Review Round 21 - Freo Edged by the Dons.

[Mk LXIII]

Why didn't MJ play? He was obviously fit enough to play football this weekend as he did, i don't understand why he didn't play AFL.

Not sure, was he on limted minutes at Peel due to recovery from hot spot? I don't think he trained last week. But yeah, most certainly if he was fit to play he was the logical in, he or Brodie.

 

[SPEEDWAGON]

emmett will be suspended and we just need to better

 

[dominguez]

If he could take a bloody mark we would be a far better team.

He really has been deadset ordinary this year with the exception of a 2-3 week period.

The coaches need to do more to get him involved. If at quarter time he's been quiet start him on the wing in the 2nd quarter. Let Darcy take the centre bounce then play a kick behind play while Jackson hunts the footy and contests boundary throw ins and ball ups. Anything that gets him into the game.

 

[dominguez]

I think if we want him to develop we need to persist. Will only come with experience

What are the odds on Fyfe, O'meara, Serong, Johnson, Young and Brayshaw all being fit for every game next year? I hope they are, but it's improbable. I'd leave Johnson at Peel for 1 more week and give Erasmus another run but if he's dropped I won't be disappointed. His chances will come.

 

[Quazar2]

Can't really add anything others haven't already covered...pretty gutted as just prior to this we really looked the goods. Just goes to show you how fine the margins are, win and we're all ****-a-hoot; lose and lose in a fashion not so.... palatable, and the wheels come off and we're back to 30 years of mediocrity or treading water, whatever - piss-weak and no guts and on and on the hamster treads the same old wheels.

That old cliche "it's never as good....never as a bad". Yeah, I hate that expression too. I think winning a GF is pretty damn good to getting as perfect as a feeling can get, so I'll take that over a balancing see-saw, ta very much. I guess you could argue we should have seen it coming; a fired up Essendon after "club greats" like their precious Matthew Lloyd yet again has to lament their continued woes "we've seen it all before!", an MCG home game with their finals aspirations on the line....it didn't take a genius to know it was gonna be a fired up contest and they were gonna try and respond like their lives depended on it, but as others have stated we just didn't psychologically handle that. The pressure found us out. And yet...we corrected a lot of that in the 3rd and got the ascendancy early in the fourth. That moment that Treacy went down seemed to shift the momentum entirely. They scored off that and then we went into freefall until Jye levelled it late. And then that centre bounce, urgh. Ugly stuff.

Speaking of which, was Darcy proppy, because his game was abysmal, overall. Can also understand why some are frustrated with Jackson, more so his hype than his game, I thought he was okay - but for the cost of him, the hype of him, I want more than just 'ok'. He's had an up and down season in terms of my expectations, maybe they're just too high..?! I don't know, he cost a fair bit to get over. Seems to go missing in large chunks for me. And I also think others touched on him not going to centre bounces with Fyfe out, I definitely think that has some merit. Why not at least have him attend a few?! See if his ground ball work can affect the outcome positively, he is strong in that area....Darcy.....probably not so much. I feel for Ras, I think he tried his hardest, made a few blunders, but he also looked quite good in open space either moving the ball by hand or foot, hardly a terrible game. Yet he was subbed out what felt like pretty quickly. I guess maybe in the centre bounces he wasn't as strong as what Fyfe has been...even Caleb was a bit down though, some scrubby kicks and some blunders trying to open up corridor moves, just missed kicks. Can't blame him for trying but the team didn't look on from the get go. Credit for coming back when Essendon Edgeplants got their tails up.

Jeez, I don't like Stringer but he's a brute of a player and pretty hard to stop when he's up and about. Meh, just feels like a missed golden opportunity. Dons were there for the taking and when Freo had their tails up early 4th, I thought they were going to kick on. So, in summary - gutted. Top 4 aspirations looking grim, a Premiership even grimmer. I guess I never expected it come early doors 2024, but you always hope that that 'seize the day' moment has finally arrived.

Not quite mentally strong enough to take that next step in season 2024 I suppose. Back to the Deathriding to get awesome picks to go through the cycle all over again. Happy f***ing days

 

[arsesmart]

I think JL summed it up quite nicely with: "they were tougher than us". That was my biggest observation for the day, the team is not mentally tough enough. I think the team thinks they are tough, but they lose focus when oppositions apply a bit of heat.

