Autopsy The aftermath

[Gekko71]

Early in the game it was DeBoer and, to a lesser degree, Suban who were asked to go in there. Both were ineffective, DeBoer who always works hard in the contest was, and I hate to bag him, the worst of a bunch of players who seemed to have no touch - fumble, fumble, fumble and poor disposal when he had the finally got his hands on it.

Yeah, unfortunately in this instance neither of them were able to plug that gap.

Suban can be great on occasion but he's not a good inside mid - or at least nowhere near as good as Fyfe or Barlow.

Ditto for MDB - his tackling is second to none and generates turnovers a-plenty in open play, but getting in and under at stoppages and winning the ball like Barlow - or raking up contested clearances and forward 50 entries like Fyfe... that's not his strength.

 

[muckypup]

Hawks always have a solid plan against most teams. Ours in particular they have 'got it'. Ross and match committee need to think on that. Continually belt us straight up. Our midfield depth... gonna keep on saying it ... is an issue. Problem with afl football tho. You can basically never get your best players all playing together so that second tier are absolutely crucial. B graders are A graders.

 

[DMan 11]

Maybe you were, maybe you weren't having a crack at me, however I got stuck into a bloke who was bagging De Boer without even watching the game.

I mean, come on.

Nah, not directly - but yeh, had a chuckle at that one, from memory was a slagging followed by a " can anyone tell me where Deboer played"

More so just the vibe that players are free from personal criticism.... It's a forum, we're here to give opinion, I guess some posters just don't go to the effort of giving reason behind their sprays which triggers the reactionary banter.

 

[ritz]

I hate to say this but it is extremely scary that Fyfe and Mundy are free agents

Oh not this s*** again

 

[caterina]

Hawks always have a solid plan against most teams. Ours in particular they have 'got it'. Ross and match committee need to think on that. Continually belt us straight up. Our midfield depth... gonna keep on saying it ... is an issue. Problem with afl football tho. You can basically never get your best players all playing together so that second tier are absolutely crucial. B graders are A graders.

Our midfield depth shouldn't be an issue. We have got 2 midfielders as free agents and drafted mostly midfielders for the past few years. Whenever someone complains about our lack of KPP depth, several others always retort with how great our midfield strength is.

 

[slicedndiced]

Nah, not directly - but yeh, had a chuckle at that one, from memory was a slagging followed by a " can anyone tell me where Deboer played"

More so just the vibe that players are free from personal criticism.... It's a forum, we're here to give opinion, I guess some posters just don't go to the effort of giving reason behind their sprays which triggers the reactionary banter.

Yeah, it does tend to help if the claims can be backed up instead of...

I really don't like player X and he should be dropped. He's a spud...

 

[Freomaniac]

Bwahahaha I cant believe how sad you lot are tonight. Sure its easily one of the worst losses under Ross Lyon. Still We were bad tonight but not as bad as round 15, 2009 vs the crows where we kicked 1 goal for the whole game.

Yes we lost the Grand final last season, it seems you lot have put too much expectations on our club tonight with our best team available. Next Month will be tough. Freo will be fine. Move on now we have the bombers next.

 

[Keys]

. He's a spud...

Based on BF posts there is enough spuds in the AFL to have prevented the Irish potato famine

 

[Righteo]

Bwahahaha I cant believe how sad you lot are tonight. Sure its easily one of the worst losses under Ross Lyon. Still We were bad tonight but not as bad as round 15, 2009 vs the crows where we kicked 1 goal for the whole game.

Yes we lost the Grand final last season, it seems you lot have put too much expectations on our club tonight with our best team available. Next Month will be tough. Freo will be fine. Move on now we have the bombers next.

All I got from this was, "sure it was a shocking loss but at least it wasn't as bad as our worst ever loss". Way to set the standard.

 

[slicedndiced]

Based on BF posts there is enough spuds in the AFL to have prevented the Irish potato famine

Indeed. I'm getting trolled on the Hawthorn board about exactly that in regards to Balla and Crowley.

I aint playin that game.

 

[Keys]

Indeed. I'm getting trolled on the Hawthorn board about exactly that in regards to Balla and Crowley.

I aint playin that game.

Well balla is just a tiny tater and crowls is too ugly to be a potato even. He's more an onion, just makes you cry (especially if your initials are GA or BH)

 

[PapaJ]

I'm over it now but man that was pathetic watching.
For all the hype about our supposed 'fast start' it seemed that by talking about it the players assumed it would just happen without any effort.
The effort was really down tonight and that's disappointing from a fans perspective, can lead to posters singling out players and while I personally don't have any issue with highlighting a players weakness in a game it seems like there are some uber defensive posters on here who love to belt into each mercilessly but get antsy when someone unloads on Deboer for going missing, suban for his one dimensionalism, etc etc. get over it, everyone is entitled to vent and spray after a game if they want, especially one like tonight that had so much build up - we were disappointed last year in the GF and we just blew our first chance at redemption.
I Mentioned it on the game day thread and it still sticks in my craw - I'm most upset at our approach to hawthorn. They've proven that their style at the G is superior and yet RTB stuck at the rolling zone and press just to be continually and repeatedly carved up. Our game plan is normally tight and I'm hoping this is just a blip but does freo have a plan B ? Hawks are unique in what they do and how they execute it so it's not like we'll have too many other teams slicing and dicing us like tonight but it begs 2 questions to me
1. are we good enough to adapt next time and perhaps execute a variation of our plan, or
2. Does RTB stick with the same formula and hope for a different result ?

