Game Day 2024 Gather Round (Round 4): Fremantle vs. Carlton

[Paracleet]

Carlton are so crap despite winning 7 of their last 8 matches against Freo they still trail the overall match up ledger 19 - 21.

Bookmark this one the small number of Carlton fan pursuing this thread: You have an ordinary list and you know it. As soon as this season you are slipping down the pack and you can add another 7 years plus to the time since the last flag.

 

[FreoGirl]

Carlton are so crap despite winning 7 of their last 8 matches against Freo they still trail the overall match up ledger 19 - 21.

Bookmark this one the small number of Carlton fan pursuing this thread: You have an ordinary list and you know it. As soon as this season you are slipping down the pack and you can add another 7 years plus to the time since the last flag.

I hope you're right

Carlton lost to Adelaide in this round last year - hopefully it's a ground that doesn't suit them

 

[Grape Bear]

I’d be more confident if we had key backs that have more mature bodies to cover their tall forwards. I am hopeful for not a blow out. We need to start well and be on, or it will get ugly, fast. Their two forwards get free kicks in front of goal ours can only dream of. Our get mauled and crickets.

As I said, the AFL really, really, REALLY want Carlton to win the flag this year.

 

[FreoRicci]

This is going to be very very hard.
Carlton are on the up. Their midfield stacks well.
Would’ve really liked Darcy this week v De Koning.

 

[FreoGirl]

I’d be more confident if we had key backs that have more mature bodies to cover their tall forwards. I am hopeful for not a blow out. We need to start well and be on, or it will get ugly, fast. Their two forwards get free kicks in front of goal ours can only dream of. Our get mauled and crickets.

As I said, the AFL really, really, REALLY want Carlton to win the flag this year.

Not wishing this upon any team, but we are all at the mercy of injuries and the unknowns at the start of the season - there's no room for any team to be conceited. Who would have imagined a team could bounce back on the fly like Freo did against Brisbane? Could Carlton cope if McKay and Cripps went down in the same match?

David King is so upset that he was criticised for others for his attack on JLo he has become blind. I hope we can prove him wrong.

 

[FreoGirl]

I’d be more confident if we had key backs that have more mature bodies to cover their tall forwards. I am hopeful for not a blow out. We need to start well and be on, or it will get ugly, fast. Their two forwards get free kicks in front of goal ours can only dream of. Our get mauled and crickets.

As I said, the AFL really, really, REALLY want Carlton to win the flag this year.

the free kick count indicates this, but we are used to having umpires against us (possibly more than other sides)

 

[Quazar2]

Not wishing this upon any team, but we are all at the mercy of injuries and the unknowns at the start of the season - there's no room for any team to be conceited. Who would have imagined a team could bounce back on the fly like Freo did against Brisbane? Could Carlton cope if McKay and Cripps went down in the same match?

David King is so upset that he was criticised for others for his attack on JLo he has become blind. I hope we can prove him wrong.

Amazing how many of these media mouthpieces have some kind of not-so-subtle hidden vendetta against us. When we've done nothing, not like we've won 8 Premierships in a row and then got Academy Picks at the #2 draft range or anything and are just taking the p*ss. So bizarre.

I mean Kingy and Ross as has been mentioned here before had a relationship (maybe that's what the real budding boobies was about!!) and he still seems spicy that Ross left and J-Lo 'took' his job! Then there's Kane 'Foot' Cornes and his obsession with Darcy! Still salty Fyfe retired him.

What is with these deadheads?!?! It's really, really weird. But they don't want Freo anywhere near it, I tell ya!!

I think they're in for some kind of rude awakening bar a grand conspiracy to prevent Freo EVER winning a flag, which I'm not ruling out We got some young talent to burn and then 3 first rounders at the end of this year. Not happy Jan, says Pricktoria. Oh dear. Oh dear oh dear oh dear......

 

[freo84]

the free kick count indicates this, but we are used to having umpires against us (possibly more than other sides)

Can't blame the umpiring before its happened. We just have to be better. Look at the HTB decisions that werent paid against Adelaide...we just kept tackling them until eventually we got the call.

 

[FreoGirl]

Can't blame the umpiring before its happened. We just have to be better. Look at the HTB decisions that werent paid against Adelaide...we just kept tackling them until eventually we got the call.

I saw the list that showed how many frees Carlton has received this year, compared to other teams. I then went onto the umpire appointments page, and it's not like the days of Margetts when he was blatantly helping out WCE. There are a lot of new umpires who might be making decisions and hoping they are correct, could be responding to the crowd, and some teams have just trained better to play for frees (legally). WCEs got heaps last weekend, despite losing, because they seem to be the masters of it. Am sure the boys have been reviewing videos to see what Carlton does well.