2xRunning too far free kicks is not acceptable and when the team gives away stupid free kicks like this, then I know they don't have their heads in the game.

I thought we showed plenty of resilience. A young team on the road, Essendon an older team haven't left home for weeks. We also drew level after giving up a lead we held most of the game. If not for a bit of randomness with that last bounce it could've easily gone two other ways.

I think falling into repeatedly just dumping kicks into the forward line in that last quarter was something that was very controllable for us and a big source of frustration. All those potentially juicy attacks generally resulted in turnovers, allowing them to keep momentum and hurt us going the other way.

 

[dominguez]

Umm…how is it possible for two small forwards in Emmett and Freddy to not only have only 9 possessions between them, but ZERO tackles?

Zero…Stringer had ten tackles.

One of them has to go. If Cooper Simpson couldn’t do better than that I’ll eat my own arse

Is this Bigfooty or Onlyfans?

 

[Quazar2]

I've got to say I thought Walker was terrific though, he's grown in the last 2 weeks alone and his intent to want to run and hurt with the ball is exciting and does bode well for the future, for him as an emerging player especially

 

[go_the_dockers]

I am not sure Frederick is doing enough to justify his spot in the side. I wonder if NOD could offer more in that role?

I was at the game, so probably missed a few things, but did not think Chapman was that bad. Ryan was disappointing for me.

Johnson in for Aish would improve us as well.

IN: Fyfe, Johnson, NOD
OUT: Frederick, Erasmus, Aish.

I really wish we had another small forward, Emmett is lucky we don't.

Edit: Other option is to drop Emmett, and make Frederick the sub. Not Frederick would have enough impact as the sub, needs to find a way to get involved more.

 

[wakojako]

I am not sure Frederick is doing enough to justify his spot in the side. I wonder if NOD could offer more in that role?

I was at the game, so probably missed a few things, but did not think Chapman was that bad. Ryan was disappointing for me.

Johnson in for Aish would improve us as well.

IN: Fyfe, Johnson, NOD
OUT: Frederick, Erasmus, Aish.

I really wish we had another small forward, Emmett is lucky we don't.

Frederick is such a joy to watch when he's on, but he is pretty inconsistent. I know Bolton is also inconsistent, but he's a proven damaging small forward and we desperately need one. That's why we need to do the Bolton trade because the combo of Frederick and Bolton could be very lethal.

 

[Heave Ho Bro]

Emmett had the bone crunching tackle on Laverde (who looked shaky after). Was deemed dangerous so presumably didn’t register a stat.

That whole section of play was weird. Someone marked it & had the ball taken off them for something off ball when they would have been taking a shot on goal then Emmett wins a HTB only for the umpire to reverse it for the tackle.

Yeah it was all a bit sus... Is it just me or at times in games does it feel like the umpires just go out of their way to take the ball off of us. There was deliberate out of bounds in the 4th too that was a horrible decision. Just waiting for the day when they say fck it and blow the whistle while we have the ball in our forward 50 and yell 'Goal Carlton' and march the ball back to the centre.

Ras I thought did some nice things. Set up 2 goals with neat kicks into the F50 having lowered the eyes. There is a player in there and we have to keep playing him. Have to have an eye on the future. These young guys won't reach their potential in the WAFL. If Brodie isn't in our long term plans he shouldn't play over Ras it's short sighted.

The Banfield running too far was there unfortunately and the Ras one was tight but was probably a free too.

 

[TheMcManusNose]

Yep subbing Erasmus was a big misread. Should have brought Aish in for Emmett maybe.

 

[woosha24]

Emmett had the bone crunching tackle on Laverde (who looked shaky after). Was deemed dangerous so presumably didn’t register a stat.

That whole section of play was weird. Someone marked it & had the ball taken off them for something off ball when they would have been taking a shot on goal then Emmett wins a HTB only for the umpire to reverse it for the tackle.

Now that 24 hours have passed and emotions have somewhat dulled:

I wont sit here and pretend I was sorry to see the Bombers take the game away from you - but you guys were on the rough end of some atrocious home-cooking yesterday, and this play was absolutely the worst. That run-down-from-behind tackle is a HTB free all day, every day in any other stadium in the country. I wish both our coaches would come out and call the umpiring dept on their crap when stuff like this happens. Its ridiculous.

