How do you feel about Freo and the AFL?

[blue shark]

Guys like Barlow and DeBoer were cast aside so we could get games into generation-next players like Sheridan, Crozier, Weller, Langdon, Blakely, and Tucker. We "invested" a lot of games into some of those guys for not a lot of return.

Not every player works out but from those 6 young-ish players above who were getting games in 2016 only Tucker is playing right now. Perhaps that is a part of our current problem?

Sherro was always a waste of time, Blakely gone backwoods, the rest given more Time and played correctly
were always going to come good.
Blakely still could, but it's so Freo to have a few living on potential.

 

[Caldera]

Not every player works out but from those 6 young-ish players above who were getting games in 2016 only Tucker is playing right now. Perhaps that is a part of our current problem?

Yeah that what I meant about our growth being stymied. Neale, Weller and Langdon were the emerging group that have departed. Brad Hill a key recruit gone, and Blakely in no mans land right now.

 

[basashi]

I like to back us to retain interstate talent, but Ben King is a Vic Metro kid whose twin brother is playing for the Saints, with St Kilda being very transparent in their desire to reunite the twins. Doesn't inspire a lot of confidence.

Bit of hindsight bias here, but Hogan:

1. Wanted to play at Freo
2. We had going for half of last season and a few games this season. We're getting there with him.

my guess is that we will get more time out of Hogan but it won't be greatly different to what we have gotten out of him thus far. so just 2 or 3 more lots of the last 18 months.

i hope its better though.

maybe he can step on a live wire and get bitten by a spider at the same time?

 

[Johnny Dalmas]

my guess is that we will get more time out of Hogan but it won't be greatly different to what we have gotten out of him thus far. so just 2 or 3 more lots of the last 18 months.

i hope its better though.

maybe he can step on a live wire and get bitten by a spider at the same time?

One of the interesting things about Hogan is he was a 2 goal a game player at the Dees year-in-and-year-out.

• Get straight into a key position role in your first season after suffering a bad back injury that lost you a year at 18? 44 goals in 20 games at 2 a game.
• Suffer constant media attention about going home to WA, your goal kicking technique and attitude during your "second year blues"? Still kicks 41 goals in 21 games at 2 goals a game. Tick tock.
• Suffer a year from hell when your parent dies of cancer and you are then diagnosed with cancer yourself only to stoically come back to footy and then break your collarbone? You still manage 20 goals in 10 games at 2 goals a game. Tick tock.
• Get some continuity into your footy and play as a CHF who roams up the ground and gets some midfield time before the season ends with a foot injury? You can still kick 47 goals in 20 games at 2-and-a-little-bit goals a game. Tick tock
  
  
• Come to Fremantle? You are now under 1 goal a game and don't look even close to being the same forward threat.

How much of that is Hogan being past his best and how much of it is our chronic offensive problems?

 

[Scham]

One of the interesting things about Hogan is he was a 2 goal a game player at the Dees year-in-and-year-out.

• Get straight into a key position role in your first season after suffering a bad back injury that lost you a year at 18? 44 goals in 20 games at 2 a game.
• Suffer constant media attention about going home to WA, your goal kicking technique and attitude during your "second year blues"? Still kicks 41 goals in 21 games at 2 goals a game. Tick tock.
• Suffer a year from hell when your parent dies of cancer and you are then diagnosed with cancer yourself only to stoically come back to footy and then break your collarbone? You still manage 20 goals in 10 games at 2 goals a game. Tick tock.
• Get some continuity into your footy and play as a CHF who roams up the ground and gets some midfield time before the season ends with a foot injury? You can still kick 47 goals in 20 games at 2-and-a-little-bit goals a game. Tick tock
  
  
• Come to Fremantle? You are now under 1 goal a game and don't look even close to being the same forward threat.

How much of that is Hogan being past his best and how much of it is our chronic offensive problems?

70/30???

 

[Stronzo]

I’d probably still be into the game like I was, but living overseas makes it hard. Especially with the expensive cost of a season pass. €200 is money enough to search for a dodgy stream.

