Coach Justin Longmuir

[poshman]

Couldn't believe when he said 'we're not going to catastrophise this performance' before going on to reference us beating Essendon and leading the Bulldogs in the last quarter.

Since the bye,

15 point loss v Richmond (H)
70 point loss v GWS (A)
32 point win v Essendon (H)
29 point loss v WB (A)
53 point loss v Carlton (H)

For a team that was in the finals race and with no first round draft pick, that looks a lot like a catastrophe to me.

And now we have injuries to deal with.

In what was meant to be the softer part of our draw... we have again crapped the bed.

If we win 3 or 4 of those we are in the 8 and headed into the last stretch with momentum. Instead we are hobbling and looking like we are desperate for the season to finish early.

If we can be within 3 goals this week it will be a massive achievement. If we can play with some attacking flair for the remainder of the year we will have something to look forward to next year. As it is we have become a lower middle tier team and are vying with a group around us, most of whom have reason to expect improvement based on list dynamics.

Sydney will improve next season.
GWS will improve.
GCS - raffle
Adelaide - improve

I predicted we would finish in the 7-11 range. After our first five games thought it would be 8-12th. I hope that is the range but it is looking like we are in the tier below. We can't point to injuries as a reason for expected improvement. Quite a bleak season.

Amiss and Jackson should add a lot next season. Johnson should improve. We need chappy to play the year. And we need wings that can compete and run all day.

Based on this seasons form and projecting into next season, we are looking like the 10-14th range. Which would be disappointing.

 

[GingerDocker]

In what was meant to be the softer part of our draw... we have again crapped the bed.

If we win 3 or 4 of those we are in the 8 and headed into the last stretch with momentum. Instead we are hobbling and looking like we are desperate for the season to finish early.

If we can be within 3 goals this week it will be a massive achievement. If we can play with some attacking flair for the remainder of the year we will have something to look forward to next year. As it is we have become a lower middle tier team and are vying with a group around us, most of whom have reason to expect improvement based on list dynamics.

Sydney will improve next season.
GWS will improve.
GCS - raffle
Adelaide - improve

I predicted we would finish in the 7-11 range. After our first five games thought it would be 8-12th. I hope that is the range but it is looking like we are in the tier below. We can't point to injuries as a reason for expected improvement. Quite a bleak season.

Amiss and Jackson should add a lot next season. Johnson should improve. We need chappy to play the year. And we need wings that can compete and run all day.

Based on this seasons form and projecting into next season, we are looking like the 10-14th range. Which would be disappointing.

I'm still on the JL bandwagon and think the list is 9/10ths of the way there.

But, if we finish 10-14 next year something has gone horribly wrong and JL/Bell should be singing for their supper.

 

[poshman]

I'm still on the JL bandwagon and think the list is 9/10ths of the way there.

But, if we finish 10-14 next year something has gone horribly wrong and JL/Bell should be singing for their supper.

I think it is fair to say something has gone horribly wrong this season. If it happens again next year they should be gone the moment we can no longer mathematically make the 8.

In saying that I hope we add to the assistant team this year and take a long hard look at what they are doing and what the kpi's are. If possible throw as much money as possible at a senior guy to mentor JL and it seems clear we need someone on the mid or stoppage role.

 

[Joao]

Sydney will improve next season.
GWS will improve.
GCS - raffle
Adelaide - improve

This could happen but as both Sydney and we have proved, nothing is given.

 

[poshman]

This could happen but as both Sydney and we have proved, nothing is given.

Of course nothing is guaranteed. But based on probability it is more likely than less.

 

[apuchar]

Noticed last night that Marc Webb was in the Bullies coaches box as midfield coach. Wonder how he is doing? Their midfield seems pretty organised.

 

[MadMac]

As always when someone gets the axe, I'd look to see if they fancy a move West. Doubt very much Dew would do it, but I rate his ability to work a midfield group and be a decent devil's advocate to Longmuir. Again, very much doubt he'd make the move, though the Gold Coast and here wouldn't be too dissimilar I guess. They'll be busting a gut to get him on FC with Caro I bet.

Send him some Bindoon bakery pies, he won’t be able to resist

 

[pK75]

Send him some Bindoon bakery pies, he won’t be able to resist

“Tour the facilities”

 

[Joao]

Of course nothing is guaranteed. But based on probability it is more likely than less.

Show me those calculations.

 

[Joao]

Couldn't believe when he said 'we're not going to catastrophise this performance' before going on to reference us beating Essendon and leading the Bulldogs in the last quarter.

Since the bye,

15 point loss v Richmond (H)
70 point loss v GWS (A)
32 point win v Essendon (H)
29 point loss v WB (A)
53 point loss v Carlton (H)

For a team that was in the finals race and with no first round draft pick, that looks a lot like a catastrophe to me.

And now we have injuries to deal with.

