Lets be Honest

[TigerPower]

Our line up was nearly full strength and if we play like that in the regular season we are going to get r*ped by stronger sides. I'm an optimist and think we will go really well this year but that performance was less than satasfactory, i'm glad for the win but we will need to improve big time, especially to beat a full strength pies outfit next week. Too many turnovers and stupid decision making when going forward will cost us against better teams.

 

[tony_montana]

cotch, cuz, thursfield, mcmahon are certain starters, thompson and connors will prob be in our best 22... hardly full strength.

first half was awful, 3rd quarter and half of the 4th was actually very good i thought. Intensity from both sides went up to near reg season levels. wouldnt expect much more from a first round NAB cup game tbh.

 

[krustyman]

the midfield dominated but they just lack a focal point up forward with richo in the midfield and they need a go to man who can kick a lot of goals, hence the fiddling around and lots of errors.

riewoldt was ok as a lead up forwards but they need a bigger focus close to goals. morton and brown are small forwards who get a few now and then but they need someone who can kick 5 or more goals

 

[DerpWerls]

NAB Cup means nothing...

 

[sante]

I think we are being honest or realistic. I don't see anyone getting carried away with the win. We showed for parts of the game, that we can be very good. Plenty of upside to come and that was not close to full strength. I'd argue that Johnson, Cousins, Cotchin, Patto, Thursfield, McMahon and Thomson are all in our best 22.

 

[RichosGuns]

We play a game in which cool heads can prevail by kicking backwards and short if we have too. The NAB cup doesn't allow this. About 30% of our kicks today were short of 20m but would have been well over 15m.

In saying this our first half was shocking. Our middle teir onballers in Hisop, Jackson, White and our slower ones in Tuck, etc got to the ball second at every contest. Tuck, Foley, Deledio and Jackson all got better in the second half which made the difference

Plus we gave away 3 very stupid 50m penalities in which two resulted in Freo goals

 

[Bojangles17]

aghh , 1H we blew out some cobwebs, good thing was we had a fair challenge to get back into the game, we took that on and went up a gear..Interstate game increases the degree of difficulty a notch, a good win to have under the belts

 

[Rayzorwire]

Our line up was nearly full strength and if we play like that in the regular season we are going to get r*ped by stronger sides.

Like the Saints will be "r*ped" by stronger sides than Brisbane?

"Full strength" is a fallacy TP, we had very few of our matchwinners anywhere near full fitness and strength, and if you watch the beginning of the match (i.e the anthem singing and minute of silence for the bushfire victims) you'll see that the majority of our players were as hot and physically distressed (wiping off serious sweat) as you'd expect to see Victorian based players flying to and playing in Perth at this time of year.

If we played a full strength Freo at Subi in round four we'd have trounced them by the same margin we did this year.

I laugh when I hear commentators wax lyrical about how many games Freo lost by less than two goals last year - we've missed finals series by that margin for decades, and had we claimed half the 'winnable games' we'd be top-4.

Today, we scrape through because we have the right combination of quality and raw hardness. We did it last year, we will do it again - and we'll take the 'begging for it' scalps we missed last year along the way this year, all the way to a finals campaign.

In saying this our first half was shocking. Our middle teir onballers in Hisop, Jackson, White and our slower ones in Tuck, etc got to the ball second at every contest.

Hislop never played onball RG, White seldom did and was an uncriticised worse than useless all game - uncriticised because apparently he's already 'made it.'

Tuck was very ordinary, Jackson was first there 9.5 times out of 10 and aside from Richo, was the difference between the two sides.

Wish more than a handful would call it as it was, rather than just make it up based on last seasons' 'ignorant but vocal majority rules' bias.

 

[summerthebat]

I mean, in reality, you guys actually won by 15 points.

I thought we played pretty well, so I would have rated your sides performance far more on the positive side than the negative.

Regarding, 'Rayzorwire' if Pavlich played tonight, you guys lose, it's as simple as that. So don't be so confident that you guys would have 'trounced' us like last time, what about round 21? When we blew it against you without Pav at your home ground?

