Are Freo the Melbourne of 2007?

[dazzledavey36 54,949]

Funny enough if everyone traces back to the start of 2007 we were tipped as a club that would be pushing for premiership after finishing the best Victorian club in 2006. Freo were again tipped to at least be genuine top 4 side this year.

We had alot of ageing players that we still relied on in Neitz Yze White Holland Carroll Ward Whelan Brown Bizzell McDonald Pickett Johnstone Robertson..

Fremantle have Pavlich Mundy Johnson Sandilands Peace Barlow Dawson Ballantyne Ibbotson Mzungu Mayne Spurr

We lost Brock Mclean to a broken ankle for about 10 weeks. He was coming off a brilliant 2006 and potentially tipped as a brownlow medalists. We also lost Russell Robertson to a seriouse  knee injury in round 2. Nat Fyfe is now set to miss the whole year with a broken leg along with Aaron Sandilands and Michael Johnson two very important members of their team.

We lost 9 straight in a row. Freo have so far lost 5 straight.

We then set out for a 10 year rebuild. Freo could potentially go through a rebuilding stage, maybe not as big as 10 years but who knows.

Anyone see the similarities?

 

 

Edited April 29, 2016 by dazzledavey36

[Ted Lasso 19,518]

On 4/29/2016 at 8:43 AM, dazzledavey36 said:

Funny enough if everyone traces back to the start of 2007 we were tipped as a club that would be pushing for premiership after finishing the best Victorian club in 2006. Freo were again tipped to at least be genuine top 4 side this year.

We had alot of ageing players that we still relied on in Neitz Yze White Holland Carroll Ward Whelan Brown Bizzell McDonald Pickett Johnstone Robertson..

Fremantle have Pavlich Mundy Johnson Sandilands Peace Barlow Dawson Ballantyne Ibbotson Mzungu Mayne Spurr

We lost Brock Mclean to a broken ankle for about 10 weeks. He was coming off a brilliant 2006 and potentially tipped as a brownlow medalists. We also lost Russell Robertson to a seriouse  knee injury in round 2. Nat Fyfe is now set to miss the whole year with a broken leg along with Aaron Sandilands and Michael Johnson two very important members of their team.

We lost 9 straight in a row. Freo have so far lost 5 straight.

We then set out for a 10 year rebuild. Freo could potentially go through a rebuilding stage, maybe not as big as 10 years but who knows.

Anyone see the similarities?

 

 

There are definitely similarities and i think Freo will have to go through the re-build process, that list is just not going to win them a flag. 

Fingers crossed they make a few better decisions than what we did in that period, i mean they have Ross Lyon but i'm not sure he's really the guy to re-build a club, he's the guy you hire when you're trying to make the jump inside the top 4 and competing for grand finals. 

 

[Straight Sets Simon 23,113]

They should reappoint Cameron Schwab and Chris Connolly to complete the transition.

[MadAsHell 4,212]

Had mentioned something similar in the Hogan thread.

There certainly are similarities, although any fall for the Dockers wont be as severe as ours was IMO. 

Reason being that they get a genuine home ground advantage for 10 games a year which always helps you score a few extra wins a year. Plus they have a few more young stars then we did eg Fyfe, Neale, Hill etc.

Having said that i think they may struggle for a couple of years at least.

Watch Ross trade away their early draft picks!

[bush demon 2,041]

1965 is an interesting parallel. We were the top team and had been winning a very high percentage of games up to mid-season, when we started losing a high percentage of games. The drop-off was probably unprecedented in league history.

[Schneider 220]

Hard to say. Our rebuild didn't work, we did it  3 times, they may get it right first time and shoot up quickly. 

[Little Richard 6,264]

6 minutes ago, Schneider said:

Hard to say. Our rebuild didn't work, we did it  3 times, they may get it right first time and shoot up quickly. 

Most teams seem to do that. We (and Richmond) were extremely inept.

[grazman 7,436]

5 minutes ago, Schneider said:

Hard to say. Our rebuild didn't work, we did it  3 times, they may get it right first time and shoot up quickly. 

Yes hard to see any other club stuff it up as badly as we did. We took "incompetent" to whole new depth.

[Nasher 33,616]

13 minutes ago, Schneider said:

Hard to say. Our rebuild didn't work, we did it  3 times, they may get it right first time and shoot up quickly. 

I was going to say something similar. It wasn't one long rebuild, it was three - two botched rebuilds and one that finally looks to be bearing fruit.

Any club would have to be woefully incompetent to spend as much time in the wilderness as we did (as we were). I reckon only Carlton have been managed as bad as us over the years.

[leave it to deever 17,511]

For freos sake I hope not. Wouldnt wish our poor seasons on anyone. Except hawthorn.

[Tony Tea 2,809]

My prediction pre-season was that Richmond would be this season's Melbourne 2007. Freo's collapse has caught most everyone by surprise, but there seem to be many similarities with the 2007 Dees. I wish it would happen to West Coast.

