Perth for us is rarer than hens teeth. I’ll take it
 
Has it been a frustrating season? Yes. But there's been plenty of positives

  • Jackson has been everything as advertised and more, will only get better
  • Darcy before going down was the No.1 Ruck in the Comp
  • Amiss (20), Treacy (21), Sturt (23) all developing, getting time to play together and more time to physically develop
  • Schultz's game has gone up another level IMO
  • Serong arrived as an A-Grade inside mid
  • Brayshaw & Pearce bouncing back after slow starts to the season
  • Young departing the backline and into the midfield is the biggest thing for 2024 IMO
  • Henry finally putting it all together
  • Development for Johnson & Erasmus
  • Wagner's great form this month as a rebounding halfback has been a wonderful surprise
  • Walter's still got the class in those old legs

Negatives?
  • Chapman's & Fyfe's chronic inability to stay healthy and on the pitch
  • Brodie being displaced and hurt at the worst time when there's a role for him
  • Ryan's disposal has regressed IMO
  • Walker's knee :( Hopefully doesn't effect him post-injury

We are the 2nd youngest side in the comp and shown that we're capable of beating quality sides away. Tidy up our record at home (5 from 12 this Season) and we're pressing for Top 4. Our time will come, just the waiting always feels slow.
 
As far as I can see even if we beat Hawthorn by 100 points and West Coast beat Adelaide by 100 we won't be jumping them on the ladder so we are now locked in for a bottom six fixture next season. So probably WC and Adelaide twice.
Richmond or Geelong will surely drop below Adelaide to complete the bottom 6. Wouldn’t mind playing either twice next season.
 
One other thing: Why does it take us to fall to almost an unwinnable position before we decide to move the ball fast through the centreline and half forward? And when we do our forward line looks so much more dangerous.
I think we were scared of their faster and more skilled midfield getting the ball off us. Henry tried to take the corridor but his kicking wasn't up to it.
 
Not sure how many BF posters actually at the game. Certainly a different perspective as to watching it on the box.

One really clear problem at the ground which stood out (yet again) was how Freo allowed Port the first kick after a behind to an uncontested player, then to another, then to another. Each port player was just zoned off and many many times Port moved it from backline to our backine without any contested pocessions. We start just about every attacking move from our half backline. And we dont just zone off a bit, “tempting them”, we are so far off them we can never intercept.

When Port kick a point, they man up every short option and Luke Ryan is forced to kick 50m long down the line and incur the wrath of BF posters.

Sure, we missed some goals, sure their midfielders are better ( in fact best in the AFL) but we should at least be controlling the controllables.

Bad coaching
 
Not sure how many BF posters actually at the game. Certainly a different perspective as to watching it on the box.

One really clear problem at the ground which stood out (yet again) was how Freo allowed Port the first kick after a behind to an uncontested player, then to another, then to another. Each port player was just zoned off and many many times Port moved it from backline to our backine without any contested pocessions. We start just about every attacking move from our half backline. And we dont just zone off a bit, “tempting them”, we are so far off them we can never intercept.

When Port kick a point, they man up every short option and Luke Ryan is forced to kick 50m long down the line and incur the wrath of BF posters.

Sure, we missed some goals, sure their midfielders are better ( in fact best in the AFL) but we should at least be controlling the controllables.

Bad coaching
Very bad coaching if that was the instructions. It wouldn't be the first time we have allowed teams to do that. Less skilful teams might not get away with it but Port sliced through us easily. It was very obvious on the telle as well. Very frustrating
 

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