No Oppo Supporters The Melt Thread

[wayToGo_]

I agree with most of what youre saying but I probably rate the middle of the pack a bit higher than you. I'm ready to be more patient than most and looking forward to seeing the progress of our kids. The only thing I strongly disagree with you is that we don't need very high picks, I know it's possible to get lucky in later picks but our best chance of being a serious contender is to get a Stringer, Bont or any other high draft pick match winners on our list. I rather bottom out and contend in 3-4 years than to keep fighting and finish the middle of the road for 5 years and hope we get lucky or do an Adelaide. I know there's no guarantees in high draft picks and constant bottom of ladder finishes may kill the team's spirit and culture but i feel it's our best chance for a premiership.

I think we are actually on the same page. We must continue playing youth over experience next year even if that risks bottoming out for a second year. If we go back to playing the older role players (eg Suban, Dawson and Danyle) over the youngsters who will likely be part of our next premiership push then it's lose-lose imo. Although we do still need some key leaders out there to guide. If we do play our youth and start winning again and finish middle of the pack then it's not that bad as it'd indicate our youth have developed past our older players and our personnel is already close to what we need.

The difference between our list and some of those other teams when they started to rebuild is we have a number of young elite/A-grade players already on it who will still be around when we are back at the top - Fyfe, Walters, Bennell, Neale and Hill. And we may add another with our pick #3 this year. I think that core, even though none are talls, is the reason why we don't need a complete list overhaul. Plus I think there will be some up-and-coming 'A' grade talent that we can source through trades and free agency in future years, and those mechanisms don't rely as much on having high draft picks. Although unlike years gone by we'll have to make much better use of them.

I honestly think we are probably only 7 or so skilled players short of the right list (but for at least half of those we do need high quality):

• 1 x quality tall forward (McCarthy)
• 1 x balanced mid with elite skills for effective clearances (eg SPS)
• 1 x outside mid with good inside 50 delivery (eg Brad Hill)
• 1 x small negating back with good skills
• 1 x tall rebounding half back (Johnson MkII)
• 1 x crumbing small forward (plenty of options in this year's draft)
• 1 x ruck (balancing cost vs reward)

I'd back in Alex Pearce, Apeness, Crozier, Sheridan, Blakely, Weller, Langdon, Hughes, Tucker, Balic, Collins and Yarran to become good enough to be part of a premiership team (on top of the core above). I'm not sure where I stand on Sutcliffe, Smith and Grey yet. I see little downside in giving Morabito one more year but not sure we will. Looking forward to seeing Uebergang and Nyhuis get a shot in 2017 also - think they were ideal rookie picks given our needs.

Of course if our structures and fitness base don't improve then our list management will have zero impact on our ability to win.

 

[Scham]

I think we are actually on the same page. We must continue playing youth over experience next year even if that risks bottoming out for a second year. If we go back to playing the older role players (eg Suban, Dawson and Danyle) over the youngsters who will likely be part of our next premiership push then it's lose-lose imo. Although we do still need some key leaders out there to guide. If we do play our youth and start winning again and finish middle of the pack then it's not that bad as it'd indicate our youth have developed past our older players and our personnel is already close to what we need.

The difference between our list and some of those other teams when they started to rebuild is we have a number of young elite/A-grade players already on it who will still be around when we are back at the top - Fyfe, Walters, Bennell, Neale and Hill. And we may add another with our pick #3 this year. I think that core, even though none are talls, is the reason why we don't need a complete list overhaul. Plus I think there will be some up-and-coming 'A' grade talent that we can source through trades and free agency in future years, and those mechanisms don't rely as much on having high draft picks. Although unlike years gone by we'll have to make much better use of them.

I honestly think we are probably only 7 or so skilled players short of the right list (but for at least half of those we do need high quality):

• 1 x quality tall forward (McCarthy)
• 1 x balanced mid with elite skills for effective clearances (eg SPS)
• 1 x outside mid with good inside 50 delivery (eg Brad Hill)
• 1 x small negating back with good skills
• 1 x tall rebounding half back (Johnson MkII)
• 1 x crumbing small forward (plenty of options in this year's draft)
• 1 x ruck (balancing cost vs reward)

I'd back in Alex Pearce, Apeness, Crozier, Sheridan, Blakely, Weller, Langdon, Hughes, Tucker, Balic, Collins and Yarran to become good enough to be part of a premiership team (on top of the core above). I'm not sure where I stand on Sutcliffe, Smith and Grey yet. I see little downside in giving Morabito one more year but not sure we will. Looking forward to seeing Uebergang and Nyhuis get a shot in 2017 also - think they were ideal rookie picks given our needs.

Of course if our structures and fitness base don't improve then our list management will have zero impact on our ability to win.

I think Tucker will become the small negating back with good skills, and perhaps Balic as the tall rebounding HB but I'd need to see more of him.

I share your excitement for seeing Nyhuis and Uber with another year under their belts. Both have looked very promising at WAFL level.

 

[meima]

I share your excitement for seeing Nyhuis and Uber with another year under their belts. Both have looked very promising at WAFL level.

