Autopsy Tale of two halves vs. Freo

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A full strength Freo at Optus stadium with the crowd behind them is less capable than an undermanned Freo at Marvel that's had 4 forced changes due to injury while also coming off a shorter break than us? Come on dude

How undermanned were they? I remember a Freo fan coming in here and saying that only two of the injured players would make their team. They look significantly better this season than last and that is a FACT. Last season they were putrid and that is a FACT. Come on dude.
 
Lol ok righto. I see you joined in 2000 so it's a safe assumption you were there to enjoy our last period of success.

I am 29 years old and all I've known is a s**t North Melbourne. I was alive in 96 & 99 but I have little to no memory of that time so the peak for me has been a slightly above average team that is widely said to have overperformed - I don't have any good times to fall back on yet I'm still here as I have been my entire life and I'm not going anywhere.

That won't stop me though from expecting more from a club that is seemingly incapable of doing what every other club in the league is able to. Seriously our bar is so low right now that Hermes Conrad wouldn't be able to limbo underneath it.
I've been a supporter since 1976 and thankfully this era has been the only really poor period in all the time I have been following the club (I guess we all know how the North supporters of the 1930's felt), and despite the last 4 seasons, I am always thankful I'm not a Bulldogs (despite 2016), Melbourne (despite 2020) or St Kilda supporter. :D

It's good to hear that you won't give up on the club, I understand the feeling of impatience. there was a period in the early 90's where I believed I will never see another North Melbourne premiership, if something like Bigfooty had been around in 1992/93/94 I'm sure I would have been just as impatient and posting my frustrations, and while what we are going through now is a lot worse than the disappointing 1992 season, I do believe that now we have Clarkson and his issues are behind him, we are at least heading in the right direction and the wins will come, unfortunately it will start with small steps. And the first half of yesterday's game was a small step, at least that's how I'm going to look at it, but I will be voicing my disappointment if we haven't made any obvious gains over the course the season.

I do hope you get to experience a day like 1996 and 1999, they were two of the greatest days in my life, and every North supporter should get that opportunity.
 

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This team has become so predictable.
Was at work and checked the scores when it was like 19-52, and let out a "Holy shit".

My manager looked at the score and straight away said "Oh mate, I'm sorry, but you know it's not going to last".

Next time I checked we were down by 20.
 
We have been saying this for 4 years though, not really sure we can be giving the benefit of the doubt anymore.
this isnt the same team as 4 years ago, the list was completely shot and you cant turn 30 odd players round in a few years, We still have a couple of blokes to churn through,
 
To echo the above: if we nail 2 of those last 3 goals we are 7 goals up at half time and we win.

I notice this in saints preseason game: we don’t know how to win. We need to work on it, whether it’s closing out a close one or putting a team away when we’re all over them. Cos the way we play we’re obviously vulnerable to being scored on quickly.
Honestly, I was yelling it out from level two. But 10 minutes into that second half I was yelling slow down, and man up.

Now I don’t know if I’m wrong or off the mark here, but I think that could have been a massive change in deciding the next 15 minutes. Blind Freddy could see that our young guys didn’t know who to man up on, and that the ball movement was just too erratic while everyone was out of position.
 

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This team has become so predictable.
Was at work and checked the scores when it was like 19-52, and let out a "Holy s**t".

My manager looked at the score and straight away said "Oh mate, I'm sorry, but you know it's not going to last".

Next time I checked we were down by 20.
 
3 red time goals 1st , 2nd & 3rd qtr .,.
Keep seeing it every week looks like our coaching staff ain’t …. Cos we are not doing anything different week in week out with 1-2min to go in each qtr… so frustrating! FFS 🤦‍♂️

OMG it’s frustrating.

The first qrt one, there was a minute on the clock, freo have the ball at half back and it’s a set play with a blood rule.

There was 1 minute left for ****s same. They had time to get organised while the bloody player comes off. 55 seconds later Walters is lining up for goal.

Second qrt. Freo have kicked 2 in a row to mitigate our great qrt. We have the lead, let’s just get to half time and slow things down. Tucker takes a mark on the half back flank, and instead of slowing things down he plays on, gets caught holding the ball and freo kick a long shot that was touched on the line (after a score review).

Surely the coaching staff now realise that with 3 mins left the team has to shut down the play. Floor back. Every player in the backline. Make it extremely hard to score.
 
