Review Rd 1, 2019: Freo destroy the Roos

[theGav56]

This is the strongest team we have fielded in 2 years IMO.
4.

Here we are righfully brim full of optimism, and wondering if Hogan needs to earn his spot via the WAFL, and also have the likes SHill and Blakely who will also significantly improve us to come in.

 

[Frigate]

I am not saying it is a top 8 team theGav56, but I am saying the tall forwards, and strong backline help. I also believe Fyfe is playing better than his Brownlow year (I know he claimed this, and he needs to stop trying to take mark of the year), but he had a near perfect game IMO. Not too flashy, just hard solid footy, and he backed his mates in. I was impressed. It could be love...



Is it love

 

[Taylor]

Ben Brown is a ******* crab of the highest order

Manufactured player, spends more time flopping than playing the game and owes about 80% of the goals he's kicked the last few years to the umpires

Disgusting player

He knows he is totally useless once the ball hits the ground and he runs under the flight of the ball, so he goes the flop for a push in the back free kick. It doesn't work as much as it used to.

I remember seeing Hamling in a previous year trailing Brown on a lead, Brown ran under the ball and dived forwards without any hammer contact, Joel marked the ball. He figured him out.

 

[FreoRicci]

Genuine question: what was the big difference in the game plan from the past few years to today? The main difference I saw was that we had players playing in their natural position and the player’s understood their role, executing the game plan? It seemed like a high pressure, well structured team with good skills was the difference between kicking 141 points and 40 points for a game? And we did t take the foot off the pedal at half time; we had 75 points and finished with 141.

Natural positions, by far. Walters did what a small forward does to a tee. Bomb up in the middle, then go into the forward line to kick a few. Perfect example of natural positioning. Everyone had faith in each other, and paid off in spades. Tabs leading to the wing, Lobb being a beast around the 50 and McCarthy using the third forward.
Hamling did his shut down work, Pearce was so influential early, Ryan impressive and Hughes just got better as time went on.
Conca was quiet, but he was so effective especially with his intercepting of Kanagroos’ attacking. Just everyone and everything went right. Darcy was very underdone by the looks, but he’s massive for our structure.

 

[sherrif]

hamling or ryan I think.

Didnt Hughes rotate on Ziebell and Wood. Underated defensive game.

 

[Arkhitect]

Tucker was very impressive throughout the JLT series in his tagging role, which appears to have translated seamlessly into the season proper. He completely negated Higgins out of the match whilst racking up his own stats. He could finally be in line for a breakout year. He's certainly disciplined, and he really is a neat player when you watch him closely.

Not sure where this places Banfield in the pecking order though? He brought pressure on the half forward line which was great, but he needs to make sure he hits and maintains a relatively high degree of accuracy with his disposals if he's going to make that new role his own.

 

[Wizard]

One thing i am not sure has been mentioned on here yet is the game of Darcy.

We looked in serious trouble with Goldstein early. He was getting loose, they were dominating the stoppages and then suddenly the big fella turned it around and had himself a solid day at the office probably a break even day had he nailed that goal in the 4th.

 

[go_the_dockers]

I though Goldstein played well but (if we can keep them on the park) the Darcy/Lobb combo is going to be huge for us I reckon this year.

Tucker brings a lot better kicking to the midfield and I reckon that was his best game to date. Brayshaw brings the grunt and I think will be even better when he just gets his head right with his skills.

I thought Taberner did some really good things when the game was on the line; particularly tackling and pressure acts. Still dropped some sitters, but took pressure off McCarthy to have the game he had.

Pearce, Hamling, Ryan and Wilson looked nothing like their preseason form suggested - are we sure they weren't just experimenting with options in those games?

Cerra was quiet, but maybe we are just holding him in reserve for later in the season? We don't need everyone firing yet I suppose...

Watching the game I felt like cerra had a bigger impact.

2 or 3 clean hand balls, 2 or 3 clean kicks.

If he ever gets 20 possies a game he will deadly.

 

[go_the_dockers]

Does anyone else believe we knew Brown was slow once we got the ball and told Pearce to run off him at every opportunity.

Great coaching if true

 

[go_the_dockers]

Very interesting watching the game live.

The positioning at the stoppages was a lot smarter, trusting their team mates to win the ball and feed it out to them.

It made us look so much faster.

I missed that but did notice we weren't caught out too many times with North hand balling over two players heads.

