Mega Thread The Media Thread

[dockerfemme]

Round 10 last season, Freo v Brisbane on 7mate now.

Gosh. The quality of the picture is horrible.

 

[dockerfemme]

Gosh. The quality of the picture is horrible.

I‘m watching it anyway. So nice to see Alex Pearce play football. I miss football. I miss my team.

 

[Docker82]

So far for me this game is just highlighting how shite our forward 50 entries were last year.

Hopefully we get that sorted once footy starts again.

Also Luke Ryan is an overrated decision maker.

 

[dockerfemme]

So far for me this game is just highlighting how shite our forward 50 entries were last year.

Hopefully we get that sorted once footy starts again.

Also Luke Ryan is an overrated decision maker.

Yeah. Forward fifty entries are horrendous.

 

[electricfeel]

The shit tonne of ads for each goal is killing me (but of course I'm still watching)

 

[dockerfemme]

The shit tonne of ads for each goal is killing me (but of course I'm still watching)

I talk to you people when the ads are on.

 

[dockerfemme]

The shit tonne of ads for each goal is killing me (but of course I'm still watching)

Can I make you a cuppa during half time?

 

[Superkoops]

This was the game that made me realise what absolute tool Zorko was. Found it infuriating everytime he took a mark trying to conn the umpire into 50m penalty with his damn pointing.

 

[dockerfemme]

Gee, we made heavy weather of that.

 

[Dockeroo]

They were almost minor premiers last year so it shows the level we are capable of operating at when all players are fit. Alex Pearce is such a key man for us, but it’s very hard to rely exclusively on him given his injury history, I’d love to think he could have another 150 games in him for Fremantle but I guess time will tell. With an extended run of games I think he has the potential to be as good as Alex Rance..

 

[masai]

This game showed me that a fit Wilson is dynamite. I think his absence has been underrated.

Maybe if this season gets up, we may be lucky to get Pearce, Wilson, Ryan & Hamling on the ground together. Our backline will be able to stop, then rebound.

Still need to teach the forwards to lead, not congeal 30 metres out, straight in front of goals. Seperate and create various targets.

 

[Dale147]

Says Belly

 

[Dale147]

Why Fremantle Dockers speedster Brett Bewley is ‘all for’ lifting AFL draft age

Jordan McArdleThe West Australian
Late-blooming Fremantle speedster Brett Bewley has weighed on in the draft age debate, saying he would be “all for” raising it a year.
The recently-turned 25-year-old, in his second season on the Dockers’ list, admits he would have been “nowhere near ready” for life as an AFL footballer during his late teens.
Bewley was 23 and qualified carpenter by the time he got drafted out of the VFL and 24 when he made his AFL debut last season, in the thrilling win over Brisbane at Optus Stadium in round 10.
Pick 59 in the 2018 national draft, the left-footer had a five-year apprenticeship at Williamstown, including the first two predominantly in the now defunct development league reserves competition.
The dashing wingman has featured eight times at AFL level, breaking back into the senior side for Fremantle’s narrow opening-round loss to Essendon after a strong pre-season.
He was backed by many, including dual Brownlow medallist Nat Fyfe and coach Justin Longmuir, to have a huge season before the coronavirus-enforced shutdown.
“When I was 18, I would’ve loved nothing more than to be on an AFL list because it’s been my dream since I was a young kid,” Bewley told SportFM 91.3.
But I definitely look back now and if I got my chance then, I might have only lasted a year or two because I don’t was anywhere near prepared for the amount of work that needed to be done.
“Coming through the VFL, I was able to learn and I spent my first two years playing VFL reserves, so I would’ve been nowhere near ready to come in and play.
“My opinion would be that I’m all for raising the draft age, I’ve come into the system with a carpentry qualification so I don’t really need that extra focus of what I’m going to do when I finish my career so I can focus solely on footy at the moment.”
Williamstown coach Andy Collins recalled Bewley’s journey from VFL reserves to the AFL in an interview with The West Australian last year.
Fellow Seagulls product Lachie Schultz, now 22, also landed at Fremantle as a mature-ager in the same draft, two picks before his close mate.
“He’s incredibly driven, incredibly disciplined and has learnt to have great expectations of himself without putting pressure on himself,” Collins said.
“I think in his first year he might’ve played four or five games, then around eight or nine in his second year.
“He had a breakout season in his third year and there was some interest in him because of his elite skills and his endurance.
“He just got stronger from there, wise clubs would’ve taken him at the end of 2017, but an even wiser one took him at the end of 2018.”
Bewley opted to stay in WA during the AFL’s COVID-19 season delay, rather than head home to Victoria, due to the “unpredictability” of the situation.