I've been a supporter since 1976 and thankfully this era has been the only really poor period in all the time I have been following the club (I guess we all know how the North supporters of the 1930's felt), and despite the last 4 seasons, I am always thankful I'm not a Bulldogs (despite 2016), Melbourne (despite 2020) or St Kilda supporter. :D

It's good to hear that you won't give up on the club, I understand the feeling of impatience. there was a period in the early 90's where I believed I will never see another North Melbourne premiership, if something like Bigfooty had been around in 1992/93/94 I'm sure I would have been just as impatient and posting my frustrations, and while what we are going through now is a lot worse than the disappointing 1992 season, I do believe that now we have Clarkson and his issues are behind him, we are at least heading in the right direction and the wins will come, unfortunately it will start with small steps. And the first half of yesterday's game was a small step, at least that's how I'm going to look at it, but I will be voicing my disappointment if we haven't made any obvious gains over the course the season.

I do hope you get to experience a day like 1996 and 1999, they were two of the greatest days in my life, and every North supporter should get that opportunity.
That was a great year until the GF. But I still celebrated the year, albeit a bit over the top.
 
That’s right!

But I’m not sure it’s a ‘stinker’ or a couple of ‘bad games’. It’s more or less a ‘campaigner, you need to change your leading patterns’ or the team needs to accept they can only go to Larkey when he is one on one and infront of his defender and prepared to take a chest mark or slight overhead mark in front of him. That’s it. So in that case, maybe don’t go to Larkey so frequently when there at 7 players in the hot spot. Especially when we don’t have any crummers.

Play him deep or up the ground and also look at centring it towards that Paul Curtis and Stephenson combo.
Banging it on the boot long is for the scrap heap. I can’t recall a packmark inside 50 over the last 5 years. It’s dumb, we don’t have the aerial presence and we are throwing the ball away.
 
Ok.

Deep dive into 3rd qtr done. That was both revealing and surprising.

I may have missed stuff, but I was pretty forensic. There is some editorialising but I've tried to keep that to a minimum. Opinions are given throughout though.

Ill give Big ticks and little ticks where appropriate, and big crosses and little crosses where appropriate.

CBA 1

X, LDU, Powell, GW

X wins down to ldu for clearance inside 50. poor kick.

Aish beats Simpkin, wins footy but dangerous entering kick is broken up by GW, Powell collects hands to fisher for 2nd inside 50, crap kick intercepted by freo. 2nd crap inside 50 within 30 seconds. Both kicks feel short, both times forwards (Simpkin then lackey) ran to wrong spots.

Little cross ldu, Simpkin, fisher, Dusrma, larkey (none could elevate their game to get us a shot on goal from 3 inside 50s)

Corr nice fist on wing, tucker nice kick to Duursma outside 50. he turns it over. 3rd inside 50 in first minute undone by poor kick/poorly positioned forwards.

over the next minute, after the doors intercepted kick, freo spend 1 minute with short kicks up and across the ground. Space for the kicks seems to get bigger and less pressure the closer they get to the forward 50.

Big cross on team defence here - everyone gets a cross

Long kick inside 50 (first one) Dawson stands underneath, tries to mark, and soft drops it at his feet. Better option is to punch

little cross Dawson

Little tick Xerri pushed back hard to contest

Ball up inside freo 50. X wins down to GW, Jackson gives away freeform too high. GW kicks 39 meters away to a contest. GW follows up and tucker impresses desperation wise. but ultimately GW turns it over with missed handball to LDU.

From turnover, Ryan kicks long inside 50, pink vs Tavener, but Xerri comes over top, kills ball, pink tackles. ball up.

Xwins decisively down to GW,quick hands to Powell, to ldu who slips and get hit hard and high - free kick.

LDU switches, to fisher who plays on blindly, hands to Dawson, hands to pinks feet, he fumbles, and misses hands to Dawson, turnover, lucky strong misses.

Big cross - fisher, Dawson, pink so I'm giving them all a big cross, because this was josh walker type shit. Fisher just played on without even looking what was around, Dawson should have hit the handball to pink, but even if he did pink was under the pump. Not a good attempt at an exit.

Serongs miss was the first score of the qrt at 16:11 left on the clock.

Sheez kicks in, we move the ball to the wing, and its out of bounds.

clearance numbers are on screen, we are up 25-14, thus far we are still dominating clearances.

X wins the throw in down, but switkowski for freo attacks footy moving it forward. repeat ball up, x wins down easily but young sharks hack kicks inside 50, ball bobbles around on the ground, but switkowski wins it, kicks into centre but its down filed as X brushed him as he kicked it.

Big cross X - it was the softest of frees, but why risk bumping a guy after he's disposed of the ball.

