Preview AFL Round 3 - Fremantle v Geelong, Subiaco

[Vdubs]

Missed Scarlett and Milburn down back - we seemed to leak goals down back pretty badly.

We might need to get used to that scenario, but it was Freo's run through the middle that set them up, and Sandilands was always going to be dominant at hitouts. Blake and Simpson were ok around the ground. Our kicking out was deplorable this week, hardly any of the usual setups. Ablett was pretty well held by Crowley in 2nd/2, Dog was terrible against Broughton, Pods covered Mooney's absence, Scarlett is irreplaceable.

 

[Vegas.]

Blake is useless, why we kept him and got rid of Mumford just dazzles me.

We didn't get rid of Mumford at all, we offered him every cent that we could afford, but he chose to go.

FWIW, Blake was alright today, Sandi is just a cut above every other ruckman in the comp.

 

[Geelong_Sicko]

why we kept him and got rid of Mumford just dazzles me.

Mumford was a loss for sure, but remember it was him who walked. Sydney offered him the cashola that we, with our salary cap pressures, just couldn't match.

 

[Geelong_Man21]

Would venture to say that 18.17.125 (35 scoring shots) is the most we've conceded for absolute ages. Even in the Pies whipping they scored 20.14.134. Without Milburn and Scarlett our defence was leaking big time.

Agreed. Yes we had Harry Taylor to put on Pav, but that's about it to put on the "Big Men". Taylor can take over for Scarlett when he is playing, but Taylor was our only key man in defence. I think.

 

[RoJo Junior]

That was an awesome game. Freo did well to contain your stars in Ablett and Chapman in the last quarter, major turning point in the game. Pods was impressive, strong hands, missed an easy shot, but good composure to put you guys back in front with a few minutes left.

One pivotal moment in the game... the stretcher comes on the ground for Suban after Geelong had a free kick for OOF and kicked to Johnson in the back pocket. Then you guys have played on, running it out of defence then they decide to stop the play for the stretcher. So Johnson is forced to kick to a contest from 10m away. Freo go on and score hold it in there and win the game. Very big moment in the match, especially considering he was off the ground, then ran back onto the ground. Why didn't he stay off the ground if he needed the stretcher? Had they not stopped the game, IMO Geelong win the game.

 

[Motormouse]

Look, it sucks that we didn't get up in the end, but the chicken little brigade really should settle down a bit. There were mistakes made by the boys that probably shouldn't have been but the pressure was pretty intense for the largest part of the game, and errors can and will be forced. It's part of the game.
I choose to positives in todays game despite the loss, Pods marking was superb (even if his kicking was slightly off) and he made his presence felt in the forward line. Duncan read the play well and was for the most part effective with the ball, Gary did a fantastic job when he could shake Crowley (who wore him like a blanket without sniping him for a change).

I hate Subiaco games because of the 'crowd influence' on marginal decisions, but the game was there for the taking and they took it. So be it.

Lets not throw our hands in the air and cover our heads in ashes because we went down to a side that clearly has it together at round 3 of the season.

 

[Claude Balls]

Relax everybody. It doesn't take much to slip in a comp like the AFL, and:

- Freo have clearly improved a lot
- We played them in Perth
- We were missing arguably 3 of our 6 most important players
- We were told that Geelong would take 4 or 5 weeks to find their best form on account of the delayed preseason etvc

Aside from a few expletives utterred when Blake and Wojack went near the ball, I for one wasn't too alarmed.

 

[linga_is_no1]

This game was reminiscent of last years against Brisbane, Geelong missing a 1/3rd of the team (no ruck or backline) and losing. While the opposition gets ridiculously excited over beating a depleted side. Let them have their victory we only need to win our 16 games and end up in the 4 and be there where it matters in september.

Big positives in Podsaily, we all knew he had it in him. Will be interesting to see who goes when scarlett, mooney, ottens, rooke, varcoe and milburn all come back.

 

[Gaz_Brownlow]

Agreed. Yes we had Harry Taylor to put on Pav, but that's about it to put on the "Big Men". Taylor can take over for Scarlett when he is playing, but Taylor was our only key man in defence. I think.

Lets put things in perspective; No Milburn, Rooke, Scarlett, Ottens, Varcoe, Mooney.....we didn't even have Hogan available. We should be very proud of this effort, wasn't the best Geelong performance, but still thought it had guts and besides what i saw as a few structural defects there is a lot to look forward too.

Mitch Duncan will be a 10 year player, perhaps even a star - was very selwood'esque.

Dawson Simpson is not a muppet - this actually came as a pleasant suprise, nor is Mark Blake, both were actually pretty good considering they had to ruck against Goliath.

Pods can play - is a little bit slow around his ankles but presents continiously and boy, can he mark! Expect a better kicking performance when he gets over the initial jitters. Will be a very hard call to not include him next week.

After a minimal pre-season, a tough game against Hawthorn, a 6 day break and a run over in the west against a hot Fremantle - we have geared up well, and have fresh legs to inject back into the side next week. Looking forward to another good game against Port next week - will be interesting to see exactly how many changes we will make. You would expect Gamble, Djukerra and Simpson will be dropped, but is hard to see Pods and Mitch Duncan being left out of the side.

 

[thegerman]

We didn't get rid of Mumford at all, we offered him every cent that we could afford, but he chose to go.

FWIW, Blake was alright today, Sandi is just a cut above every other ruckman in the comp.

