Review Round 1 v Geelong

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I think JL is a smart guy, and a key feature of smart people is they can over think issues. You can't beat a premiership contender with Banners and Reidy in the team. Jacko main ruck with Voss supporting was the correct strategy. JL clearly wants to keep the structure consistent for when Darcy returns. But that strategy only works because both players are so good.

Despite this, I didn't think the boys had a performance like this in them. If you are contending, you just have to play better than that.

Ultimately, it was the same shit as last year that cost us today: poor start, fumbling, missing targets, not dealing with pressure, missing easy goals etc...I'll give JL his one **** up for the year, but if we lose like that again, it will be curtains.
 
NYRB said:
It was a bit ironic when Chapman was subbed on, was when Freo had that 3rd quarter surge. Id personally be starting Chapman next week and probably for most of the games this season.
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It wasn't Chapman, had nothing to do with that, it was Reid going into Switkowski's role.
 

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Dirty_banchez said:
I think JL is a smart guy, and a key feature of smart people is they can over think issues. You can't beat a premiership contender with Banners and Reidy in the team. Jacko main ruck with Voss supporting was the correct strategy. JL clearly wants to keep the structure consistent for when Darcy returns. But that strategy only works because both players are so good.

Despite this, I didn't think the boys had a performance like this in them. If you are contending, you just have to play better than that.

Ultimately, it was the same shit as last year that cost us today: poor start, fumbling, missing targets, not dealing with pressure, missing easy goals etc...I'll give JL his one **** up for the year, but if we lose like that again, it will be curtains.
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Sydney lost by 112 points round 21 last year to Port Adelaide. We can still turn it around but JLo has used up his 8 lives.
 
Positives
  • Reid. I didn’t expect him to play so early but had the sense from the pre season that once he found his way in he’d grab the opportunity and make it difficult to drop him. Had the opportunity to become a freo folk lore legend but the rest of the lads had other ideas
  • Johnson. I know he had his moments and accept that others might see it differently but he cracked in today. I think he’s the 4th midfielder behind Brayshaw, Serong and Young moving forward.

Negatives
  • almost everything else. Reidy was a personal low light for me, just not AFL standard in the slightest. When we put Jackson in we instantly looked so much better. Zero ruck craft, a liability when the ball hit the deck, no real mongrel, and terrible decision making. Has to go. Laughable that his manager has talked about him leaving for more opportunities, he won’t get them.
  • team selection says everything about the mindset of this conservative coaching panel.
 
Murphy Reid even before his goals was doing good things as he worked into the game, including a lovely contested pickup and spin before delivering inside fifty, and another nice kick into the corridor. So happy for him and his family that his debut was so special.



Mid

I said before the game that our midfield group looks weak and it was quickly evident that the mix was wrong. Reidy seems to be a net negative giving us little chance at winning the ball, and we appeared to be playing Serong at FF for stints while we were getting flogged in the contest with him only having 10 touches in the first half.

If you look at the stats of the game we actually won the clearances 41-39 and hitouts 57-35 but lost the tackle count 89 to 59 and marks 110 to 55 , so they were much better turning it over via pressure, getting it outside then controlling it all day.



Forward

The forward connection was terrible from the first minute, pretty much our only early goal came from Andy running it all the way in and bypassing the need to connect with the forwards.

The forwards themselves seemed to constantly be out of position or bunched up, so when they were playing behind the ball was kicked to grass and they were chasing, when it was kicked long they were pushed under it and out marked, Stewart had 11 on his own, our closest was O'Meara at 6.

Remember early when switta kicked it across the goals and couldn’t even really look like kicking a goal then down the other end one of their forward kicked a goal from a harder angle even further out with relative ease?

As much as I love Amiss, I am starting to worry about him, he looks like a forward but he doesn’t act like a forward and certainly isn’t doing his job at this time.



Back

In the first couple of minutes Clark had it and burned the first options who were on and open, then went slow and sideways, this really set the tone for a lot of really slow and predictable ball movement.

Much of the game Geelong either had free players or outnumbered the defender in our defensive fifty, I have no idea where their opponents were or what they were doing but it happened all game which is why they scored freely and Henry had the most marks on the ground at 14.

