Pathetic

[Freo Big Fella]

My patience is running thin, I sat till the end of the game in pouring bloody rain, what for? To see our worst, most dispassionate performance of this season. If I hear one more person mention the rain again as an excuse I'll SPEW.


Not happy.

 

[Kapow!!!]

I totally agree! Worst performance yet and I don't think we will make finals the way we are playing

 

[auste1234]

I too sat down right until the end in the rain.
i don't think i saw a freo possenion in the last 10 mins of the match, no heart.

i was waiting for chris connoly to apologise to all the members that had to watch todays game. I think he should have apologised to all us members as the team let us down today

 

[voodoo_86]

I disagree, the rain was definately an excuse (along with the wind) for that poor 4th quarter.

But I don't believe that was where the game was won and lost. Again, it came down to an insipid start. We need to work on our intensity at the beginning of games, too often are we playing catchup.

I too was in the rain and refused to leave until the very end. Overall the result was extremely disapointing. Aside from getting dominated in the clearances in the 4th, I don't think there was too much else we could have done to win that quarter (or even score).

Meh.. This year has truely been a disapointing one, barely a game I have enjoyed watching.

On a positive note, good bloody on browne for having a fair dinkum crack. Bout time someone in a freo jumper got in there, threw their bodies in and under and never stopped trying. Cook was good in the first half, probably the only other that fits this mould, but what the hell has happened to shauny mac. Browne looks like he's going to make macca redundant, is playing how macca should play, and macca has gone missing.

Later
Voodoo-

 

[Ripper]

Hey I travelled 800k's to sit in the rain. I thought it was a good game until the rain bucketed down. But that is not the reason we lost although it didn't help. You can moan and bitch about the so called lack of heart etc, but the fact's are
1. That our midfield talent is too thin. Stop Bellie & Hase and we stop.

2. Justin Longmuir is not good enough in the ruck. He started inthe middle in the 4th quarter and the ball ony came up our end twice.

Therefore we have a problem, We are trying to fit three ruckmen into the side with one of them playing as a power forward. Snake has made good progress in this role and with a bit more patience should be serviceable (certainly the best of the three IMO). This leaves Justin at a bit of a loose end. Where to play him?

Positives I got out of today were the form of Macharlap forward, The fact that the backline still held up well without him (well done Polly) , the sight of D.J. running into some good form and the enthusiasm and desperation shown by Andrew Browne.

Hang in there all , it is not time to eat our own.

 

[Kenny_01]

We normally have the same names mentioned as the underperformers but is it just me or McManus and Cook done bugger all since the derby.

 

[Rob]

Originally posted by voodoo_86
I disagree, the rain was definately an excuse (along with the wind) for that poor 4th quarter.

Rain was a reason, it was not an excuse. Melbourne were in the rain too.

 

[Freo Big Fella]

Originally posted by RIPPER_46
Hey I travelled 800k's to sit in the rain. I thought it was a good game until the rain bucketed down. But that is not the reason we lost although it didn't help. You can moan and bitch about the so called lack of heart etc, but the fact's are
1. That our midfield talent is too thin. Stop Bellie & Hase and we stop.

2. Justin Longmuir is not good enough in the ruck. He started inthe middle in the 4th quarter and the ball ony came up our end twice.

Therefore we have a problem, We are trying to fit three ruckmen into the side with one of them playing as a power forward. Snake has made good progress in this role and with a bit more patience should be serviceable (certainly the best of the three IMO). This leaves Justin at a bit of a loose end. Where to play him?

Positives I got out of today were the form of Macharlap forward, The fact that the backline still held up well without him (well done Polly) , the sight of D.J. running into some good form and the enthusiasm and desperation shown by Andrew Browne.

Hang in there all , it is not time to eat our own.

That's all true Rip. I do like McPharlap up forward. I personally think Justin is nearly Tradebait. Dunno who we'd get for him though.

 

[Moo]

Cook was decent yesterday .......lots of other passengers trouble is you have to replace them with someone and at the moment we have Cunningham in waiting?

