Review The good, the bad, the shat - vs Fremantle R3 2024

[King Elvis]

Our vanilla midfield didn't exactly stick it up the critics

Cant wait for our petulant, indignant sooking about valid criticism this week.

 

[Faaarrk]

It’s hard to criticise any player when the whole team is performing poorly. Except our seniors, they are the ones that should step up in these times. Crouch is the only one to get a pass mark, been very consistent. Rob not too bad. All other ‘experienced ‘ players are terrible.
Big shout out to MM and Worrell, the only two young ones that can hold their heads high and showing the ‘leaders’ how it’s done.

Nicks has to take ownership of this mess and stop blaming the players. You coach with what you have, not turn them into something they aren’t. If you want to play a dour defensive game then you trade/ draft those players in not change naturally attacking players style. Who cares if the opposition score 80+ points against us. As long as we score more than them we win. Let the guys play footy and get rid of all those not in the mix for a push to the flag.

 

[George Kramer]

The way an opposition can move the ball out of our defence is scary. It’s just at will and they set up their attacks from there.

We had 31% efficiency inside 50 compared to 53%.
5 marks inside 50 when we had 4 in the first qtr.
44 inside 50s compared to 52.
43 tackles compared to 63, WTF. This is one area you can do well even when you’re playing s**t.
They smashed us for uncontested ball.

4 ******* goals for the game when you score 2 in the first qtr.

We are deplorable.

Anyone who has defended Nicks and Hamish have no right to complain though. These are the blokes you’ve backed and those of us who could see how s**t they are were branded as negative and must be unhappy in life. Well you happy now you happy clappers?

 

[George Kramer]

Our vanilla midfield didn't exactly stick it up the critics

You better be careful, you’ll cop a wedgie

 

[moogerfooger]

I thought our inexperienced back six did really well under the circumstances. It was only late that it blew out and I can't be bothered rewatching it to see if that was the defenders or the mids who threw in the towel.

The midfield is the issue, has been the issue and will continue to be the issue.

I also think weight of expectation is a factor. How long has this club not been able to deal with any sort of expectation of success? Both our premierships were won against the odds. Any time we're expected to do well, you just know we're going to find a way to * it up.

 

[SugarShane]

I think it's the fact we re-signed him when we didn't need to that makes this all the more frustrating. Like if he was out of contract and we're dishing this s**t up, hey, no problem, he gets judged at the end of the year and we can find someone new.

But they already crowned him as a success before he even won anything, gave him a new deal and we're potentially dealing with this for 2025 at a minimum and then paying him to go away for 2026.

Literally all we had to do was... nothing. His contract had been timed perfectly. Got an initial extension because things seemed to be heading the right way. Fair. Now his contract perfectly lined up to expire at the end of a season that should be make or break. No club in the country would've tried to poach him, for once we'd made decisions that seemed to actually benefit us.

So we extend it before the season even starts (yes it was announced after Round 1). ******* why? Because it was a distraction? Are the players and coaches really out there on gameday like "I need to hit this target but Nicksy isn't signed up yet which is a concern."

Just absolutely ridiculous. Players play through seasons knowing they don't have a contract beyond that year and that's ok. Why is it different for a coach?

 

[ftmch]

I don't buy Nicks excuse that we have a ton of players out of form

Maybe if there were 3 or 4 guys, sure. We have 20 players supposedly out of form

The real reason IMO is our trash game plan that our players are so confused about they aren't able to execute

Absolutely right. This is a system level issue atm.

The concern is that by the time they address it (if they address it), the confidence and morale of the group is already so low that it will take weeks still to turn things around.

Looking at it objectively as possible, it very much feels like season over already

 

[SugarShane]

Sholl getting out muscled by Michael ******* Walters tells you everything you need to know about him as a player.

Probably looks a million bucks on the training track because his team mates don't want to hurt one of their mates. As soon as you're against real opposition he gets ragdolled like a child.

 

[MRB37]

We've now played 12 quarters of football and have spent about 1/3 of that time not being able to kick a goal.

That clock is still ticking too, last goal was 9 minutes into the 3rd quarter.

 

[fuic08]

This slow chip kick game plan is ******* terrible, where the * is the run and overlap from last year?

 

[MRB37]

Absolutely right. This is a system level issue atm.

