Today's press

[Lach72]

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sport/afl/story/0,26576,23752975-19742,00.html

Deja Blues for fade-out kings
Glenn McFarlane | May 25, 2008 12:00am

Have your say!Add your comments or read what others are sayingEmail article Share Add to Digg Add to del.icio.us Post to NewsVine Post to Facebook What are these? Printer friendly Text size+- FREMANTLE remains the master of the last-quarter crumble after yet another final-term freeze on the way to a nine-point loss to Carlton yesterday. After looking down and out, and trailing for most of the last term, the Blues responded when it mattered most to win their first game against the Dockers since July 2001.

To put that into context, that win came when Brett Ratten was wearing the navy blue, when Princes Park was an operational AFL venue and several coaches ago for the perennially disappointing Dockers.

But, in truth, the story of this match lies not with Carlton, who yesterday won its fourth game for the season to match its total number of wins from last season.

The story clearly lies with Fremantle and its extraordinary ability to lose matches it should win.

Yesterday was the fourth game in a row the Dockers have carried a lead into three quarter-time only to lose narrowly, the first time a club has done that since St Kilda in 1940.

Those four losses - to Geelong, Melbourne, the Western Bulldogs and Carlton - have been by a collective 19 points, but the most frustrating football club in the competition just can't seem to get it right.

Even a clearly exasperated coach Mark Harvey said his team might need to look outside the square to visualise its next win, after yet another wasted season only nine rounds in.

Harvey admitted, too, he felt for captain Matthew Pavlich, who had a chance to nail the Blues late in the last quarter, only to have his relatively straightforward set shot from 20m hit the post.

Pavlich had kicked his fourth goal at the three-minute mark of the last term to give his team a 10-point lead. The game then seesawed for the next 10 minutes as the two teams fought it out.

But the Blues were more desperate when it counted, somehow conjuring two goals at the 15 and 17-minute marks from Andrew Carrazzo and Nick Stevens.

Stevens's goal to wrest back the lead came from some outstanding work from Bryce Gibbs.

Then, soon after, Pavlich had the chance to win it back, missing his sitter, and while the Dockers missed several shots late, the pressure of the Blues meant they simply wanted it more.

Finally, Darren Pfeiffer - a last-minute inclusion for injured defender Bret Thornton - kicked the sealing goal at the 23-minute mark, only the fourth goal of his career but one he will not forget.

The irony of Freo's misses were that accuracy had been one of the things that had kept it in the game for so long.

Its three quarter-time lead of three points had come in the form of an extraordinary 13.1 to its opponents' 11.10 - meaning the Dockers had had seven fewer scoring shots at that stage.

However, Carlton simply dared to win while Fremantle fumbled and failed to back themselves yet again.

Some of the blame will invariably fall on Pavlich, who missed two chances late in the game.

But, as Harvey pointed out, the Dockers would hardly have been in the game without him kicking four goals, one in each term.

This was not a match for the highlights reel.

But try telling that to Carlton supporters who have not been able to sing their song against the Dockers since 2001, the last year in which the Blues competed in a finals series.

The Blues are still a long way short of that, but will take some comfort from the way they were able to run out yesterday's game and inflict more pain on the insipid Dockers.

Stevens ran with Peter Bell, with the Dockers often trying to isolate the pair deep in the Freo attacking zone in an attempt to limit the Carlton player's dash and daring. It didn't work.

The Blues' vice-captain was outstanding, gathering 28 touches and had seven inside 50s as well as seven rebound 50s.

His work rate was second to none, and his last quarter goal not only regained the lead for the Blues, but also acted as a team lifter.

Adam Bentick played the game of his life, going head to head with promising young Docker Rhys Palmer and having a game-high 31 touches and seven clearances.

Jarrad Waite was busy, Carrazzo kept Jeff Farmer to two goals, kicking a critical one for himself in the last quarter, while Chris Judd was solid without being damaging on the close-checking Ryan Crowley.

While so much of the focus has been on Fremantle's older players, the likes of Garrick Ibbotson and Palmer give hope for the future.

Luke McPharlin restricted Brendan Fevola to only one goal, with Fev admitting he was suffering a little from the goalkicking yips.

Pavlich kicked the first of his four goals even before the game had started.

He won a free kick before the umpire had bounced the ball after it was ruled Setanta O'hAilpin had made contact with him.

It was enough to infuriate the crowd, but it sparked some immediate action from the Blues as they opened strongly.