Agree mate. From memory Mummy got towelled up by Sandilands too. So we would have not got any better. Blake did ok, won a few taps. The thing that gets me is that Otto jumps into Sandilands and does quite well, yet no other Cat ruckmen tries that if Otto is out.

Simpson was ok, but we have to take that with a grain of salt. Played with no-one on him all game, so he could roam the park getting kicks as Sandilands went forward and back without a care for him.

 

[Rik E Boy]

Today's game was a big improvement on that Brisbane match last year. The Cats nearly pulled it off today and I reckon Pods and Simpson had an excellent start to league footy. Duncan also looked the goods as well. Plenty of positives and some credit needs to be given to Freo who have played bloody well so far this season.

regards,

REB

 

[True Blue Cat]

My opinion is simple. Fremantle were the better team today and deserved the win. I have no doubt that if we had of had scarlett/milburn/mooney then we would have won but we didn't and that's that. Still very impressed by Duncan and was nice for me to get my first real glimpse into Simpson who looks like he will be a massive asset by the time Ottens retires.

1 thing i didn't like at all was Gamble in defence. Maybe it was just me but i never saw him forward. Are we going to try and turn every forward that can't make it into our team into a defender?

 

[GrandBlue]

Surely there's more than just cash that compelled Mumford to leave. If Geelong kept him in the side like he deserved to ahead of Blake, he may have stayed and held station in your #2 ruck spot.

 

[True Blue Cat]

Surely there's more than just cash that compelled Mumford to leave. If Geelong kept him in the side like he deserved to ahead of Blake, he may have stayed and held station in your #2 ruck spot.

Why did he deserve to stay in the side? Yes he played well during the season but Blake was/is the better ruckman of the 2. With Ottens back we didn't need another ruckman to play forward/back we needed someone to do better in the ruck. Which Blake is much better than Mumford in that area.

 

[Inferno]

Even with Scarlett and Milburn out, we should've been able to keep them to 25-30 scoring shots, not the 35 we allowed. I think the midfield is too reliant on the backline to do all the work and we got caught out on the break a few times when they pushed too far forward, which was the difference in the end, though I guess the fact we were playing Gamble in the backline kinda showed just how low we are on defenders atm. They really needed some extra help from players like Corey, Kelly and possibly Bartel imo. Also I'm sorry to say that I don't think Djerrkura will last much longer which is sad since I had high hopes for the kid, he has the skills and the determination but has little ability to actually get his hands on the ball.

Plenty of positives from the game though. Mitch Duncan has again shown he has the skills to stay in the side, no small feat for a rookie. I'm not sure if he'll ever be a star, but if all goes right he will be a very serviceable player for years to come. Simpson was impressive, he's shown more ability to get the ball than Blake ever has but his disposal wasn't that flash, which is understandable for a ruckman in his first game. He needs a new hairstyle however...

 

[CF]

Not overly concerned by the loss. Freo were fantastic and I found myself hoping they would win. Weird that it saounds. I thought our form was solid. Missed Scarlett up back. But the guys gave it a crack. It was a good game and freo deserved to win it.

 

[DivideandMultiply]

Re: AFL Round 3 preview - Fremantle v Geelong, Subiaco

Actually I think Fremantle are a good chance to win this.

I agree.


It was a very entertaining match. Freo were missing Tarrant, Geelong Scarlett.

Fremantle applied sensational defensive pressure yet used the ball well. Both teams seemed matched for strength and fitness, but Fremantles midfield with the aid of Sandilands surprisingly pipped Geelong in the last quarter.

Personally I don't think any Geelong supporters should be concerned, but I do think Fremantle supporters should be cautiously optimistic.

 

[Inferno]

Not overly concerned by the loss. Freo were fantastic and I found myself hoping they would win. Weird that it saounds. I thought our form was solid. Missed Scarlett up back. But the guys gave it a crack. It was a good game and freo deserved to win it.

Please explain?

As much as Freo deserved to have won, I would never hope they would.

 

[SmothOperRaider]

Mackie was pathetic today.

 

[Jimpson]

AFL website review reckons Steve Johnson was our third best player. I must have blinked when he turned it on.

 

[eyeglaze]

I thought the Cats were brilliant today with the outs they had. Ablett and Chapman were brilliant in the first three quarters but Freo did just enough to snuff them out in the fourth. A full strength Geelong side probably would have won this by about four goals.

Still, as a 15 year Dockers member I'm absolutely elated with the victory and equally as happy that our senior players and rookies once again showed class with a barnstorming fourth quarter.

Not getting carried away just yet. I still expect us to finish up in the lower end of the top at which is where I had them before the season started. It's just nice to see them playing with heart.

PS. If you haven't noticed, the eagles still haven't won a game this season.

 

[Cameron_K]

Was a great game to watch live today guys, the pressure from both sides was amazing and I would love for every game to be like that

Credit must be given to Ablett, was a stunning performance and I honestly can't speak highly enough of him.

All the best for the rest of the year

 

[DivideandMultiply]

PS. If you haven't noticed, the eagles still haven't won a game this season.

You are celebrating a win and you still feel compelled to add this.

Need to get your priorities right.

 

[leungtl]

Cheers for the game lads, it was good to see Ablett live in action and him with Chapman were unstoppable for most of the game.

Just out of interest, who was Ling tagging? I didn't take much notice of it but wondered this after the game.

 

[cats2rise]

Great game of footy.

Unfortunate we lost but im not worried.