Opinion Has the world ended

[Midnite65]

Disagree on Clarke but this hasn't been his best year. Far more upside that Pearce will ever have.

Happy to see Pearce go and **** over Peel. Never liked Peel that much but I think it would be fairer to all concerned to delist the ****** and hope that Souths pick him up. A whole season of laughs to be had.

I just pray he never wears purple again.

Pearce might have his faults like no right side, butchering kicks and going missing but he still had the most inside 50's for the Dockers during the season......Clarke has none of this!

 

[imperial_oz]

We just never gelled this year while this week has not felt right. For me I hope some tough calls are made in the off season.
- Pearce to be dropped
- One of Tabs/Ape to play every game
- Mayne to head to the backline
- Clarke to develop at Peel
- Completely revise our forward strategies
- Crowly's role to be transitioned to someone who can use the ball
- A leadership group that can be found leading on the field

I'm gutted but 2014 just felt off. It never really clicked for more than a week or two. That said I don't see it as a wasted year but more of a year we had to have. We learned some bloody valuable lessons and found that the future is looking pretty bright

Some good points there.

Tabs to stay forward. Apeness not yet ready in my view but see how he goes with another preseason.

Maybe would make a very good regular defender IF we can get a replacement up forward (not like for like as we need to change our forward structure a bit in my view)

Clarke needs to be treated as a project and given specific coaching to overcome his inconsistencies. He can be very good, just most of the time he falls away.

Pav can lead quite well but we need a leader in the midfield and Pav can't do that from HF.

Crowley I like but he's not getting the support he needs from the other mids that he used to get. I think Lyon made a big error in changing his role this year and it backfired on us.

Add to which, Lyon did not respond to obvious trends in many games this year and tonight was no exception. He needs to improve next year as well.

 

[imperial_oz]

Pearce might have his faults like no right side, butchering kicks and going missing but he still had the most inside 50's for the Dockers during the season......Clarke has none of this!

Kicking the ball directly to the opposition inside our forward 50 when under no pressure is not a skill I want Clarke to develop. Clarke has shown he can be very good but he's inconsistent. Pearce has shown he has poor skills when under no pressure, poor decisions making and composure when under no pressure and is repeatedly and constantly too slow to dispose of the ball. He guaranteed to get caught HTB at least 3 -5 times a game. Luckily the ball spills and he doesn't get pinged as often as he should

 

[imperial_oz]

**** me with the rough end of a pineapple

Margetts already did that.

How much more do you want?

 

[daiks]

might lose mcpharlin but i think pav and sandi will go again. mundy and barlow still have a good 3 or 4 years. heaps of improvement left in our younger players especially neale, crozier and sutty, i think people forget how young sutcliffe is. losing pav is our biggest worry but its a good test for our development and having 2 great small forwards makes it a bit easier too.

looking forward to next season, people will have a crack at freo at any given opportunity, but when we win the flag it will be all the sweeter.

 

[JoseMourinho]

Only 2 games where the umpires had a big role in Freo losing.

Neither of them were this game. (Geelong AWAY and Sydney in Prelims)

Margetts has been a flog umpire that entire season. What are we going to do really :\.

 

[Midnite65]

Kicking the ball directly to the opposition inside our forward 50 when under no pressure is not a skill I want Clarke to develop. Clarke has shown he can be very good but he's inconsistent. Pearce has shown he has poor skills when under no pressure, poor decisions making and composure when under no pressure and is repeatedly and constantly too slow to dispose of the ball. He guaranteed to get caught HTB at least 3 -5 times a game. Luckily the ball spills and he doesn't get pinged as often as he should

When was the last time Clarke was good? He has been in the system long enough to start showing something. If Griffen, Moller, Hannath, etc don't start getting games next year we need to recruit another ruckman as I think the only time Clarke is going to pull his finger out is if he is dropped and has to fight for his place.

 

[eastfreo75]

Only having one key back hurt us. Ballatynes pressure would have made port think twice about running the ball.

 

[willoblue]

It would be a shame to lose you as a poster.

Massive effort by Port to roll over us and get the victory.... Freo missed about 6 golden opportunities to put the result beyond doubt and choked.