Also, our close losses last year broke all kinds of records, and this isn't related to decades, we are talking right here right now.

 

[Ogrebait]

Who's missing? What could have been? It's all hypothetical.

Sure Freo were missing a host of players but the Tigers were under strength too. Add Coughlan, Cotchin, Cousins and Johnson into the midfield alone and I'm sure you'd improve considerably.

What it did provide was a test for some of your depth players. They took your longest road trip against an opposition that fought hard all night and came back to take the lead, and in the end you came up with the win.

It showed a bit of character. Sure there is a bit to work on before the H&A but the signs were good and it's still 6 weeks away. Very promising signs for 2009.

 

[Jisha]

Lets be honest, we lived up to what was needed. we were fantastic. We were postitive. We were amazing.

All the way through the game I thought we had it in the bag. Arrogant? perhaps. We won.

It is on to the next stage for us, followed by the real season..


Go tigers go!

 

[folester41]

i think with selvester in defence it cost us alot, hes slow, poor dispoal, poor decision making and swapping him with big willy will make a massive difference.

dominated possesion, and the kicking back play on rule as mentioned doesnt suit our style of play.

hopefully we can work on our skills a bit more over the next month or so.
the win wasnt promising, but im not too worried at all.

edwards and reidwolt promising signs, and i think graham although wasnt outstanding tonight, showed a little and could become a decent player for us.

collins wasnt on for long, but wasnt really impressed with him aplogies tiger troy. Although im not going to write him off after just one nab cup game, hopefully he can show a bit more next game, if given the time.

nahas scored a typical foward packet goal, ran players down and tackled reasonably well. didnt get alot of the ball, but showed a bit.

post took a few good marks, disposal wasnt great, but could be a good player for us in the future.

hislop hard at it, was a bit unlucky with a few of the free kicks, disposal is questionable, and failed to get rid of the ball a few times.

and as for richo, he is just a machine.

 

[IDGAF]

What i didn`t like about it was it was soooo reliant on a 34 year old war horse who completely defies his age and is is a freak

other than that its mid feb .. better than a loss

but at some stage , others have to step up and take some of the work load off The Cho

 

[lookkg386]

NAB Cup means nothing...

EXACTLY!! Every year every supporter of every team gets excited/dissapointed by there teams pre-season form, means zippo IMHO.

 

[Haggard H]

cotch, cuz, thursfield, mcmahon are certain starters, thompson and connors will prob be in our best 22... hardly full strength.

first half was awful, 3rd quarter and half of the 4th was actually very good i thought. Intensity from both sides went up to near reg season levels. wouldnt expect much more from a first round NAB cup game tbh.

Plus fit Cogs, Patto and probably Johnson. In Perth.

Could have been better, but a ten goal cakewalk would have given me less optimism than what I saw last night. Thought the third term dominance and the final quarter determination was all excellent. Call the first half "cobwebs" and we'll see how the next game goes.

 

[Tiger_Of_Old]

What i didn`t like about it was it was soooo reliant on a 34 year old war horse who completely defies his age and is is a freak

other than that its mid feb .. better than a loss

but at some stage , others have to step up and take some of the work load off The Cho

I dont think we are actually reliant on Richo.I think he,s just in fantastic form and we are finally using him the way we should have 16yrs ago.
You play to your strengths.North did it with Carey,same goes with brisbane and Brown.We are doing the same with Richo.

 

[THE_GUN]

last night was the exact game we needed.
hard running , challenging , hard fought out game where our players got their eye in and blew out the cobwebs.

the main thing is we won & no injuries.

well done tigers & now lets show melbourne town how good we really are this season by putting the pies out.

 

[telsor]

Good teams win when they're playing badly, even in 'meaningless games'.

We did just that, which is probably the best thing to come out of the match.

( OK, that and no injuries ).

Let's hope next game we find some form.

