CakeEater
Hall of Famer
Round 8- Fremantle vs Western Bulldogs (aka the Kingsley Hunter/Steven Koops Cup)
Bouncedown- 5.30pm AWST, 7.30pm EST
Last Time we MetBouncedown- 5.30pm AWST, 7.30pm EST
Fremantle 17.10 112 def WB 14.13 97
Last game of the season, winner makes finals, losers go home kind of game that everyone (ok- all vic media sources) said we were going to lose as we werent good enough.
We proved we were good enough with an even spread of contributors from our forward line, Murphy Reid proving why he is the Best Reid in the West and why he deserved the Rising Star last year as we got out to a 40+ lead in the fourth quarter before the Bullies made a comeback in the last quarter.
We showed our mettle with grinding out the victory in this game.
Last Week:
WB lost by 66 to Sydney
Fremantle won by 14 over Carlton
Keys to the Game:
As always the midfield
Bullies depth has been tested with injuries to key players, such as English, Weightman, Libba all being potentially unavailable (Libba and English are listed as tests) with Liberatore not clearing concussion protocols till Wednesday
The Bont who is universally admired is still playing as is Freijah who I really rate as well as the increased minutes for Baker through the midfield, so whilst they have had injuries their midfield is still fearsome, however at this stage doesnt bat as deep as ours
As for our midfield:
Have performed solidly without dominating four quarters, the mix isnt quite there but natural progression to Johnson, Erasmus, Young, Jackson, Bolton as well as the continued performance of Brayshaw and Serong has really helped the team perform whether its the A or B rotations through the midfield.
Cox proved that the 3rd Tall/Resting ruck role will cause problems for the undersized and injury riddled WB Defense
Fwd Line:
Our three talls has stretched all the teams we have played at present, its allowed one of our 3 key forwards (or all of them) to contribute consistently.
The progression of Amiss, coupled with the continuing growth of Treacy has really made this team better, the leading patterns is noticeable with all three and they have progressed their leads so that they havent gone full Taberner and interfere with each other.
The Bullies have been beset with injuries- Naughton is a test (should miss) after that sickening fall last Thursday, Darcy is out for the season, Artie Jones has done a hamstring- all of which means the depth in their fwd line is significantly hindered and as evidenced by last week, they have struggled to put scores on the board given the challenges to their depth, a trend which we hope to continue this week.
Backline
Another area where our team has performed well,
Have done the job all year for us, the reintroduction of Ryan has shored us up out the back line, Pearce has saved our bacon and Chapman, Mcvee have been solid after slow starts to the year.
As for the Bullies, in a area they are battling with already, they have been decimated by injuries as well- No Lobb, No O'Donnell and this presents as a critical advantage for our fwds to hopefully exploit
Did you know?
15 years ago on Anzac Day, Kepler Bradley got his first 3 votes in the Brownlow in the corresponding fixture vs the Bullies
Tip: Freo by 27 points.
