34 minutes ago, MurDoc516 said:

You start to wonder if the midfield will ever learn their lesson in regards to clearances and getting sucked into the play.  You've got to assume nobody is teaching them any different, that was a pathetic day at the office in terms of clearance play.

Few of the maligned senior players played well today. T. Mac, ANB, Jetta, Jonesy. Sparrow, Jordon, Jackson and Rivers did enough to warranty a start. Lever and May BOG by far.

When the opposition flags that they are going to sit outside and push you into the contest and you're either not ready for it or have not plan to counteract it, somethings wrong.

6 minutes ago, loges said:

Should've won by 7 goals. Wasted chances

Side Show Bob would have helped 

We beat them easily, never really threatened, what more do you guys want in round 1

Fumbly and scrappy but very happy with the 4 points, especially without Viney , and Ben Brown.

Our back line is superb, but also very good to see TMac play well and Jordan looks a player.

We will get better.

Oh yeah and Kozzy was electric through the middle 

Edited March 20, 20214 yr by DeeZee

Just got home from the G, so good to be back. 

A truly ugly win but we have lost them in the past and never really looked like losing bar the first few minutes.

May n Lever superb. Thought Spargo was real important today and I think we’ve all seen enough to know that last years rookies , Riv, Kozzie and LJ will all be stars of the game.

just wanted to add the crowd of 21k was extremely disappointing for a first match live in 18 months, disgrace really.

Edited March 20, 20214 yr by Hell Bent
Crowd comment

35 minutes ago, Dee Zephyr said:

The weekend is always better with a win. For those constantly knocking Spargo just have a look at his game today.

Spargo is the only forward with a semblance of composure under pressure  and has vision . He showed that under 2018 finals situations. 

I fear for our other small forwards excl kossie.

26 minutes ago, The Reverend said:

There are some very astute and articulate folk on here. Yes, "a win is a win". Yes "four points is four points". Can't argue with that logic, however, I think it's time for me to go and say a prayer or three...

GoDees!

Hi Rev have not seen you for a while.

Where is pickets thoughts on spargo he was really good today, I’m sure he needs to back it up though 

We've lost heaps of games like that. 

Lots heaps of first rounds, too.

Wasn't pretty but we won, it's round 1 and we can move on with a W and hey, top of the ladder to boot.

Some serious positives today, out back in particular, but the younguns were good, Langdon great TMac finding some form was nice.

Let's go, Round 2! 

27 minutes ago, Stretch Johnson said:

Poorly coached

Geez, fair suck of the sauce bottle there, Stretch.  I know the coach gets all of the blame when we lose and none of the credit when we win, but it's a bit rich to pot him after a win!

The Crows are on fire ? 

It happens 

no easy games

20 minutes ago, faultydet said:

So are the players still angry?

Seems like plenty of posters are!  

Edited March 20, 20214 yr by demonstone
spolling

8 minutes ago, Hell Bent said:

Just got home from the G, so good to be back. 

A truly ugly win but we have lost them in the past and never really looked like losing bar the first few minutes.

May n Lever superb. Thought Spargo was real important today and I think we’ve all seen enough to know that last years rookies , Riv, Kozzie and LJ will all be stars of the game.

just wanted to add the crowd of 21k was extremely disappointing for a first match live in 18 months, disgrace really.

All the move the game mob ( including me ) will be saying I told you so.

Are Roost If Far and Dee Zee the same poster or is it just coincidence that they have the exact same avatar and posted one after the other?

17 minutes ago, bobby1554 said:

Good to get a win, but being at the game there was not a lot to get enthused about. Same old skill errors, Oliver and Petracca still have that tendency to try something cute which ultimately leads to a turnover. They need to get that out of their game. 
Some positives:

I thought they showed a lot more maturity in stemming and turning around what looked like being a Freo comeback. The forward pressure was good. And of course May and Lever.

The biggest negative was Jackson. I honestly don’t know what his position is, was beaten easily in the ruck, and don’t see him in our forward structure going forward. And the less said about his kicking the better
 

 

 

Certainly didn’t think of Jacko being a negative, tried hard and contested well and took a couple of strong grabs, and kicked just like Melb do ?, I think we have marginally improved our field kicking, but that goal kicking, wow, more kicking practise pls chocco.

7 minutes ago, Demon17 said:

Spargo is the only forward with a semblance of composure under pressure  and has vision . He showed that under 2018 finals situations. 

