Review Rd 19 Review - Freo Dont Lose Against Richmond

[chinggis77]

Yeah I think we have more than a few carrying something.

Tabs can't get separation and looks like the back is still tight. Darcy lumbering more than usual. I would actually rest those two at least once over the next few weeks, Lobb/Pearce/Logue availability permitting. Chapman and Acres I think it's fine to work their way in given they're still very clearly contributing but the big boys are a bit of a different case I think. We have won with Meek and Treacy this year and i'm not sure Darcy and Tabs at 70% is better.

I remember earlier in his career he used to run his defender into the ground and was constantly moving. His strength was his gut running. I haven’t seen they for ages from Tabs. So flat footed. Not enough leads. He’s not a gorilla that can sit in the square and out mark 3 defenders, he needs to be on the move as he is great one on one.

Perhaps he is injured.


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[s_wd6]

My favourite part was post game where they tried to nitpick at every no call that went against Richmond to try and prove it was wrong. Hyper analysed the balta play on call even though it was very clear, and spent like 5 minutes discussing a cox non htb call when there were prolly another dozen of those throughout the game that could've lead to goals either side

 

[Cobbler]

We just struggle so badly against teams that just set up defensive zones 60-70m out from goal. Sure we have so much of the ball, however it almost exclusively ends up in the same play… long high kick into the 50. Just didn’t have any talls influencing the contest at times

There’s no dare.

Aish was open on the far side all of the last quarter. We never looked to go inside to then use him.

Then ironically Aish does the right thing to go inside to Brayshaw… who let’s face it shit himself.

 

[anchor man]

My favourite part was post game where they tried to nitpick at every no call that went against Richmond to try and prove it was wrong. Hyper analysed the balta play on call even though it was very clear, and spent like 5 minutes discussing a cox non htb call when there were prolly another dozen of those throughout the game that could've lead to goals either side

They never mentioned the only dropping the knees call all night. The third quarter deep in our forward line. Close tot he white square, Grimes takes the ball, drops to his knees and forces the high contact. Free kick. Only one like that I saw all night.

 

[ilikepotatoes]

I remember earlier in his career he used to run his defender into the ground and was constantly moving. His strength was his gut running. I haven’t seen they for ages from Tabs. So flat footed. Not enough leads. He’s not a gorilla that can sit in the square and out mark 3 defenders, he needs to be on the move as he is great one on one.

Perhaps he is injured.


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His back is cooked.

He's always stretching at any break in play.

I imagine he's had quite a few injections this year.

 

[Simmofreo]

As much as I hated it, we needed a game like that. Elite pressure etc.
I reckon if AB took that mark we’d have won.

Forwadline was bad. All of them.
Shultz and Freddie missing when we need them most again. They weren’t helped by our inside 50s but. Just up and unders or kicked to Richmond’s spare.

Back line solid minus a few bad errors. Defended a lot of chances. Cox is elite.

Midfield faded in and out. Darcy poor. 1 mark again.

Poor selection. Needed another tall if we’re just going long all the time. Darcy isn’t marking the ball, no lobb.. So needed more

I know we can say the same for the tigers but if brayshaw kicked one of those snaps we would have won. AP didn’t have that brain fade kick, we would have won. If Logue kicked that one directly in front we would have won, And I am certain if Brayshaw had not fumbled in the last minute he would have got to 50m and banged it long for at least a point, leading us to the win.

And then of course Lobb would have made a huge difference

Hope we can convince him to stay, but I doubt it. Never thought I would say it but he is more important to keep than us getting Jackson


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[Simmofreo]

Well at least we put on an entertaining show in our first foray into the #1 primetime slot for a long time. Might not have always been entertaining for the right reasons, but shrug

Richmond hit us pretty hard all night, another good learning experience for our youngsters. These are the big moment games we need for experience to harden us up. There's no shortcut substitute.