We are leatning

 

[Yeti]

Positives
- Spread from the contest was a huge bug bear of mine last year, they spread like syohillis in one of Littlefingers brothels last night. Great to watch.
- Fully fit BHilly is worth his weight in gold. Should have been given 4 weeks off last year to do nothing instead of playing injured.
- Dardy McCarthyhad a ripper game, ran all day, harrased without the ball and took the game on......
- Because Lobb and Taberner did their jobs as KPFs. If we play a setup like that ONE of them will get off the chain. When was the last time a Freo KPF kicked 5?
- Fyfe. Feel like we are a bit spoiled watching this bloke. Was best on for me when the game was up for grabs early. Only played what, 3 quarters? A contested beast, some of his kicking was sublime.....
- But not as sublime as David Mundy. Is this guy the most underrated player in the AFL? Keep him in the guts.
- Pearce / Hamling looking like a great combination. Luke Ryan just keeps keeping on and Wilson was quiet but will be part of that back 6 for years to come.
- Cerra / Brayshaw continue to build (Eat a dick North) and will be a huge part of the midfield moving forward. I feel like the expectations should be tempered for year 2 though.
- 140+ points. Who picked this? Wow.
- Looking forward to being on BigFooty this week, Gold Coast preview thread will be a joy to write.

Negatives
- Ballantyne, loved you in your prime. Time to accept your decline and bring through the next crop like Danyle Pearce did.
- It's one game.... Very worried this will be the ceiling of the year.

Note: When we play badly it is because of the game plan. When we play well, is it because the game plan has actually been executed as it is designed?

Could it be we were lacking the personnel required last year to play like this? Our KPF depth means when Cox / Hogan / Dixon were unavailablewe still had Tabs / McCarthy / Lobb as KPF options. Makes a big difference having that depth.

 

[go_the_dockers]

The actual 6 up front changes all game so its more you drop from the side. IF McCarthy continues with this effort, I think our best 6 up front is
Walters Cox McCarthy
Switta Hogan Lobb

I'd be dropping Colyer from the side as a whole. Banfield and others to rotate through.

Edit: While not a popular thought at the moment, I dont think Schulz is b22 either

I have Schultz in over Cox as we need forward pressure

 

[Byrons Firen]

Thanks for that, I guess a perfect weekend for you too. At least we can listen to the radio and read the paper this week, it’s been a pretty torrid few over here for Freo.

Trust me m8 Port have, probably like you, gotta fight for our oxygen in a town dominated by crows sycophants, lackies
and media "ambassadors" which is code for being paid cheer squad members.
Seriously Hinkley could walk on water and the headlines would scream ha ha Ken can't swim.
The set-up here is probably the same for you over there. Indifference's at best and open hostility at worst
we seem destined even fated to the role of best man at a wedding.

Yeah we had a good win but we often start fast then slowly run outta puff. Our new kids are exciting but they're only kids
and 18yr olds built like a minute to 6 will struggle getting knocked around all season.
Anyway early days but good ones for both of us and hey, ya gotta enjoy these moments in the sun.


* why does a Port poster come on your board? well there are 2 reasons.

Firstly and the more important, a late great mate of mine was a rusted on Dockers man

Secondly......the WCE are, to me anyway, no different to the crows, both are lazy comfortable thieves.
Gifted the keys to Xanadu there's no grateful humility only a smug conceited sense of entitlement
balanced by a sneering condescension of anything not them and especially anyone who dares share the town.
The crows have what seems like an unhealthy proportion of idle, well heeled fashionistas who've
latched onto other peoples passion to compliment their otherwise empty lives.
Too much is not enough for these toads their real lust is pouring scorn on the Port/Freo fraternities.
Sometimes I wish they'd disappear up their own arses, coz when your full of shit it's where you belong.

btw Cowboy Neale was one of my favourites, a tough uncut diamond who never took a backward step.
Finally I haven't come on here to blow smoke up your arses. When we play each other I want us to win
outside of that I hope you guys go well this year.

 

[purplerunsdeep2]

One thing I particularly enjoyed was that we always seemed to have guys standing back from the pack waiting for the handball receive rather than 20 campaigners going for the mark and the opposition running off with the ball. Well ******* done boys.

Dardy IOU 10 bong buckets QUOTE]

Adding to this, being at the game I noticed we consistently had at least one at the front and centre of any contested marking situation, forward and back. This was a good sign you look for every week. With our talks who are always going to compete and being the ball to ground, this was great.

Also noticed in a lot of other games, there were frost touch fumbles as everyone’s a bit rusty, I didn’t see as many from us today which was surprising and pleasing


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[go_the_dockers]

Genuine question: what was the big difference in the game plan from the past few years to today? The main difference I saw was that we had players playing in their natural position and the player’s understood their role, executing the game plan? It seemed like a high pressure, well structured team with good skills was the difference between kicking 141 points and 40 points for a game? And we did t take the foot off the pedal at half time; we had 75 points and finished with 141.

