Preview JLT 2: Fremantle vs West Coast. Sunday 4:10pm @ Rushton Park.

wayToGo_

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Oct 24, 2015
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Agree wholeheartedly on many of the criticisms (mostly it was a bit of a dog of a game by us after quarter time - everyone knows the 'issues' we don't need to list them) but...

Darcy is a 20yo coming in fresh for his first semi-competitive hit out of the pre-season. He was understandably rusty but he also did a couple of sublime taps. He'll be better for the run - like all players, and specially young ones, just needs to blow out the cobwebs. Hopefully he'll be ready by round 1 :) But if not Lobb can carry a bit more ruck load to help ease him in.

Hogan was a heap better. Equal top of our score involvements with 8 (Walters the other) and 20 disposals. It's his 2nd game in our side - he'll build and our players will learn to use him better. Was on the ground for 87% - so he's ticking a few boxes.

Lobb wasn't great but he at least presented time and time again. Poor guy was playing forward in the intraclub, then main ruck last week, and now back to forward again this week. He'll settle, just needs time.

Cox going down sucked. Thought our structure was starting to take shape well when he was out there.

Conca was good imo. It's his 1st game coming back from injury and 1st ever game with this team. He worked hard, did some good things, like one of his kicks i50 was bang on but also made a far few mistakes. Is he rusty or just crap? I think we should wait for a few regular season games before judging.

Hughes looked the goods and so much better when he is given freedom to attack. Most intercepts on the ground with 11. Is a lock for Round 1. Got criticised on here for some poor kicks but often there was nobody for him to kick to at those times. 5 i50s was a good sign but like all our players, our forward line needs to move better, and the ball carrier not just bomb long. For a guy most people expect us to delist, he was one of our best.

Tucker started strong and faded but he's settling into the new role still - we have to expect a bit of inconsistency within games. Overall the signs look better though. Most people had pencilled him to delist a couple of weeks back. 8 tackles - tick.

Brayshaw was good again - just a solid all rounder.

Did anyone really expect an underdone Darcy, Tucker, Brayshaw and Mundy/Conca with Langdon and Giro on the outside to match it with West Coast's first choice midfield that was stronger than the one that won a premiership last year? Sandi, Fyfe and Blakely and BHill not going off injured would have completely changed that clearance differential around and made a massive difference to the whole game. I think some on here are expecting miracles from our youngsters...

There is still plenty we can do to bolster the midfield before round 1 - adding the best player in the AFL should help for a start. He'll take a lot of attention away from others whilst still impacting, so everyone else gets a bit more space to work in. Midfield doesn't get smashed, defence isn't under the pump as much, forwards don't need to help out as much, whole team holds better structure, with the right people stay in the right places, the ball moves a lot faster and more efficiently, and the i50s are cleaner. West Coast are a good example of that, you don't have to be amazing in the midfield but you've got to have everyone run both ways and be disciplined, and the same on every line.

WC put an identical team on the field last week to this week, they are an experienced and well drilled side, they had an 8 day break, their injury list is less than a third the size of ours and they are full of confidence coming off a premiership year. They are as primed as a team can be at this time of the year. I was hoping we'd be a bit more competitive and show more examples of good ball movement etc but given the facts the result shouldn't have been unexpected.

I'm thinking the playing group and coaches are all on notice to do a lot better come round 1 but I don't think we need to burn down HQ over a JLT game. Plenty of time for either North or us to do that depending on who wins Round 1.
 

stax on the mull

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Thing that I don't think has much value, and I didn't see the game, but when you're creating forward 50m entries, the crush up to defend it and keep the ball locked-in seems to work against itself because it doesn't allow enough space to get meaningful possessions that turn into clean shots on goals when you have all 36 players back into one half.
 

Scham

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Sep 19, 2004
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I’m not surprised we were beaten. They’re clearly the better team and with a longer break etc it would’ve taken a gallant tanking performance the likes of 12 months ago for us to win. It’s just that even though it was a JLT, I can see that we’re not making progress in the areas that we should be and it further highlights that Ross isn’t the man to lead the club to a flag. He just isn’t.
 

Wally Walpamur

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We were missing our front line midfield, Fyfe, Hill,Connor and Sandy. We also lost Cox and B Hill in the first half. It was Darcys first real hit out and Hogan is coming back from a serious injury. These facts ,not excuses will help me sleep tonight.
We’re also coming off a 6 day break where we last played in 40 degrees with a young list, which, I imagine, also contributed to the fade out.
 

blue shark

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We were missing our front line midfield, Fyfe, Hill,Connor and Sandy. We also lost Cox and B Hill in the first half. It was Darcys first real hit out and Hogan is coming back from a serious injury. These facts ,not excuses will help me sleep tonight.
What I see missing is Class, players who use the ball well, Fyfe, Connor are extractors, Hill has injury concerns and Sandi is a pensioner.
Cerra, Brayshaw, Mundy, Valente, Tucker, Banfield, are there any others? Class and speed of mind, hand, foot is required going forward.
 

stax on the mull

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What I see missing is Class, players who use the ball well, Fyfe, Connor are extractors, Hill has injury concerns and Sandi is a pensioner.
Cerra, Brayshaw, Mundy, Valente, Tucker, Banfield, are there any others? Class and speed of mind, hand, foot is required going forward.

