Autopsy Fremantle 62, Geelong 73

[Footskill]

Has Banfield played the last few games on the wing or in another position.

Had stints on wing and probably HHF.. like in bombers game. But yesterday no time on wing, and HHF and deep forward if I recall or very little..

 

[Heave Ho Bro]

Our form since the bye hasn't been great. Smashed by the Dogs. The Sydney win in hindsight with how they've been playing lately wasn't as good as we thought at the time and we still nearly blew it. Got lucky Logan choked harder than we did. We've only beat GC at home and 3 bottom four sides at home Richmond, WC and Melbourne(they aren't in the bottom four but that's the level they've been playing at if we are honest.)

 

[s_wd6]

Our form since the bye hasn't been great. Smashed by the Dogs. The Sydney win in hindsight with how they've been playing lately wasn't as good as we thought at the time and we still nearly blew it. Got lucky Logan choked harder than we did. We've only beat GC at home and 3 bottom four sides at home Richmond, WC and Melbourne(they aren't in the bottom four but that's the level they've been playing at if we are honest.)

Hasn’t been awful either apart from that one dogs game, and the last quarter vs Essendon. Sydney were flying, had no injuries, and we were playing Davies and Draper when we beat them. Don’t undersell that win.

Every other game we’ve lost we’ve been in it against in form teams. Geelong and Hawks are flying atm and we were within two goals of both with Darcy and Pearce out.

Again, that’s what makes everything so much worse. We’re not playing awful we’re not in a massive form slump, we just struggle to finish games while missing key players and it’ll cost us a spot in the 8.

 

[WhoneedsMcLeod]

agree shoudlnt have subbed TABS he was the out kick we needed and was starting to win them

Yeah nah.

 

[WhoneedsMcLeod]

Players to move off the list at years end
Tabs (why the hell is he still on the list?)
Voss
Fyfe
Walters
O'Meara
Banfield (Was at the ground yesterday and he is hopeless, beaten one on one every time when kicked down the line and we needed a chop out)
Aish

Not overly keen on buying in hugely expensive imports. Bolton has two flags, is the drive and hunger still there?

We need a strong defender, big midfielder with some quality and a classy small forard. Anyone who can take an overhead mark.

Hawthorns rebuild should have Freo management very embarrased.

 

[hoss]

Players to move off the list at years end
Tabs (why the hell is he still on the list?)
Voss
Fyfe
Walters
O'Meara
Banfield (Was at the ground yesterday and he is hopeless, beaten one on one every time when kicked down the line and we needed a chop out)
Aish

Not overly keen on buying in hugely expensive imports. Bolton has two flags, is the drive and hunger still there?

We need a strong defender, big midfielder with some quality and a classy small forard. Anyone who can take an overhead mark.

Hawthorns rebuild should have Freo management very embarrased.

I think we need a small and medium forward. Not enough competition for spots there. Wings are weak too but hopefully Nod can develop a bit more and fill one of those positions.

 

[estibador]

The thing is Geelong didn’t exactly play well. They were actually average at best. We were simply worse.

I thought they played pretty well. Their pressure was full on for the whole game.

I thought it was a pretty intense game and pretty entertaining other than the result. Certainly a lot more intense than the two Sat night games.

 

[JammoMonty]

Players to move off the list at years end
Tabs (why the hell is he still on the list?)
Voss
Fyfe
Walters
O'Meara
Banfield (Was at the ground yesterday and he is hopeless, beaten one on one every time when kicked down the line and we needed a chop out)
Aish

Not overly keen on buying in hugely expensive imports. Bolton has two flags, is the drive and hunger still there?

We need a strong defender, big midfielder with some quality and a classy small forard. Anyone who can take an overhead mark.

Hawthorns rebuild should have Freo management very embarrased.

I think it’s more of a Sam Mitchell influence than their list…which brings me back to JL. Spineless.

 

[rgauci]

I think it’s more of a Sam Mitchell influence than their list…which brings me back to JL. Spineless.

As annoying as it is, they’ll likely peak at a similar time to us. Was so stupid to give a 2nd rounder and Meek to them for JOM. When we are competing for flags we probably meet Hawks in the GF or prelims during our window. They will be epic matches and 25-28 most likely. JOM will be useless by then, already sort of useless.

 

[Heave Ho Bro]

As annoying as it is, they’ll likely peak at a similar time to us. Was so stupid to give a 2nd rounder and Meek to them for JOM. When we are competing for flags we probably meet Hawks in the GF or prelims during our window. They will be epic matches and 25-28 most likely. JOM will be useless by then, already sort of useless.