 

[anchor man]

In haven't read any comments re yesterdays disaster, but I still have a sour taste in my mouth and my gut feels like it has been kicked by a horse.
This is not a knock on Serong or Brayshaw as I believe they bled purple yesterday, but we lacked leadership when it counted.
And we all know who the leadership could have come from, Fyfe, Pearce and Walters.
Experienced leaders who would have the nous to shut games down.
We lose to many of these sort of games, always have.The bag is almost sealed, yet, we leave an opening and the opposition tear open the bag to escape.
Who did we have to get into the centre to stop the bleeding?Which player could ew have used to block them from coming out the front and surge forward.
Serong and Brayshaw are very good leaders, but lack the long term experience that the three senior players have.Leadership like Pearse showed in a game earlier in the season when he went forward, took a mark, then kicked a goal to help win the game.

 

[Wizard]

In haven't read any comments re yesterdays disaster, but I still have a sour taste in my mouth and my gut feels like it has been kicked by a horse.
This is not a knock on Serong or Brayshaw as I believe they bled purple yesterday, but we lacked leadership when it counted.
And we all know who the leadership could have come from, Fyfe, Pearce and Walters.
Experienced leaders who would have the nous to shut games down.
We lose to many of these sort of games, always have.The bag is almost sealed, yet, we leave an opening and the opposition tear open the bag to escape.
Who did we have to get into the centre to stop the bleeding?Which player could ew have used to block them from coming out the front and surge forward.
Serong and Brayshaw are very good leaders, but lack the long term experience that the three senior players have.Leadership like Pearse showed in a game earlier in the season when he went forward, took a mark, then kicked a goal to help win the game.

It's no coincidence that when teams have come at us in games this year it is always Fyfe with a clutch clearance and releasing handball that sets up a goal and kills opposition momentum.

He was always going to be a big blow yesterday.

 

[anchor man]

Yep subbing Erasmus was a big misread. Should have brought Aish in for Emmett maybe.

Two over runs with the ball cost him and us.
The last one cost a goal.He had Brayshaw clear on the inside and should have handballed to him.
But he did some good things.
Not long after the second run to far, Longmuir was shown on TV sas saying, get Erasmus off.

 

[anchor man]

emmett will be suspended and we just need to better

Strange decision that one. Another two umpire cockup.
One called HTB, the other a dangerous tackle.
I think twice yesterday there were two over rules aganst us.

 

[mightymouse75]

Now that 24 hours have passed and emotions have somewhat dulled:

I wont sit here and pretend I was sorry to see the Bombers take the game away from you - but you guys were on the rough end of some atrocious home-cooking yesterday, and this play was absolutely the worst. That run-down-from-behind tackle is a HTB free all day, every day in any other stadium in the country. I wish both our coaches would come out and call the umpiring dept on their crap when stuff like this happens. Its ridiculous.

Was a momentum killer.
Commentators talking Bout it being a MRP incident was bizarre.
Game is getting softer, umpiring is getting worse.
The directives from the afl would make umpiring a tough gig.

 

[anchor man]

Now that 24 hours have passed and emotions have somewhat dulled:

I wont sit here and pretend I was sorry to see the Bombers take the game away from you - but you guys were on the rough end of some atrocious home-cooking yesterday, and this play was absolutely the worst. That run-down-from-behind tackle is a HTB free all day, every day in any other stadium in the country. I wish both our coaches would come out and call the umpiring dept on their crap when stuff like this happens. Its ridiculous.

Re the two local clubs, The Eagles had to be dragged to come to Fremantle with backing when making complaints about the travel issue.
Nothing will ever change unless both teams assist and back each other on these issues.
Both clubs have to forget the rivalry on field and look to back each other up when it come to off field issues.

 

[wakojako]

Beautiful

 

[Quazar2]

Beautiful
View attachment 2069623

ouch. the world of digital amorphous memes sure does hurt

 

[Quay Club]

The fact that we have not been able to close out our last two games on the road when in winning positions in the last quarter is a real concern.

