Review Round 21 - Freo Edged by the Dons.

[millsy]

Erasmus definitely ran too far. In the ground it was like watching a slow motion blunder. You could see it was about to happen in the seconds before it did. Even the few freo fans around me were screaming at him to just throw it on the boot.
He’s such an indecisive player Neil. Has some good traits but if you can’t make a quick decision in modern AFL footy you will be ruthlessly exposed. He’s got a long way to go.

Can't agree with this. He makes about three good decisions in this play. Doesn't get drawn to contest, so can be the receiver. Feins handball to Brayshaw so the defender commits, then balances up, lowers eyes and hits target i50.

If the umpires gives him leniency that many others would have got, its really well played. To say he shouldve just thrown it on the boot is crazy.

 

[kp junior]

Erasmus definitely ran too far. In the ground it was like watching a slow motion blunder. You could see it was about to happen in the seconds before it did. Even the few freo fans around me were screaming at him to just throw it on the boot.
He’s such an indecisive player Neil. Has some good traits but if you can’t make a quick decision in modern AFL footy you will be ruthlessly exposed. He’s got a long way to go.

That is called confirmation bias.


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[Wizard]

Jackson second half:
0 marks
0 kicks

7 stoppages.

Has to be a please explain.

He hasn’t really lit the world on fire this year.

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.

 

[Wizard]

Can't agree with this. He makes about three good decisions in this play. Doesn't get drawn to contest, so can be the receiver. Feins handball to Brayshaw so the defender commits, then balances up, lowers eyes and hits target i50.

If the umpires gives him leniency that many others would have got, its really well played. To say he shouldve just thrown it on the boot is crazy.

I thought he was really good yesterday, was really annoyed when they subbed him out.

His decision making and ball use has been a knock on him so far in his career but what he showed yesterday was evidence that he really is a quality player of the future. Then like always JL make the easy decision and subs off a guy like him.

 

[Cobbler]

Can't agree with this. He makes about three good decisions in this play. Doesn't get drawn to contest, so can be the receiver. Feins handball to Brayshaw so the defender commits, then balances up, lowers eyes and hits target i50.

If the umpires gives him leniency that many others would have got, its really well played. To say he shouldve just thrown it on the boot is crazy.

The problem is it took him 3 minutes to make those decisions. I want to believe we have something in Erasmus, but all the evidence is there to suggest otherwise.
There’s likely an element on poor development and not getting a run of games but he makes regular howlers in the games he does play.
I’ll back the coaches in with what they see at training and WAFL but it looks like what we found him for doesn’t cover whatever good stuff he does do.

There’s a fine line. Is he cooked mentally and as a Freo player or does he get more regular chances.

He didn’t take it yesterday. No where near taking it. Well persist because he’s young but my golly does he need to find something over the preseason.

I actually hope they keep him for Geelong.

Drop Emmett. Rotate mids through forward line and include Erasmus.

Drop Aish and Emmett.

Bring in Fyfe, Johnson.

Have Johnson as sub to manage his foot.

I’d love to see this, but very doubtful when you’re subbed and it’s not because you’re playing well.

 

[Dirty_banchez]

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.

 

[Snuffaluphagus]

You are a lot more tolerant than the Sydney mods

I got a day off for asking if we could have Warner as it didn’t look like they really needed him

On their board? After a soul crushing loss? You are lucky that's all you got

 

[arsesmart]

Erasmus definitely ran too far. In the ground it was like watching a slow motion blunder. You could see it was about to happen in the seconds before it did. Even the few freo fans around me were screaming at him to just throw it on the boot.
He’s such an indecisive player Neil. Has some good traits but if you can’t make a quick decision in modern AFL footy you will be ruthlessly exposed. He’s got a long way to go.

Marginally. Certainly the second call was uber harsh (putting it kindly). If it's marginal, calling it adds no value to the game.

But it's more about who that gets called against and when. If the replay was analysed forensically I bet a few examples would turn up showing some running further.

 

[malpaso]

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.

Yeah, yesterday did not have a difficult opponent and yet didn't make himself known except for the goals.

 

[The Lobbster]

Interesting points made out by the Mongrel Punt about the lack of rotation between Darcy and Jackson. It effectively split the game into 3 sections.

1st section - Q1 - We start slowly in the ruck. I have no explanation for it but it happened. Tbf we have fixed our slow starts and now only start badly for about 10 minutes. This still isn’t great but you can’t dominate all the time so you can live with this.

2nd section - Q2 and 3 - Ruck contests begin to equalise in the second and begin to go in our favour in the third. Darcy had a poor game overall but was decent in this period.

3rd section - Q4 - Darcy fatigues from playing almost as the exclusive ruck for the game. Essendon as a result begin to win damaging clearances as a way to stop their “cheating” is to at least halve the ruck duel. We stopped doing this and Essendon got back on top.

I understand why Jackson wasn’t being used in the ruck. He doesn’t have a great matchup against either Essendon ruck. However (with the benefit of hindsight) we didn’t rotate enough.

 

[malpaso]

Interesting points made out by the Mongrel Punt about the lack of rotation between Darcy and Jackson. It effectively split the game into 3 sections.

1st section - Q1 - We start slowly in the ruck. I have no explanation for it but it happened. Tbf we have fixed our slow starts and now only start badly for about 10 minutes. This still isn’t great but you can’t dominate all the time so you can live with this.

