Ben the Gooner
Stand by Hird
I dunno about anyone else, but I'm not interested in engaging in a week of Chicken Little responses to a game between half of our side and half of Freo's side. Yes, it's disappointing, but I'm more interested in what our full side will do against their full side in September.
Firstly, full credit to Freo. Their depth is much better than ours, and their depth players like Simpson, Taberner etc. are clearly more in tune with their structures than our depth players. But I'm not reading much more into the result than a comparison between player 30 on our list and player 30 on their list.
On the other hand, for just shy of an hour in the first half, our structures were just as good as theirs, possibly even better given we were controlling play and only really getting hurt on the counter. There's plenty we can take out of that half, and that's what I think is the most important thing to bring into a run of games where we should be winning all of them. St Kilda, Collingwood, Footscray, Brisbane (H), Sydney (H) - that simply has to be 5 wins heading into the bye, then Richmond, GWS (A), Melbourne, Adelaide (H) should be another 4. Anything less than 8 wins is underselling a side which, for 14 quarters out of 16, has played top 4 standard footy.
- Joe Daniher has a crack! For a bloke with his prodigious talent, he works so hard, commits himself so fully and competes so desperately that I can't see him not succeeding at AFL level. He may not reach the standard this year, but he will, and he will soon.
- Martin Gleeson is a jet. His speed isn't something that was really pumped up post-draft, but he'd be one of our quickest over 5m for sure. His footskills and composure are just so impressive for a veteran of about 12 quarters of senior footy, and I'm certain he's now best 22.
- Michael Hurley is a natural in defence. His man was close to BOG, but despite having zero support, Hurley was in the contest all the time. Many defenders wouldn't have even been on the screen for half of Pavlich's marks, let alone making body contact. I can't wait to see the contest with Riewoldt next week, it should be an absolute cracker.
- Jackson Merrett finds space and finds the footy with absolute ease. Obviously he struggled in the second half, as did all of our outside mids (barring some junk time from Zaharakis), but in the first half, he was the everywhere man.
- Brent Stanton has been somewhere between 5th and 12th best for us in every game so far, so it was pleasing to see him really step up and dominate, especially in Goddard's absence.
- Kyle Hardingham should probably give Joey Daniher a few goalkicking lessons. 9 straight for Hardy now I believe, with every game having at least 2 goals. An absolute revelation up forward.
- Dyson Heppell is going to be a top 10 player in the competition.
All in all, there's plenty to take from this game, and despite the third and start of the fourth being a rout, when the game was competitive, we were right in it, controlling play. We played a very, very good side, and best 22 v best 22 (let us not underestimate who they had missing) I suspect we'll give them a run for their money.
Firstly, full credit to Freo. Their depth is much better than ours, and their depth players like Simpson, Taberner etc. are clearly more in tune with their structures than our depth players. But I'm not reading much more into the result than a comparison between player 30 on our list and player 30 on their list.
On the other hand, for just shy of an hour in the first half, our structures were just as good as theirs, possibly even better given we were controlling play and only really getting hurt on the counter. There's plenty we can take out of that half, and that's what I think is the most important thing to bring into a run of games where we should be winning all of them. St Kilda, Collingwood, Footscray, Brisbane (H), Sydney (H) - that simply has to be 5 wins heading into the bye, then Richmond, GWS (A), Melbourne, Adelaide (H) should be another 4. Anything less than 8 wins is underselling a side which, for 14 quarters out of 16, has played top 4 standard footy.
- Joe Daniher has a crack! For a bloke with his prodigious talent, he works so hard, commits himself so fully and competes so desperately that I can't see him not succeeding at AFL level. He may not reach the standard this year, but he will, and he will soon.
- Martin Gleeson is a jet. His speed isn't something that was really pumped up post-draft, but he'd be one of our quickest over 5m for sure. His footskills and composure are just so impressive for a veteran of about 12 quarters of senior footy, and I'm certain he's now best 22.
- Michael Hurley is a natural in defence. His man was close to BOG, but despite having zero support, Hurley was in the contest all the time. Many defenders wouldn't have even been on the screen for half of Pavlich's marks, let alone making body contact. I can't wait to see the contest with Riewoldt next week, it should be an absolute cracker.
- Jackson Merrett finds space and finds the footy with absolute ease. Obviously he struggled in the second half, as did all of our outside mids (barring some junk time from Zaharakis), but in the first half, he was the everywhere man.
- Brent Stanton has been somewhere between 5th and 12th best for us in every game so far, so it was pleasing to see him really step up and dominate, especially in Goddard's absence.
- Kyle Hardingham should probably give Joey Daniher a few goalkicking lessons. 9 straight for Hardy now I believe, with every game having at least 2 goals. An absolute revelation up forward.
- Dyson Heppell is going to be a top 10 player in the competition.
All in all, there's plenty to take from this game, and despite the third and start of the fourth being a rout, when the game was competitive, we were right in it, controlling play. We played a very, very good side, and best 22 v best 22 (let us not underestimate who they had missing) I suspect we'll give them a run for their money.