 

[voodoo_86]

Cook? get real dude

We need hardness, and cook is the hardest bloody player we have. He did go quiet in the 2nd half but I thought he was pretty good in the 1st.

McManus on the otherhand, i agree, i think i mentioned it somewhere aswell. He's another hard nut, but unlike cook, he seems to have gone soft. He's probably earnt a few chances to get back into form given a solid year and a half but hopefully he comes good soon. And hopefully he isnt given a spot ahead of Browne who earnt another couple of games at least.

Later
Voodoo-

 

[sabre_ac]

I sat in the rain without a rain coat, copping what at times was a full blown storm full on.
Not beacuse I like being wet or am tough.
But in a round about way to vent my disgust at the state of things on the field.
I wanted the players to see the supporters faces when they left.

 

[FreoDocker]

Originally posted by sabre_ac
I sat in the rain without a rain coat, copping what at times was a full blown storm full on.
Not beacuse I like being wet or am tough.
But in a round about way to vent my disgust at the state of things on the field.
I wanted the players to see the supporter’s faces when they left.

Yeah I stayed until the end and got absolutely soaked. I sit pretty close to the player’s race and they all looked devastated when they came off, it's just a pity that they couldn't get angry when they needed to.

I'm starting to think that as a supporter group, perhaps it was the wrong decision to clap the team off the ground after such a crap performance in the Final last year. At the time I know I was stoked just to make it into our first final, yet after the game I felt pretty letdown.

The way that they have been playing this year, perhaps we sent them the wrong message after the final, that near enough is good enough and we will put up with mediocre performances.

Maybe we have to look past the game plan, the umpiring, the weather and the poor form and just say that at the moment, we are simply not good enough. However with virtually a full squad to choose from, the improvement this year has to come from within the current playing group, as there are no big name players to come back from injury. With the injury list standing as it is, we don't really have any excuses not to put our best team on the park.

Looking back to the trade period last year, I would have killed to get Heath black back at the club. I think what we are missing this year is another form midfielder who is hard at the man and the ball. Black also has great finishing skills. However I think his season to date will ensure that he stays at the saints.

This brings to light what we are going to try and do at the seasons end. Do we make tough decisions and trade off players for a "quick fix", or do we give the young blokes like Dunn, Murphy, Mundy, Campbell, Peake and Dodd (should he be promoted) a real go in order to develop the squad from within.

So after 11 games, I think we need to compare where we were at last year in terms of the areas of improvement we have to make:

Good Points:
1) Hase's form in the middle has been great and he has taken the next step this year to become our best player.

2) The backline - Showed that last year was no fluke, we are #2 for points conceded in the league at the halfway mark.

3) Luke McPharlin - Injury free and would be in our top 3 at the club.

4) Gilmore - On what I saw of him last year, I didn't know if he would make it, but he has improved his strength and would be our best first year player. He looks at ease on the wing and is pretty quick.

5) Drafting - I think that this years draft group of Dunn, Murphy, Mundy, Campbell and Peake are alot better than the 2002 draft group (Schammer excluded) and I can see these blokes really filling a void (Mundy going back to allow McPharlin to go forward)


Bad Points:
1) The form of Headland, Farmer, Polak, T.Lo and Carr has been well down on what it was last year. You could also add medhurst in terms of his inconsistency and at times his ability to hog the ball when a better option is on.

2) CC's inability to be flexible in the game plan. While the rotation policy is good, near the end of the game players are coming off when the game is there to be won. There is no point saving them for later in the season if you don't win those games along the way. I was also dumbfounded when we kept trying to use short kicks and handpasses in the wet, when it was clear that anything but dry weather footy was required. Also I have been a constant critic of the amount of space the opposition is given in terms of starting our half forwards off the wing, while their opponent is left free to roam across half forward. We almost don't give enough respect to our opponents and wait for them to make a mistake before we can even attempt to move it forward.

