![](https://images.bigfootymedia.com/icons/mobile-bullets/fremantle.png)
- Aug 20, 2010
- 6,086
- 12,095
- AFL Club
- Fremantle
- Other Teams
- Manchester City
That indecisiveness was a symptom of other things. We fielded the worst forward line we have all season. Early in the game we tried to go fast - what happened? Voss dropped every single ball kicked to him, Freddie dropped and fumbled the ball, Taberner was a traffic cone. How can the defense be confident to move the ball fast when the forward line is non-competitive? It takes two to tango, the defense can't just make magic happen.62 points on a fine day will not win you many games. We were back to our indecisive worst for one of our biggest games of the season.
We had two primary problems, everything else was secondary. Problem 1 was our usual strength became a weakness, ruck craft. Jackson has faded from playing too much ruck this year and just cannot reproduce what he was earlier in the season. Problem 2 was WAFL grade key forwards that cannot take contested marks and do not pressure.
I think the criticism of our defense couldn't be more inaccurate - they actually held up reasonably well given all other circumstances. We only conceded 73 points, if we score what we have been scoring lately we win that easily. Our defensive line clearly was not the problem. Ryan and Clark and Co racked up huge numbers because they had no faith in the personnel ahead of them. We were absolutely smashed in the air, the worst I have seen us this season. Earlier this year we had games where we dominated the aerial contests and when you do that you win games easily. I can't even remember a single contested mark that we took down the line.
In general, so much moping going on that is focusing on what could have been instead of what actually happened. Be honest with yourselves. If you said to an opposition coach, take any three players out of Freo's team to give you the best chance of beating them, who would they choose? Pretty confident that they would choose Darcy, Pearce, and Treacy, with only Serong being a smokey with that question.
We're literally missing our three most important players and people are wondering why we've reverted to playing like shit. Like cmon, 1+1=2, it isn't that hard.
Last edited: