Media Thread, 2025: Insightful, Inciteful and Incomptent

[Donkers]

came across my YT suggested, decided to reminisce

these boys made it look so easy

Whenever anyone is feeling bad this is a great watch.

 

[UseR2006]

I am utterly baffled who will be top 5 outside of Buddy

EDIT: I guess Carey will be one.

Buddy, Dusty, Carey, Ablett Snr, Lloyd.

 

[DorothyG]

t

The fact that the stats haven't gone backwards (outside of wins, which can't be ignored but improvement is never linear) when we have put out far less experienced sides even than last year is pretty decent evidence we have improved in some capacity to be honest.

Almost every stat HAS gone backwards...
Scores for, down
Scores against, up
Percentage, down
18th in disposals, equal
18th in marks, down
18th in clearances, down
Disposal efficiency, down

I think the rose coloured glasses need to come off alot. That was the worse season by a team in AFL history. Period.

We went backwards this year. You cannot honestly dispute that. Internally the club should be acknowledging that we failed, and failed hard this year.

 

[THE A5]

I am utterly baffled who will be top 5 outside of Buddy

EDIT: I guess Carey will be one.

Don’t think he’s mentioned Gawn yet. Fully expect him to chuck Gawn in there now lol

 

[Schtinker]

Banfield electric as AFL hopefuls star in first Colts finals

West Coast father-son prospect Charlie Banfield has proven he’s not shy of a big stage, lighting up the opening weekend of WAFL Colts finals as several draft prospects impressed.

thewest.com.au

West Coast father-son prospect Charlie Banfield has proven he’s not shy of a big stage, lighting up the opening weekend of WAFL Colts finals as several draft prospects impressed. The young midfielder was electric with 33 disposals, seven marks, seven tackles and two goals and had 11 more touches than anyone else on the ground.

Having featured in two League games for Swan Districts to round out the year, Leon Kickett made an impact on return to the Colts division. Kickett, who has already earned the nickname “Neon Leon” as well as a late invite to the WA State Draft Combine later this year, booted four goals in a tense battle with the Falcons. His efforts weren’t enough to counter the effect of fellow AFL hopefuls Sam Swadling and Jacob Farrow.

The West Perth pair spent the back end of the 2025 home-and-away season building their draft stock in the seniors and took full control of the elimination final. Swadling produced 34 disposals and plenty of grunt in the engine room, while Farrow had 26 touches as well as delivering the ball inside 50 11 times.

 

[daddy_4_eyes]

t

Almost every stat HAS gone backwards...
Scores for, down
Scores against, up
Percentage, down
18th in disposals, equal
18th in marks, down
18th in clearances, down
Disposal efficiency, down

I think the rose coloured glasses need to come off alot. That was the worse season by a team in AFL history. Period.

We went backwards this year. You cannot honestly dispute that. Internally the club should be acknowledging that we failed, and failed hard this year.

From 2024 we lost Barrass, Yeo, McGovern, Darling, Sheed and Witherden while Waterman and Allen played only a handful of games.

That's a lot of senior players we lost and largely replaced with rookies.

We might not have improved in the raw stats, but you can't deny that we've brought on players who will be long term players for us (Ginbey to defence, Shanahan, A.Reid, Hewett, HEdwards, Hall, Brock, McCarthy, Dewar) and changed our style to something more modern.

 

[MeltMan]

Liam baker

3

Liam Baker

Age

27

Ht

173cm

Wt

72kg

Pos.

M/F

Career

Season

Last 5

D

15.7

4star

K

7.8

3star

HB

7.9

5star

M

3.2

3star

T

2.6

4star

CL

0.7

3star

D

14.6

4star

K

6.8

3star

HB

7.9

4star

M

3.8

4star

T

1.8

3star

CL

0.5

3star

D

14.4

4star

K

6.2

3star

HB

8.2

5star

M

1.6

2star

T

1.8

4star

CL

1.2

4star

to win WCE and Richmond BnF in the same year

 

[MrWoollie]

And to think there are still people flappin' about in here going "oh I want Freo to win the flag. WA over Vics, etc".

Between shit like this, booing an injured Harley off the ground in the last derby, actively barracking against us in GF threads and nuking the evidence when we win, etc I will never understand the sentiment. They legitimately want the absolute worst for us as a club and there are Eagles supporters out there who are just OK with that?

Not ok with it myself - but you realise WC has some supporters that are exactly the same, right?