2nd section - Q2 and 3 - Ruck contests begin to equalise in the second and begin to go in our favour in the third. Darcy had a poor game overall but was decent in this period.

3rd section - Q4 - Darcy fatigues from playing almost as the exclusive ruck for the game. Essendon as a result begin to win damaging clearances as a way to stop their “cheating” is to at least halve the ruck duel. We stopped doing this and Essendon got back on top.

I understand why Jackson wasn’t being used in the ruck. He doesn’t have a great matchup against either Essendon ruck. However (with the benefit of hindsight) we didn’t rotate enough.

Yeah it was bizarre to say the least, it was obvious that Darcy was tiring (and wasn't having a great game anyway). I think he should have been subbed instead of Erasmus and let Jackson ruck out the game against Draper.

 

[Wizard]

Yeah it was bizarre to say the least, it was obvious that Darcy was tiring (and wasn't having a great game anyway). I think he should have been subbed instead of Erasmus and let Jackson ruck out the game against Draper.

It is really poor player management.

Part of the bonus of having the two of them is we can absolutely double team others sides, even when they play two rucks like Essendon did yesterday.

Jackson is an elite runner, especially for a ruckman. He should be playing 15 mins through the midfield each qtr IMO. Probably with 10 mins in the ruck and an additional 5 as a mid, let him use his running ability to run the opposition ruckman into the ground.

The Kangaroos game earlier in the year was a perfect example of how he can do this.

I thought the message when we recruited him was that he would be used like Blivacs? I have seen none of this so far.

 

[Mk LXIII]

I just thought we should have gone with the bigger bodied midfielder to replace Fyfe. That being Brodie. Structure, structure, structure!

 

[Dale147]

Tough loss but the sun has come up. Onwards and upwards.

 

[Dale147]

 

[Dockeroo]

I thought Erasmus was ok apart from the blunder free kick against. Certainly compared to his replacement Aish who must be one of the least inspiring 100 game players to play for freo.

Neils problem is he can’t play anywhere other than inside mid it appears.
If he could develop a position Elsewhere you could put him in at half forward instead of Emmett or Banfield or JOM potentially. Then just run him though the guts occasionally.

Full time inside mids have to be premium players within the 22. You can’t have the 20th or 22nd best man on the team playing full time in the most important position on the field. Brayshaw young Serong are all top 5 players at the club.

 

[Lach72]

I don't think I can stomach watching that last centre bounce again.

But I would love to know what was discussed. What the plan was with 36 seconds left.

A draw was as good as a win yesterday with our % over all the teams on 52 pts.

Surely letting Merritt run through was the worst scenario possible.

If we were in front by 1 point and not level would anything have changed structurally in the middle.

Yep. Out if everyone there Merret is the danger. Not ideal to give him the written invitation down the outside

 

[Lach72]

There’s still too much of the headless chook about him for me.
Fyfe & Johnson for Ras & Emmett & we win this comfortably.

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

 

[Wizard]

I thought Erasmus was ok apart from the blunder free kick against. Certainly compared to his replacement Aish who must be one of the least inspiring 100 game players to play for freo.

Neils problem is he can’t play anywhere other than inside mid it appears.
If he could develop a position Elsewhere you could put him in at half forward instead of Emmett or Banfield or JOM potentially. Then just run him though the guts occasionally.

Full time inside mids have to be premium players within the 22. You can’t have the 20th or 22nd best man on the team playing full time in the most important position on the field. Brayshaw young Serong are all top 5 players at the club.

He can play forward.

Neils issue is that the selection committee and coaching staff haven't shown any patience in his so far. That could well be because they have given him things to work on and they see him as a more long-term project, but it is really hard for him to do much with shit opportunity.

There is no way he should have been subbed yesterday. We would have been much better off if we didn't use the sub at all.

 

[Wizard]

I just thought we should have gone with the bigger bodied midfielder to replace Fyfe. That being Brodie. Structure, structure, structure!

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.

 

[Snuffaluphagus]

I have doubts on Ras being able to be a winning AFL player but I think you are being very harsh if you don't think yesterday was at least promising, if not good. His hands were very good, pressured well, made the right decision most of the time. That was an intense game to come back in after a while out of the game.

Aside from running too far, the other moment he needs to be shown 50 times and told to stop doing it (because he does it all the time at Peel) is when he took the mark on the wing close to forward 50 and stood and stopped despite being in acre of space. Just go mate, stop stopping. You will not make it at the level if you can't play on there and make a decision

 

[pK75]

View attachment 2069477

These ratings are pretty much spot on, no idea why Ras was subbed out and we sent Aish into the guts, it took us until the 3rd quarter to sort out our stoppage game, then we disrupted it by subbing him off.
If anything think Brayshaw and Serong were rated too highly in Dani’s article

 

[Lach72]

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.

He only played a half in the Peel game I reckon. He got managed

 

[Bicco]

Looking at the individual stats this morning, Emmett and Frederick had 9 possessions, 1.1 and 0 tackles between them. Aish had 6 possessions and 3 tackles in a quarter. Those two forwards were the biggest factor as to why we lost IMO. 0 pressure, 0 output. Admittedly 1 Emmett tackle was reversed to being dangerous but the point remains. Our big forwards were fantastic, but if they didn't convert, the ball just bounced straight out.

 

[Wizard]

He only played a half in the Oerl game I reckon. He got managed

Had it 24 times so must have been one hell of a half he played.