The concern is that by the time they address it (if they address it), the confidence and morale of the group is already so low that it will take weeks still to turn things around.

Looking at it objectively as possible, it very much feels like season over already

That's the problem with people saying "back then in we'll turn it around, it's only been 3 rounds

We might somewhat, but by the time we do we'll be in such a big hole we won't be able to dig out of it. And it also raises a massive question on Nicks why we need to keep digging out of these holes in the first place. We go back to his instincts, suck and have to tweak the gameplan on the fly during the year to get going again.

 

[Redleg Crow]

So we decided that being an attacking massive goal scoring team was a loser strategy. FMD this club.

 

[UcantCme]

So we decided that being an attacking massive goal scoring team was a loser strategy. FMD this club.

I don’t think this is the case, players are horribly out of form

the club did say over preseason that we needed to tighten up on our ability to defend but do that without removing our strengths

I think our problems start with the midfield, for 18months we have had NFI on what our best midfield mix is, Crouch was on the outer, now he is our best mid, Dawson was a defender, now a midfielder, Berry couldn’t get a game last year, then he starts round 1.

Not only do we have NFI on the right midfield mix. we don’t trust ourselves to give more minutes to Pedlar, Izak and Rachele or introduce players like Dowling. Now the pressure is on to win we convert back to Crouch, Laird and Dawson

Fix the midfield and it’s a big back of the solution to get back the attacking style of play and the connection with the forwards


On iPhone using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[BACCS]

They can't execute the game plan because they don't know what it is. They're running around like headless chooks stuffing everything up because they have no idea what they should be doing and have no confidence what they are doing is correct

Could tell very early that our structures forward of the ball were horrible. Even on quick turnovers, like when Rankine intercepted on our 50m line, there was still no quick option to score from that turnover. That’s 100% a coaching issue, not a player skill issue.

 

[George Kramer]

This slow chip kick game plan is ******* terrible, where the * is the run and overlap from last year?

Rahilly took it with him and they couldn’t remember it

 

[Trigger13]

The very, very bad:


We all know the stubborn flogs running this club will be too proud to admit they stuffed this rebuild and will ‘stay the course’ by doubling down on an aggressive recruitment drive of SA players like Petty at the expense of drafting young midfield talent. In fact, that’s being too kind. The club doesn’t know what stage of the rebuild it’s in.


They think we’ve rebuilt already.

 

[George Kramer]

Could tell very early that our structures forward of the ball were horrible. Even on quick turnovers, like when Rankine intercepted on our 50m line, there was still no quick option to score from that turnover. That’s 100% a coaching issue, not a player skill issue.

Whats this, some criticism?

How’s it feel to come over to the dark side when you’ve spent your Big Footy time defending the indefensible?

 

[BACCS]

Didn’t we only concede 80ish points a game last year anyway? Its not like we were THAT bad defensively

 

[Firewalker]

Rachele zero CBA’s.

One Pick 6 is giving TED talks in Victoria and the other spent on a forward pocket who’s just slowly becoming disinterested & disappearing into the Abyss.

 

[George Kramer]

Didn’t we only concede 80ish points a game last year anyway? Its not like we were THAT bad defensively

We were 9th I believe.

They thought they could improve that by going slow and it would have no impact on our forward line.

 

[big_icky]

I get the impression we really bought into our own hype over the summer.

 

[George Kramer]

Rachele zero CBA’s.

One Pick 6 is giving TED talks in Victoria and the other spent on a forward pocket who’s just slowly becoming disinterested & disappearing into the Abyss.

The amazing part is Rachelle gets asked the question this week about helping the midfield, his response sounded like it was happening and not one CBA?

Are the coaches trying to teach him a lesson for speaking out loud what should be the obvious? Well if that’s the case they sure showed him.

 

[George Kramer]

I get the impression we really bought into our own hype over the summer.

This big time

 

[Sanders]

So, he watched all the post game pressers of Hue Jackson before he came on last night

Worse, he’s channelling Josh McDaniels whilst Urban Meyer looks on

 

[1970crow]

But hey, we looked good in the preseason and players were doing pb's. We were burning up the track.

I don't want to hear a peep again about how we look in preseason training as it means less than jack sh1t

But the probables literally destroyed the possibles. Plus we nearly beat west coast by 10 goals. Preseason was amazeballs.