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AFLW 2024 - Round 2 - Chat, game threads, injury lists, team lineups and more.
Fremantles lack of scoring power
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Spoken4
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You sound like a petulant child.
JohnnyFontane90
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there's a reason why the two highest scoring teams are west coast and hawthorn. roghhead gunston bruest rioli kennedy darling lacras hill plus capable ruckmen pinch hitting.
it takes talent to score points. not that freos forward line is bad but it's by far the shallowest of the top 4 and as a result they won't be winning any shootouts with the best teams.
it takes talent to score points. not that freos forward line is bad but it's by far the shallowest of the top 4 and as a result they won't be winning any shootouts with the best teams.
- Jun 22, 2008
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The problem is, is that it can keep other sides in the game a lot longer than they otherwise would be if Freo could do it consistently at the other end too.
- Jun 22, 2008
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I remember the season when Nick Riewoldt did his hamstring
St Kilda would get 2 or 3 goals up in the 2nd quarter and then shut the game down, it was God awful. Everyone press up to half back and deeper, take possession then kick it over the back and hope Milne or someone else would be able to outsprint their opponent.
St Kilda would get 2 or 3 goals up in the 2nd quarter and then shut the game down, it was God awful. Everyone press up to half back and deeper, take possession then kick it over the back and hope Milne or someone else would be able to outsprint their opponent.
sproketman
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And the thing is that works against clubs in the bottom half of the league if you have the required fitness. Half of the comp is going through some kind of rebuild, and a number of other clubs are struggling with form and injury. If you show up with a battle hardened team who play consistent footy, you'll win most games.
Lyon has the best win rate of any coach that has coached over 200 games, and yet there has been only one season where the team he has coached could have been thought as the best in the comp: St Kilda 2009.
As we play a sort of similar gamestyle its much harder to defend a whole game because any mistakes you make are much more costly than a team that is focused on offence.
Falchoon
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Zac Dawson to be moved to the forward half and become the 2015 version of Mitch Morton, the game winner in the grand final ?
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It's pretty obvious that our forward line is our achilles heel.
And it's not like the club isn't aware - we've chased just about every key forward in the league over the last 3 or 4 seasons, as well as drafting young KPFs.
It's a hard position to fill if you aren't a 'destination club' and don't have high draft picks.
- Jun 22, 2008
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I've said since the time Ross went to Freo that the biggest problem is his game plan only has a limited time frame with the players as it's just to taxing mentally and physically. 3 to 4 years tops.
I don't blame them for 2013 as it was the clubs first time in a gf, but they absolutely blew it in the first half and I think that was their best shot at it.
See St Kilda after 2010, the fitness and mental strength to play that way season after season and just fall short, I honestly think their hearts were just broken and they couldn't do it anymore.
All it takes is a players to be off a few percent and it falls apart. It doesn't even have to be all of them, just two or three links in the chain.
I think the personnel profiles of both clubs have been pretty similar too. High top end talent with some strugglers at the bottom end of their best 22. To compensate for that he has his game plan that absolutely everyone has to buy into.
Interestingly, if Freo finish first they will have the worst % of a minor premier since WC in 2006!!
sproketman
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I don't think Freo's game plan is especially taxing any more than Hawthorn or West Coast's. Both of the latter cover the ground as well as anyone else, run hard both forwards and defensively. Hawks press up as well as any team, and West Coast have the best midfield in the business.
Every team falls apart when the effort isn't there - even the Hawks. Cats are a couple of rungs below the Hawks but still got within two goals in the third when the Hawks dropped their guard. The difference is Hawthorn can score effortlessly, because they don't have players who completely waste possession. There are too many players in our team who simply cannot kick. De Boer had a set shot from 40 metres out and barely made the distance, missing left. He wouldn't get a game at Hawthorn. Wouldn't even be on their list.
It frustrates me greatly that these blokes still get games because they 'give great effort'.
It's certainly an issue for them.
To be clear about it they are a gun team and their brand of football will always see them win far more than they lose.
But their inability to score quickly is a weakness- every so often in football the opposition just has a shit hot quarter, where the bounce of the ball favors their mids, contested marks stick, and every shot on goal is accurate.
The problem freo have is when they are on the receiving end of that kind of quarter they find it extremely hard to peg teams back, because a high scoring team (of which all 3 of their top 4 opponents are) can do more scoreboard damage with a quarter of midfield dominance than Freo can do if they control the rest of the game. Similarly, when they control games at length they will often struggle to put big enough scores on the board to make games safe.