You could say There was a heap of contributing factors to tonight's showing, missing mids, heavy week last week, injuries and rotations, perhaps selections - I'd just love to know what our approach will be next time we meet the hawks........

On the rolling zone and game plan thing you just said. I'm not so sure it can't work, but it requires a monumental work rate to get it done against a team like the Hawks. I know the little evidence we have is against me here, but I've yet to see us put in the effort over 4 quarters to implement our game properly against the Hawks. Of course, the lack of clearances doesn’t help either. You can’t let a good team have that much initial control of the ball.

 

[Freomaniac]

All I got from this was, "sure it was a shocking loss but at least it wasn't as bad as our worst ever loss". Way to set the standard.

No shame being knocked off by a top team. If we lost to Melbounre....

 

[caterina]

No shame being knocked off by a top team. If we lost to Melbounre....

They didn't just knock us off though, did they? We were crap and lazy.

 

[Spirit Level]

Ever cool was Ross in the presser, can you imagine the meltdown harves would have had?

Although I'm not thoroughly pleased with tonight's effort, I am ever conscious of peaking too early.

Better to uncover and work on our deficiencies now, rather than at the pointy end.

 

[Freomaniac]

They didn't just knock us off though, did they? We were crap and lazy.

Yeah we kicked 11 goals and 13 behinds. Freo could of got another 2-4 goals with the Hawks easing it off. Freo will bounce back next week.

 

[andy_20]

Maybe they could try Man on Man against Hawthorn? They rely on precise kicking and if everyone is on each other Hawthorn will have to kick to contests

 

[free at last]

Oh not this s*** again

Yep,coz we've got **** all money to throw around.

 

[believe_it]

Hmmm I am feeling more confused than anything. The contested possessions were in their favour but in uncontested ones they blew us away.
So when they got the ball initially they were able to keep it off us. They had 6 players over 30 possesionss and a further 8 over 20. There always
seemed to be plenty of Hawks in comfortable space as they moved the ball up the ground.

Was there fatigue from last weeks wet slog? Perhaps when a few too many youngsters need to come into the team the RTB tactics
breakdown on a large ground like the MCG? Dunno but I hated seeing the repeated bombs to a double and triple teamed Pav. I thought
we had moved on from that one dimensional play.

 

[Freo88]

Maybe they could try Man on Man against Hawthorn? They rely on precise kicking and if everyone is on each other Hawthorn will have to kick to contests

Im having flashbacks to my Year 12 footy days. Everyone was too crap to follow a game plan so the coach told us to do the only thing we could understand.

Problem with man on man is 1 weak link in the chain gets exposed - Jack Hannaths lack of pace comes to mind if the ball went over the back of a 1-1 contest

 

[pokerspiv]

Was there fatigue from last weeks wet slog? .

I think that was a fair bit of it. Also travelling after a 6 day break.

 

[mike91]

Our midfield depth shouldn't be an issue. We have got 2 midfielders as free agents and drafted mostly midfielders for the past few years. Whenever someone complains about our lack of KPP depth, several others always retort with how great our midfield strength is.

We haven't drafted a gun inside midfielder for years, all skinny outside players, Hill, Sheridan, Simpson. Having a young kid with a big body would be very handy, although Hill does get the hard balls. I'm still not convinced on Sheridan, not writing him off at all, just not sure about him.

 

[mike91]

I'd say bring your mouth guards to training on Monday cos it's about to get physical but lets be honest, our players are dropping like flies and we can't afford anymore injuries. Ibbo is a massive loss, saw him having a very good 2014, hopefully hes not out for too long, but it's not looking good. Tackling needs to be practiced on Monday, that was beyond a joke. Pressure needs to be there against Essendon, wasn't there last night.

Still can't believe the crap I'm reading about Hannath.

 

[settingthebarLOW]

Didn't watch the whole game (sizeable chunk); an obligatory how-much-my-buddy-was-missed post is due.

DeBoer tries but simply not quite an apt replacement (on a sidenote he doesn't seem to have near the sheer magnitude of physical presence as Fyfe although he is definitely a chunk of muscle - possibly the narrow shoulders).

Great to see Hill taking the game on, and his inside work really noticeable today despite being tagged by Shiels. 25, 23, 24 disposals in the past 3 games is pretty decent consistency, especially today's satisfactory effort taking on Hawthorn with a depleted midfield possibly being no.2 tag target. Might never be as mercurial as touted to be early on in his career, but if the low SD performances continue (which was perhaps evident in the finals last year) A-grade status is not out of the question. Very happy with him.

 

[slicedndiced]

We haven't drafted a gun inside midfielder for years, all skinny outside players, Hill, Sheridan, Simpson. Having a young kid with a big body would be very handy, although Hill does get the hard balls. I'm still not convinced on Sheridan, not writing him off at all, just not sure about him.

Like those skinny outside players Nathan Fyfe and Michael Barlow, who were both drafted after Hill.

Geez you talk shit mate.