But even the 1 on 1 defending was poor, how many times did we allow a mark instead of spoiling it? was more than a few and many lead to goals.
 
democritus said:
Positives
  • Reid. I didn’t expect him to play so early but had the sense from the pre season that once he found his way in he’d grab the opportunity and make it difficult to drop him. Had the opportunity to become a freo folk lore legend but the rest of the lads had other ideas
  • Johnson. I know he had his moments and accept that others might see it differently but he cracked in today. I think he’s the 4th midfielder behind Brayshaw, Serong and Young moving forward.

Negatives
  • almost everything else. Reidy was a personal low light for me, just not AFL standard in the slightest. When we put Jackson in we instantly looked so much better. Zero ruck craft, a liability when the ball hit the deck, no real mongrel, and terrible decision making. Has to go. Laughable that his manager has talked about him leaving for more opportunities, he won’t get them.
  • team selection says everything about the mindset of this conservative coaching panel.
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I though Johnson was probably our only decent mid for the first half. He was copping it on here but had done a hell of a lot more than Serong and Brayshaw to that point
 
I was not confident of a win with the outs ……however that was pathetic. The last 1/4 was a training drill for Geelong and is unacceptable. I don’t see what O’Meara, for one, brings. Had 30 or so touches but many were handballs to the Cats or kicked over our blokes heads. We might as well play Erasmus because he might, just might, improve. O’Meara won’t.
To be clear we didn’t lose because of him but he is an example of what needs to change.
Jacko still can’t hold his marks and Treacy reverted to 2023 Treacy, Jye was pretty much invisible which continues a worrisome trend from the pre-season games.
Some of the htb decisions not paid against the cats but paid against us are completely baffling.
The above is stream of consciousness rambling and not a clear or balanced analysis of the game but I’m so disappointed the seemingly throwing in the towel nature of the last 1/4 in particular.
Thanks Bruce for giving me something to cheer about.
 
Reidy should not play again. Just play Voss as the back up ruck to Jackson.

Midfielders were asleep for 3 quarters.

Tackling is pathetic, so many times Geelong get the handball out.

We were playing everything but the ball, the Cats played the ball.

Round 1 and we've used our mulligan..
 
Can someone please explain what happened the the midfield on thr first half. Why were we beaten so badly? Was it the midfield mix?
 

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wakojako said:
Can someone please explain what happened the the midfield on thr first half. Why were we beaten so badly? Was it the midfield mix?
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We lose the midfield contests we lose the game every time. No plan B. It’s arrogant to suggest our mids will win week in week out. That chip sideways game for the first 20 minutes was cringe.
 
s_wd6 said:
Somehow wasn’t even our worst game in Geelong…
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Not disappointed that I went despite hearing it from my Geelong workmate for that six minutes of Murphy Madness
 
largebus said:
Club should refund you and anyone else who went today
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Still waiting for a refund for that game against Melbourne at the MCG where we coughed up a huge half time lead tbh
 
Need walters,Bolton,fyfe,young,Darcy in the side asap. Jlo needed to throw a few more curve balls in the second half it was pretty much over. Got to take more risks seeing cox in the dying 8 or so min take a mark in the forwardline etc should have done switch right away. Liam Reidy should of come out before the 3rd quarter started for Chapman so cox could gone forward etc so many things could of been thrown in but all too late
 
I'll admit I was very wrong about Reidy, I thought structure was the right way to go but we would have been better in the middle with Jackson as #1 and Voss as a pinch hitter.

Simpson over Banfield too would have been better, ideally Sturt is in but he's injured. Simpson or Narkle need to come in next week.
 
A lot of players are overrated internally.
Worner by the captain.

Switkowski drinks his own bathwater with the ‘elite’ category of small forward. Reid has suddenly kick 1/3 of goals Switta kicked in all of 2024, in 10 mins of a quarter.

The fact had to play JOM and Banfield in a ‘contending’ team is scary.

Reidy being preferred ahead of Knobel suddenly looks not even half an AFL ruckman in just the first round of the season. Embarrassing.
 

Review Round 1 v Geelong


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