3) Kick-ins - We seem to play a kick of the pack system, where we kick it out to a huge pack, with three of our players flying, leaving their blokes front and centre at grab the crumb. There is the short variation on this where we kick in short into the pocket, before kicking it to a pack a bit further down field. Perhaps we should train with a huddle in order to try and generate some run and variety from kick outs, rather than the same thing over and over.

4) The inability of our forwards to keep the ball inside the forward 50. We simply don't put enough pressure onto the players rebounding from our forward 50. This is usually to us playing a 4 - 5 man forward line, assuming that when they take the ball out of defence, the will bomb it long into their forward line (as we always do).

5) The players seem flat. Perhaps it is time to start dropping some players an either have them get some confidence back in the WAFL, or to give them a bit of a wakeup call.

I do have the confidence that our list is good enough to play finals footy again this year, however I don't think that we are playing like a group at the moment. There has been all this talk over the summer of how much weight every player has put on and how the opposition will no longer intimidate them. However if you add a few more KG's to a marshmellow, it's still going to be just as soft, only bigger. They have to learn how to use this size to give a physical presence and protect their teammates. I have also noticed alot of lax shepards and no talking this year to tell a bloke if he is free or not. At the half way mark of the year, I'm pretty disappointed on how we have gone so far.

 

[Ripper]

Originally posted by FreoDocker

5) The players seem flat. Perhaps it is time to start dropping some players an either have them get some confidence back in the WAFL, or to give them a bit of a wakeup call.

Just got home and had hours to think about this. I have come to the conclusion that the lack of enthusiasm is a result of the steep rise in expectation placed upon them by everyone, cousing them not to be enjoying their footy as much.

If I was a player and had to put up with all the bad vibes that are circulating I reckon it would be hard to find life enjoyable.

This bit of a slump could be in fact positive as expectations will diminish allowing them to come home with a bit of a rush (hopefully.)

There you go even I am doing it .

I did listen to the Derby on the radio on the way home (bad weekend ) but was heartened by the performances of Thornton , Siegert (who sounded like he had a blinder) and to a lesser extent Murphy.

 

[dasler]

Originally posted by RIPPER_46
I did listen to the Derby on the radio on the way home (bad weekend ) but was heartened by the performances of Thornton , Siegert (who sounded like he had a blinder) and to a lesser extent Murphy.

Poor old East Fremantle, what a pathetic rabble

Siegert was good, still made some average decisions but looked great and kicked some handy goals, 1 in particular from the forward pocket on the boundary.

Thornton was great today. Can't say he put a foot wrong. Kept running forward and creating play whilst doing a great defensive job.

Murphy was average at best. Created a contest which was great but not much more than that. Clean goal kicking on his behalf. Looks really good as a tall leading forward.

Colts was won by South by 8 points. Absolutely crap game. I can't really see anyone being drafted from South Fremantle this year. Delmenico lifted in the last 1/4 (passing by on his name of late, playing really, really dumb football), Shannon Cox was reasonable and Alex Coultas was handy in the middle. Jono Mullins from the Northern Territory was excellent once again. Team is lacking system, flair and DISCIPLINE.

Either way, 3 from 3 today is a great effort by the blood stained angels

 

[pav_is_god]

The past couple of weeks have really showed us where we are as a team. I think we are, at best, 6-8 prospects due to a number of key factors:
1) we can't handle pressure, both mental and physical;
2) we lack depth, with those outside the 22 inexperienced;
3) we have a dysfunctional forward line;
4) and, we don't have a consistent core of senior players (100+).

The fact of the matter is, until we start to remove some of those key factors, our team will not be playing in too many finals games. And unfortunately, the last three of those factors will take some time to correct...

 

[Freo Hitman]

Originally posted by auste1234
I too sat down right until the end in the rain.
i don't think i saw a freo possenion in the last 10 mins of the match, no heart.

i was waiting for chris connoly to apologise to all the members that had to watch todays game. I think he should have apologised to all us members as the team let us down today

I am a ****ing angry man. ( SEE THREAD )

 

[Croydon]

Originally posted by Freo Hitman
I am a ****ing angry man. ( SEE THREAD )

The Dockers players showed a lack of skill, finesse and courage