 

[Dockeroo]

Love Bewleys attitude. Has the hallmark of a guy who will extract the maximum from his talent level. Those kind of people set the culture of elite performance at a club. He was very good in round 1 too and deserves to stay around for next season whatever happens from here

 

[Lach72]

Speedster...snort

 

[im_a_lazy_sod]

Speedster...snort

When you lose Langdon and Hill in one trade period, everyone becomes a speedster

 

[dominguez]

Surfing thing aside, I find it incredibly endearing that our reigning Brownlow medallist is working as a truckie in regional WA.

I know they have taken a pay cut, but they are still full time athletes. Shouldn't Fyfe still be doing 20 to 30 hours a week of running-weights-skills training? Maybe he can do that while driving a truck too, but I would prefer that footy was always his priority.

 

[DMan 11]

I know they have taken a pay cut, but they are still full time athletes. Shouldn't Fyfe still be doing 20 to 30 hours a week of running-weights-skills training? Maybe he can do that while driving a truck too, but I would prefer that footy was always his priority.

Maybe he can do that while driving a truck to

Have you not seen the Stallone movie ‘over the top’ [emoji38]




On iPhone using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[Dale147]

Ethan Hughes

 

[yyou]

Does anybody else see a bit of Yeo in Hughes' game?

On CPH1920 using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[Sully90]

Does anybody else see a bit of Yeo in Hughes' game?

On CPH1920 using BigFooty.com mobile app

Love the enthusiasm, but that may be a bit of a reach. If he gets as good as Yeo then we should thank the Great Pav Above every time we pray.

 

[Dockeroo]

Love the enthusiasm, but that may be a bit of a reach. If he gets as good as Yeo then we should thank the Great Pav Above every time we pray.

Hughes has been good for a rookie listed player. He’s a hard ba$**** and every team needs a couple like that, thought he showed signs early this year of stepping up again to another level, he just has a odd calamitous Clanger in him every now and again that if he could get rid of, would be a very good player for us.

 

[wild side]

Bodywise yes, skill level no.
F##kn Bond, you idiot

 

[theGav56]

Does anybody else see a bit of Yeo in Hughes' game?

On CPH1920 using BigFooty.com mobile app

Yeah, there is an element there. Yeo lacks finesse but is obviously a good player, fit, strong and aggressive. If that's where the club wants Hughes to develop to he could be asked to do some run with roles on players like Yeo.

 

[Dale147]