Hopefully we win the flags this time around while they can't quite breakthrough.

 

[StingBitten]

I've not read the last 10 pages but I've finished one very stiff G&T while chaperoning my recently spayed, stitch laden, 5 month old kittens and I've arrived upon a conclusion.

Anyone who thought we'd win that as soon as Darcy out, Tabs in officially dropped, is mad.

Anyone who thought we'd win that at three quarter time is completely justified in being well and truly dismayed at the result.

The stakes have risen as the season has advanced and any buffer our previous good work had granted us has been well and truly rendered away these last two weeks.

Injuries and the draw have been an excuse for these performances all year, the fact is that they are both inevitabilities that partner with our existence as the Freo football club.

We've had a clear and committed plan B all year, one I've been supportive of as an out of the know, dyed in the wool Freo tragic, anyone but Brodie, anyone but Reidy.

I'm a seafarer, I'm not a footy brain, I make my assumptions from what I see and read.

As a man I was a lazy FIFO full forward who was good for a speccy and clutch goal which masked over the fact I never laid a tackle, barely showed up to one training a week and when I played, I pushed a heart and soul clubman to the backline, most likely because my mate was player/coach.

I'm not a saint, but I've always been too self aware, which has been a virtue and a shortcoming depending on the situation, mostly because it has led me to indecision.

I've always believed Longmuir to be painfully self aware too, and the time has come for him to windex the mirror, turn on the hospital white, halogen tube and lean in until every wrinkle, scar and burgeoning clogged pore is standing proud and tall (like Danger was tonight in the fourth) and be decisive, because whatever his line coaches or the list manager or his own personal biases have said or done to contribute to what has now become this Reidy-less, Brodie-less match comittee faff must stop.

I didnt watch the Peel game so I'm making my assumptions from stats and feel free to pull me up if I'm way off, but...

Reidy 54 hitouts, 19 disp, 7 i50's and 3 tackles.

Brodie 44 disposals, 3 tackles, 5 i50's and a goal.

Cooper had an efficient day with 10 disposals and 2.2 and Delean 4 disposals for one goal but otherwise no Freo listed forward touched the scoreboard in a close win against Souths.

Tell me, tell me, tell me that we wouldn't have won that game (let alone any of these other close last quarter fade outs) with just a couple, or few, extra first hands to the ball, be it from a hitout or a groundball get.

The sad thing is that our spine is so depleted without Darcy, Alex and JT that making one or both of those changes now, it might be doomed to fail.

If the ITK's on here have an understanding of why Brodie and Reidy appear to be persona non-grata but have been, or are, signed for another year, please I beg you, put this to rest.

We havent had an inspiring sub since Wagner forced his way in and less so, when Son Son has popped up to briefly raise his finger to his lips.

Failure is feedback, one sip, beaten in the contest and all that, whatevs, I'm here til I die or we get nuked.

I'm a lucky guy and it might be the privelege deeply entwined within my very existence speaking when I say "When is it going to be our turn?", I believe soon, but can we justify these burgeoning big dollar trades and pine for a culture of market or less-than paypackets for drafted stars, if the members and god-forbid players, have no faith in the match commitee, the vitriol on the clubs IG last week mustve been so distressing for Erasmus.

There's alot going on here and I know I'm shaking my fist at the sky, but this season is feeling just like the bookless seasons of GOT, thank the Seven for the Deathride and therapy or my garden would be looking as healthy and organised as I'd planned it would be this deep into the dry.

Cry for help over and out.

This was an enjoyable read.

 

[The Unforgiven]

Stanley lives for games against Fremantle, think he has built his career on that.

What, even when he was a Saint?

 

[WilloTree]

I think it’s more of a Sam Mitchell influence than their list…which brings me back to JL. Spineless.

Boy, you really hate JL don't you? Hoping Hawks are better than Freo just for a gottcha moment is pretty lame though. Especially given we're still above them on the ladder.

 

[bushchook]

As annoying as it is, they’ll likely peak at a similar time to us. Was so stupid to give a 2nd rounder and Meek to them for JOM. When we are competing for flags we probably meet Hawks in the GF or prelims during our window. They will be epic matches and 25-28 most likely. JOM will be useless by then, already sort of useless.

Meek was leaving no matter what once we got Jackson. There's no future in being a team's 3rd ruckman. It would have been career suicide to stay.

 

[Docker82]

Meek was leaving no matter what once we got Jackson. There's no future in being a team's 3rd ruckman. It would have been career suicide to stay.