I was thinking this too you know. We were clearly hunted by Richmond. If we were not in contention for finals they would never have brought that pressure the tigers. And they literally threw everything including the kitchen sink at us, at home, and still couldn’t get over the line

We didn’t play well, but we didn’t lose. Say that on GF day and you win a flag


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[Schauermann]

Sydney outscored us. In 1 (ONE!!!) quarter...

 

[God docker]

Logue played three positions at time last night. Forward then ruck then following Soldo into the defence. s**t coaching.

If I only we had a fit backup ruckman getting good numbers at Peel we could use..

 

[Dockeroo]

Anyone else notice Logues one handed smother in the last 15 seconds on the far wing? That’s the kind of desperation you need in finals, every chance that would have been marked by a tigers player for sure.
One guy who’s under the radar and escaping scrutiny lately but is on notice for some ordinary performances is Schultz.
If he’s not kicking goals I’m not sure what he’s adding. He seems rather tired and flat footed and probably fortunate that Switta is out.

Normally don’t mind Richo on seven but jeez he was annoying last night. Kept banging in about Balta not hearing the play on call. Didn’t say a word about the suspicious Miller sub even when asked by Hodgy. And then whinging to Luke Ryan in the rooms about Balta again. BT was desperate for the tigers to win too. Not a word from them about the late siren either.

 

[Philth]

I mean I get that… but I prefer to look at what our side has control over and what it can do with it.

We scored 7 points in as dominant a 10 mins as any team could have in any game. We were absolutely all over them. 7 points.

Where as I wouldn’t say Richmond were dominant… they just missed opportunities.

I wish more Tiger fans would read this. I thought Freo were going to run away with it in the last Q.
Draw was a fair result in the end I think.
All the best Flagmantle

 

[Cayman Docker]

That sucked, why are we no good anymore? What happened to our team?

I’m pretty sure that’s how a final would look like, it didn’t suck at all.

 

[Freoforever86]

I know we can say the same for the tigers but if brayshaw kicked one of those snaps we would have won. AP didn’t have that brain fade kick, we would have won. If Logue kicked that one directly in front we would have won, And I am certain if Brayshaw had not fumbled in the last minute he would have got to 50m and banged it long for at least a point, leading us to the win.

And then of course Lobb would have made a huge difference

Hope we can convince him to stay, but I doubt it. Never thought I would say it but he is more important to keep than us getting Jackson


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Yeah both teams had some real getable goals missed. Balta had like 2 30 out in front.

Brayshaws 2 snaps
Banfield playing on after the HTB and blazing away 1st qtr
Freddie’s set shot miss in the 3rd
Logue missed set shot

Then defensively
Pearces stupid kick
Pearce on Richmond’s 3rd was caught going at the ball or not, stayed back, then his man got right out the back and goaled.
Couple goals from HTb too. Walters was one caught on the 50.

Definitely had our opportunities

 

[eastfreo75]

It's quite valuable teaching young players how to drag more out of themselves when they are sore and tired.

The player I'd expect to get rotated in would be Meek but I'd argue that the games we have won have been when Darcy stepped up at the stoppage and that's something Meek hasn't done yet at this level.

Andrew Brayshaw was shown how to play fatigued in his first few years and he pushes through.

They will be better for it.

We are probably playing finals this year as hoped.

You make a great point and majority of people would see it that way.

I remember Chris Connelly using the interchange bench like ice hockey to freshen up players.

In the NBA they load manage and baseball rotate pinchers from game to game.

 

[Cesoir]

If I only we had a fit backup ruckman getting good numbers at Peel we could use..

What about Lloyd Meek?

 

[Mr Cheese]

Seeing some potting of Logue yesterday, and thankfully some standing up for him. It was mentioned a lot in the matchday thread, but regarding his marking, he was mainly trying to mark one-handed because the umps were super-lax with scragging. Logue and Taberner could've put a fashion show on featuring the Richmond back 6 as jackets to be fair. Not saying it didn't happen the other way, but it shows the impact a few early free-kick calls, or non-calls, can have regards the defenders' pushing the legal line.

He was an absolute trooper last night in extremely difficult conditions, against a high pressure, physical Richmond side. Pay the man.

 

[PurpleEyes]

This is two weeks in a row now that Freo have had to compete against very mature teams who have brought finals type pressure.
I posted last week about JL post match talking about Freo's lack of energy and I showed some stats supporting how Sydney out did Freo with pressure acts, run and energy in general. Well Richmond have repeated that again this week (forget that shork kick game plan focus junk talk that was around last week).
Total team Pressure Acts had Richmond 353 vs Freo 298 (-55 differential for Freo ... it was -43 last week).
And the AFL Tracker again showed Freo were outran by Richmond in total distance and sprints.

Upon reflection, I have had to review my own expectations of where Freo are at.
Early in the season, we were trending very well and looked to be improving and maturing as a team.
Well recently we have been confronted with some good teams playing finals type competitive football.
And while I have had to dampen my own expectations, it has been a great opportunity to see that Freo will be competitive come finals.
We have still won our contested possession stats for the past fortnight, so we are certainly not shaming ourselves.

If we can freshen up our energy levels, keep injuries to a minimum, then I believe come finals in September we will be capable ... even if our improving trend upwards has taken a pause/hit of late.

 

[PurpleEyes]

And in addition to my above post about Freo facing competitive teams bringing high pressure, I think people advocating the likes of Fyfe and Walters being past it and needing to be replaced is showing a lack of respect of what these mature experienced players bring to the team.
Both Fyfe & Walters, even when appearing to play out of form games this season, have both been producing plenty of high quality pressure acts.

Now, while I am not saying individual pressure acts stats is enough to quantify a player's place in the team, it should be considered given my belief of it's importance come finals football. Young bodies with less than 50 games really struggle to apply high pressure four quarter football.

 

[TheInjuryFactory]

Perhaps he is injured.

He is absolutely injured. Remember his back and hamstring issues? They don't go away after a week off.

 

[WaywardSonSon]

Man--give me a Sunday arvo at 2:30 slot with the dulcet tones of Papalia and co. anyday of the week.

The commentary and coverage of the game last night was agonizing. A team of the most unprofessional sounding louts ever assembled. Painful to listen to. Sick to death of the procession of boofhead ex-players they trot out every year. Lo and behold as "fan favourite" Paddy Dangerfield joins the Seven commentary team. Spare me.

Oh yeah and Youngy is now my favourite Docker.

They've now even reverted to "showcasing" current players, who exude an equal amount of mundane drudgery!

 

[Ghost Pig]

Four of Richmonds eight losses have been in the single digits and seven of their nine wins have been by more than twenty points, most of them in the thirties!

They're a much better side than their win/loss makes them out to be and we have a target on our backs thanks to a combination of ladder position, hype, age demographic and the psychological effect of having been a punching bag, for most teams, in recent seasons.

No doubt we're experiencing some growing pains, especially as the fitness advantage we had early in the season has narrowed.

We're still on track to meet and exceed everyones expectations from preseason.

Provided we sure up that finals spot, with 90% of our best 22, anything is possible.

 

[Gekko71]

The son n law did warn us before we left that tigers supporters can be feral .. (coming from a Collingwood supporter)

(My) 3 rules of watching footy live

1.Dont threaten other supporters
2.Dont swear in front of kids
3.Dont call every umpire and oppo player a *en dawg
I think he was scared of the toothless horde in black and gold more than anything and just wanted to get me out of there ..he thanked me for going when we were up out of the section..like I said it was all pretty weird.
Hopefully he learns from this and changes careers

This story reminds me of stuff my grandfather used to tell me about his job as a prison guard...

I won't go into gory details, but basically the moral of the story was, if you're one man charged with managing a large bunch of dangerous lunatics, the best way to do it is with humour, and make sure you keep the bastards on-side.

