Autopsy Freo win 1 qtr v West Coast

[Lach72]

We seemed to go from play at on at all costs, even if it meant running into trouble; to looking inside and backwards at all costs.

The first choice for a player at centre wing or half back is to go further backwards. We chip the ball back a couple of times, then end up kicking to a contest anyway. The result is that we allow the opposition to set up 30/40/50 metres further back than where we were to begin with. Our mind set is negative. Classic example yesterday was (I think Collins) getting the ball on the half back flank. Sandi was alone 50 meters down the wing. Looked backwards, then inside, then backwards again. Looked up, Sandi was now marked by Hurn. Still a good option as he as a 12 inch advantage. Still looks backwards as the option, then goes long down the line. Sandi was now 1 on 3 and West Coast walked away with the ball.

This is not an individual thing. Not blaming Collins (if it was him). It is just the fact that we lack any confidence in our game plan, if we have one.

Langdon.
You're right, we're too risk averse.

And it comes from the coach.
He said at one of the breaks in an interview that we played on too quickly and turned the ball over.
That meant he's "corrected" that at the break and now we're stagnant and kicking sideways

 

[StingBitten]

Positives
- Sheridan in the forward half
- Apeness/Yarran showing poise and initiative (with the little time they had with the ball)
- Hill continuing his good form
- SNOS looking like Dawson's replacement for the next couple of seasons
- Finally Sandi making a solid return - God I wish the big man could play on for another 5 years.

Negatives
- Missed chances and momentum killers in the 2nd half; it's possible to argue that if we were nearly 30 up like we should be we could have ground out the game
- Zac Clarke soft as butter, missed chances from Mayne and continuing atrocious disposal by D. Pearce

Interesting to note that our first quarter and half of the second were as elite, skilled and fluid as we've played all year. On the basis of that logic it can be argued that one of or a combination of two factors led to our downfall - endurance/fatigue and mentality.

Endurance/fatigue in that we quite simply ran out of steam; Footy's a game of inches and once the space had been closed on our players we reverted back to our old style (hacked, bombed, fluffed et al.) Moreover, the idea of mentality/momentum being present as the Eagles turned a corner in the second with a couple of goals; as a self-defence/wounded-predator mechanism we've gone back into our shells, i.e. vastly dropped in confidence/awareness and the bundle was dropped. Could be a combination of the two.

I think these sorts of variables are more likely rather than the 'Our skills are so s**t' philosophy - as it begs the question of how we performed so well for 45 minutes.

 

[Unique Name]

The 2nd half reminded me of Carlton's gameplan last year. Scared to go down the corridor and tried to play the entire game within 2m of the boundary line.

 

[youmewe]

Memo

To: D. Pearce.
From: Concerned Freo member.

Danyle, footballers and sportsmen in general are often perceived as not being the sharpest tools in the shed. On the question of your kicking I'm certain you've received countless hours of advice from supposedly highly qualified experts in the field.

If I may I'd like to offer you my own piece of advice.

Danyle after 12 years and 245 senior games...is it possible you're actually a natural right footer?

 

[Lord Rod]

Positives : Only 3 more games to suffer through this year.

 

[imperial_oz]

I would like our team to be flexible with players who can play in multiple positions. To get this, we need to try players out.

We have several players who should be playing for Peel including Mayne, D Pearce, (Weller needs a rest), Clarke but we don't have anyone knocking down the door. I have no issue with experimenting for the rest of a the season if it helps us next year and the year after that.

If I thought that was happening, I might agree with you but it wasn't what occurred.

Mayne for example was doing an ok job in defence, so he was moved back to CHF, a position where he has NOT excelled all year and again cost us momentum with missed shots on goal. Sticking him forward, where has has not been of AFL standard all year after watching him perform well in defence is not an experiment, is not by any measure successful and could hardly meet any definition of being 'tried out'. It was poor and it cost us.

I've yet to hear Lyon take responsibility for poor game day decisions like that. For a bloke who is supposed to be a coaching genius, he makes a lot of basic errors and its very hard to understand why.

Fine, I'm no AFL coach and never will be but even I know, if something is working and working well, you do NOT change back to something that is a guaranteed fail.

You are correct, Mayne should be at Peel. The obvious forward line should have been Pav, Apeness and Tabs, with Ballas,Walters and Yarran crumbing. All six are better shots on goal than Mayne. One of those talls should have been a stay at home forward with 2 of them being more mobile talls (prob Pav and Tabs) but leaving Apeness up front on his first game back is too much of an ask. He could have switched in and out with Pav and Tabs could have the mobile tall all game.

At least we would have had a forward structure rather than the mess we had all season.

The lack of forward structure has been present since the preseason, so why has it not been addressed?

Lyon has blind spots. Look at how Hawthorn pull us apart each time by short kicking into space before we can close them down. Other teams with skills have emulated that to a lesser degree and that is one tactic Lyon has never addressed in all his time at Freo. Its well past time he was looked at critically and evaluated on performance rather than reputation.