The Dockers managed six goals straight in the third term to lay challenge, but Steven Browne's goal before the siren gave his side renewed hope as the past yet again came back to haunt the Dockers in the last quarter.

 

[Lach72]

This was before yesterday

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sport/afl/story/0,26576,23748040-19765,00.html

Fremantle as anything
Mark Robinson | May 24, 2008 12:00am

Have your say!Add your comments or read what others are sayingEmail article Share Add to Digg Add to del.icio.us Post to NewsVine Post to Facebook What are these? Printer friendly Text size+- MARK Harvey talks about the mental challenges of coaching the AFL's most enigmatic team. And why he can still laugh ... sometimes. MR: Pre-season you said, 'We need to be mentally tough', but the results suggest you are not.

MH: Geographically situated, to get up every week is an enormous effort.

To see (over) eight rounds what we've been through and how they've performed in seven of the eight games, yeah, we've fallen away, but there's various reasons for it.

But I think any young player who plays for Fremantle or West Coast, you have to be mentally tough to deal with the campaign.

What have you learnt in eight games?

If you could write a script on eight weeks of coaching, do you reckon it would turn out this way?


It's been a brutal start.

Well, it has because of the expectation put on when I took over the job - where, perhaps, they could go - and then having to deal with not perhaps living up to those expectations.

Then external pressure comes on from all angles. Particularly the past three weeks when you've lost by one point, three points . . .


Have you had your heart ripped out?

No, I haven't. I sit back and think, 'Could I have done anything different in the last quarter?' Perhaps.


All of the games?

Yeah. And that's the reality of a coach in his first year.

But what gives me enormous confidence is that you're competing in your first year against the top sides and getting so close.

As a coach, and for the playing group, not having stability in your group, that can be frustrating.


Do you dislike the media?

No.


Were you naive in regards to media?

I worked in the media for a while.


Not as a journalist.

I worked for The Truth, by the way (laughing).


What was your column called?

Back Page (laughing).


You've got them back. But, seriously, perception is reality and people believe you are not handling the media.

There were one or two shows we're talking about here, but generally across the board I conduct myself pretty good.

I am defensive about the football club and the players, only because people (Victorians) will never understand the two-team focus in Western Australia.


Obviously you didn't.

No, I didn't. The footy club is doing a lot of things right and, as I said, it's the hardest campaign in the competition, along with West Coast, and every day, every minute, people have to put up with this enormous scrutiny.

People say, 'Gee, what a tragic Docker supporter'.

Me, as a supporter when I was growing up barracking for Essendon, no matter if we were winning or losing, I just loved barracking for Essendon.

And that's how people should be. But they get manipulated by critical editorials and analysis, and it just never ends.


Do you have to change this "tragic Docker" mentality?

That's what I'm trying to address as a coach. And you get a little defensive about questions.


The infamous interview on On The Couch. How did you think you handled it?

I've looked at it many times - when I say many times, three or four - just to go back and revisit what was said.

And I really can't understand why it became airwaves day after day in Melbourne and became a huge talkback point of view.


Did Robert Walls hunt you?

You will have to ask Robert that.

There's a school of thought Walls is going for you, and people have wondered is it because of his volatile relationship with Kevin Sheedy and that you're a product of Sheedy?

And there's a school of thought he's gone for you and not, for example, said much about Ross Lyon because he helped select Lyon as coach of St Kilda, or Matty Knights because he coached him.

Do you think there is merit in that?

All I know is he went after Mark Thompson a couple of years ago.


You've talked to Thompson about that?

Yeah. It's been brought up.


How do you deal with people, such as Walls, having a crack at you after just eight games coaching?

I worked with Robert on 3AW for a couple of years and he is one of the major players and he has seven or eight consortiums he has to either write for or commentate on, and he has to draw attention to those.


Do you think he was fair?

When you are a coach in your first year, I think (you should ask) how far do you go in your line of questioning.


Walls and Mick Sheahan, to be honest, smelt blood and went for it.

The timing wasn't great. And, really, I wasn't defensive about what had happened the previous day. I was just disappointed with losing to Melbourne and giving up a 50-point lead.

Criticism stemming from that interview is that you didn't take responsibility for the recruitment of players such as Kepler Bradley and Mark Johnson.

Kepler played pretty well on the weekend, by the way.

He did. Johnson at 29?