 

[gaskin]

I’d probably still be into the game like I was, but living overseas makes it hard. Especially with the expensive cost of a season pass. €200 is money enough to search for a dodgy stream.

Have you tried a VPN and Kayo Sports?

 

[Johnny Dalmas]

70/30???

I’d probably flip those numbers Scham

 

[Lach72]

Last week I thought Hogan was very good...he worked his arse off, kicked beautifully, marked well...both he and Tabs were playing a little far up the ground but when the midfield is getting slaughtered, not much else he could do

 

[Fat Nyfe]

One of the interesting things about Hogan is he was a 2 goal a game player at the Dees year-in-and-year-out.

• Get straight into a key position role in your first season after suffering a bad back injury that lost you a year at 18? 44 goals in 20 games at 2 a game.
• Suffer constant media attention about going home to WA, your goal kicking technique and attitude during your "second year blues"? Still kicks 41 goals in 21 games at 2 goals a game. Tick tock.
• Suffer a year from hell when your parent dies of cancer and you are then diagnosed with cancer yourself only to stoically come back to footy and then break your collarbone? You still manage 20 goals in 10 games at 2 goals a game. Tick tock.
• Get some continuity into your footy and play as a CHF who roams up the ground and gets some midfield time before the season ends with a foot injury? You can still kick 47 goals in 20 games at 2-and-a-little-bit goals a game. Tick tock
  
  
• Come to Fremantle? You are now under 1 goal a game and don't look even close to being the same forward threat.

How much of that is Hogan being past his best and how much of it is our chronic offensive problems?

I made a similar post early last year, Hogan went through all sorts of personal and injury issues at Melbourne and still racked up 2 goals every single year. Under 2 different coaches as well, Roos and Goodwin.

Since he's been at Freo you're always wondering where his next goal is going to come from, scoring is like drawing blood from a stone for us. Also under 2 different coaches, one very early on to be fair.

So what's going on? If you're going to point the finger at the entries coming in, you have to remember he was at Melbourne whilst they were struggling and hardly known for their silver service to forwards.

Just another one of those Freo things.

 

[Purpletown]

I was pretty upset about how unprofessional and amateurish we were in the very early days. The club had been promoted as having all the attributes of the historic and great football history of Fremantle from 100 years but was just pathetic.

The march by 10,000 fans in Fremantle when the WAFC decided unilaterally to move the club to Subiaco was the moment imo when we became a real club.

The work that was done to take us from a broke club with very few decent players to the point where we were solvent and decent on and off the field was a monumental effort. Unfortunately moving to the new stadium with plenty of spare capacity while bumping around the bottom of the table was a huge setback and the pandemic on top of that has put us in a position where we will have to work hard again to make sure we stay viable financially in the short term.

On field it has been a pleasure to watch Pav and Fyfe in particular. Personally I also enjoyed seeing Ross mold some average players into real soldiers during our successful era. We had 3 or 4 most games who were just players but they played their hearts out week in and week out.

The preliminary final in 2013 was the best feeling I have ever had at a game when the MCG chant went up when we realized we were going to be playing in the GF.

The game against Geelong at Kardina Park was almost as good but most of us could only watch it on TV. It would have been amazing to actually be there on the day.

I am a bit disillusioned presently as this rebuild is dragging on and we have lost too many decent mature players who have been replaced by some good trades but an equal amount of spuds, and drafting takes a few years to get back to where we were. All in all this last few years have been bloody hard to take.

The AFL continues to be run by amateurs with a Victorian bias, not much to like about that shite show of an organization. A special mention to Michael Christian as the sole MRP member, this whole set up is so stupid that it's actually funny but none of the idiots in the AFL can see the glaring deficiencies of Christian or the whole set up.

 

[MadMundy]

I feel more entertained watching us this year so far then I have since 2015. I'll take our play style this year over 16,17,18,19.

 

[Stronzo]

Have you tried a VPN and Kayo Sports?

No. What is a good VPN?

 

[StWalrus]

Freo used to be a real cool side when I was a young kid maybe it was all the cool colours on the jumper and Pav but I reckon there's still some magic there somewhere. Backing you dockers to smash the crows.