Wilson and Ryan you would expect, on past performances at least. Walters. B. Hill generally, although his run and carry is just as important.
 
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PintofPale

Team Captain
Aug 15, 2007
369
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Fremantle
Just looked at the summary and my God we got belted in key areas:

Clearances (27-55)
Centre clearances (5-18)
Inside 50’s (46-60)
Marks Inside 50 (6-19)

Those tell me our midfield got belted, which put so much pressure on our defenders who also played like shite. I don’t think Fyfe coming back fixes all of those issues.
Those stats tell me we got belted in one area.
 

apuchar

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Sep 21, 2010
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Agree wholeheartedly on many of the criticisms (mostly it was a bit of a dog of a game by us after quarter time - everyone knows the 'issues' we don't need to list them) but...

Darcy is a 20yo coming in fresh for his first semi-competitive hit out of the pre-season. He was understandably rusty but he also did a couple of sublime taps. He'll be better for the run - like all players, and specially young ones, just needs to blow out the cobwebs. Hopefully he'll be ready by round 1 :) But if not Lobb can carry a bit more ruck load to help ease him in.

Hogan was a heap better. Equal top of our score involvements with 8 (Walters the other) and 20 disposals. It's his 2nd game in our side - he'll build and our players will learn to use him better. Was on the ground for 87% - so he's ticking a few boxes.

Lobb wasn't great but he at least presented time and time again. Poor guy was playing forward in the intraclub, then main ruck last week, and now back to forward again this week. He'll settle, just needs time.

Cox going down sucked. Thought our structure was starting to take shape well when he was out there.

Conca was good imo. It's his 1st game coming back from injury and 1st ever game with this team. He worked hard, did some good things, like one of his kicks i50 was bang on but also made a far few mistakes. Is he rusty or just crap? I think we should wait for a few regular season games before judging.

Hughes looked the goods and so much better when he is given freedom to attack. Most intercepts on the ground with 11. Is a lock for Round 1. Got criticised on here for some poor kicks but often there was nobody for him to kick to at those times. 5 i50s was a good sign but like all our players, our forward line needs to move better, and the ball carrier not just bomb long. For a guy most people expect us to delist, he was one of our best.

Tucker started strong and faded but he's settling into the new role still - we have to expect a bit of inconsistency within games. Overall the signs look better though. Most people had pencilled him to delist a couple of weeks back. 8 tackles - tick.

Brayshaw was good again - just a solid all rounder.

Did anyone really expect an underdone Darcy, Tucker, Brayshaw and Mundy/Conca with Langdon and Giro on the outside to match it with West Coast's first choice midfield that was stronger than the one that won a premiership last year? Sandi, Fyfe and Blakely and BHill not going off injured would have completely changed that clearance differential around and made a massive difference to the whole game. I think some on here are expecting miracles from our youngsters...

There is still plenty we can do to bolster the midfield before round 1 - adding the best player in the AFL should help for a start. He'll take a lot of attention away from others whilst still impacting, so everyone else gets a bit more space to work in. Midfield doesn't get smashed, defence isn't under the pump as much, forwards don't need to help out as much, whole team holds better structure, with the right people stay in the right places, the ball moves a lot faster and more efficiently, and the i50s are cleaner. West Coast are a good example of that, you don't have to be amazing in the midfield but you've got to have everyone run both ways and be disciplined, and the same on every line.

WC put an identical team on the field last week to this week, they are an experienced and well drilled side, they had an 8 day break, their injury list is less than a third the size of ours and they are full of confidence coming off a premiership year. They are as primed as a team can be at this time of the year. I was hoping we'd be a bit more competitive and show more examples of good ball movement etc but given the facts the result shouldn't have been unexpected.

I'm thinking the playing group and coaches are all on notice to do a lot better come round 1 but I don't think we need to burn down HQ over a JLT game. Plenty of time for either North or us to do that depending on who wins Round 1.
It wasn't only Hughes' terrible kicking (and it was terrible), he also got pushed off the ball in a marking contest against small forwards on about 3 occasions. He can't expect to play without an opponent for the whole game. If we have that luxury, we definitely have better options than him. If that isn't enough he also is a very slow thinker.
 