I'm with Woosha on this.
I detest everything Fremantle and when it was only WAFL as a kid I hated everything East Freo. Sh*ttest ground, most violent feral fans. As a 10-11 year old it was the only ground I was scared to go to after attending a game there once that ended with my mate heavily concussed (as a kid I didn't know it at the time, but it was pretty obvious in hindsight) from being whacked by an elbow in the back of the head by a thug as he walked past us. And just to add to the general feralness, did anyone help him get up? ask if he was alright? offer any sympathy?
Of course not. Even the old ladies leaving the ground thought it was piss funny to see a WP kid be assaulted. Oh, how they cackled and pointed.

And those are the fans that Feral Freo got.

But I would never boo an injury or even hope a champion gets injured to help our cause.

And Oak, yes we do have some supporters who are like that. But few and far between comparatively. On our forums I can't remember the last time anyone did something like that. And I'm pretty sure they'd be called out if they did.
Whereas, as Woosha says they actively do this as a standard in Freo forums. And as for Dockerland. Now there's a cesspit of brain dead depravity.

So I will always support whoever plays against Freo. It's not the players I detest en-mass (though some like Pav and Headland are total dicks to name just a couple), it's the fans. As a group they are by far the most vile, detestable, feral fans of any AFL team. And talk about bitter.

Long may their lack of success continue.

 

[Farang83150]

I'm with Woosha on this.
I detest everything Fremantle and when it was only WAFL as a kid I hated everything East Freo. Sh*ttest ground, most violent feral fans. As a 10-11 year old it was the only ground I was scared to go to after attending a game there once that ended with my mate heavily concussed (as a kid I didn't know it at the time, but it was pretty obvious in hindsight) from being whacked by an elbow in the back of the head by a thug as he walked past us. And just to add to the general feralness, did anyone help him get up? ask if he was alright? offer any sympathy?
Of course not. Even the old ladies leaving the ground thought it was piss funny to see a WP kid be assaulted. Oh, how they cackled and pointed.

And those are the fans that Feral Freo got.

But I would never boo an injury or even hope a champion gets injured to help our cause.

And Oak, yes we do have some supporters who are like that. But few and far between comparatively. On our forums I can't remember the last time anyone did something like that. And I'm pretty sure they'd be called out if they did.
Whereas, as Woosha says they actively do this as a standard in Freo forums. And as for Dockerland. Now there's a cesspit of brain dead depravity.

So I will always support whoever plays against Freo. It's not the players I detest en-mass (though some like Pav and Headland are total dicks to name just a couple), it's the fans. As a group they are by far the most vile, detestable, feral fans of any AFL team. And talk about bitter.

Long may their lack of success continue.

Similar, but for me a s a young fella it was South Freo, those old ladies were vicious and scary AF to a 10 yr old, rip is ead off, kill the bastard etc ...

 

[oak79]

Similar, but for me a s a young fella it was South Freo, those old ladies were vicious and scary AF to a 10 yr old, rip is ead off, kill the bastard etc ...

For me, Freo have achieved nothing to care about - they aren't even worth hating. I actually think that's worse ha

Bulldogs are the club I can't stand, dirty players in the 90s, I know some arrogant supporters, and they shouldn't be in the AFL (IMHO) since they don't have the supporters and can't afford to be there. They had to change there name to Western (they're on the east coast!). But for some reason they seem to be every other Victorian's second team.

 

[JackOutback]

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say inherent bias may play a part here. All teams have feral fans, including ours. For all the debate, some Eagles fans absolutely booed Adam Goodes because they were racist pieces of shite.

 

[wirra44]

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say inherent bias may play a part here. All teams have feral fans, including ours. For all the debate, some Eagles fans absolutely booed Adam Goodes because they were racist pieces of shite.

Eagles fans booed Goodes because he slid knees first into Hurns ribs and didn’t get suspended.

 

[JackOutback]

Eagles fans booed Goodes because he slid knees first into Hurns ribs and didn’t get suspended.

"For all the debate".

Other players have done worse and been booed less. Some were racist pieces of shite, no doubt about it. If you think we don't have racists among our fanbase, you're being naive, given it's a cross section of the community.

 

[wirra44]

"For all the debate".

Other players have done worse and been booed less. Some were racist pieces of shite, no doubt about it. If you think we don't have racists among our fanbase, you're being naive, given it's a cross section of the community.

Yeah I’m sure we do but we ain’t the only club that has racist supporters.

 

[ballsohard]

Eagles fans booed Goodes because he slid knees first into Hurns ribs and didn’t get suspended.

Both can be true.

 

[Weshi]

From 2024 we lost Barrass, Yeo, McGovern, Darling, Sheed and Witherden while Waterman and Allen played only a handful of games.

That's a lot of senior players we lost and largely replaced with rookies.

We might not have improved in the raw stats, but you can't deny that we've brought on players who will be long term players for us (Ginbey to defence, Shanahan, A.Reid, Hewett, HEdwards, Hall, Brock, McCarthy, Dewar) and changed our style to something more modern.