 

[Quazar]

Hello fellow Freo fans.

It's been almost 2 years since I last signed in! Last time I was here, it was the 2018 trade period and the club was gearing up to land Hogan, Lobb, Cripps & Dangerfield!!! Okay, the last 2 are not true...but we can but have a laugh here & there. Back then I was willfully ignorant of what was to come in my life. Not long before the end of that trade period, we had to disconnect our Internet because the shop we ran in Bunbury was suffering some kind of post-seasonal blues and we needed to cut corners and reign it in. Blah blah.

So I missed the end of the trade period on here, just as things were getting interesting. But things took a darker turn in one's life, when my wife was diagnosed with cancer for the 2nd time in her life. We spent most of 2019 apart as she left to go back to Albany where we'd moved up from and I decided to stay put and try and salvage the shop. Which was hard.

Eventually I got the Internet re-connected, but I fell into such a self-indulgent depression and being on my own with no family here (I'm originally from the UK and all my family is there bar my sis who emigrated to NZ in 2004..).

I just didn't have the motivation to come back here and pretend to give a sh**. But since I moved back to Albany last year and got back with my wife and 2 lovely dogs, things returned to some form of normality. We let the shop go and it was passed over to another couple and turned our business into a home run one. My wife's cancer was clear as of last Oct. Covid-19 came along and put it into 'hibernation' and we had to go on the dole to stay afloat (!).

I won't lie. It's been tough, this ole life of recent. However, one thing I've always enjoyed and leaned upon...is our beloved AFL football. As an ex-pat Brit growing up, I've always loved sport - especially contact sport and the first time I saw Aussie Rules was on Trans World Sport in the UK in the early Norties. I had no idea what the f*** was going on but I loved it. It was mental!

In 2007 I emigrated to Oz and a year later I got married. Actually it was 5 months later, but it happened in the following calendar year. The first real taste of Aussie Rules I got to witness was the 2007 GF between Port and Geelong where Port got annihilated. My mother-in-law was a Freo fan, and that's where my eventual interest for this team blossomed. Since then I've become a fully impassioned and somewhat emotionally destitute proverbial Freo fan, riding the waves and the ups & downs. More downs than ups, of late it seems.

Anyway - let's stop dicking around and get to the question! This thread asks - "how do you feel..". Well, it's been a tough couple of years, and this year has been little exception. And the AFL are a bunch of money-grubbing whores who give their beloved Richmond 10 straight home games last year before Finals. If the game ain't rigged, I tell ya...! I jest. Well, maybe not fully.

But the way I feel about Freo hasn't changed despite how difficult they make it at times - the "injury crisis", the ongoing saga of the S & C team. Griffin Logue's ever changing hairdos. I am committed to the cause. And I am firmly in the "glass half full" camp. I was a Ross Lyon 'apologist' or fan, but what was happening over the last 4 years was becoming increasingly difficult to defend and the style or brand was stale. Something had to give. And give it did. JL is now the appointed 'messiah', and who knows ultimately where it all leads, but he has provided that fresh air that was very much needed. Only 9 games into his coaching career at senior level and the style of football is much more refreshing and 'progressive'. I feel good about things going forward, yes at times it goes off track and last week was horrendous viewing; but with such young players being given more wiggle room, you're going to see incohesion and inconsistencies from time to time.....but overall, the future of the team looks bright. I am optimistic, if cautious and weary given I have no idea what will happen from one week to the next.

But rest assured, I am Freo to the bone and am ready to bleed purple for the unwavering cause. Hope you're all well and your blood pressure has come down after today's mighty win!!

And lastly, apologies for this mini-essay, but I felt it necessary. Some form of catharsis. A letting go of sorts, of past pains and hardships. I'm looking forward to the post-bye recommencing of the boys in action - might get a few wounded warriors back out on the pack!!

So how do I feel?! I'll tell you how I feel. I love the Dockers. And I won't ever stop believing that one day this magnificent club will ascend to the greatest mountain of them all....Mount Premiership. And what an amazing f***ing day that will be.....it will happen. I don't know when, but it will come. Rest assured, it will come....be real cool Freo fans, be real cool....