[wisedog 352]

The injuries in 2007 were horrendous. I think at the time, we had even set a record for the amount of players we used at the half way point of the season.

I also remember Gary Lyon declaring how fortunate the next coach was to be inheriting a list like Melbourne's. 

Edited April 30, 2016 by wisedog

[What 18,810]

The Harley Bennell trade will work out about as well as the Sylvia recruitment

Ross Lyon lol

[jnrmac 20,096]

1 hour ago, Clint Bizkit said:

They should reappoint Cameron Schwab and Chris Connolly to complete the transition.

Gold....

[rpfc 28,480]

I can see the similarities, but what they do next will define how they go in the next few years (decade for us).

At the end of 2007 we went the Youth Route like a bunch of kool-aid drinking zealots. Only Joel MacDonald and John Meesen were brought in with any AFL experience from the end of 2007 to 2012. And that leaves you incredibly vulnerable if you don't get your high picks right. We didn't and the ground caved in beneath us.

[jnrmac 20,096]

1 hour ago, Schneider said:

Hard to say. Our rebuild didn't work, we did it  3 times, they may get it right first time and shoot up quickly. 

Careful, Essendon tried that route....

[Moonshadow 17,676]

Way too early to tell if they will dive into the depths we did. I suspect they'll start winning a few games, gradually get good players back in and then finish around the middle. A few good trades over October (dare I say the name Hogan...) and they may well jump up next year. They are certainly better resourced than we were and being an interstate club the AFL would never let them drop down for too long.

[old dee 23,792]

2 hours ago, dazzledavey36 said:

Funny enough if everyone traces back to the start of 2007 we were tipped as a club that would be pushing for premiership after finishing the best Victorian club in 2006. Freo were again tipped to at least be genuine top 4 side this year.

We had alot of ageing players that we still relied on in Neitz Yze White Holland Carroll Ward Whelan Brown Bizzell McDonald Pickett Johnstone Robertson..

Fremantle have Pavlich Mundy Johnson Sandilands Peace Barlow Dawson Ballantyne Ibbotson Mzungu Mayne Spurr

We lost Brock Mclean to a broken ankle for about 10 weeks. He was coming off a brilliant 2006 and potentially tipped as a brownlow medalists. We also lost Russell Robertson to a seriouse  knee injury in round 2. Nat Fyfe is now set to miss the whole year with a broken leg along with Aaron Sandilands and Michael Johnson two very important members of their team.

We lost 9 straight in a row. Freo have so far lost 5 straight.

We then set out for a 10 year rebuild. Freo could potentially go through a rebuilding stage, maybe not as big as 10 years but who knows.

Anyone see the similarities?

It is hard to believe that they could be as incompetent as the MFC during that period.

 

 

[Delusional demon 82 1,197]

Ironically our last game before that disarterous 2007 season was a semi final loss to freo 

I am quite the nostalgic type (you kind of need to be as a demon) but now I'm only concerned about moving forward as we're in a good place right now and the future looks bright for the dees 

Stuff freo they blew their chance and for that matter stuff all the other clubs , our club has made good decisions in the last 3 years and are working back to get some sort of respectability.  I just hope and pray if and when our chance comes to nail a flag that we bloody well take it. St Kilda and freo under ross lyon are perfect examples of missed opportunities 

Btw our first loss in 2007 was against a Ross Lyon led St Kilda (who were the last team we beat prior to the 10 nightmare run) 

There's another hoodoo to bury today 

[Sir Why You Little 37,046]

Let the Shockers sit in the Bowels for a while. People on here are showing sympathy towards them. 

STOP NOW

They are just another team to beat...

[Phadraig 760]

Brock Mclean was never the same after that ankle injury

[Bluey's Dad 3,419]

 

Best thing I've seen in a long time

[Cheesy D. Pun 1,765]

On 30/04/2016 at 11:05 AM, rpfc said:

I can see the similarities, but what they do next will define how they go in the next few years (decade for us).

At the end of 2007 we went the Youth Route like a bunch of kool-aid drinking zealots. Only Joel MacDonald and John Meesen were brought in with any AFL experience from the end of 2007 to 2012. And that leaves you incredibly vulnerable if you don't get your high picks right. We didn't and the ground caved in beneath us.

I agree with this but I also think the seeds were sown a bit earlier. We had no balance in our list in terms of age and lost way too many experienced players at once. Though we were semi-successful during the late 90's/early 2000's, the list management during that period showed little foresight and went a fair way to setting us up for what was to come.

[Nascent 9,216]

2 hours ago, Choke said:

 

Best thing I've seen in a long time

I don't get it. Wario is a boss in battle and goes alright in GP mode. Best of the heavyweights in my opinion. Still, Yoshi is my player of choice.

[Adzman 2,154]

I hate most clubs, but I hope for the games sake no other club has to suffer a 10 year rebuild like we have.

It has been beyond painful to watch.