In that kind of environment, them dissing your team as a bit of a piss-take in public, then thanking you sincerely for cooperating in private, is a technique taken straight out Prisoner Management 101:

1. First build public rapport with the masses through feigned sympathy towards their feelings and depreciating humour that doesn't actually directly attack any individual you are trying to remove;

2. Separate the individual at risk from the potential threat with all speed for their own safety and yours

3. Connect and check in with the vulnerable individual(s), make sure they are okay and take them to a safer location - such as solitary confinement if they request it, or else back to their cell... Or in this case, take them to a different seat in a different section all together where they are no longer at risk.

In short, the security guard was just doing their job, and by all accounts did it very well. Whomever it was that called the security guard in the first place, actually did the right thing... What's far worse is when people DON'T call a security guard, and decide to deal with shit themselves.

Please note this is on no way an attack on Tiger's fans, or any individual, or me casting aspersions on anybody... The following is sadly true of any large, overly emotional, rambunctious crowd who are feeling a bit antsy about something.

It's not an AFL thing, it's not a Tigers vs Dockers thing, it's basic crowd management and a rather sad reflection of human behaviour in general.

 

[hoss]

Anyone else notice Logues one handed smother in the last 15 seconds on the far wing? That’s the kind of desperation you need in finals, every chance that would have been marked by a tigers player for sure.
One guy who’s under the radar and escaping scrutiny lately but is on notice for some ordinary performances is Schultz.
If he’s not kicking goals I’m not sure what he’s adding. He seems rather tired and flat footed and probably fortunate that Switta is out.

Normally don’t mind Richo on seven but jeez he was annoying last night. Kept banging in about Balta not hearing the play on call. Didn’t say a word about the suspicious Miller sub even when asked by Hodgy. And then whinging to Luke Ryan in the rooms about Balta again. BT was desperate for the tigers to win too. Not a word from them about the late siren either.

Shultz was one of our best players two weeks ago. Got coaches votes. Been quiet the last two games but I think Frederick's spot is more at risk. Two weeks in a row, run round by 200cm lumbering oafs and seemingly reluctant to tackle at times.

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[mattis117]

Yeah I'm pretty ok with it today. Thought about how many big games Richmond have played in over the last 5 years or so, how many Friday night games, how many finals etc.

Our team by contrast is very young and inexperienced, particularly playing in that timeslot on the big stage.

I do wonder at what it must do to the circadian rhythms starting a game at what would be 8pm here and not finishing till basically 11pm at night. The football conditioning people, psychologists, dieticians etc must have made massive strides in recent years to get players performing at optimum at all times of day and in so many different environments from week to week - Tassie, Canberra, NT, Alice, QLD, Melbourne, Sydney, Perth.

In so many years past our team would have gone to water under the pressure the Tigers, the Vic media, the crowd brought to a big Friday game.
This group of mostly youngsters are made of solid stuff. Our backline particularly is exceptional.

Chapman is one of the most unique talents I've seen for a long time. His concentration, composure and competitive nature combined with a brilliant football brain is very special.

Young is elite and he's a baby still. He & Clark are one of the best rebounding combos in the league.

Cox is incredible, his composure under pressure, the way he backs himself to get through or past anyone is incredible to watch.

Pearce is the general, all the young players say so. And he is one of the best lock down players in the league. His kicking last night was fine except the one awful one.

Walker is another unique player. Yes he does crazy stuff but he is fearless and creates play others wouldn't dare attempt. I love him.

I thought Henry showed in his last couple of outings that he's going to be very good. Not necessarily prolific but you can't teach the class and vision he has.

Serong, Brayshaw, Brodie, Darcy is such a brilliant young core of mids. Johnson and Erasmus in the wings waiting.

Obviously the forward half is a different story. Not going into detail there but surely if ever there is a time to give Sturt a chance again in the big-time its now? He could literally be the difference in a final.

You have your time zones backwards. It is in fact harder for teams to travel here to play at night then for us to go to the East.

 

[s_wd6]

I hope you all know there's not a chance in hell that frederick get's dropped. That smother alone is enough to keep him in the team, regardless of the rest of his game. He's shown enough in recent weeks for match comittee to keep him in. Two poor games in a row but who's his potential replacement? I'm not going to pretend he played well but he's far from the liability that you all are making him out to be.