Positives & Negatives vs Eagles

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Postives +
- Micheal 'Fast Freddy' Frederick, great debut, all you could ask from the guy. Loved that he went for the outside 50 shot on the run (even though Mundy was left by himself 20m out as they all sagged back to the line). I think Garry Lyon said it right that he won't die wondering.
- Luke Ryan must be leading the Doig, poor guy must be like trying to plug 6 different holes in a sinking ship all popping out as soon as you've got one in.
- Taberner contested marking, he made McGovern, Hurn and Barrass look weak at multiple points with his strength.
- Considering our injury list I am amazed we kept it to a respectable score so i'll take that as a positive.

Negs -
- Taberner, good lord he is Wayne Carey for one minute and Josh Bootsma the next. Part and parcel of who he is but at times I feel he should be wearing No 26.
- Defensive midfield set up, been a lowlight of every game so far, teams walking it out of our centre without a drop of pressure. Would really like Conca back in there blocking the defensive side.
- This might come across as a bit harsh but I thought JLo had a shocker on his coaching decisions through the game. I understand he is trying to give some players quicker development and some good lessons, but playing Tucker, our most consistent mid with Walters, at the half forward flank for 3 quarters of the game was a terrible call as was switching him out with Brayshaw in the last which is Andy's best quarter too. Plus Aish getting pushed back when's he played much better closer to the ball/wing. At least it was for the development of Cerra/Serong/Frederick though so I can understand it but still didn't like it. Hopefully Longmuir learnt some things from it at least.
 

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Watching at the ground the main and only real major negative I saw in the game was how the team became visibly deflated when we had all the momentum in the 2nd, and then WC got two soft/questionable free kicks in our forward 50, moved the ball down the other end and scored easily. From that moment on we looked a different team. Before that I thought our structures looked good and we were moving the ball pretty well. We can obviously use the excuse that we didn't have a leader like Fyfe to inspire the team to pick themselves back up (like last week at qtr time) but the whole playing group needs to learn to push through when things like that happen.

Both the Fremantle and West Coast fans around me were in agreement that West Coast looked rattled until that point in time - mainly because guys like Darling were flopping around like they'd been shot and their players were appealing to the umpires at every opportunity at that stage.

It's annoying when umpiring decisions can swing momentum so much in a game but the best teams don't let that stop them so it shouldn't be an excuse.

I expected that result but I'm disappointed because watching live I felt like the team didn't play to the best of their abilities for a full half of football. No doubt we can shift some magnets around but I don't think it will make considerable difference given who is available. I'm confident we have a solid game plan (that doesn't gas out our playing group), we have some very talented youngsters, and we have some serviceable role players but they as a whole team need to believe they are capable of beating a side like West Coast. That confident mindset isn't built over night though - just need to look at Brisbane's turnaround last year to see what happens when you get it though.

PS. That Minairo goal was so incredibly awesome live. Although my voice got added to the injury list in the process.
 
I can't comment on the whole board, but our pres is a dud. Basically a rat cunning brickie that made a squillion ripping off the very people that should be Freo members by flogging them cookie cutter boxes that are losing them money before they take possession of them. He's a corporate joke with no strategic plan besides ripping off the punters.

Excuse me, you mention “rat cunning”, that sounds like the description of a well know footy CEO in this state.
 

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