Their road to a flag basically requires them to keep a tight grip on every finals game they play from start to finish- they wont often be far enough ahead to be able to take the foot off the accelerator, and if they ever find themselves 4 goals behind in an EF or PF, they are in huge trouble.
To be clear about it they are a gun team and their brand of football will always see them win far more than they lose.
But their inability to score quickly is a weakness- every so often in football the opposition just has a shit hot quarter, where the bounce of the ball favors their mids, contested marks stick, and every shot on goal is accurate.
The problem freo have is when they are on the receiving end of that kind of quarter they find it extremely hard to peg teams back, because a high scoring team (of which all 3 of their top 4 opponents are) can do more scoreboard damage with a quarter of midfield dominance than Freo can do if they control the rest of the game. Similarly, when they control games at length they will often struggle to put big enough scores on the board to make games safe.
Their road to a flag basically requires them to keep a tight grip on every finals game they play from start to finish- they wont often be far enough ahead to be able to take the foot off the accelerator, and if they ever find themselves 4 goals behind in an EF or PF, they are in huge trouble.
Pretty much...and agree on the game plan. Hawks and Eagles both run up and back in the same way. Hawthorn are often camped in their own backline. Difference is in skill level and possession retention
Regardless of what happens this year a cleanout is needed. If we win the cup, can see Luke and Pav pulling up stumps.
Sylvia, Morabito, and Crowley will also go.
Ballard DeBoer, Mzungu, Hannath need to be looked at.
Replace with Blakely, Weller and Langdon and draft elite kicks and a key forward or two.
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- Jun 22, 2008
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And that is what makes the game plan more mentally and physically taxing. You players are running hard one way and a scrubber kick turns it over so they've got to get back on their bikes more often to go back the other way or they have to wrestle for the ball in a now contested situation, or it's more stop start because they can't hit a moving target to keep it flowing. The receiver has to stop and prop to take the mark giving the opposition more time to get back.
It's a bloody tough game.
sproketman
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That's not game plan though, it's personnel. And Lyon is erring on the side of playing personnel that have the fitness to do that anyway. He's not picking debutants with low fitness bases, he's picking elite runners like De Boer who can happily cover that ground. I don't see anyone at Freo burning out at the moment.
I don't think many sides enjoy more than four years at the top anyway, except for those that are truly great, like Hawks and the Cats. Its a short time frame to be a regular top four contender for most clubs, nothing to do with game plan.
Falchoon
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Zac Dawson to be moved to the forward half and become the 2015 version of Mitch Morton, the game winner in the grand final ?
there was a stat on the radio the other day
in 2009 Dawson was St Kilda's player of the finals
in 2010 Dawson tied for St Kilda's player of the finals
2013 or 2014? Dawson was Freo's player of the finals
Falchoon
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Forget Fyfe the MVP of Fremantle is Zac Dawson!
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It's not a big deal if they are playing any team except one of the two most offensive clubs. On the MCG I will back Hawks and Eagles in to kick a winning score rather than the dockers preventing it. Both those clubs move the ball really accurately and can pick apart zones.
Look at some of the teams they beat these last 10 rounds and didn't kick 100 points. Carton, Brisbane, goldcoast, st Kilda, some of the worst defensive teams this year. They lost to Richmond once and should have been twice if not for houli gift wrapping a matching winning goal, lost to Hawks, lost to Eagles. Don't know how this can't be seen as a problem. They have struggled against teams that have put their name up for a shot at the flag.
Which is also the year that Freo finished 3rd, West Coast 1st and Freo smashed West Coast in the second derby.
West Coast won the premiership that year.
Sort of sounds like this year with the roles reversed if you ask me.
If you were a decent troll. A witty troll then you'd be a lot more entertaining.
But you're not.
You are just a garden variety troll hiding behind the fact that you're a hawks supporter.
Clarkson admitted on the weekend. Top two is the focus for your team. You have to hope others lose because you haven't been good enough to get to top two otherwise.
Thems the facts.
Defacto
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- Thread starter
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the issue with ross is that unless a young player can do his role 100% and be a seasoned player then they wont get a gig and therefore wont be developed at the highest level. its like junior job applications asking for 3 years of experience in that role... other sides are more realistic as to what the younger players can do and get games into them to develop them. see brad hill compared to lachie neale in 2013
ross just doesnt have the you know what, to play the kids at the start of the season to develop the depth. players like weller, langdon, blakley should already have 3-5 full games under their belts at an absolute minimum. griffen should have had games half way through the year
instead your 3 games out from finals, the scoring has stopped and now you have no plan b. but hey atleast players like suban, d pearce, clarke got full games and consistency right
