Autopsy Season 2021

[Tbonefreo]

I gave up after the derby loss. Pretty much just went through the motions. Had some fun but ultimately we were not in it.

Obviously the forward line needs sorting. If we get a 1st and second for Cerra, then blow one on Clark I will be pissed off.

 

[nurries]

They'll get there in time.

If we rely on what we have now, they will either leave, be burnt out or banged up so we should get a couple of bigger harder players to help protect the young ones

 

[Mr Cheese]

Tabs, Treacy plus another Lobb is actually quite a handy forward line - issue is leading and defensive pressure. Treacy does both in spades, the others as and when When Tabs and Lobb lead it's rarely away from each other, that's the major problem and surely that lies at the feet of the coaching staff, specifically Hale? The other issue is delivery of course, but I think a lot of that is to do with lack of forward and mid pressure creating scenarios where defenses are out of position.

I still think a fully fit Sturt this season would've been the key and we'd have been sitting pretty in the 8. Freo is very much a "nearly" team at the moment. I think we're only two or three key personnel (either incoming or improvements from within) from being a force, you reach a certain level and even your depth starts to play a foot taller and you start to intimidate teams.

We're heading the right way, but definitely at a crossroads. The Cerra scenario is a potential landmine, and could set us back badly if we don't use any capital gained wisely. For me he is/was the Mundy replacement; both of them going within two years is a hammer blow, and will be tough to rectify in the short term. However, we've got a few players who may slot into the guts who would suffice (Crowden, Chapman potentially, even Acres on the inside could be handy), and the downgrade in our midfield would be more than offset by a huge improvement in the forward line.

Interesting times ahead either way, if Fyfe and Walters return to 2019 form, Sturt comes good and everyone mostly stays fit, we'll be up and about for sure. I'm feeling bullish, Viva la Purple Revolution!

 

[FreoRicci]

Please PLEASE could all our defenders be fit for round 1.
HB: Young, Pearce, Chapman
FB: Walker, Hamling, Cox.
Logue can then be a weapon up forward. If not then Cox goes up. The future is bright down back. Questions definitely surround Wilson. It makes sense that Conca got delisted. Duman, Watson are on the edge too.
Aish can play wing. Hughes can play there too, even on ball.

Ideally we need another forward, ruck and small. Schulz is a hard nut, but he hardly creates. Sturt is about unreliable as anything. Henry isn’t a foward. Western is two pre seasons away from really breaking AFL.
HF: Treacy, Lobb, Frederick
FF: Switkowski/Schulz, Tabs, Logue/Sturt.
Not a bad forward line. Really need additional support. Anything really, given how shitful the list management has been in that area since 2002.

Two smalls is enough, but has to be a Greene type. Creates run and does good decisions. That’s Walters, of 2019. No idea what he’s going to produce next season. Two very poor seasons.

 

[go_the_dockers]

I like that attitude. However your not talking about trading are you. that makes me slightly twitchy. trading to accelerate the rebuild is a hard no from me.

Listen to the press conference. We are safe with Longmuir

 

[DragoDelph]

Listen to the press conference. We are safe with Longmuir

Got that too. This season wasn’t good enough. This will hurt.
I’d really like us to commit to September though. Train up until the grand final, then punish them on GF day. We may start preseason later, but if we want to challenge consistently, it’s something we need to get used to.
train how you play

 

[PH Docker]

Gone
Stephen Hill

Not offered a contract at the moment
Nathan Wilson

Hopefully will sign
Lachlan Schultz
Adam Cerra

Unsure
Mitch Crowden
Brett Bewley
Darcy Tucker
Tobe Watson
Bailey Banfield
Stefan Giro
Taylin Duman

Consider sending to the rookie list
Blakely
Acres

Club failures
Not taking a MSD pick. Sharman shows that we missed a chance to improve our list.
Our game line is still not good enough.
We can't get any where close to our best 22 on the park.



Best 22
b: Young Pearce Walker
hb: Ryan Cox Logue
c: Colyer Fyfe Frederick
hf: Walters Taberner Henry
f: Switta Lobb Treacy
R: Darcy Serong Braysahw
B: Cerra if he stays, Schultz, Sturt, Aish

Biggest needs
Better skills, we are too easy to pressure.
More pressure, sides go end to end on us too easily.
Forward class.

Premierships window - shut for at least 3 years. If Cerra leaves it is 4.


Questions
Do we consider trading out some of our experienced players with value?
Lobb is the obvious one, but there are other ones.

Players with value older than 26 are Walters, Lobb, Fyfe, Cox, Ryan, Taberner etc etc.

My hope
we don't bring in other clubs D grade players again. I am talking about SPS, Fisher and Clark.

Hopefully Pearce has a big Preseason because he has been disappointing the last few weeks , Henry isn’t a forward and would swap him with Freddy on the wing.

 

[DragoDelph]

Hopefully Pearce has a big Preseason because he has been disappointing the last few weeks , Henry isn’t a forward and would swap him with Freddy on the wing.

tbf to the bog Moose, he's been carrying an injury (bruised heel), so hasn't had the take off speed. If there was anyone else available, he would have been rested.