Mark's been injured. What I have so far done for the club is I haven't been involved in trading early picks.

We've had three early picks and we got three good young kids to the club. And if I see a good deal for the club beyond pick 50, I will look at it.

But as far as early trading picks, I won't be doing that. What I'm focused about doing is not trading early picks for players, which this football club has done (in the past).

I'm trying to get this wave of youth to the club and hopefully we get the timing of the group ready for when it's ready.


How much has that "timing" changed in seven or eight weeks?

Obviously we can't make the top four, so that makes it difficult. I still think we've got the nucleus of key guys in key positions, and if we get it right over the next year or two, we can certainly challenge.


Do you defend your players too much in the media?

I'm in my first year . . .


So you're still building trust/relationships with the players?

No, no. I would love for you to talk to a player about me and how I coach the guys.

If they cop it on a day-to-day basis in a two-team town, the last thing they need to hear is the coach in the media doing the same.

That's where I'm coming from. And I think that's fairly astute in your coaching, weighing up whether you should or shouldn't.

Internally, let me tell you, I do let them know, in front of the group not necessarily, but on an individual basis.


The criticism is you are too defensive of Josh Carr. Do you accept that you have to acknowledge he does cross the line too much?

Looking back on the interview, you could say that.


If you had your time again, would you change much about that interview?

Just subtly, probably not be so defensive with my answers, that's all.


Has your character as a person changed much this season?

No, it hasn't - and I won't let it. I'm competitive, and if you weren't you wouldn't survive.

If you let negativity overwhelm you, you're in big trouble.

People who know you would suggest your character lends itself to smiling and laughter more than what we see in your press conferences. At them we see a curt Mark Harvey.

A lot of times you see me is directly after games, where the line of questioning hustles you into this environment of being a little bit defensive.

And it's about education of how I continue to deal with that.


Do you feel for Dean Bailey and Matthew Knights and their predicaments?

The interesting part about coaches now - and because we've got a coaches' association - is you talk to fellow coaches.

We ring each other up - not from week to week, but in three or four-week periods and discuss what's going on, feel for each other, and what you go through.

How many have contacted you?

I would've had six or seven coaches ring me or a coach under me, like a Chris Bond, or Scotty (Chris Scott).

Once, not so long ago, it was coach against coach - it was war.

But because of the nature of what we're involved in, and I'm talking about the critical aspect of it, I've learnt to see another side to people involved in other footy clubs.


Can I guess their message? Stick to your principles, Harvs.

Yes. Just on the weekend, Rodney Eade rings Chris Bond and says, 'How are you dealing with everything?', and that you were fantastic on the weekend, there were plenty of positives, keep working away.

That's the kind of thing I'm talking about.


Are you being out-coached?

No.


Pretty confident answer.

We've been in several situations where we could've won games and should've won games.


You're 1-7 and your confidence is still high. Have you a tough hide?

Absolutely. I've been educated to have a tough hide.


It seems at press conferences that you think every critical question directed at you is like someone wanting to pick a fight with you. And then you respond with your street-fighter mentality.

The point's been made and taken on board and I've got to learn not to assess or look too deep into the question to the stage I get defensive.

But I wouldn't say I can't handle the media. We're talking about one particular interview.


Your confidence. Not wavered?

No, why should it be?


Losses can create doubt.

Yeah, but not narrow losses, and I think it's easy to pinpoint areas we need to rectify to win games.
But if you were getting beaten by big margins, that would be a concern.


Again, do you have time to feel for Knights and Bailey?

I do. Because unfortunately we haven't been given time and that's the nature of the industry now.

You've got to remember - you actually don't take over football clubs if there's not something wrong previous.

That's how I see it and you just need time to develop and evolve. And to me it's a minimum of three years and then you assess where the coach is.


Hearing you talk about this "two-team" town scenario, people might now understand how hard it is.

After that infamous interview, I spoke to Mark Williams because he goes through the same thing, that Port Adelaide was the second team in SA.

He knew exactly what I was going through and why I acted like I did through the course of the interview.


Obviously, you've got Sheeds as a confidant. Who else do you take advice from?

Obviously Mark Thompson I've spoken to over the past couple of weeks.

Remember, it took him seven years, and he knows what I'm going through and he's very understanding.

We talk once a week. He offers advice and sees how I'm going.

I wouldn't intrude or pick his brains about what he does at Geelong, but we talk about general philosophies and where footy is heading.


Do you have similar themes?