Please add me in , just sad that when grey start to hit good short passes in wafl he injured his ankle.

 

[Scham]

Please add me in , just sad that when grey start to hit good short passes in wafl he injured his ankle.

Good call re Grey. That was certainly the best Id seen him play the day he got injured.

 

[sherrif]

I think we are actually on the same page. We must continue playing youth over experience next year even if that risks bottoming out for a second year. If we go back to playing the older role players (eg Suban, Dawson and Danyle) over the youngsters who will likely be part of our next premiership push then it's lose-lose imo. Although we do still need some key leaders out there to guide. If we do play our youth and start winning again and finish middle of the pack then it's not that bad as it'd indicate our youth have developed past our older players and our personnel is already close to what we need.

The difference between our list and some of those other teams when they started to rebuild is we have a number of young elite/A-grade players already on it who will still be around when we are back at the top - Fyfe, Walters, Bennell, Neale and Hill. And we may add another with our pick #3 this year. I think that core, even though none are talls, is the reason why we don't need a complete list overhaul. Plus I think there will be some up-and-coming 'A' grade talent that we can source through trades and free agency in future years, and those mechanisms don't rely as much on having high draft picks. Although unlike years gone by we'll have to make much better use of them.

I honestly think we are probably only 7 or so skilled players short of the right list (but for at least half of those we do need high quality):

• 1 x quality tall forward (McCarthy)
• 1 x balanced mid with elite skills for effective clearances (eg SPS)
• 1 x outside mid with good inside 50 delivery (eg Brad Hill)
• 1 x small negating back with good skills
• 1 x tall rebounding half back (Johnson MkII)
• 1 x crumbing small forward (plenty of options in this year's draft)
• 1 x ruck (balancing cost vs reward)

I'd back in Alex Pearce, Apeness, Crozier, Sheridan, Blakely, Weller, Langdon, Hughes, Tucker, Balic, Collins and Yarran to become good enough to be part of a premiership team (on top of the core above). I'm not sure where I stand on Sutcliffe, Smith and Grey yet. I see little downside in giving Morabito one more year but not sure we will. Looking forward to seeing Uebergang and Nyhuis get a shot in 2017 also - think they were ideal rookie picks given our needs.

Of course if our structures and fitness base don't improve then our list management will have zero impact on our ability to win.

Another excellent post above. If we get SPS, Hill and Mcarthy than all that is lacking is 1 x Ruck, 1 crumbing forward, one negating back and one tall rebounding back.Im hopeful we could get Witts or Marley Williams in a trade for Ed Langdon. Perhaps we could then target either a crumbing forward or tall rebounding defender in the Preseason Draft. I think our list is in better shape than most here say.

 

[Steinfreo]

I think Tucker will become the small negating back with good skills, and perhaps Balic as the tall rebounding HB but I'd need to see more of him.

I share your excitement for seeing Nyhuis and Uber with another year under their belts. Both have looked very promising at WAFL level.

I liked the look of ubergang when he was on tv as well. seemed athletic with good jump and reach.

 

[sportsmaniac89]

Well here's a melt.

Those ****ing morons that call themselves sports journalists.....seriously, do you get paid to write crap for a living?

Kim "****ing freo-hating" Hackdorn
Damian "oxygen-thief" Barrett
Andrew "QLD Clubs are shit so let's make up a story about Fyfe" Hamilton

****ing oxygen thiefs the lot of you.

Leave our ****ing club alone unless you have fact rather than bullshit innuendo.

Gold Coast to make a play for Fyfe by offering 2 first round picks and a player....My response....this seems to be a rumour, nothing more, nothing less.

Media ban the lot of those turds.....play the game our way or GTFO

 

[Reynolds Number]

Is there any worse year for sport than 2016?

At least in 2001 we had a great Aussie cricket team.

 

[Mr Peabody]

Is there any worse year for sport than 2016? At least in 2001 we had a great Aussie cricket team.

I highly recommend the Women's Modern Pentathalon.

 

[sportsmaniac89]

Is there any worse year for sport than 2016?

At least in 2001 we had a great Aussie cricket team.

I couldn't agree more with this.

Horrible year in sport most definitely

 

[Square Peg]

I couldn't agree more with this.

Horrible year in sport most definitely

Iceland beating England in the soccer, and that viking chant when they got back to Reykjavik, was good

 

[holy diver]

Is McCarthy actually any good? It seems to me a lot is put on this bloke.

 

[Proud SJW]

...Is one thing to said we dont have high draft pick and another thing of keep making the same excuses that youth is not good enough and not develop them. Every year just keep waiting for high draft pick

Oh FFS this is getting tired.
We've brought on Taberner, A Pearce, Collins, Weller, Blakely, Langdon, and to a lesser extent Hughes, Apeness and Grey in the last two years. Walters, Fyfe, Crozier, Neale and Sheridan are all under 25.
All of these guys are now getting regular games and every single one of them came from the draft from low or relatively low picks. Our Brownlow medallist came from pick 21, Neale and Walters came from picks in the fifties. Fifties. Jesus ****ing christ.
You think AFL standard footballers are made from plastic in a factory? All wrapped up in a pretty box ready to go?

