ZoBlitz
The Ghost Who Walks
- Moderator
- #1
I was tempted to start this preview by quoting myself from last year quoting myself from the preview from the previous year as a kind of meta-in joke that the kids go crazy for these days but I decided to stick to 90s popular culture references and using a bunch of gifs off the internet and hopefully cause Bigfooty to break down.
So let’s start with Freo, how have they been going?
Well hey, not sure they are going that badly. They’re sitting around about the same place they finished last season, not bad enough to finish in the bottom four, not good enough to be competing for a finals place. Someone has obviously explained to Ross how re-building works (“You play the young guys and you don’t trade for rubbish role players… no, I promise that Chris Dawes has retired”) and he’s actually started playing more youth in the last couple of years but the top end experienced talent isn’t quite there at the moment. Fyfe is still a quality player when he deigns to actually play football rather than attempt to get himself suspended and have the media wring their hands at the unfairness of it all. I mean it’s not like he could stop whacking people or anything, really. Neale is up there as a player as well with Ryan coming along nicelybut there’s a lot of young guys getting games at the moment such as Banfield and Brayshaw (I know their names because they were in my fantasy teams!). This isn’t Ross Lyon’s Dad’s Army anymore.
Freo’s form at home has been pretty good (5-2) but they’ve been poor away having only beaten Carlton (1-5). It’s lucky that we’re playing them at home, isn’t? What? Oh, we’re not?
Their home form is a bit deceptive as they haven’t beaten anyone particularly good apart from Adelaide who are suffering from a plague of physical injuries as well as some mental scarring from a Kamp Krusty-level preseason camp and even then they only won by less than a goal. Saying that, they’ve actually won multiple games so they’ve got the wood on us there. And according to the in-depth research that I’ve performed (ie., googling “fremantle afl”), they’ve really improved their kick rating from a horrific 18th last to a credible 5th this year. Possibly that’s the reason we finally beat them last season; we found a team that was worse at using the ball than we were.
So how’s my favourite person Ross Lyon doing over there generally? Well apparently, he’s complimenting young women on their “budding boobs” which is frankly a mental image I could well do without. I guess coaching teams to play boring defensive football for ten years will obviously cause some strains mentally. I was initially excited when that news came out as there were suggestions he might be forced out of the club but alas, it was not to be. Lyon’s Fremantle are the fifth lowest scoring side this year (we’re sixth lowest) and have the sixth worst defence (we’re second worst) so while they have statistically been more boring in other years, it’s not exactly a goal fest going on.
Freo being mediocre has helped temper my hatred of everything that Ross Lyon stands for, as well as the fact that I am waiting for Ross to overtake Rodney Eade’s record of the most games coached without winning a premiership in AFL history (377). Ross has only got 102 games to go and I can see him doing it, if it doesn’t end up deciding to retire so he can start up his own buddingboobs.com website (domain is free by the way). That will be a true legacy to his style of football.
So how have we been going?
Well, pretty much. We’ve definitely improved from the last year in the sense that we’re still losing almost every game but it occasionally it looks like we might not lose. Until we do. We do lose by a lot less this season and statistically we’ve improved defensively but we’re also not scoring as highly as we did last year (77 per game versus 85). Our first quarters have been awful, not winning a single one all year and losing a lot by a fair margin. And up until the mid-way point of the season we also had an empty injury list. So things could be better but maybe we’ve all got Stockholm Syndrome about following the Lions by now.
How have our players gone on an individual level? Well, it’s been a mix with some guys improving and some guys struggling and the new guys making a difference. Cameron has been a constant threat in attack until his injury and he obviously put in the time over the off-season as his field kicking has improved out of sight. Hodge has added experience to the defence, perhaps providing a catalyst to our improved defensive performances. Harris started the season slowly but was in All-Australian form the last few weeks until Cameron put a firm stop to that last week with his Lockettesque elbow. Gardiner has (mostly) stopped giving away the one or two silly frees a games and has developed into a legitimate option in defence although he still does that thing where he tries to get himself suspended in the last thirty seconds of games. Berry and McCluggage have continued their development, although the consistency isn’t quite there yet. Rayner, Bailey and Oscar have shown glimpses.
On the other side of the ledger, Hipwood hasn’t backed up his performances from last year especially in terms of his kicking for goal accuracy. Beams has struggled dealing with his father passing away in the preseason which has affected his form. Zorko has struggled with being tagged earlier in the year although he seems to have shaken it off in recent rounds. Mayes, Taylor, Robertson and others have stagnated a little compared to previous seasons.
So what are our chances?
Eh, I’m not confident. Even less so with Harris out for this game. While we finally beat a Ross Lyon coached side last year for the first time in eons, they are travelling a little better this year and they are playing us at their home. It may be better hoping for small victories like maybe winning a first quarter for a change.