I'd say he's a bit calmer than me (laughing).


When the pressure was its hottest, what was the response from your players?

You saw the response after the Melbourne game and that was to get within three points of the Bulldogs. That was the response.


Grown up in the past two months?

Coaching does that. I've always been seen as someone, particularly as a player, seen as a lad, but you grow up. You do because you've got responsibilities more than ever now.


You should tip your head again, become a lad again.

(laughing) You know, I now have a go at Rhys Palmer and the others, but if only they could have seen me when I was 18 and 19.

 

[sumavich]

Belly got torched by Stevens, as he did in the last quarter last week against Spakermanis. Maybe there is something to the training on his own in the pre-season, he may not be able to push through in that last quarter.
His last two games haven't been his best, but I'd back him to bounce back !! He needs a big game this week, he ain't alone though.

 

[Lach72]

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sport/afl/gameday/0,,5015475,00.html

73 possessions less than the blues?
____, the fact we were in the game at all is surprising

Ibotson and Palmer have 41 possessions between them...Peake and Schammer 20...

Mundy 11...our whole midfield not getting enough ball

 

[Lach72]

http://www.realfooty.com.au/news/rf...-fades-to-farce/2008/05/24/1211183189782.html

Blues bolt home as Freo fades to farce
Rohan Connolly | May 25, 2008

STEVEN Browne's goal for Carlton just as the siren rang for three-quarter time yesterday to reduce a 10-point deficit to just four would have been critical against any opponent. Against Fremantle, it was as good as a match-winner.

Until then, it was the Blues whose confidence was sapped, watching their lead eroded by a six-goal third-quarter burst by the Dockers.

Browne's straight shot on the run restored some equilibrium. But it also sent Carlton to the final break only a kick from the lead. And in that huddle, coach Brett Ratten wouldn't have needed to tell his players how poor are their opponents in final quarters.

And thus it happened to Fremantle again. A potential match-winning lead turned to dust in yet another insipid final term. The Dockers have lost their past four games by a total of just 19 points. You could feel sorry for them if you knew just the scorelines and nothing else.

Like the fact the Dockers let slip a 41-point lead against Geelong in round six, a 51-point lead against Melbourne the week after, a three-goal edge with just 10 minutes to play last week against the Western Bulldogs. Surely, that was going to bring out a bit of resilience yesterday. No. Not with this bunch.

That makes it 143 points by which Fremantle has been outscored in final quarters this season. That's almost 24 goals. That's pathetic.

Even Matthew Pavlich's fourth goal of the game four minutes into the final term to make the margin 10 points again couldn't rally a side that truly has forgotten how to win. Once Andrew Carrazzo dobbed one on the run for the Blues, you sensed exactly what was about to unfold.

As, on cue, it did. A couple of minutes after Carrazzo had put Carlton within a kick, Nick Stevens put the Blues in front. Then with the ball bobbling around dangerously inside the forward 50, Bryce Gibbs slipped under a tackle and looped a handball over the top for Stevens to run into an open goal, nary a Docker in sight.

Then surfaced once more Fremantle's remarkable ability to shoot itself in the foot, an illness which can strike even the likes of skipper Pavlich. Having marked just 20 metres out dead in front, he hit the post. For a team whose confidence was already dangerously fragile, that was akin to the executioner pulling the trap door on the hanging platform.

The final cruel irony for the Dockers came with the final goal of a game littered with too many examples of poor decision-making. Darren Pfeiffer was a late inclusion for Bret Thornton, whose absence was supposed to have left an already vulnerable Carlton backline even more exposed. Instead, the Blues coped just fine, and Pfeiffer bobbed up with two goals, the second the final nail in the Fremantle coffin.

For the Blues, it wasn't all about the usual suspects yesterday, skipper Chris Judd was just fair and Brendan Fevola held to one goal and beaten by Luke McPharlin. Stevens, opposed to Docker veteran Peter Bell, was one who fired, and was great value in the second and final terms, dragged out of play to Carlton's cost for much of the third term.

But Adam Bentick was more than handy for the Blues, finishing with 31 disposals, Shaun Grigg had 22, and Setanta O'hAilpin did a pretty solid job on Pavlich despite the Freo star's eventual four-goal haul.

Fremantle, in contrast, seemed to struggle to find sufficient motivation when it should have been jumping out of its skin following the near-thing losses of the past few weeks.