Honestly reckon he would’ve left if we hadn’t got Jackson.

Unless there was a genuine chance for him to get ahead of Darcy he was going.

 

[MadMundy]

Longmuir obviously has his gameplan that he likes to stick to but how many times does he need the team to fall at the blocks when the going gets tough to realise that he needs to make some changes?

 

[Freomaniac]

I hope we miss from here. Couldn’t give a rats backside about finishing 8th and being whacked in week 1.

I hope we do make finals. Even if its a 10-12 goal loss to the 5th placed side.

If we make finals thats only the 9 year we made finals out of 30 years.

 

[FreoRicci]

It's a problem and becoming a bigger problem.

Its happening nearly every week with Switta. I am starting to get off him tbh.

Even his set shot yesterday as well passes it off to Sturt who drops the mark.

Distance from 45m if that's an issue for being out of his range a small forward then gee.

It’s not range either.
He’s 30 out. Take the initiative and have a go. He’s trying to nail a cute tight inside kick 30m. He’s actually doing more risk than just having a shot.

Miers gets the ball deep in the pocket and knows exactly what he’s doing. It’s not that hard. Have a shot, if not, set up from the behind.

Instead turnover the ball in the corridor portion of the 30-50m and away the opposition go.

There’s no denying his pressure but he hardly add any reward for scoreboard pressure.

 

[FreoRicci]

Players to move off the list at years end
Tabs (why the hell is he still on the list?)
Voss
Fyfe
Walters
O'Meara
Banfield (Was at the ground yesterday and he is hopeless, beaten one on one every time when kicked down the line and we needed a chop out)
Aish

Not overly keen on buying in hugely expensive imports. Bolton has two flags, is the drive and hunger still there?

We need a strong defender, big midfielder with some quality and a classy small forard. Anyone who can take an overhead mark.

Hawthorns rebuild should have Freo management very embarrased.

Fyfe has to stay. He’s valuable. Collingwood has kept Pendlebury to 400 games. He’s crucial for leadership and organisation. He deserves 250 games.
Has played the most games in a season since 2019. He’s fit.

Banfield is needed.
Voss is still young. 21.

But agree on the rest.
Unfortunately JOM has two years left (4 years- **** me)
Aish is end of 2025.

 

[Gekko71]

Ugh.... Still too negative in here for my taste sorry folks.

It's not just Freo choking, the whole bloody league is getting tighter. Look how many games have been won or lost by a single kick this season.

Also, we're not the only top 8 club to suffer jitters and / or get figured out late in the season. There's a shipload of it going around frankly.

Did anybody really pick gws over the lions this week, based on previous form over the first 18 weeks?

Or the swans to lose three in a row, including losing to Port Adelaide by over 100?

Or for Adelaide to beat the Dogs?

Or for us to go down to the Dons?

Or for Melbourne to nearly knock over Port Adelaide after all the thumpings we gave them earlier?

...'cause I sure as sh*t didn't.

We had Moose, Treacy, Darcy, and Walters out, and Tabs, Voss and Worner in. No offence to the latter three, but based on their current form, they don't exactly replace all the defensive & offensive potential we lost.

I honestly think we did bloody well to fight the way we did.

Did we underperform? Yes we did. But we lost our three biggest linchpins for the year in Defense attack and the ruck in Moose Tracey and darcy... We're tracking well overall IMO, but we're not quite good enough, deep enough in talent, or ripe enough in terms of experience to fully bounce back from such significant personnel losses.

But we will be soon.

Have patience folks, have a larger perspective,

and if nothing else, for fcuk's sake can we please cut back just a little bit, on all the dummy spits,.personal.attacks and regular rounds of wet bathing baby tossing we get on these boards, every single time we suffer a setback? It's really getting a bit much.

 

[JammoMonty]

Boy, you really hate JL don't you? Hoping Hawks are better than Freo just for a gottcha moment is pretty lame though. Especially given we're still above them on the ladder.

Whoa. Regardless of ladder position, Hawks are playing reckless football. Season was on the line and instead of playing conservatively, they threw caution to the wind. IMO Freo better on paper.

I don’t want the Hawks or any other team for that matter to be “better than Freo” I would like to see JL swing the axe and drop JOM and put a few on notice.

Before that ball was bounced on Saturday, everyone in here knew Tabs was a bad inclusion, but it was the safe option. The JL option.

I don’t hate JL. This isn’t primary school. It’s just an opinion on his team selection. Thought that was obvious. Most in here knew my position on Logue. Great bloke, average footballer. Call it how I see it.