JL saving the catastrophising for the 15 goals flogging the Pies are going to give us.

 

[apuchar]

The Carlton game was sufficient to set me off.

 

[ROGS]

I agree.What must the likes of Wilson be thinking when you see what Walker dishes up keep getting rewarded. 2 of his 3 disposals went out on the full and straight to an opposition player inside the 50.

At this stage Wilson is the better player, not perfect as a defender but takes the game on and can kick

 

[Kram]

You just have to wonder how the team can go from beating Melbourne away then to the depths of being thrashed by Carlton at home.

 

[GingerDocker]

You just have to wonder how the team can go from beating Melbourne away then to the depths of being thrashed by Carlton at home.

Great question…I’m hanging my hat on them being young.

if I’m wrong, I’m going to do an Alby Mangles and go off grid to some far flung land with a really hot chick.

 

[WilloTree]

I have no issues of Bookmarking this. This is page 410 of this longmuir thread.

But to make a guess... I will think you will score 2 or 3.

at the end of the year, Walters and Fyfe is staying now.

I dont care about the other stuff. But No finals in 2023, 2024 and 2025 would upset me a lot.

It won't be my score. It will be Beinpurplengreen's

It was a ridiculous post that stated that ALL of those things would happen.

 

[WilloTree]

You just have to wonder how the team can go from beating Melbourne away then to the depths of being thrashed by Carlton at home.

2 weeks ago we looked great against Essendon, then from chocolates to boiled lollies.

I have a theory about trying to build a front half using 4th Rounders and Rookie picks being a recipe for really inconsistent output. We've got lucky that guys like Taberner, Banfield, Shultz, Freddy, Switta and Treacy can have the occasional very very good game and have, at times, looked like they fit in at AFL level. But lets be realistic. There's a reason 17 clubs passed on them.

Our midfleld battles on admirably but it's tragically undermanned now. If we'd kept Neale, Langdon, Cerra and Acres we'd be top 2 tomorrow. We didn't, so players like Serong and Brayshaw have to bear the responsibility alongside players with less than 10 games. Again, we're being unrealistic.

It's all compounded by the fact that Fyfe and Taberner are broken and Mundy recently retired.

 

[E Shed]

I’m at the point where I simply can’t get past the fact we have, after 3 years, no strategy to bring the ball out of defense from kick ins.
Like zero. None.

I don’t know how many more times I can take watching other teams waltz past our forwards with ease whilst, when it’s our turn everyone just goes & stands in the Luke Ryan dead zone & we wait for the ball to come back inside our 50.

How does a highly paid & resourced football depth with access to a wealth of knowledge & strategy fail to comprehend this screaming , bonfire of incompetence, this complete black hole in our game plan?

I feel like I’m taking crazy pills.

 

[poshman]

I’m at the point where I simply can’t get past the fact we have, after 3 years, no strategy to bring the ball out of defense from kick ins.
Like zero. None.

I don’t know how many more times I can take watching other teams waltz past our forwards with ease whilst, when it’s our turn everyone just goes & stands in the Luke Ryan dead zone & we wait for the ball to come back inside our 50.

How does a highly paid & resourced football depth with access to a wealth of knowledge & strategy fail to comprehend this screaming , bonfire of incompetence, this complete black hole in our game plan?

I feel like I’m taking crazy pills.

It is madness. Why we don't have young or clark taking the kick is beyond me. It is so frustrating.

We have not improved a touch in 4 seasons in this area.

The only thing I can come up with is we are so defensive that we give it to Ryan because we trust him to take the kick to the boundary 60m out 95% of the time.

Why can't we tell Clark to run hard and kick it to 70 - 75 out? Open the ground up and then give us other options.

Crazy pills indeed.

 

[Freomaniac]

We are in year 3-4 of the rebuild, it started when Lyon and Rosich were axed. Until then we were trading in Marquee players like Hogan and Lobb to push our existing list back into contention.
Neale leaving should have been the sign that we needed to sink capital into the draft, instead we blew that capital on Hogan and Lobb and only drafted Sturt. Once Brad Hill left they decided to attack the draft heavily, until then it had only been Bradshaw, Cerra, Logue and Sturt as first round picks. Young, Serong and Henry is the start of our rebuild in earnest, followed by Chappy and NOD, then Amiss, Erasmus and Johnson.
Bringing in Jackson and Clark means we have 12 players in a similar age bracket who are all 1st or second round picks that can grow together to form the nucleus of our push into contention.

Nope the rebuild started when that Horror 2016 season ended. I dont blame how the Freo Board reacted at the end of that 2016 season.

I dont blame the Freo Board for the trades and drafting that was done in that 2016 trade period.

Sure we could of just went into the draft and used 6-7 picks to get kids. In a way we should of done that. But then we probably would of got 3-5 wins that season and a lot more beltings than we originally got. We essentially would be like the Eagles mens side of 2022-23.