Things couldn't have started any better for the Dockers when Pavlich and O'hAilpin staged a pre-game jostle, the Docker champion went to ground and won a free kick, then a 50-metre penalty for good measure.

They went goal for goal for much of the first quarter, finished the second on a bit of a roll, and should pretty much have blown the game away in the third, when they dominated the middle part of the term, even the likes of the much-maligned Kepler Bradley stepping up, his beating of two opponents, sidestep of Judd then accurate shot on the run arguably the best single passage of his much-discussed 51-game AFL career.

But this is the Dockers we're talking about. And not for the first time, while the young and raw likes of Garrick Ibbotson and Rhys Palmer could hold their heads high after yet another final-term debacle, many far more senior teammates should be embarrassed by their lack of resilience.

It's Port Adelaide the Dockers take on at home next week. They should be even more fired up. But unless they're 12 goals up at the final change, don't even think about a change of script.



CARLTON 4.3 7.7 11.10 14.13 (97)
FREMANTLE 3.1 7.1 13.1 14.4 (88)
GOALS: Carlton: Fisher 2, Betts 2, Scotland 2, Fevola, Browne, Edwards, Wiggins, Simpson, Carrazzo, Stevens, Pfeiffer. Fremantle: Pavlich 4, Tarrant 3, Farmer 2, Bell, Duffield, Solomon, Michael Johnson, Bradley.
BEST: Carlton: Stevens, Bentick, Betts, Simpson, Waite. Fremantle: Pavlich, Ibbotson, Palmer, McPharlin, Tarrant.
INJURIES: Fremantle: Dodd (calf). Carlton: Thornton (knee) replaced in selected side by Pfeiffer.
UMPIRES M Ellis, G Fila, S Meredith.
CROWD 28,955 at Telstra Dome.


THE UPSHOT
Carlton should really have sealed the game in the first half, but for clumsy disposal and Fremantle's accurate kicking. The Dockers capitalised on their opponents' weaknesses to take the lead in the third but, in a plot that is becoming all too familiar for the boys from the west, they were over-run in the final term.

TALKING POINT
There will be 15 AFL clubs with a note hanging in their rooms this week saying "If Freo leads at three-quarter time, DON'T PANIC". One, on the other hand, may need reminding that there are four quarters in a game of footy.

HOT AND COLD
Nick Stevens was tearing it apart yesterday, holding Peter Bell well, gathering 28 touches of his own and kicking the goal that put the Blues in front in the final quarter. Brendan Fevola, however, left his kicking boots at home. He kicked 1.2 and fumbled a number of marks that he would normally gobble up.

 

[Total_Juddshanks]

Q: Do you defend your players too much in the media?

A: I'm in my first year . . .

Cue homer simpson 'it's my first day!'

 

[Tommo]

Cue homer simpson 'it's my first day!'

Glory, Glory Unlisted
Glory, Glory Unlisted......

 

[E Shed]

Well those interview with Harvey do nothing but fill me with confidence that we have a good coach in charge of our team Honest & intelligent and nary a cliche in sight. He could give lessons to our local pollies about speaking sentences that actually contain meaningful information. I'm a fan.

 

[Belnakor]

Very good interview.

As for the possessions it was clear that were absolutely smashed through the midfield.

Imagine if we hadn't kicked straight boys - we'd have lost by 40+

 

[Lach72]

Very good interview.

As for the possessions it was clear that were absolutely smashed through the midfield.

Imagine if we hadn't kicked straight boys - we'd have lost by 40+

Indeed.
I like this bit:

Again, do you have time to feel for Knights and Bailey?

I do. Because unfortunately we haven't been given time and that's the nature of the industry now.

You've got to remember - you actually don't take over football clubs if there's not something wrong previous.

That's how I see it and you just need time to develop and evolve. And to me it's a minimum of three years and then you assess where the coach is.

 

[Billy Hunt]

But as far as early trading picks, I won't be doing that. What I'm focused about doing is not trading early picks for players, which this football club has done (in the past).

I'm trying to get this wave of youth to the club and hopefully we get the timing of the group ready for when it's ready

Mark Harvey won me over with that comment. That statment tells me Freo has finally seen though the yuppies B S.

 

[Billy Hunt]

Losses can create doubt.

Yeah, but not narrow losses, and I think it's easy to pinpoint areas we need to rectify to win games. But if you were getting beaten by big margins, that would be a concern

one good kick away from winning 4 in a row