 

[WilloTree]

Whoa. Regardless of ladder position, Hawks are playing reckless football. Season was on the line and instead of playing conservatively, they threw caution to the wind. IMO Freo better on paper.

I don’t want the Hawks or any other team for that matter to be “better than Freo” I would like to see JL swing the axe and drop JOM and put a few on notice.

Before that ball was bounced on Saturday, everyone in here knew Tabs was a bad inclusion, but it was the safe option. The JL option.

I don’t hate JL. This isn’t primary school. It’s just an opinion on his team selection. Thought that was obvious. Most in here knew my position on Logue. Great bloke, average footballer. Call it how I see it.

Regardless of ladder position? You mean you'd rather be 8th and reckless than 6th? Not for me. I'll take ladder position every day of the week. Of course the fixture helps a lot as well but you know that and that's an entirely different subject.

I can see you don't have a balanced view of our coach so I'm not even sure it's worth posting any more about it, but in the interests of fairness I'll have a go.

JL regularly 'swings the axe' and omits players. Go back and have a look at the ins and outs. There were posters on here saying he'd never drop Aish..He just didn't drop the one you wanted so you made your feelings about him known. Posters like you go missing when we do well and come out and pile-on the coach when we lose.

I understand you don't like losing. I don't either, but anyone who can look at the game and not see where we lost it isn't watching. I've even posted the stats. Short of JL pulling on a jumper and kicking the goals for them, there's absolutely nothing he can do about the cattle he's got and how they execute in front of goal / front half on game day.

Furthermore, there nothing he can do about who's injured. Do you think we would have won had we had Pearce, Treacy, Darcy and Walters? Sometimes it's not 'sack the coach' after a loss but actual tangible reasons you can see when you watch the game.

O'Meara has been good this year. His last 2 weeks not as good, but still playing his role. As I've said before, there are about 10 others I'd drop before him.

 

[Cobbler]

I’d love to know the mindset and instructions given to Worner. There was one play he had the ball just backwards of center wing and he went backwards-sideways about 40m. If ever there was an opportunity to be aggressive that was the one.

That’s on JL and the team in general, UNLESS he was given instructions and failed to execute. But then he would only be following the group that were doing the same thing.

Forget his handball on the wing. That can happen, but ball in hand and he goes backwards? What is that??

I think it was Johnson who chipped the ball to him and if memory serves correct he too could’ve wheeled and attacked.

 

[Dockeroo]

Regardless of ladder position? You mean you'd rather be 8th and reckless than 6th? Not for me. I'll take ladder position every day of the week. Of course the fixture helps a lot as well but you know that and that's an entirely different subject.

I can see you don't have a balanced view of our coach so I'm not even sure it's worth posting any more about it, but in the interests of fairness I'll have a go.

JL regularly 'swings the axe' and omits players. Go back and have a look at the ins and outs. There were posters on here saying he'd never drop Aish..He just didn't drop the one you wanted so you made your feelings about him known. Posters like you go missing when we do well and come out and pile-on the coach when we lose.

I understand you don't like losing. I don't either, but anyone who can look at the game and not see where we lost it isn't watching. I've even posted the stats. Short of JL pulling on a jumper and kicking the goals for them, there's absolutely nothing he can do about the cattle he's got and how they execute in front of goal / front half on game day.

O'Meara has been good this year. His last 2 weeks not as good, but still playing his role. As I've said before, there are about 10 others I'd drop before him.

This applies to last weekend to some degree, but against Essendon we could not have asked for more from our forwards in terms of efficiency and taking half chances and we still lost badly when the game was on the line in the final quarter. Against a very ordinary team too.

 

[JammoMonty]

I’d love to know the mindset and instructions given to Worner. There was one play he had the ball just backwards of center wing and he went backwards-sideways about 40m. If ever there was an opportunity to be aggressive that was the one.

That’s on JL and the team in general, UNLESS he was given instructions and failed to execute. But then he would only be following the group that were doing the same thing.

Forget his handball on the wing. That can happen, but ball in hand and he goes backwards? What is that??

I think it was Johnson who chipped the ball to him and if memory serves correct he too could’ve wheeled and attacked.

JOM took the advantage off a holding the ball at HF and kicked it to Jack Henry Game was in the balance. Under a kick in it, Geelong in front. Can’t say it’s a lack of experience as he’s played over 150 games. He has been hit/miss this season. Expected more from him. Off the back of his last two performances I would drop him but as he is in the leadership group he ain’t getting dropped.