 

[Arcassius]

Listened into the umpire's broadcast early on at the game yesterday and heard who I presume was the Umpire's Coach say something like "Great first 5 minutes guys. The game is now on our terms."

Is it possible to record those broadcasts?

 

[Rion]

Really think our downturn in the second half was us running out of the puff. Probably expected with the amount of rookies and underdone players we brought into that game.

 

[Unique Name]

I hate the AFL's constant need to change rules but if they did force teams to keep 2 players in their forward 50 it would probably benefit us greatly.

It would force us to have some form of structure to kick towards on a fast break.

 

[PapaJ]

Ibbotson is not getting enough love from the past 2 games, have seen a return to form from him. He is doing all the little things superbly and whenever a ball is heading into our defense from a long kick he always makes the pack and at least brings the ball to ground, if not actually marking it. A couple times today he also took off when he got the ball which makes him play on instinct so less of that slow decision making that we have seen in the past from him, shows he has a spot in the team going forward.

Don't worry about the poo pooers, I thought he was OK too, not fantastic, but solid enough with the odd mistake. He seems to have turned a corner in the last few games. His early season form was terrible, and that's putting it nicely - he really didn't have a clue what was going on and was 'Exhibit A' for how some of players weren't getting this 'new game plan'.

But, yeah, he seems to be putting himself in the right places now and working a little faster. Hopefully he can build and come in next season in some form and be part of a more functional back half again.

 

[dockerfemme]

Don't worry about the poo pooers, I thought he was OK too, not fantastic, but solid enough with the odd mistake. He seems to have turned a corner in the last few games. His early season form was terrible, and that's putting it nicely - he really didn't have a clue what was going on and was 'Exhibit A' for how some of players weren't getting this 'new game plan'.

But, yeah, he seems to be putting himself in the right places now and working a little faster. Hopefully he can build and come in next season in some form and be part of a more functional back half again.

I agree. I thought he was OK. There was one awful fumble that cost a goal. But he put his body on the line a number of times and got quite beaten up. He did some quite good things.

 

[yoong]

No really expecting to win this anyway. Just a little disappointed as we could have given the seagulls a good run for their money had we even kicked reasonably.

I believe the 1st quarter is the way we intent to play the game in the future. Pressure hard to win back the ball and fast ball movement up the field after we win it. It's a very exciting style and I think we'll do well with it.

Our problem is still the same for the whole season. We are not efficient in the forward 50. We keep kicking the ball into a disadvantaged contest, and even if we bring it to ground, we start fumbling and lose the initiative.

Another thing which I noticed (especially in the 2nd half) which I don't like is that we are not taking the game on in the midfield. We keep taking the "safe" option of kicking it back, then back again. Until the last man had to blast the ball forward and kick to a contest (which we lost). I know we want to play possession footy (I want that too), but we need to rethink how we go about it.

Still, I see a lot of positives out of this game. Sheridan have been doing a lot of runs this season. Yesterday's was a good highlight reel of what he have been trying to do and is capable of. We need more of such runs from Sheridan and Crozier in the future.

Apeness! I'm glad we signed him up. Can grab marks, can contest. Really nothing not to like.

Our core young group is fine. Give them more matches and they'll turn out well.

 

[Admiral Byng]

.... The obvious forward line should have been Pav, Apeness and Tabs, with Ballas,Walters and Yarran crumbing. All six are better shots on goal than Mayne. One of those talls should have been a stay at home forward with 2 of them being more mobile talls (prob Pav and Tabs) but leaving Apeness up front on his first game back is too much of an ask. He could have switched in and out with Pav and Tabs could have the mobile tall all game.

At least we would have had a forward structure rather than the mess we had all season.

The lack of forward structure has been present since the preseason, so why has it not been addressed?

Lyon has blind spots. Look at how Hawthorn pull us apart each time by short kicking into space before we can close them down. Other teams with skills have emulated that to a lesser degree and that is one tactic Lyon has never addressed in all his time at Freo. Its well past time he was looked at critically and evaluated on performance rather than reputation.

Agree totally. If only Lyon read BigFooty.

The last thing we can salvage out of this season is to play Apeness and Tabs together in the forward line for all remaining games.

 

[MadDocker]

Ques at the Vic were not too bad. Managed a few pints before heading to the game for the bounce down. First quarter good. Lines to toilets and beer stands ridiculous. Pricing for midstrength beer criminal. Second quarter ok. All went downhill from there.

Still, it beat working.

 

[Nolo180]

Freo have always struggled with accurate forward entries but what I sore again yesterday sitting behind the goals at the city end was a Backline that couldn't clear the ball out of d50 without sideways kicks and back passes (spurr, ibbo, collins, silva & collins)Just too conservative and indecidive trying to take the safe option all the time. A bit more run and spread up field would help. Players are either too poorly skilled to hit passes or they are too afraid to turn the ball over.
Bombing long down the line, hack kicks to clear the d50 arc & backward kicks + sideways passes just don't work in the modern game.
Need johnno back but how long has he got left in him?
On a positive note apeness looked good, yarran is showing some good signs and it's great to see 211 back playing well straight up!