 

[ubiquitous226]

Can't blame the umpiring before its happened. We just have to be better. Look at the HTB decisions that werent paid against Adelaide...we just kept tackling them until eventually we got the call.

Yeah every team's supporters think they're hard done by the umpires, if you play well enough most of the time it does not materially influence the outcome of the game.

It's a difficult game to umpire, and they will make mistakes, it doesn't have to be an agenda or 'corrupt'.
Also the notion that free kick counts should be equal doesn't make much sense, I wish we did have more stats on types of free kicks and location paid though.

*I reserve the right to continue to howl at the umpires on game day like a lunatic

 

[FreoGirl]

The photos from training have me beginning to believe

 

[MadEyeEmmy]

Ac

cording to Google search Cerra only received 2 free kicks from 3 games this year,

How dare you question my definitive statement that I made based on zero research or facts!!!!!

 

[Quazar2]

How dare you question my definitive statement that I made based on zero research or facts!!!!!

 

[Quazar2]

Yeah every team's supporters think they're hard done by the umpires, if you play well enough most of the time it does not materially influence the outcome of the game.

It's a difficult game to umpire, and they will make mistakes, it doesn't have to be an agenda or 'corrupt'.
Also the notion that free kick counts should be equal doesn't make much sense, I wish we did have more stats on types of free kicks and location paid though.

*I reserve the right to continue to howl at the umpires on game day like a lunatic

 

[88mph]

I reckon the boys are looking forward to throwing some of their new muscle around. Time for some sweet revenge on Cripps and company.

 

[Stinky Lomax]

Hopefully we’ve identified the first 8-10 minutes to set the standard for the game. Set targets from +contested ball, tackles general & inside 50, stoppages created inside 50, no contested marks against in the arcs etc. Just hard work stuff.

We need a massive lift in intensity at the start of this game to show them we mean business & cannot afford to give these campaigners a head start. It’s just too hard to pull back against a team with key forwards like theirs.

 

[geoffhop]

Yeah every team's supporters think they're hard done by the umpires, if you play well enough most of the time it does not materially influence the outcome of the game.

It's a difficult game to umpire, and they will make mistakes, it doesn't have to be an agenda or 'corrupt'.
Also the notion that free kick counts should be equal doesn't make much sense, I wish we did have more stats on types of free kicks and location paid though.

*I reserve the right to continue to howl at the umpires on game day like a lunatic

Your dead right that every teams fans think they get a raw deal and you can also add that every teams fans use stats to argue there case. For example ESPN had a Champion Data stats guy on this week talking about free kicks resulting in a shot at goal in the last 3 years. The most recipients where North, Carlton and Freo in that order and as for players it's Zurhaar, Larkey, Harry McKay, Sonny Walters and Charlie Curnow in that order. Seems we aren't so different. For mine umpire bias is a load of bollocks, worry about what you can control. Good luck on Saturday

 

[Schauermann]

He would have to play on Curnow, keep him scoreless and get 20 touches before they give him a nomination over the likes of Sanders, McKercher, Reid, Windsor, Wilson, Duursma, Walter.

You are probably right. Keydefenders hardly ever get one. And even less so early in the season when there are mids left who can get 20+...

 

[BStaff17]

If it had been at the MCG and the Blues tapped it out of bounds it would have been a throw in. Game over.

I still got no idea why tabs tapped it over the boundary line instead grabbing the ball and let himself get pushed over the boundary line would have ended the game.

Why give the umpire an opportunity to do it.

 

[BStaff17]

The hatred of Carlton by Freo supporters is an interesting thing, many of their supporters are bemused/surprised by said hatred - as a club we really don't rate in their collective realm of Carltank Consciousness. Personally, I haven't had too many negative experiences with Carlton supporters (even at Optus/Subi home games) - there can be no comparison with Blues supporters to Richmond, Collingwood and St Kilda flogs who've nearly driven my pacifism to its absolute brink upon occasion over the years.

In our dominant era of 2012-2015 we dispatched them regularly, even during our dreadful rebuilding phase up until 2019 we beat them often. It was that last gasp victory in 2019 that they never should've won that started it, and then in 2020 the same circumstances at Optus but with massive Umpiring support. Outside of that 35pt win in 2022 they've bullied and smacked us around regularly.

The other evidence would point to them stealing Cerra and Acres off us, and the drafting-w***ery with Liam Henry back in the day.

Is there anything else I've missed?

I have met a few Carlton fans on some O/S trips.

Like every fan base some w***ers and some good people.

 

[MITSUHIRATO]

Just quietly … I’m loving this little BF rivalry between the clubs lately.

It’s about time you lot had someone else to hate apart from West Coast.