 

[emperor]

What i didn`t like about it was it was soooo reliant on a 34 year old war horse who completely defies his age and is is a freak

other than that its mid feb .. better than a loss

but at some stage , others have to step up and take some of the work load off The Cho

I'd like to see us be less 'Richo conscious' and for the tean to reduce the requirements of him but its easier said than done when the big fella is running around like an excited puppy chasing everything that comes within cooee of him

 

[Sausage roll]

I ws astounded at the speed and intensity fo the game. Players just seemed to have get rid of the ball as soon as they got it.

It was a handball frenzy and played at breakneck speed.

i thought it was the pick of the games so far for quality and intensity.

Schultz certainly hasn't got any smarter over summer

 

[Roachy8]

I'd like to see us be less 'Richo conscious' and for the tean to reduce the requirements of him but its easier said than done when the big fella is running around like an excited puppy chasing everything that comes within cooee of him

I don't reckon we are too Richo conscious anymore Emp.

That is the beauty of him galloping all over the park. Most of the time when we take the ball forward Richo is streaming along in the same direction rather than comming opposite with 3 blokes hanging off him.
Makes the player with the ball consider the options ahead and if Richo gets to the contest as well then you know the defence has had little chance to zone for him.

I know many on here were calling for Richo to play up the ground well before round 4 last year but some credit needs to go to Wallace for having the courage to actually do it.

Makes us much more dangerous and ironically perhaps has added a couple of years onto his career I reckon.

 

[thecotch]

Our line up was nearly full strength and if we play like that in the regular season we are going to get r*ped by stronger sides. I'm an optimist and think we will go really well this year but that performance was less than satasfactory, i'm glad for the win but we will need to improve big time, especially to beat a full strength pies outfit next week. Too many turnovers and stupid decision making when going forward will cost us against better teams.

What you say is true but at the end of the day we still had a few regulars missing too. Guys like nahas, sylvester, graham (a few games) won't be playing this year. Sylvester is crap. Throw thursty, cuzz, cotchin, johnson into the mix and things look better. Let's not forget subiaco is not a great place to play and freo will improve this year.

 

[Madtiger2006]

It was good to see Morton and Brown kick 3 goals each. Both kicked about 35 goals from 17 games last year. So they are both potential 50 goal players this year if they play 22 games. Reiwoldt looks to have taken another step and hopefully Hughes has a better game if he gets the chance next week

 

[W. Smithers]

What i didn`t like about it was it was soooo reliant on a 34 year old war horse who completely defies his age and is is a freak

He's a superstar.

You can't replace them, like Hird, Buckley, Carey and Ablett Snr didn't have ready made replacements when they retired.

Bowden is replaceable (and after last nights game borderline best 22)
Browny is (Morton)
Simmonds is but they'll be raw for a couple of years yet.
Johnson easily replaceable.

 

[emperor]

I don't reckon we are too Richo conscious anymore Emp.

That is the beauty of him galloping all over the park. Most of the time when we take the ball forward Richo is streaming along in the same direction rather than comming opposite with 3 blokes hanging off him.
Makes the player with the ball consider the options ahead and if Richo gets to the contest as well then you know the defence has had little chance to zone for him.

I know many on here were calling for Richo to play up the ground well before round 4 last year but some credit needs to go to Wallace for having the courage to actually do it.

Makes us much more dangerous and ironically perhaps has added a couple of years onto his career I reckon.

I agree we have significantly cut out the 'bomb it long to Richo with 3 blokes hanging off him' aspect of our game with him being more of a roamer. I don't think I made my point too well in my previous post, 'Richo conscious' was a bad phrase to use. I didn't watch the game and was going on the musings of some esteemed BF posters, and I got an impression that we 'relied' on Richo, which maybe I took the wrong way. Next time I'll probably watch the match before opening my trap

Basically all I meant to say is that as long as you have the Cho on the paddock, more often than not he will be a dominant figure, that's just the player he is, and it's almost impossible to hotwire him or the team to try and spread the load. It just wouldn't work. The Cho just wants to do it all - and does a pretty damn good job of it.