On that form we would be beaten in any away final should we make it.

Not sure if it is mental, fatigue, team structure or tactics but whatever it is we need to fix it if we want to be a top 4 team.

 

[hoss]

Well I think Sturt has cemented his place in the team now. Probably gone past a couple of other forwards. Banfield too has found a spot, though I realize he's not always playing forward. We are missing the forward pressure that we used to get from players like Ballas and Mayne. Even some of that would be good.

On Pixel 7 using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[Cobbler]

Can't really add anything others haven't already covered...pretty gutted as just prior to this we really looked the goods. Just goes to show you how fine the margins are, win and we're all ****-a-hoot; lose and lose in a fashion not so.... palatable, and the wheels come off and we're back to 30 years of mediocrity or treading water, whatever - piss-weak and no guts and on and on the hamster treads the same old wheels.

That old cliche "it's never as good....never as a bad". Yeah, I hate that expression too. I think winning a GF is pretty damn good to getting as perfect as a feeling can get, so I'll take that over a balancing see-saw, ta very much. I guess you could argue we should have seen it coming; a fired up Essendon after "club greats" like their precious Matthew Lloyd yet again has to lament their continued woes "we've seen it all before!", an MCG home game with their finals aspirations on the line....it didn't take a genius to know it was gonna be a fired up contest and they were gonna try and respond like their lives depended on it, but as others have stated we just didn't psychologically handle that. The pressure found us out. And yet...we corrected a lot of that in the 3rd and got the ascendancy early in the fourth. That moment that Treacy went down seemed to shift the momentum entirely. They scored off that and then we went into freefall until Jye levelled it late. And then that centre bounce, urgh. Ugly stuff.

Speaking of which, was Darcy proppy, because his game was abysmal, overall. Can also understand why some are frustrated with Jackson, more so his hype than his game, I thought he was okay - but for the cost of him, the hype of him, I want more than just 'ok'. He's had an up and down season in terms of my expectations, maybe they're just too high..?! I don't know, he cost a fair bit to get over. Seems to go missing in large chunks for me. And I also think others touched on him not going to centre bounces with Fyfe out, I definitely think that has some merit. Why not at least have him attend a few?! See if his ground ball work can affect the outcome positively, he is strong in that area....Darcy.....probably not so much. I feel for Ras, I think he tried his hardest, made a few blunders, but he also looked quite good in open space either moving the ball by hand or foot, hardly a terrible game. Yet he was subbed out what felt like pretty quickly. I guess maybe in the centre bounces he wasn't as strong as what Fyfe has been...even Caleb was a bit down though, some scrubby kicks and some blunders trying to open up corridor moves, just missed kicks. Can't blame him for trying but the team didn't look on from the get go. Credit for coming back when Essendon Edgeplants got their tails up.

Jeez, I don't like Stringer but he's a brute of a player and pretty hard to stop when he's up and about. Meh, just feels like a missed golden opportunity. Dons were there for the taking and when Freo had their tails up early 4th, I thought they were going to kick on. So, in summary - gutted. Top 4 aspirations looking grim, a Premiership even grimmer. I guess I never expected it come early doors 2024, but you always hope that that 'seize the day' moment has finally arrived.

Not quite mentally strong enough to take that next step in season 2024 I suppose. Back to the Deathriding to get awesome picks to go through the cycle all over again. Happy f***ing days

The thing is we can dare to dream. Finish top 4 and you just never know.

It’s not that far a stretch to imagine finish 4th, knock over Swans again. Home prelim win and GF.

It’s not that big a stretch at all.

We were literally 5 mins of solid football at the end of 4 games of being 10 points clear at the top of the table! Man… even win 2 of those 4 games. I know you could do that for almost all sides but we’re close.

Now we need to scramble 2 wins out of 3 to be a chance of top 4.

 

[doppo]

The fact that we have not been able to close out our last two games on the road when in winning positions in the last quarter is a real concern.

On that form we would be beaten in any away final should we make it.

Not sure if it is mental, fatigue, team structure or tactics but whatever it is we need to fix it if we want to be a top 4 team.

On the other side of the coin, Amiss had a great clutch shot in the last minute to bring us back to level. Will be great for his confidence going forward should he need to seal us a game in the future.