 

[BlueAbroad]

View attachment 1947377
The stage could not have been set better for this Gather Round clash at Adelaide, with both Fremantle and Carlton entering the game undefeated. You wouldn't know it if you paid any attention to the AFL media however, with Carlton being backed to hilt by the Vic centric media, while Fremantle remain largely ignored, despite having beaten 2 of the same opponents. But, Fremantle just love shoving it up the Victorians right when they're being disrespected the most. Think back to our relegation to Alphabet Stadium in Geelong when every other team would have played at the MCG as a fine example.

Carlton are a certainty to win, just ask a Carlton supporter. This time last year they were spitting on their own players, now they act as if they're the inexorable 2024 premiership team. It really is all quite absurd and nauseating.

We Freo fans have a strong sense of injustice having been robbed of victory thanks to diabolical umpiring in the final minute of our game in Round 11 2020. Watch it again here,

or better yet stick needles into your eyes.

Carlton supporters will tell you they really just don't care about Fremantle, we're meaningless, nothing to them, equivalent to the scum they scrapped off the bottom of their shoes. This is all for show, a fancy type of gas lighting. Deep down they're terrified that their team is just a McKay or Curnow injury away from being irrelevant again. Carlton supporters are so toxic because they are literally equivalent to Fremantle in terms of success over the last 30 years, i.e., none. They have achieved nothing since Fremantle entered the competition, with their last premiership coming in 1995. They haven't even been close since.

Last time they met
Round 17 2023, Carlton defeated Fremantle by 53 points at Optus stadium. A horrible night for Fremantle, possibly the lowest point of 2023.

What's different this time around?
Everything. The previous game can be written off. Confidence and belief is incredibly important in elite sport and the Dockers currently have it. Last season they were bullied around the ball with an undersized midfield battling it out. The return of Nat Fyfe and the emergence of Hayden Young as a mid has completely changed the way Fremantle are playing the game in 2024. Add to that the in-form backline of the competition headlined by Alex Pearce, Luke Ryan, and Jordan Clark, plus Caleb Serong and Luke Jackson competing for Brownlow medal votes, and it becomes clear that Fremantle now have the tools to dismantle Carlton. What has changed most is the effort brought to the contest. Fremantle have been able to apply intense pressure to their opposition so far in 2024, while simultaneously playing in a way that prevents pressure being applied to them.

In my opinion, and in all seriousness now, I think the key reason that the media personalities are staying quiet on Fremantle is they do not trust us yet due to 2023, but also our approach has been to take away what our opponents want more so than play our own identifiable brand. This is becoming JLo's signature move. Spend the first quarter figuring out how to beat the opposition, then implement the necessary changes at quarter time to dominate the rest of the game. While the average and less engaged punter may have watched our game vs. Adelaide and concluded that it was a bunch of useless hacks kicking a ball around, the more observant realised that Fremantle had just followed the protocol titled "How to beat the Adelaide Crows" - drag them into a contested low scoring scrap of a game. Under no circumstances engage in a shootout. The exact same applies to Carlton who have the best key position forwards in the game.

The thing about gun forwards is they can be stopped if you restrict their supply. The classic 100 goal a year forward has almost gone extinct because of modern day team defence.

Carlton are certainly the hunted in this game. They will first try to play their style and Fremantle will try to take that away from them. There are strong similarities between Carlton and Adelaide, it's just that Carlton are much better at executing the same game plan because they have better personnel. Fremantle will bring the pressure and focus on not allowing Carlton to move the ball through the corridor. Fremantle are not one-dimensional though, when the game is on their terms, they are looking to put the hammer down, having chained together 8 and 9 goals consecutively in Rounds 1 and 2.

There's been a few Carlton supporters leaving their laughing emotes on our board the last few days. It will be great to wipe that grin off their faces with a win on Saturday.

Prediction
This is a real tough one to predict and the data suggests an even contest. Squiggle has Fremantle getting up by 2 points and so I too will back in Fremantle to scrap out a win. I will add though, that if the combined score of the two teams is >160 then Carlton are probably winning. If it's <160 then Fremantle have likely succeeded in restricting Carlton and won the game.

Enjoy everyone! A win here and the lid is well and truly off.

Not sure which Carlton supporters you're talking to, but we respect the hell out of Freo and their ability this week.

Should be a great game.

 

[Purple Jesus]

Just quietly … I’m loving this little BF rivalry between the clubs lately.

It’s about time you lot had someone else to hate apart from West Coast.

Nothin’ lately about it mofo!

 

[Footskill]

Darcy would of been handy to help out in defense and plonk himself between the twin towers

 

[MITSUHIRATO]

Nothin’ lately about it mofo!

Yeah but we’ve only just caught on from our side … we’ve got blockbuster hate fatigue from the rest of the big Vic clubs