 

[PH Docker]

What are everyones thoughts on James Aish season. Personally feel he has been solid without being poor or excellant.

I would give him a 6/10. Kicking isnt great and can miss tackles.

I know we didnt draft him but he was the number 7 draft pick in his class back in 2013 so there must have been more that we arent seeing when he was a junior.

He is a soldier without the SAS silk though , I’ve been happy with his year.

 

[Fat Nyfe]

Look there are plenty of positives, you can’t win 7-10 games a year if there isn’t, but I’m quite sure we are stuck in one of those never-ending rebuilds.

Always playing catch-up to replace leaving or retiring players, between that, injuries and a shallow list we can’t get a go at creating a cohesive team that plays together year after year. Being one of the youngest teams in the comp 6 years in is not necessarily something to be proud of, yes it is a reasonable excuse, but it perpetuates excuses and illuminates ongoing list management problems.

Still winning a derby was nice, being in the hunt for finals was fun even if our record was undeserving, and seeing Brayshaw and Serong BOG in our last 2 wins respectively gives a good shot in the arm. I’m afraid it won’t be enough to be bullish for a sharp rise in 2022 though.

 

[Channels]

I think we have the building blocks, when everyone is fit, for a top 8 side.

Darcy - A breakout year to become one of the top 4 rucks in the comp.

The midfield - 2022 with a fit Fyfe, a youthful Mundy, Andy & Caleb with another year of muscle on them.

The defence - 2022 with Hamling, Pearce & Cox all fit.

The forwards - Treacy was great for an 19 year old rookie. The catch cry about big men is they take a few years to mature, he is a great find already. Tabs seemed to have a consistent year.

The young blokes - Freddie, great year till he went down injured. Young showing what he can do. Walker showing no fear.

Coaching - JL, I think is great, defence as well. Forward structure and leading patterns need a lot of work.

My question marks -
Small forward, I'm hoping Henry improves over the preseason.
Small defender, not sure we have the right option yet.
Logue, if the above are all fit, I'm not sure what his role in the team is.
Lobb, seemed to find his kicking routine this year so I hope he stays as a better down the line marking option to leave Tabs & Treacy close to goal.
Cerra, hope he stays but we'll replace him if he doesn't.

 

[im_a_lazy_sod]

Too many highs and lows. At least the gap between our best and our worst seems to be lessening - though I'm not sure if it means our best is getting worse or our worst is getting better.

Still think we have a lot more upside going in to 2022 than most of the teams who didn't make the top 8 - and maybe even more than GWS or Essendon (or at least on par)

Was 2022 better than 2021? Probably. Only just.

 

[summerthebat]

Generally, I really did not enjoy this season for a number of reasons.

- I was more hoping than logically expecting a significant jump in our output, starting from round one. But I came to terms with our entrance into the 2021 season after the Melbourne game, we immediately looked mid to lower table. That's OK though, just was hoping to be surprised.

- Injuries again. At no point did we really get a look of our ideal team going forward, which meant the best 22 were unable to grow into the game-plan and chemistry with each other for any meaningful period of time. Our defence on paper looked the deepest it had ever been, but wow did that overcorrect. Players like Sturt, Young & Valente have been repeatably denied the ability to grow, almost at any level. We went through this with Logue & Darcy, but we eventually got through it. Chapman is also a player who was robbed of the opportunity to progress through the season in the WAFL or in the senior side.

- The AFL's general indifference/disdain. Ranging from the Carlton game being moved to a venue that suited them, the St Kilda game being played in Tasmania. The amendment to the NGA rules, whilst Gold Coast are having opportunity to succeed to inexplicable levels. Our game scheduling, 10:15am in the morning? No standalone games, no primetime or feature games. It really hammers home the point that we're irrelevant, that shouldn't exist, regardless of performance.

- The teams continued inability to even appear interested in an important game. I can hardly think of a game where we 'went down swinging'.

- Justin Longmuir

Justin Longmuir

Age

43

Ht

196cm

Wt

98kg

Pos.

F/R

Career

Season

Last 5

D

11.4

3star

K

6.9

3star

HB

4.5

3star

M

4.3

4star

T

1.4

3star

G

1.2

4star

No current season stats available

D

7.0

2star

K

3.6

2star

HB

3.4

3star

M

2.0

3star

T

0.6

3star

G

0.6

3star

. I don't dare project that he can't coach given what he's up against, but the repeated failures and his wasteland press conferences afterwards is just hard to feel anything positive. He rolled out the line AGAIN that they needed to 'look into the players preparation leading into the game'. It's not the behaviours of 22 individuals leading into the game that lead to us being trounced by margins of 45, 59, 46, 69, 40, 64 and 58. There's not a single performance against quality opposition that I believe can justify that we are heading in the right direction.

- The promotions department. Everything is stale. Tame Impala was a surprising project, but the game still starts with a bloke on the roof playing along to a song that is 44 years old. Think about that.

- Dale Alcock's impassioned statement two years ago, on how the club would be come an AFL juggernaut. How? This is already a failure in execution. We can't retain players, can't promote the club, can't catch the AFL's attention and are treading water on the field. 'The future is now' apparently.