At times last year we looked as good against poor opposition.

Better position around stoppages was the key, plus a better forward line.

 

[go_the_dockers]

(hope I got the stat right).

Re the discussion about what was different, some things I'd highlight beyond the obvious change to the forward line;

• Pearce streaming from defence in full attack mode was a sight to behold, and while he was especially eye catching this is exactly what the club has been pushing towards during the rebuild.
• a decent 2nd ruck kept us in attack frame for more of the game.
• Far less kicking backwards and across in defence as signaled during the pre-season games.

A bit over 14kms.

Brown did 15kms, McCarthy did 14.5 with Alex Pearce.

 

[Fat Nyfe]

- But not as sublime as David Mundy. Is this guy the most underrated player in the AFL? Keep him in the guts.

This. We have forward options and half-backs now, keep Mundy in the middle where he belongs. He's still got it

 

[Channels]

B Hill playing like the player we recruited
Lobb straightening up the play, huge target.
Cam - i was wrong, clearly fit given the ground he covered.
Mundy - like fine wine
Fyfe - Beast
Hamling, Pearce and Ryan - great combo.

 

[Joao]

Ben Brown is a ******* crab of the highest order

Manufactured player, spends more time flopping than playing the game and owes about 80% of the goals he's kicked the last few years to the umpires

Disgusting player

He is not a crab he is just completely 1 dimensional. If he doesn't take the ball on the lead then he is out of the game. Offers nothing on the deck and absolutely zero defensively.

Does anyone else believe we knew Brown was slow once we got the ball and told Pearce to run off him at every opportunity.

Great coaching if true

No doubt it was deliberate.

 

[Tonga Bob]

well that was pretty good

 

[G Mus]

He is not a crab he is just completely 1 dimensional. If he doesn't take the ball on the lead then he is out of the game. Offers nothing on the deck and absolutely zero defensively.

Three strings to his bow, uncontested marking, taking a minute and a half to kick so he's nice and rested and diving for a freekick

 

[Cowboy Neale]

Trust me m8 Port have, probably like you, gotta fight for our oxygen in a town dominated by crows sycophants, lackies
and media "ambassadors" which is code for being paid cheer squad members.
Seriously Hinkley could walk on water and the headlines would scream ha ha Ken can't swim.
The set-up here is probably the same for you over there. Indifference's at best and open hostility at worst
we seem destined even fated to the role of best man at a wedding.

Yeah we had a good win but we often start fast then slowly run outta puff. Our new kids are exciting but they're only kids
and 18yr olds built like a minute to 6 will struggle getting knocked around all season.
Anyway early days but good ones for both of us and hey, ya gotta enjoy these moments in the sun.


* why does a Port poster come on your board? well there are 2 reasons.

Firstly and the more important, a late great mate of mine was a rusted on Dockers man

Secondly......the WCE are, to me anyway, no different to the crows, both are lazy comfortable thieves.
Gifted the keys to Xanadu there's no grateful humility only a smug conceited sense of entitlement
balanced by a sneering condescension of anything not them and especially anyone who dares share the town.
The crows have what seems like an unhealthy proportion of idle, well heeled fashionistas who've
latched onto other peoples passion to compliment their otherwise empty lives.
Too much is not enough for these toads their real lust is pouring scorn on the Port/Freo fraternities.
Sometimes I wish they'd disappear up their own arses, coz when your full of shit it's where you belong.

btw Cowboy Neale was one of my favourites, a tough uncut diamond who never took a backward step.
Finally I haven't come on here to blow smoke up your arses. When we play each other I want us to win
outside of that I hope you guys go well this year.

All I can say is ditto and well said, and let’s hope we can pull your pants down this year! Our kids have had a year so hopefully can hold up this season a bit better. Cheers

 

[Steinfreo]

A few tiny negatives I noticed at the game yesterday.
- banfield still has WAFL style disposal speed and effectiveness. Hes fine but a little slow.
- I want to see Cerra more involved hes so good with the ball.
- Ballas is pretty cooked but I'm sure his experience is valuable out there so maybe he stays in.

 

[Taylor]

Ballantyne was the one issuing orders to the rest of the forwards on the half forward line pushing guys further wide so we weren't so clustered, both making space for Mundy to run through and have that marking option alone on the 45.

 

[dropbear101]

A few tiny negatives I noticed at the game yesterday.
- banfield still has WAFL style disposal speed and effectiveness. Hes fine but a little slow.
- I want to see Cerra more involved hes so good with the ball.
- Ballas is pretty cooked but I'm sure his experience is valuable out there so maybe he stays in.

Banfield needs to learn to play like mundy and take it at speed.
Im sure if this is mentioned to him he will work on it manically.