Walters is an out and out slightly underrated champ who was on the verge of being delisted, Fyfe is a Brownlow Medalist, Neale attracted interest from every other club in the league when he was out of contract. Taberner is improving every year (and everyone knows it normally takes a few years for KPP's to come on), A Pearce is showing signs of being the next McPharlin, Langdon, Weller getting interest from other clubs before they've even played a full season. Some of our blokes playing now were only drafted a year or two ago.

Bulldogs have taken a few seasons bringing on their young blokes too. Have you forgotten?
Bontempelli was drafted in 2013. Stringer and Macrae in 2012. Jong, Redpath and Dickson in 2011. Wallis, Liberatore and Dalhaus in 2010. A couple of them were father/son selections we don't really have to take advantage of yet.
And that's just scratching the surface.
This is the young bulldogs team everyone raves about, yet some of them have been in the system for four or five years and its only now they're starting to look really good after showing "promising signs" for the last few years.

And of the rest of our newer players, half of them have been injured long term at some point and haven't had much of a chance to play even when injuries to senior players opened up opportunities. Balic, Grey. A Pearce again. Morabito.

Given our trade/drafting history, and the top picks we've had in the past compared to our horrible draft positions over the last few years, this is probably the most effectively we've ever developed players in our history. A year or two after Lyon came on board, our young blokes start coming on and we start drafting better and turning out better players in the long term. Fancy that.

Tell you what, I'm going to go out on a limb here. Our young players are better than Hawthorns, especially when you consider their team still revolves around Hodge, Mitchell and Rioli while ours revolves around Fyfe, Neale and Walters. Underdeveloped, my fat granny's arse. Don't ever make the mistake of confusing patience with an unwillingness or inability to develop players.

So, some of them aren't as good as GWS, GC and bulldogs youth, for example. Well, ****ing derrrr. Those clubs either had concessions coming out of their asses and took half the top ten picks every year when they started, or bottomed out for several years in order to start again. And let's not get started on the academies.
So because our pick 30-50's don't stand up to their pick 1 to 20s, you crack the shits and say we don't develop players very well. ****ing stupid position to take.

Did you not ever watch a Pantene ad a few years ago? "It won't happen overnight", they said, and this was the mob who were only trying to sell some ****ing shampoo on TV.

I mean what the **** is it going to take to get you friggin' morons to shut the **** up, should we bring in the South ****ing Fremantle under 17's and call that our academy?
... actually, hold that thought.

Here's another idea. Soon as a guy hits 27 years of age, he's out in favour of last years' number 40 draft selection. Nah, make it 26 years old. **** 'em, too old and too slow.
Would that make you happy?

*caveat: all positions taken completely in the heat of the moment, and may or may not be true.

 

[freoextra]

Is McCarthy actually any good? It seems to me a lot is put on this bloke.

His first coach (Sheedy) reckoned he would be better than LLoyd. No pressure!!

 

[danstar]

30 aimless kicks around the halfback line than eventually bomb it up the line turnover 1 ****ing kick from the opposition mark goal rinse repeat

****ing hell freo fix this shit

 

[TheInjuryFactory]

30 aimless kicks around the halfback line than eventually bomb it up the line turnover 1 ******* kick from the opposition mark goal rinse repeat

******* hell freo fix this shit

Agreed. Our biggest issue without a doubt.

No runners, no support nor outlet give off when someone is stuck with it in our defensive 50. We're not structured up to do anything else but turn it over.

 

[electricfeel]

What a ****ing mess

 

[Caldera]

These chumps are eroding my spirit week after week. Can't believe how much of a walk over team we are now.

 

[Righteo]

Freo have made me hate footy this year.

 

[Rob]

Time to name names.

Mundy - gets named first because he's the captain. And was ****ing shit, much like most of the year.
Ibbo - terrible. Almost beyond redemption into the delist pile.
Spurr - horrible. Not quite at Ibbo bad level, but only a couple more games like that from it.
Clarke - delist. Period.
D Pearce - should be delisted but can't be. Whoever decided he was worth a 2 year extension should be summarily shot.
Ballantyne - laughable that he would think he's worth a contract extension.
Sheridan and Sutcliffe - no longer have any excuses, been around long enough and have shown no improvement this year.
Mayne - a worse defender than a forward. And he's a pretty shit forward.

 

[StingBitten]

We are done. non-adaptive coach, poor assistants, bad drafting, shit game plan, shit captain and pea-hearted players. 10 year rebuild a-comin.

 

[electricfeel]

Ross better lose his shit in the presser.

 

[danstar]

What a poor effort, so many pea hearts on the ground

 

[FreoRicci]

Ross better lose his shit in the presser.

REally don't care tbh. As long as he loses his shit behind doors in the club rooms. He can say whatever to the media.

 

[holy diver]

Send all the campaigners to the wall.

That was a disgrace of an effort after quarter time. The white flag was raised.

The players aren't listening to Lyon or the message is bad or the players are shite.

The effort for Mundy's 250th was deplorable.

I'd rather watch German scat than a team wearing a Freo' jumper play like that.