There are 1,000,000 excuses that all of us are thinking up but at this stage the message I got when watching this game was that this season Freo wasn't good enough. Freo wasn't good enough in the big moments, sure we had Son Son and Fyfe who were amazing but as a team there was to much being done by to little. There were so many passengers, ball watchers and those who just didn't put the effort in. The turn overs killed Freo tonight. Lack of composure, fumbling and dropped marks (I'm looking at you GU) by players that should be better.

2015 is going to shape up as a massive year for Freo. A bit of luck with injuries, maybe the a bit of luck with the umpires and MRP and who knows what can happen.

Bring on 2015 and lets see what Rossy Lyon comes up with because that new attacking style we saw was as exciting as hell and I want to see it done with a fully fit and firing team.

thank you Freo 84
it means a lot to feel appreciated at such a low time.
I do appreciate the we all are hurting.
i'll keep hanging around,
but I'm trying to not "lose my sheise" over Freo

 

[imperial_oz]

When was the last time Clarke was good? He has been in the system long enough to start showing something. If Griffen, Moller, Hannath, etc don't start getting games next year we need to recruit another ruckman as I think the only time Clarke is going to pull his finger out is if he is dropped and has to fight for his place.

Pretty much.

But even then he's still better than Pearce or Sylvia.

In the meantime, Griffin is the go to man. The others need more time to develop.

 

[Stumper]

Pearce might have his faults like no right side, butchering kicks and going missing but he still had the most inside 50's for the Dockers during the season......Clarke has none of this!

Agreed Clarke needs to show more heart and be what he should become.
He goes missing for massive parts of games

 

[Fred Ziffel]

to be honest, i am this close to giving this sport up. not because of freo losing (and yes, I am disappointed beyond belief that we ended our season this way - kick straight, for ****'s sake) but because i feel i am wasting my time and energy following a sport where:

1. some teams are more equal than others.
2. some players are more equal than others.
3. rules change every week depending on who is umpiring and depending on who is playing. (see 1 and 2)
4. fixturing is advantageous to other teams and based on potential gate receipts.
5. the league administration is not after improving fairness as much as generating funds.

i love Freo, but i hate that we are often given short shrift. if i wanted to buy into the heroes and villains narrative, i would have followed the WWE. i don't know if i can come back next year, it's just too ******* heartbreaking. and if there's anything that really turns me off, it's ******* injustice.

i'm a migrant with an australian citizenship, and from all i've learned since coming over here and embracing the best part of australian culture, i find it ironic that of all sports, it's a sport called "aussie rules football" that does not afford every one in the league a fair go. the way the AFL is run is so un-Australian.

The AFL is a totally contrived competition.
It is Aussie Rules football and because the administrative body is Australian it is by the very definition not un-Australian.
FIFA has got nothing on us.

 

[Midnite65]

Pretty much.

But even then he's still better than Pearce or Sylvia.

In the meantime, Griffin is the go to man. The others need more time to develop.

I agree Griffin is probably the man but he had his chance in the St Kilda game and he was horrible. If he had played half decent he would have probably stayed in the team.

 

[freo84]

thank you Freo 84
it means a lot to feel appreciated at such a low time.
I do appreciate the we all are hurting.
i'll keep hanging around,
but I'm trying to not "lose my sheise" over Freo

I've had my tanty off screen and away from my loved ones. Strangely I'm glad the season is over. No more stress about injuries and suspensions. No more getting frustrated at the bullcrap calls and non calls from the umpires.

I'm looking forward to seeing what Freo can do next season.

 

[imperial_oz]

I agree Griffin is probably the man but he had his chance in the St Kilda game and he was horrible. If he had played half decent he would have probably stayed in the team.

Yeah he wasn't great but **** me, you try spending all your time at peel and then walk into the side in when nobody performed and left you in the lurch. One bad game doesnt finish him off in my view. He needed 2 -3 weeks to get back into the swing of things....and never got it

 

[Supercats]

So expert tell me how Freo's and Geelong exit in straight sets was different, and why Geelong didn't deserve to be there??

Big statement to make with no explanation.

Oh, and some news for your buddy, which I think everybody who follows AFL is aware, Your spud of coach doesn't have a game plan to win a premiership.

Enjoy your wasted season as much as we will.

