Freo's skill level lets them down again

[Freo Shark]

The match was pretty tight but could have been a blow out if Port had kicked straight.

They gained easy goals not to mention a couple freakish goals, which was ultimately the difference. They certainly got some good decisions in their forward line which gave them a few too.

What made the difference was skills, Port used the ball much more effectively and intelligently, their disposal was generally spot on ours was over the head or to an outnumbered player. They played hard accountable footy, we dont and turnover balls too easily which cost us.

They had men that were given too much free space and made us pay, James for example. Our men were always accounted for and any goals were hard contested ones. Altough Matty Carr played well, Farmer and Medders played better too.

Freo was hurt by Ports ability to rebound out of our half forward line, when they continually made use of our slack manning up and just hit the chest of each other and attacked down the guts.

Clearances hurt us again, we dont get enough use of the ball. If Hase or Pav dont get first use we pay. This needs to be reassessed, it costs us again and again.

We have a few players who are lacking who are getting games when they probably shouldnt, we have limited depth. Woodsy is just hit and miss and inconsistent. Sandi is going to be a good player but his decision making is lacking, or his ability to make quick decisions.

Overall I thought Freo played a tougher, harder game and would have beaten alot of sides on that performance but we're not quite there. Where we can improve lies in the range\consistency of skills and intensity displayed, Freo is satisfactory to poor.

 

[FreoDocker]

In the end, it was our poor decision making / skill level that cost us. To Ports credit, everytime we turned the ball over or let them slip through tackles, they punished us.

While I didn't think we played that badly, I still thought it was one of those matches which just got away from us.

Some of the decision making was just crazy, a la Polaks blind tap through his legs straight to a port player who slams through the goal.

I think for now we just have to accept that we're not good enough to beat sides like port. Thats not to say that the improvement won't come, but we do need more experience. When players like McPharlin, Browne, Schammer, Hayden, Hadrill, Polak, Medhurst, Sandilands etc get to that 60 - 80 game mark, you would hope that they would have enough experience to improve their decision making and focus their skills.

Hopefully the week off will give alot of the blokes carrying injuries time to get them right.

 

[Luke_TSK]

Port play a possession game, kicking it around. Freo play a running type game which involves little to know manning up. It is hardly a surprise that they found it hard to adapt.