Freo by a margin that indicates we're improving but not enough to actually win the game.
Now...
So let’s start with Freo, how have they been going?
Well hey, not sure they are going that badly. They’re sitting around about the same place they finished last season, not bad enough to finish in the bottom four, not good enough to be competing for a finals place. Someone has obviously explained to Ross how re-building works (“You play the young guys and you don’t trade for rubbish role players… no, I promise that Chris Dawes has retired”) and he’s actually started playing more youth in the last couple of years but the top end experienced talent isn’t quite there at the moment. Fyfe is still a quality player when he deigns to actually play football rather than attempt to get himself suspended and have the media wring their hands at the unfairness of it all. I mean it’s not like he could stop whacking people or anything, really. Neale is up there as a player as well with Ryan coming along nicelybut there’s a lot of young guys getting games at the moment such as Banfield and Brayshaw (I know their names because they were in my fantasy teams!). This isn’t Ross Lyon’s Dad’s Army anymore.
Freo’s form at home has been pretty good (5-2) but they’ve been poor away having only beaten Carlton (1-5). It’s lucky that we’re playing them at home, isn’t? What? Oh, we’re not?
Their home form is a bit deceptive as they haven’t beaten anyone particularly good apart from Adelaide who are suffering from a plague of physical injuries as well as some mental scarring from a Kamp Krusty-level preseason camp and even then they only won by less than a goal. Saying that, they’ve actually won multiple games so they’ve got the wood on us there. And according to the in-depth research that I’ve performed (ie., googling “fremantle afl”), they’ve really improved their kick rating from a horrific 18th last to a credible 5th this year. Possibly that’s the reason we finally beat them last season; we found a team that was worse at using the ball than we were.
So how’s my favourite person Ross Lyon doing over there generally? Well apparently, he’s complimenting young women on their “budding boobs” which is frankly a mental image I could well do without. I guess coaching teams to play boring defensive football for ten years will obviously cause some strains mentally. I was initially excited when that news came out as there were suggestions he might be forced out of the club but alas, it was not to be. Lyon’s Fremantle are the fifth lowest scoring side this year (we’re sixth lowest) and have the sixth worst defence (we’re second worst) so while they have statistically been more boring in other years, it’s not exactly a goal fest going on.
Freo being mediocre has helped temper my hatred of everything that Ross Lyon stands for, as well as the fact that I am waiting for Ross to overtake Rodney Eade’s record of the most games coached without winning a premiership in AFL history (377). Ross has only got 102 games to go and I can see him doing it, if it doesn’t end up deciding to retire so he can start up his own buddingboobs.com website (domain is free by the way). That will be a true legacy to his style of football.
So how have we been going?
Well, pretty much. We’ve definitely improved from the last year in the sense that we’re still losing almost every game but it occasionally it looks like we might not lose. Until we do. We do lose by a lot less this season and statistically we’ve improved defensively but we’re also not scoring as highly as we did last year (77 per game versus 85). Our first quarters have been awful, not winning a single one all year and losing a lot by a fair margin. And up until the mid-way point of the season we also had an empty injury list. So things could be better but maybe we’ve all got Stockholm Syndrome about following the Lions by now.
How have our players gone on an individual level? Well, it’s been a mix with some guys improving and some guys struggling and the new guys making a difference. Cameron has been a constant threat in attack until his injury and he obviously put in the time over the off-season as his field kicking has improved out of sight. Hodge has added experience to the defence, perhaps providing a catalyst to our improved defensive performances. Harris started the season slowly but was in All-Australian form the last few weeks until Cameron put a firm stop to that last week with his Lockettesque elbow. Gardiner has (mostly) stopped giving away the one or two silly frees a games and has developed into a legitimate option in defence although he still does that thing where he tries to get himself suspended in the last thirty seconds of games. Berry and McCluggage have continued their development, although the consistency isn’t quite there yet. Rayner, Bailey and Oscar have shown glimpses.
On the other side of the ledger, Hipwood hasn’t backed up his performances from last year especially in terms of his kicking for goal accuracy. Beams has struggled dealing with his father passing away in the preseason which has affected his form. Zorko has struggled with being tagged earlier in the year although he seems to have shaken it off in recent rounds. Mayes, Taylor, Robertson and others have stagnated a little compared to previous seasons.
So what are our chances?
Eh, I’m not confident. Even less so with Harris out for this game. While we finally beat a Ross Lyon coached side last year for the first time in eons, they are travelling a little better this year and they are playing us at their home. It may be better hoping for small victories like maybe winning a first quarter for a change.
Freo by a margin that indicates we're improving but not enough to actually win the game.
Now...