I dont blame the dockers trading in players from other clubs at the end of 2016: Cam McCarthy, Shane Kersten, Brad Hill and Joel Hamling. All 4 improved our club. All 4 were best 22 in 2017. Brad Hill won our best and fairest in 2017.

We also hit hard in the 2017 draft recruiting the likes of Brayshaw, Cerra, Dixon, Mitch Crowden, Tom North, Lloyd Meek, Sam Switkowski and Sam Jones.

We then traded picks to get Brandon Mater and Nathan Wilson from other clubs.

 

[Dockeroo]

I have a theory about trying to build a front half using 4th Rounders and Rookie picks being a recipe for really inconsistent output. We've got lucky that guys like Taberner, Banfield, Shultz, Freddy, Switta and Treacy can have the occasional very very good game and have, at times, looked like they fit in at AFL level. But lets be realistic. There's a reason 17 clubs passed on them.

Our problem in a single paragraph really.

At least we have some elite talent in the mids and they should grow and improve a lot in the coming years.
Up front, amiss is the only nailed on starter that is guaranteed to improve as he gets older. You can see he just has it. A clutch moment player. Treacy maybe but he’s still no cert to make it. Frederick probably has some improvement left.

Switta, Schultz, Banfield - they are what they are. Their ceilings have already been reached IMO. Walters and tabs are nearly done.

We BADLY need more forward talent. If pick 21 is not a forward I will spew. And pick 38 too for good measure.

One of the fan podcasts mentioned it and I don’t like zoning in on a decent guy that tries his best for us, but the Schultz miss from 15m out directly in front from that Amiss pass last week was just unforgivable at this level of football. One of the biggest momentum draining moments i can recall in recent times watching Fremantle. It was like the entire life force of the stadium, fans and the team was extinguished in that moment. The lift Carlton got from that miss was like 2 or 3 extra goals.
You just cannot be a serious football team at the top end of this league and leave chances like that on the table - handing critical momentum swings to your opposition. If we are going to build a team to go deep into September we need forward personnel we can trust implicitly in the clutch moments and apart from Amiss and Walters, I feel like watching from behind the couch (to borrow a Kelli underwood classic) anytime someone else in our forward like has a set shot at goal.
When WCE won that 2018 flag they had 7-8 clutch moment players in the forward half of the ground and still only barely scraped over the line. It’s incredibly hard from over here.

 

[Kram]

I think it is fair to say something has gone horribly wrong this season. If it happens again next year they should be gone the moment we can no longer mathematically make the 8.

In saying that I hope we add to the assistant team this year and take a long hard look at what they are doing and what the kpi's are. If possible throw as much money as possible at a senior guy to mentor JL and it seems clear we need someone on the mid or stoppage role.

This. As annoying as this season is unless there is something obviously really wrong with him (like they seen with Harvey) need to stick with him for 1 more season along with adding any extra help we can get.

The blocks on the playing list are mostly there though, with so many high draft picks that can play very well, can't miss the finals again.

 

[Freomaniac]

This. As annoying as this season is unless there is something obviously really wrong with him (like they seen with Harvey) need to stick with him for 1 more season along with adding any extra help we can get.

The blocks on the playing list are mostly there though, with so many high draft picks that can play very well, can't miss the finals again.

Makes it bad that we can't even blame injuries.

It's a combination of bad coaching, players not gelling well or blending well enough.

Losing some rotated depth players hurt to a degree. Even then, the kids we got from previous drafts should be established in the best 23

 

[blue shark]

This. As annoying as this season is unless there is something obviously really wrong with him (like they seen with Harvey) need to stick with him for 1 more season along with adding any extra help we can get.

The blocks on the playing list are mostly there though, with so many high draft picks that can play very well, can't miss the finals again.

There is something not right about how a team playing finals one year, loses so many mature bodies the next?
You could understand if you are perennial bottom dweller’s, and then losing your
midfield coach?
Especially the only guy at the club who had white line fever as a player.
We need more people like this who will drive the standards and teach
not just skills.
With a more diverse gameplan, when things don’t go our way.
Watching Freo play a slow ball movement style when the game has moved
on is infuriating.

 

[Freomaniac]

That's an insane take. I'd hand in my membership now if that's all I expected.

That's fine. Do you see Justin Longmuir getting a flag iwth this mob? I don't.

You should of handed your membership in after our loss to Carlton at home.

The dockers don't deserve your money. It shouldn't be wasted on freos current out put this season.

You could justify it if it was 2004-5 type season. Contending for finals and just miss out.

 

[Freomaniac]

Why do you think they leave? Because the coach, can’t coach

Well it must be because they were under valued (Lachie Neale and Blake Acres) or they had good offers to head to Victorian clubs (Brad Hill, Rory Lobb and Griffin Logue).