Tabener misses the lot, Pink nice contested mark

Little tick pink

Pink hands off aggressively to fisher, amazing kick to Duursma on the lead.

We switch, corr to pink. Pink has Dawson open but lets to kick longer to a leading Stephens. Poor option, as Stephens has no aerial presence and it was a contest given the length of kick. Should have gone short to Dawson. Pink take the easy option mate, you're not in the team to hit leading players coming out of 50. This decision leads to the ball being turned over.

Little cross pink

we are now at 14:43 left on clock and the only score for the qrt was freo with 1 point.

Lazz some good pressure on Fyfe nearly turns footy over. freo switch to other side, then go long. corr good fist on Treacy. tucker good roving to fisher with an amazing kick to Duursma in centre. durs goes long to chf, zuhhar only one to fly, ccj stands still, and lackey is looking to get out the back. ball up inside 50.

Lackey vs Jackson at ball up. Jackson wins first hit out of qrt (13:57 on clock) decisively down to young who clears.

But long clearance marked by fisher - good positioning and dive for mark.

little tick fisher

short to Wardlaw who kicks long inside 50. Again, only zuhaar jumps. CCJ again doesnt get off ground, and lackey is 10m infront of drop zone of ball. LDU roves but gets caught holding the ball. that's 6 inside 50's for no score this qrt.

gaps everywhere. Fyfe takes the fee kick pretty much like a kick out from behind. he kicks into the centre for an easy mark, then freo chip along the wing, bring back into chf, then out again to Walters for an easy hit up inside 50. coast to coast. no risk, easy marks all the way along. I watched this from 2 angels many times to work out who was to blame.

ultimately I think its a big cross to corr, and little crosses to sheez, fisher, and kerch

Absolute pox team defence and everyone is to blame, but those guys especially and corr made a really bad decision that let his man be free at chf for the easy mark and kick to Walters.

coast to coast goal and alarm bells should be ringing despite being 2 goals up still.

CBA 2

X wins it down but nice follow up from Jackson see 2 bandpasses, the second of which looks like a throw, and freo clear inside 50.

The long kick is marked by atbener who point blank beats pink.

Big cross pink

CBA 3

X gets bad bounce straight to Jackson. Instead of letting him get the tap, X cannons into him giving away a stupid free.

Big cross Xerri

After some sort kicks, freo go long inside 50. Jackson marks over pink. Now this was 100% Xerri fault. It was one of the dumbest things I've seen a player do given the situation. Xerri follows Jackson down to the goal line, then just before the kick comes in, he leaves Jackson to get into a position he feels is better. The kick is long and good and Jackson has the sit over pink, with xerrri 10 metres away. pink asks Xerri "where the hell were you?" I ask it to.

Biggest of crosses for Xerri

Then inexplicably, lmac gives away 50. I watched it 20 times. He ran straight in like h hard something. the problem was no one around him moved. Stranger still, mark Howard calls it as "whistle before the kick" It's like JFK stuff, the whistle from the grassy knoll.

Either way, lmac stuffed up.

big cross Lmac and we've given up the lead

There's 10:15 on the clock and Jackson and Xerri are off the ground. Jackson was good but gee we gave him some help.

CBA 4

CCJ, Simpkin, LDU Powell

CCJ taps nicely down to Simpkin who hands to Powell who takes a bounce and kicks long but not to a forwards advantage inside 50. But Curtis nice rove, hands to sleeve who kicks weak left foot snap that doesn't make distance. Curtis handball the first possession inside 50 to set up a score for the qrt.

From the kick in feet again go short short short long, to the wing where amiss outmarks lmac. no key defenders insight.

Long kick inside 50, ccs is there and he and pink spoil, but ccs gets ball and blindly handballs to a freo player, scramble to amiss who gets pressure from lmac who saves a goal.

Little tick lmac

fisher takes kick in, runs off blindly, but for the third time in the qtr hits Duursma with a nice kick.

shocking option from Duursma.kicks to contest in centre for a turnover

big cross Duursma

North scramble for exactly thirty seconds to cover the turnover. The following players stand out for making good decisions or saving a shot on goal

big tick lmac, Powell, sheez, corr fisher

There is now a ball in in freos 50. And all the hard work is undone in less than n 10 seconds. Powell is on Brayshaw, fisher on Walters, and sheez on switkowski. Brayshaw runs into Walters, Powell leaves Brayshaw and follows Walters. fisher sees switkowski flashing around the stoppage, and sheez lets him go for some reason, fisher leaves waters and Powell for switkowski.