 

[Nolo180]

Leaving collins on Kennedy for 3 quaters was just cruel. The poor kid played his heart out but got absolutely pantsed by the coleman leader. Learning experience or not it would do more harm than good after the bag he had kicked on him.

 

[freoextra]

Ibbotson is not getting enough love from the past 2 games, have seen a return to form from him. He is doing all the little things superbly and whenever a ball is heading into our defense from a long kick he always makes the pack and at least brings the ball to ground, if not actually marking it. A couple times today he also took off when he got the ball which makes him play on instinct so less of that slow decision making that we have seen in the past from him, shows he has a spot in the team going forward.

Interesting that you raised the Ibbo game. In the first quarter he really put his body on the line and received two head knocks and on both occasions kept playing. Showed more toughness than I had seen from him for a while. I did see him make one howler when he ran at a ball and just put a hand out instead of putting his body on the line but that was it for mistakes that I noticed. Then I saw a lot of people on our forums saying he should be dropped and I was left scratching my head!!

The only players having real howlers were D Pearce (played strongly in the last quarter) and Collins who apparently according to the coach needed a lesson against the best forward in the league (annoys me that we have handed the Coleman to Kennedy). I didn't even notice Clarke being any worse than usual, yeah yeah he stuffed one golden opportunity to goal (maybe I now work on a low base).

 

[freoextra]

Leaving collins on Kennedy for 3 quaters was just cruel. The poor kid played his heart out but got absolutely pantsed by the coleman leader. Learning experience or not it would do more harm than good after the bag he had kicked on him.

Especially when he could have handled Darling fairly easily - a lesson indeed from a coach who is all about next year.

 

[UFO Tatsu]

Leaving collins on Kennedy for 3 quaters was just cruel. The poor kid played his heart out but got absolutely pantsed by the coleman leader. Learning experience or not it would do more harm than good after the bag he had kicked on him.

Really depends on the kid. Collins took the challenge well and played pretty good IMO. No harm done at all.

 

[marc81]

I had 10 bucks on yarran for first goal at $21 that was my positive.

Sent from my SM-G920I using Tapatalk

 

[imperial_oz]

Agree totally. If only Lyon read BigFooty.

The last thing we can salvage out of this season is to play Apeness and Tabs together in the forward line for all remaining games.

Would love to see that but to be fair, Apeness hasn't had much game time for ages and expecting him to be the stay at home forward (simply because Tabs has shown he has a good tank) would be a big ask. Good for the experience though and I'd be switching him on and off in that role with Pav. Even better with Sandi drifting forward to add a 4th tall. You have to keep Ballas, Walters and Yarran at their feet to make that any chance of working but, I have to say I like the idea.

Thats said, we are up against some good midfields between now and seasons end and going tall like that might result in a lack of midfield pressure. Not a lot of value having 3 talls standing there looking at each other.

Still, its worth trying.....f all else has been working for us this year.

 

[Arcassius]

Really depends on the kid. Collins took the challenge well and played pretty good IMO. No harm done at all.

I agree. It also gives him quite a bit of good vision to go over for different situations during the game to analyse, of what is required against a dangerous forward of the comp. He'll be better for the experience.

 

[PapaJ]

I agree. It also gives him quite a bit of good vision to go over for different situations during the game to analyse, of what is required against a dangerous forward of the comp. He'll be better for the experience.

And he's had a bit of exposure now, it wasn't his 1st or 2nd AFL game and, on top of that, he's not an 18 y/o either. He's a bit older at 22 and has played a fair bit at higher levels. He'll be fine and, like you say, probably better for it.

 

[Arcassius]

And he's had a bit of exposure now, it wasn't his 1st or 2nd AFL game and, on top of that, he's not an 18 y/o either. He's a bit older at 22 and has played a fair bit at higher levels. He'll be fine and, like you say, probably better for it.

I'd rather he get smashed now - than in future seasons where it matters.

Would be good to show him - "this is where he got off the leash, you need to play tighter on him" "this is where you need to block his lead" etc

 

[Admiral Byng]

Would love to see that but to be fair, Apeness hasn't had much game time for ages and expecting him to be the stay at home forward (simply because Tabs has shown he has a good tank) would be a big ask. Good for the experience though and I'd be switching him on and off in that role with Pav. Even better with Sandi drifting forward to add a 4th tall. You have to keep Ballas, Walters and Yarran at their feet to make that any chance of working but, I have to say I like the idea.

Thats said, we are up against some good midfields between now and seasons end and going tall like that might result in a lack of midfield pressure. Not a lot of value having 3 talls standing there looking at each other.

Still, its worth trying.....f all else has been working for us this year.

If we don't have a good week at the trade table it might end up being the Plan A for next season. Might as well start now when it doesn't matter any more.