Ryan Daniels: Which AFL players will handle the COVID-19 madness best?
Ryan DanielsThe West Australian
Friday, 17 April 2020 3:21PM
Right back at the start of this whole mess, I was sitting at the Fremantle Dockers season launch.
As I navigated through what can only be described as the two most over-poached eggs in the history of breakfast — talk about pre-COVID problems — Nat Fyfe took to the stage and eventually brought up the topic of Coronavirus.
It was still new. Raw. Unknown. At worst we thought we might see a few games of footy with no crowds, but no footy at all? No chance.
While Fyfe was charming the purple army, Twitter went into meltdown.
Utah Jazz star Rudy Gobert had the virus. The NBA shut down. Tom Hanks was performing a real-life re-enactment of Castaway meets Philadelphia … things got real.
That morning Fyfe said something that has stuck with me the last few weeks.
“The team that ultimately plays in the finals and wins the grand final at some level will have handled this better than the other teams,” he said.
Sure, it seems obvious — and something any captain would say while addressing his teammates and a couple of thousand adoring members — but in this case, in this weird universe where we can now all measure 1.5m with a blindfold on, Fyfe was spot on.
This break in play, a however-many weeks hiatus, will have a dramatic impact on every single player in the AFL system.
Read: some of them will get fat. Not normal human fat, but footballer fat. Failed skin fold tests. Increased body fat percentage. These people are specimens. Sculpted in the form of Michelangelo’s David.
They’re also, for the most part, psychopathically competitive. But these are very different times. They’re in our world now. The world of the normal people.
For you and me, an extra donut or additional lap in the Uber Eats pool of carbohydrates is standard. But not for our elite athletes.
Players are isolated. While most have a running buddy during lockdown, they’re not pitted against 44 teammates every day — wrapped up in a constant game of who can lift more, who can run faster, or further? Who wins the clearance over and over during the centre square drill? Who’s doing that little bit extra?
Eagles champion Dean Kemp once told me he’d always make sure he did more than his teammates at training. If Mick Malthouse asked for 20 push-ups, he did 21. If the team was told to run laps, he’d always run on the outside of the pack — so he was running a few inches further than the other guys. It all adds up.
That can’t happen right now.
Instead, players are building temporary home gyms — some better equipped than others, all far inferior to the set-up at Lathlain or Cockburn.
Young Freo ruckman Lloyd Meek had to drive four hours from his family farm in Ballarat just to purchase a barbell.
Players are benching weights with their kids, or their girlfriend, or their younger brother.
Clubs are struggling. Football departments have been hacked to bits — there are less coaches, conditioning staff, support staff and development staff.
That means less connection. Players are typically tracked by clubs constantly — what they eat, how much water they’ve drunk, how they slept, how far they have run. Were their bowel movements consistent? OK maybe not the last one, but that’s where we were heading.
With the cutback in staff, players are somewhat left to their own devices.
The young ones are posting Tik Tok videos, probably playing too much Fortnite and giving self-inflicted at-home haircuts that belong on a Romper Stomper extra.
The older guys are dancing to Frozen 2, painting houses and deep diving into Ozark.
Within the next 10 or so days, Gillon McLachlan will jump on a grainy Zoom feed and inform the football world that we’re back. Training will kick-start — likely for 3-4 weeks — a mini pre-season to lead into a playing return. But that’s not enough time to eradicate 6-8 weeks of down-time not spent right.
And let’s assume most of these guys are doing the right thing. Let’s assume they’re professional and diligent and completely obsessed with coming back a step ahead.
But don’t be surprised if that’s not the case with all.
We’re all different.
Some people are self-starters, motivated by inner drive and opportunity. Others are a little lazy and need a kick up the arse every now and then.
Players fit into those categories, too.
Where would a young Steve Johnson be in this situation? How about Jeremy McGovern or Michael Walters? Dane Swan? All these guys became champions — All-Australians — but early on in their careers they were susceptible to taking the foot off the pedal. There will absolutely be another Gov or another Sonny or another Stevie J — probably some talented 19-year-old on your club’s list right now, not quite taking all this as seriously as required. That player’s career might not survive this.
Clubs will have a shortlist of ‘at-risk’ players, the types they know cut corners at training, get by on talent alone and are vulnerable to soft tissue problems. Those players will be checked on more than others.
All this talk of reduced list sizes will inspire some fringe guys to jump to the next level — the don’t cut me level — but some will just throw their hands up and give up.
What about the veterans? The guys who have done 15 pre-seasons, and thought they’d go around in 2020 for one more year, then ran into this?
We’ll see some stars fall off the pace, regressing to the norm, and we’ll see some bolters — the great self-starters, the guys who compete with the mirror or the shadow, not the bloke standing next to them. The invisible enemy. When all this is done and footy is being played again, expect a handful of supreme athletes to rise into the AFL’s upper echelon.
Despite the cutback in resources you can bet the smart AFL clubs are navigating this within every inch of the situation.
While the rest of us are coming to terms with a dwindling Netflix catalogue and the unwanted seasonal return of Shepard avocados, Adam Simpson, Justin Longmuir, Damian Hardwick, Stewart Dew and every other AFL coach will be Zooming and Skyping and running their phone battery to 0 per cent, doing every possible thing to stay in touch and keep their guys motivated and ready.
This is the ultimate litmus test of a club’s culture, structure and motivation we’ll ever see. A football science experiment without a blueprint.
What’s at stake? Only a premiership. No big deal.
Like Fyfey said — the club that handles this the best will play finals and win the grand final. Maybe that’s one of the teams we all expected to be there back when we made our predictions in early March — GWS, Richmond, West Coast, Collingwood — or maybe not. Maybe it’s a Cinderella story, a young, disciplined team full of spunk and momentum and energy.
When the stories are written in the hours following the grand final’s siren, they’ll speak of the most unique premiership in AFL history.
And who handled the madness best.