Autopsy It's All About the Future - Port d Peel Thunder by 69, r23, AO

[Grape Bear]

the Power are running on top of us, but the young ones fought gallantly against the play for the best part of 4 quarters. And gave us quite a bit of joy in the 1st.

Weller, Langdon, Blakely - most promising.
Smith - has improved more than expected. Will probably be on the list next year.
Duffy - talent but no fitness. Is that an attitude/work ethic thing? 50/50
Tabs - just needs a little bit more to click. I hope he finds it.
Ballard - should've played a full game.
Hughes - something to work with there.

Barlow - should be played in the middle, all game, every game. Shining light and leading from the front.
Suban - showing why he keeps his spot today, aggro.
Neale and Sherro - thumbs up, cemented their spots as 22.

Clarke - WTF?!
Crozier - why isn't he delivering? Is it because we are playing him out of his best position? He has all the tools required, but why can't it all come together?

 

[Dirty_banchez]

Positive: 69 point margin hehe

 

[Grape Bear]

Positive: 69 point margin hehe

2 better than 2013 and against a better side. I'll take that.

 

[YelloMit]

-Zac Clarke. See ya, bye.

 

[yakka man]

Quite pleased with Tanner Smith's performance.

 

[estibador]

Probably only Clarke, Crozier and (maybe?) Clancee should be disappointed based on expectations going in.

edit: Subes was pretty quiet after a storming first qtr too

 

[UFO Tatsu]

Smith would be in my top 5.

 

[Mighty Guybrush]

I thought Tanner Smith went alright, especially considering how much experience was out of the back line. Aside from a few shanks, something to work with there i reckon. Though i am sure not all will agree, really liked what i say from Tabs today too. Barlow the stalwart he is in the mid. Blakely promising too. To be honest it was hard to track the performance of all our younguns as there were so many of them in...

 

[Lach72]

Quite pleased with Tanner Smith's performance.

Yeah I thought he competed really well, getting fists in.
Considering the amount of ball coming in it was good

 

[Banker]

Shame Ballard didn't get a whole game, looks like the next Barlow.

 

[Mr Fonebone]

Good: Hughes, Tabs, Sheridan, Smith, Ballard, Neale, Grey, deBoer
OK: Blakely, Langdon, Pearce A, Weller
Ugly: Clarke, Crozier

 

[electricfeel]

I sincerely hope Griffin isn't injured and we have to play pea-heart Clarke instead. Rubbish game and effort.

Lots of our guys showed a bit. Was hoping for Langdon to nail that goal in the end. Weller and Grey were my most impressive. Grey is so tanned damn.

Impressed with our leadership from Barlow, Neale and even Suban.

Still not convinced on Mzungu. Don't see him, Clancee or Crozier, who was super disappointing playing finals.

Anyone think one of the young guys can slot themselves into our finals team? Maybe Weller or Langdon as sub?

 

[Righteo]

Quite pleased with Tanner Smith's performance.

Only his second game and they had double the amount of inside 50's. Very pleased. I had bought into the "his a spud delist" opinion but he definitely showed signs he could become an adequate key defender.

 

[sproketman]

Taberner is a better forward than Pearce.

 

[ydraw]

Dropping Taberner was a mistake. Playing Barlow anywhere but the midfield is a mistake. Good news is that there is lots of room for improvement in our coaching.

 

[FUS_RO_DAH]

Weller is going to be a very, very good player.

 

[Grape Bear]

Only his second game and they had double the amount of inside 50's. Very pleased. I had bought into the "his a spud delist" opinion but he definitely showed signs he could become an adequate key defender.

More Dawson than McPharlin, but pretty handy. Kicking still an issue, but has potential as a lockdown defender if, as predicted due to reduced interchanges, the gorilla forward comes into vogue.

 

[Righteo]

Taberner is a better forward than Pearce.

tbh I'm glad it's out there before finals. I like him a lot, but as a defender. Not an experiment I'd be comfortable with in a final.

 

[Banker]

Taberner is a better forward than Pearce.

lol.

What we saw is that he isn't ready for finals pressure. Port are a s**t team this year, don't be fooled by his performance.

 

[Ripper]

Encouraging all things considered. Impressed with Tanner as others have said , thought A pearce was good , just tried to do too much , impressed with Hughes & Brady Grey.

 

[Righteo]

More Dawson than McPharlin, but pretty handy. Kicking still an issue, but has potential as a lockdown defender if, as predicted due to reduced interchanges, the gorilla forward comes into vogue.

He's not Alex Pearce but he isn't the dumptruck I thought he was either. Has reasonable agility as well as being a nice size. Going for marks in defence needs to be the next thing to work on, the spoil over mark aspect is definitely Dawson-esque.

 

[sproketman]

lol.

What we saw is that he isn't ready for finals pressure. Port are a s**t team this year, don't be fooled by his performance.

Yeah whatever.

He kicked as many goals today as Pearce did during the entire Pearce as a forward experiment.

 

[Ripper]

And DeBoer did a good job on Boak.

 

[Scham]

So many positives but to win the clearances with Hannath and Clarke rucking is very impressive.

 

[FFC4ME]

I think we have reason to be cheerful after that. Other than Duffy's lack of fitness (and even he had a couple of good moments), none of the B team disgraced themselves at all, and you can make a case for all of them sticking around.

Weller, Blakely and Langdon all very good. Brady Grey got schooled a bit, but showed that he can be AFL quality too. Ballard did enough in his brief time on ground to show he is worth persisting with. Ditto Smith, who is very much the new Zac Dawson but actually did show a bit under extreme bombardment.

Hughes was surprising, and worked well into the game the longer it went.

It has mystified me why Tabs was seemingly banished halfway through the season - his development is going along OK, and he is starting to clunk them more. Pity his goalkicking boot went amiss today, but he will be a fixture in this team for a long time.

And I'll go in to bat for Hannath also. He's limited, will always be a depth player, but contributed much more than the disinterested Clarke today and actually looks like he wants a career at Freo.

That was probably the last we'll ever see of Max Duffy, and presumably Paul Duffield also. I wish it was the last we're going to see of Mzungu for the year too; he was always Mr Reliable, but he has waned so, so much this season.

Good to see that no matter the personnel we still can't maintain a functioning forward line, just bombing it in to outnumbered giants and this time even with no ground pressure either.

For all that...I'm glad the Freo of 2017/18 and beyond has got an early chance to play all together. Will we be contenders? Perhaps, if Fyfe continues to go bang and we free agent well - but even so, the club's gonna be alright, I think...