Kenyan

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Jul 5, 2015
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Undermanned midfield did well until half time in both JLT games. Replacing Fyfe, Neal and Blakely, all contested ball winners, is a tall order. Andrew Bradshaw is such a promising player - give him 2 or 3 years and he will be a genuine A grader. From my observations, Matera and Ballantyne are having very little impact on games. Rioli and Ryan are in a different league.
 

bushchook

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Dec 9, 2018
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I'm not sure much of this will change when we hit the season proper.

Having Fyfe and Sandilands back will make a massive difference in clearances, but if we are having to use Darcy as our first ruck for the majority of the year then we will really struggle.
 

Superkoops

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May 7, 2009
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Been a bit underwhelmed with Colyer aside from a brief patch in the last quarter against Collingwood. He received a nice handball from Conca before running towards goal and missed the lot.

Certainly watching the full first quarter and listening to most of the second Conca was quite good. He then understandably faded in the 2nd half.

Why was Schultz pulled out late for Bewley/Jones?

Are we going to be better than last year. Definitely debatable. Are we going to be worse. I think we will remain around the same with 7-9 wins. Our midfield has taken a decent hit the last couple of years. I imagine L. Weller was planned to move more into the midfield and then we lost Neale. Added to SHill injury decline and Blakely’s injury issues. That needs to be our focus in the next trading/draft period with another top 10 pick. We need to ensure we don’t die wondering with Coniglio.


On iPhone using BigFooty.com mobile app
 

Rion

Club Legend
Apr 27, 2014
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Having Fyfe and Sandilands back will make a massive difference in clearances, but if we are having to use Darcy as our first ruck for the majority of the year then we will really struggle.

Reckon we need to forget about Sandi tbh and pump games into Darcy despite the pain it'll cause. He's just too injury prone nowadays to build a team around.
 

tonygeeks

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Sep 11, 2016
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In a lifetime of outstanding decisions by me the one to not give the JLT one second of my attention is proving to be an inspired one

Pumped for the real stuff to start , all the players I think are guns still are and I'm off to sleep like a baby without a worry in the world

Enjoy the next 2 weeks suckers

PS - tell me we at least showed Andrew GAGF the level of respect he so richly deserves


On iPad using BigFooty.com mobile app
 
In a lifetime of outstanding decisions by me the one to not give the JLT one second of my attention is proving to be an inspired one

Pumped for the real stuff to start , all the players I think are guns still are and I'm off to sleep like a baby without a worry in the world

Enjoy the next 2 weeks suckers

PS - tell me we at least showed Andrew GAGF the level of respect he so richly deserves


On iPad using BigFooty.com mobile app

Banfield laid a great tackle on him.
 
Aug 6, 2018
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Last year we flogged the scum and were all patting ourselves on the back...This year is the apposite ...
We have a solid backline with the exception of someone to mind the mosquito's , a potentially high scoring forward line if We can get Hogan and Walters playing in position..

and when we get Fyfe-Blakely - Sandi at the centre square with some up and comers a potent powerfull midfield who should win plenty of clearances

What we didn't have today was any system at all at stopages (which is mostly due to lack of chemistry in a new group) or bringing the ball out of our backline or composure with the ball in hand.

We need to learn from this, Ross needs to start cobbling some form of system that we can reccognise.

I am not feeling any sense that we are not on the right track yet but the coaching staff have got a lot of work to do....

I am also hoping selection will be based on performance as the season progresses and not past history.
We can't afford two non performing senior small forwards in the mix and need to integrate a new one (or two)
 

heavho

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We won't do that

West coast don't suck. We do.

How long have you been a Freo supporter ? How many times have you said "it's only a pre season game, we will be better in only 14 days time, it doesn't matter that we get flogged by 100 points In the pre season, we afe npremkership material"

And when you have said this, how did it turn out?

Freo 100% bottom 4 in 2019

On SM-N960F using BigFooty.com mobile app
Been a freo supporter since day of their inception. It’s been a long road and I will never drop ship. True supporters never give up. We will be better in 14 days. For starters we should have fyfe back. In that game cox went down early so if we bring in tabener there is another tall to make a contest or bring it down the smalls. All the players will be put into their proper positions (no trial positions). All the important players will be getting close to 100% game time. We won’t have an extended bench so will drop players that didn’t execute or play well. In 14 days time we will be playing for real points. If we are looking like getting smashed we may be more defensive. That game nothing was on the line. It was a trail game for trailing players in different positions and getting match fitness. Some players don’t even put in 100% so they don’t get injured which is why the afl is considering axing the jlt
 

Johnny Dalmas

Getting Old and Grumpy
Oct 16, 2015
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We got smashed in the middle. Absolutely pantsed at the Centre bounce. The good thing is that with some intensive review and coaching we can improve our stoppage structures. Bring in someone like Fyfe and the midfield should be better in Round 1.

The bad news is that we kick and handball like St Kilda. That is our biggest problem. If we actually disposed to advantage then the game plan wouldn't look half as bad.
 
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