 

[PapaJ]

I always thought we'd do well to get up tonight. Once the game started though, and when I saw how on we were as a team, my mood changed. Really should have won it in the first half where we dominated when it mattered .... but for ****s sake we couldn't put the scoreboard pressure on.

Then we just needed to hold up for the first stage of the 3rd quater and the game would have slowed down to our pace and then we're still in with a good chance. But Port structured up to run through us and we couldn't hold them.

As for the season overall ... I actually reckon our best is better this year than last. We're structured well, we are well organised both ways, especially in the second half of the season when we started attacking better. But we were also more inconsistent, especially amongst our 'second tier' as has been mentioned, plus a lot and injury/suspensions at the wrong time too. Because of that I have hope - I reckon our top form is premiership quality, just need to have it humming more consistently and at the right time of the year.

 

[Kingsfoil]

So expert tell me how Freo's and Geelong exit in straight sets was different, and why Geelong didn't deserve to be there??

Well, it was different in that Freo lost by more than we did, on their home ground.
And Geelong didn't deserve to be there because we won more games during the H&A than Freo did.

Pretty simple, really

 

[Freo Big Fella]

dont the west coast flogs have anything else to do.

We'll have the last laugh when Priddis is the runaway winner of their B+F and they sign him for another three years.

 

[Midnite65]

So expert tell me how Freo's and Geelong exit in straight sets was different, and why Geelong didn't deserve to be there??

Big statement to make with no explanation.

Oh, and some news for your buddy, which I think everybody who follows AFL is aware, Your spud of coach doesn't have a game plan to win a premiership.

Enjoy your wasted season as much as we will.

Enjoy overpaying that spud Frawley!

 

[ming65]

I was listening online to SEN during the week and heard some experts (I think Terry Wallace was one) dissect the Port-Richmond game. Listing all of the tactical mistakes Richmond made and talking about Ports pressure etc. To me they were ignoring something really obvious - and that was the half dozen or so beautifully wrapped Christmas presents that Richmond gave Port in the first quarter. Poorly executed skills, creating turnovers that allowed Port to spread and razzle-dazzle. Richmond then proceeded to lose the last 3 quarters by less than a couple of goals. Just a few of those kicks, handpasses (and bounces in Bachar Houli's case) find their mark in the first quarter and that game would have looked a lot different.

It's just as obvious to me that this is Freo's problem too. Ross Lyon (and his players when they regurgitate the party line in interviews) talk about bringing great effort; and their space and time denying defensive system requires that great effort to function. But 'great effort' is just your ticket to the show in finals - which are surely won by teams that best execute their skills under pressure. Aside from the Dean Margetts goal in the third quarter; tonight that was Port.

Alastair Clarkson will tell you that this is something that can't be trained - so you'd better recruit players with high skill level to begin with. I'm not so sure. But whichever way you look at it - great skill execution is the next level that Freo has to reach. No flags until they do.

 

[Midnite65]

I always thought we'd do well to get up tonight. Once the game started though, and when I saw how on we were as a team, my mood changed. Really should have won it in the first half where we dominated when it mattered .... but for ****s sake we couldn't put the scoreboard pressure on.

Then we just needed to hold up for the first stage of the 3rd quater and the game would have slowed down to our pace and then we're still in with a good chance. But Port structured up to run through us and we couldn't hold them.

As for the season overall ... I actually reckon our best is better this year than last. We're structured well, we are well organised both ways, especially in the second half of the season when we started attacking better. But we were also more inconsistent, especially amongst our 'second tier' as has been mentioned, plus a lot and injury/suspensions at the wrong time too. Because of that I have hope - I reckon our top form is premiership quality, just need to have it humming more consistently and at the right time of the year.

The biggest issue we had this year is we leaked far too many quick goals against many teams just like in the third quarter tonight and we couldn't stop teams getting a run on against us.

 

[Angus Young]

PIVOTAL moment... when you were 3 or 4 points down had all the ascendency and Hill got the ball just outside the 50 and instead of being composed and hitting up a target he just bombed away and gave them possession..they took it up the other end it was a two goal game again and pretty much done.

huge moment.

 

[illavitar]

go away idiot. What happened to your useless team last night

We lost our opportunity to win our 4th flag within 7yrs

 

[SherbertLemon]

Ignore the flogs.

Some cracking players on your list.

Bad luck tonight.