Brayshaw is all alone, and kicks a goal.

I check my heart rate its 140.

Big cross powell

Little cross sheez and fisher.
sheez might be Lucky with only a little cross here. There was also a slight fumble from ldu who had a chance to get the ball before Brayshaw.

CBA 5

X, GW, Simpkin and Powell (who is on Brayshaw)

nil all draw in ruck but Bradshaw swoops in, while Powell is left guarding space,

little cross Powell

the inside 50 is a hack kick but Fredricks burns off sheez to run into a goal but hits the post

big cross sheezel as he was flat out beaten

we kick out and sheez gets it, and turn sit straight over to brayshaw

big cross sheezel

The long kick inside 50 is Fredricks vs kerch, and Fredricks beats him easily in the air and goals

big cross mckercher

CBA 6

X wins 2 tap puts but ball bobbles and comes out to Jackson. Jackson vs sheezel and again sheez gets beaten, Jackson wins the ball at ground level and freo get a shot at goal that is saved well by corr.

big cross sheezel
bg tick corr


Scott takes kick in, to lmac to wing, we win contest out ground level but get called back with no apparent advantage. Curtis long kick inside 50, zuhaar caught behind, and gives away a free in frustration

little cross zuhaar

freo kick to wing but good Scott pressure forces it out

little tick Scott

X soars threw air to beat Jackson to tap, but hits it straight into Simpkin, ball rebounds to Jackson, who hands to serong,

corr drops hard inside 50 mark, could have punched, scramble at ground level sees Dawson save a goal through desperation

little cross corr
big tick Dawson

Scott kicks in again, again Duursma marks, kick to wing but no mark. Curtis gives away stupid free in frustration.

little cross Curtis

X outmarks Jackson on long inside 50

big tick X

switch gets made to mckercher, poetry in motion as he gives along hb and kicks long to sleeve on the run

big tick mckercher

sleeves kick isn't bad, but its to jy, who can't mark and gives away a free for too high

small cross jy

ball transitioned up wing, long kick to treacy who is by himself. he marks and kicks long into 50. Again Xerri is there with Jackson, again, Xerri leaves Jackson. you kind of have to see it. but Xerri invites a wrestle with Canfield, leaving Jackson 3 metres back on his own, ready to jump over them for a speccy, Dawson comes in late and spoils towards the boundary.

alas, it doesn't get there as again Fredricks leads sheet to the ball, sheez tackles him and reduces drops the ball into the path of banfield who snaps their 8th goal in a row. Dawson spoiled then stopped. Banfield didn't and that's why they kicked the goal.

big cross Dawson

CBA 7

Shocking bounce favours Jackson. taps ball, switkowski infant of sheez picks up ball and goes inside 50. corr drops another mark at the last second. Mazing smother by GW, but LDU is day dreaming too far off Fyfe who kicks their 9th goal in a row.

little cross sheez, corr and ldu
little tick gw for the smother

SUMMARY

That's how it happened.

Issue 1 - played the qrt well until the 12 minute mark or so. Had numerous good inside 50's but completely broke down up forward.

long kicks to no one or zuhaar in a pack was the order of the day.

Issue 2 - shocking qtr by sheez. really surprised me but he was pox. mckercher easily outmarked. sheez has runs on the board down back, but he can't be that lax. need another actual defender down there.

Issue 3 - for every good thing the defenders did, that saved a shot on goal, they made stupids mistakes that undid their work.often immediately after doing something good. Corr defended well but made a stupid choice on transition that cost us a goal, and dropped 2 marks when he could have punched them. Pink got done once by Tabener but also made silly decisions by foot. Dawson one shit handball, but also the terrible non follow up of his punch that lead to the banfield goal.

Issue 4 - Maybe Xerri got ahead of himself? he didn't pay enough respect to Jackson which was odd. he dominated Jackson in tap outs, but failed to man him up twice with long kicks inside 50, one of which was a mark and goal, and he should have paid Jackson more respect at ground level after the tap. It kinda felt like Xerri didn't realise his good work from earlier was getting undone by Jackson and it was time to focus on him for awhile.

Issue 5 - team defence on transition. chip chip chip long. pretty much every time and we could shut it down. have to do better.
 
Was it fitness? No way we can be sure. Maybe played a part be I thought it was more they took away what we were doing well and we just had nothing else.
It was probably on Clarkson and his coaching staff to change gear to get up that hill when we were being challenged. But it seems North are riding a fixie.
 

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Autopsy Tale of two halves vs. Freo

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