This is my individual experience, but throw some of my experiences into the blender and I am sure it contributes to the experiences of others and as to why we were one of two clubs that lost members.

 

[BStaff17]

- The AFL's general indifference/disdain. Ranging from the Carlton game being moved to a venue that suited them, the St Kilda game being played in Tasmania.

Fremantle requested the tassie game to avoid the quarantine on the return home. West coast have to do 2 weeks quarantine because they went to brisbane.

The carlton game was a shame due to timing but the AFL didn't have a choice perth was in lockdown and the WA government wouldn't guarantee if they would allow Carlton to fly over for the game and if the game could have even be played at optus that weekend.

We missed out on 1 home game but so did most other teams if not more look at GWS and Sydney.

It was just unfortunate timing that carlton was that week and not say a geelong who would have been beaten us wherever we played them

 

[muzzington]

We lost the last game of the season so obviously that makes the rest of the year

 

[Crazy Train]

Do we get an extra home game next year as owed?

 

[Quokka]

C+ for the season

Not making finals was a missed opportunity, even just for the experience and there was definitely a place there for Freo if we just had a little more composure at times and if our bad days weren't quite so bad.

Of course there were positives.

Darcy really matured into the number one ruck role.
Serong, Brayshaw, Young and others
Treacy is only showing glimpses but they're fun glimpses to watch at least.

But there are still some major holes in our best 22, it feels like there would be a couple even without injuries and with the injuries Fremantle had again in 2021 it was all but impossible to build any momentum.

Another step forward should see us playing finals next year and hopefully for a sustained run but I am worried Fremantle will only make minor changes over the off season.

 

[apuchar]

 

[Joao]

If we rely on what we have now, they will either leave, be burnt out or banged up so we should get a couple of bigger harder players to help protect the young ones

By that logic, Carlton should have no players left. They have one burnt out Cripps but he had to do it all himself. We have multiple young guns to spread the load.

We still have Fyfe, Mundy, Hamling, Pearce, Tabs, Lobb(maybe), Darcy and Brayshaw (5th and 6th seasons next year), Aish, Ryan and Walters that are B22 players that are mature enough.

Unless you can get someone that is genuine best 22, its just not worth it. See Acres.

 

[CapitalA]

Please PLEASE could all our defenders be fit for round 1.
HB: Young, Pearce, Chapman
FB: Walker, Hamling, Cox.
Logue can then be a weapon up forward. If not then Cox goes up. The future is bright down back. Questions definitely surround Wilson. It makes sense that Conca got delisted. Duman, Watson are on the edge too.
Aish can play wing. Hughes can play there too, even on ball.

Ideally we need another forward, ruck and small. Schulz is a hard nut, but he hardly creates. Sturt is about unreliable as anything. Henry isn’t a foward. Western is two pre seasons away from really breaking AFL.
HF: Treacy, Lobb, Frederick
FF: Switkowski/Schulz, Tabs, Logue/Sturt.
Not a bad forward line. Really need additional support. Anything really, given how shitful the list management has been in that area since 2002.

Two smalls is enough, but has to be a Greene type. Creates run and does good decisions. That’s Walters, of 2019. No idea what he’s going to produce next season. Two very poor seasons.

No All Australian Ryan in the backline?

 

[FreoRicci]

No All Australian Ryan in the backline?

Oh. Forgot about his under the radar. Perfect to swing Logue and Cox at the same time.

 

[chinggis77]

Reckon we need to build our midfield depth next year.

I reckon Heath Chapman may end up in the midfield/on a wing. Has elite endurance (topped the WA combine time trial), great skills, size and I love his attack on the footy compared to somone like Henry. A large (193cm) mid would complement Serong, Brayshaw etc well.

Hopefully one of Switta or maybe even Crowden. Crowden played as a mid in the U18's (got 28 disposals against Vic Country from memory). Got some aggro too.

Switta/Crowden have been playing forward due to our lack of options up there so hopefully we address that this off season!!! Fyfe better be practising his goal kicking so he can spend more time forward too.

 

[UYD 4 Life]

Injuries to KPP.......again. Robbed us of playing finals the last 3 years I reckon. More importantly it's prevented us developing and building chemistry in those key posts. I think everyone over 190cm not named David Mundy

16

David Mundy

Age

38

Ht

192cm

Wt

92kg

Pos.

Mid

Career

Season

Last 5

D

23.1

5star

K

11.2

4star

HB

11.8

5star

M

3.6

4star

T

4.3

5star

CL

5.1

5star

D

15.7

4star

K

6.7

3star

HB

9.0

4star

M

2.3

2star

T

2.7

4star

CL

3.7

5star

D

27.8

5star

K

15.4

5star

HB

12.4

5star

M

5.8

5star

T

6.2

5star

CL

7.2

5star

has had either significant or persistent injury issues. The single greatest issue holding us back.

LTI to Sturt, Chapman, Frederick, Young very disappointing also.

Brayshaw and Darcy arriving as genuine a graders, Walker and Freddy showing they can be future AFL players from late picks the main development gains this year I reckon.

Oh and Cerra playing to a level that we'll get appropriate compensation was pretty important as well