Agreed, as painful as losing was I think the "green shoots" made it bearable. I saw improvement in the young players and can see that with another strong preseason there maybe some pleasant surprises for next season.
Ginbey, Reid, Hough and Hewitt seem to have some steel behind them!

 

[BSD]

I dont know a couple of dorkers, one or two are extended family so I keep away fro this type of thing. But, in general they are people with a chip on their shoulder who didn't feel confortable with the success the Eagles generated. So when the dorkers came along it was a convenient switch.

And the dips**t Dockers Chairman is claiming they are now a big powerful club with only 66,000 members.
What a load of bullshit the really big clubs have over 100,000 members. They are on target with their strategic plan was another quote, that will be bought tumbling down by Gold Coast on the weekend.
The best thing Freo can do on Monday is give the chairman and the coach the arse.

 

[Astro7]

"For all the debate".

Other players have done worse and been booed less. Some were racist pieces of shite, no doubt about it. If you think we don't have racists among our fanbase, you're being naive, given it's a cross section of the community.

Agree, bit of a mirror on the nation really, look at recent events, but let's not open that can of worms. WC do have a large contingent of grumpy old bogan boomers.
What pleases me is watching the crowd and all the different nationalities completely invested and enjoying the great game.

On another tack, with Freo I feel I should be barracking on another WA side against any Vic side especially. Micheal Walters suggesting this, that WC should get on board and he was sure Freo would do the same? I nearly choked on my pizza.
But the devil in me wants them to choke in the finals.
If they miraculously went through and won the GF, I'd begrudgingly be okay with that after 30 years wandering in the parched desert of irrelevance.
So which Clubs most likely to win the GF, Pies+Cats, Lions+Crows? Every state is represented, it's a pot-boiler!

 

[ziad]

And the dips**t Dockers Chairman is claiming they are now a big powerful club with only 66,000 members.
What a load of bullshit the really big clubs have over 100,000 members. They are on target with their strategic plan was another quote, that will be bought tumbling down by Gold Coast on the weekend.
The best thing Freo can do on Monday is give the chairman and the coach the arse.

I think they will get over GC comfortably.

 

[amazingjoshy]

Firstly apologies for posting this clown, but surely hes now just leaning into making terrible calls as a "bit"

 

[Byron_Clanger]

Fyfe wants Freo fans to get behind the Magpies

The Dockers captain was asked who he would be backing in the grand final during the pre-game coverage, and he made it very clear.

thewest.com.au

Freo can well and truly get stuffed. Go the Suns

 

[Goroyals22]

Hey Kane, go f yourself.. if he signed at hawthorn you would be carrying on about the length of the contract and the amount

 

[amazingjoshy]

Hey Kane, go f yourself.. if he signed at hawthorn you would be carrying on about the length of the contract and the amount

Surely you just applaud the loyalty of the young man

Surely

 

[Goroyals22]

Surely you just applaud the loyalty of the young man

Surely

 

[wirra44]

Hey Kane, go f yourself.. if he signed at hawthorn you would be carrying on about the length of the contract and the amount

He’s just sour he re-signed and didn’t run to mummy like JHF, if he had taken the hawthorn offer Kane would be talking about how hypocritical he is for calling JHF out, your damned if u do damned if you don’t when your in kanes line of sight unfortunately.

 

[The_Reaper]

Agree, bit of a mirror on the nation really, look at recent events, but let's not open that can of worms. WC do have a large contingent of grumpy old bogan boomers.
What pleases me is watching the crowd and all the different nationalities completely invested and enjoying the great game.

On another tack, with Freo I feel I should be barracking on another WA side against any Vic side especially. Micheal Walters suggesting this, that WC should get on board and he was sure Freo would do the same? I nearly choked on my pizza.
But the devil in me wants them to choke in the finals.
If they miraculously went through and won the GF, I'd begrudgingly be okay with that after 30 years wandering in the parched desert of irrelevance.
So which Clubs most likely to win the GF, Pies+Cats, Lions+Crows? Every state is represented, it's a pot-boiler!

I as born in the early 90s and grew up south of river so Fremantle was always around.
Got a lot of dockers players in school/junior foot clinics etc. A lot of mates growing up were Freo supporters and occasionally you'd see a lot of Freo players around in public.

I had a lot of respect for guys like Pavlich for sticking fat and never ditching the club they got drafted to despite minimal success. I wouldn't say I was going for them in 2013 but I'd have been happy for a lot of people I knew if they won in 2013 (helps that they were up against the Hawks).

After having to listen to Pavlich commentate its all gone.

I also think my WA parochial side got served well by the recent Sheffield Shield hattrick and McGowan banning all the eastern staters from entering the state for two years.