I fear for our other small forwards excl kossie.

Nibbler and Fritsch both hit targets inside 50, Jordon was solid too. The mids were the worst offenders as usual. Kossie does some brilliant work with the ball and messes up. I think he’ll settle in. Spargo has come so far from his early days and still stuffs up plenty. Composure at half forward is really really hard. 
 

The best patch of play was Nibbler holding the ball and waiting for the forwards to all move before picking out Jackson on a dynamite lead.

It was the ‘connection’ that everyone has been wanting. 

9 minutes ago, demonstone said:

Geez, fair suck of the sauce bottle there, Stretch.  I know the coach gets all of the blame when we lose and none of the credit when we win, but it's a bit rich to pot him after a win!

How can you have two of the premier young midfielders in the comp and go backwards in that area in 3 years?

Because we keep making the same dumb mistakes.  All players sucked into a tight contest nearly every single time.

I am not potting the coach, but that is a coaching failure.  It is just the reality. I can back it up with stats if you like?

It's only one game but it's the same theme.

Can't test it but I hypothesise that Freo would have been beaten by 14 other teams at the G today.  They were awful.

Edited March 20, 20214 yr by Guest

19 minutes ago, old dee said:

Hi Rev have not seen you for a while.

Been keeping low. Staying below the Covid cloud. Considering how much the world has changed in the last 12 months, it's good to know there is one thing that is constant - the nervousness one endures when watching the dees play. Another year closer to the terminal heart attack I'm expecting.

The overwhelming positive out of today's match was the performance of TMac.

His performance over the next four weeks is vital to our season and today he delivered in spades.

The tactic of sitting off our midfielders is becoming like the out the back of 2017/2018. Why does everyone else see it but the great Goodwin persists with Max and his Jarmanesque taps.

Let's see what happens next week with the Saints.

20 minutes ago, Stretch Johnson said:

How can you have two of the premier young midfielders in the comp and go backwards in that area in 3 years?

Because we keep making the same dumb mistakes.  All players sucked into a tight contest nearly every single time.

I am not potting the coach, but that is a coaching failure.  It is just the reality. I can back it up with stats if you like?

It's only one game but it's the same theme.

Can't test it but I hypothesise that Freo would have been beaten by 14 other teams at the G today.  They were awful.

Crows are 38 points up. Just saying

We were never going to win by heaps

we won by 3 goals with lots of work ahead of us

Edited March 20, 20214 yr by Sir Why You Little

Spotlight now on Yze and Choco to earn their keep and fix the clearance work and our field and goal kicking.

Goody breathes a sigh of relief.

Was out for the day, watched it on delay so avoided Demonland - and boy I’m glad I did; the response to a win on here, and the first game of the season is genuinely sad.

We were like 1-10 on clearances after the first, so won clearances for the rest of the game.  Out defence was fantastic, and the transition out of it for most of the game was also great to watch - Rivers, Hunt, Langdon;  even Spargo and Kozzie having decent runs.  The link up will only getting better as the season goes. 

Yes there were fumbles, so did both teams - and so has every game so far.  Yes we dropped marks and missed goals, but so has ever game so far in round 1; 29 behinds Tigers v Blues and 20 Pies v Dogs.

Lighten the [censored] you sad miserable pessimistic old bastards, footballs back and we’re on the board! 

This thread is reaching new lows of Demonland pessmism.

What's with the "it's only an injury ravaged Fremantle" stuff? It's not like we went in with a fresh first choice 22. AFAIK they were missing Walters, Lobb, Darcy, Acres and Hill (if he's best 22?). We were missing Viney, Brown, Weideman, Hibberd (plus Melksham and Lockhart, if you think they're best 22). They lost a player mid-game but the injury sub mitigates that impact.

And it's not like Fremantle are a widely-tipped bottom 4 side. They're actually widely-tipped to be right around where we're likely finish.

As to the match itself, we never really looked like being overrun after the first quarter. We won by 4 goals when not at our best, and but for some wayward fourth quarter kicking we'd have won by 6+ goals. We generated 25 scoring shots against a side whose foundation is its defence.

There's no denying our skills at times were terrible (some of the kicking was just deplorable and almost everyone fumbled it at least once), and there's no denying we've got a number of weaknesses in the 22 we just fielded. But we also saw TMac's best game since 2018 (and probably Jetta's too), May and Lever were impenetrable, Oliver's workrate was better than it usually is, Harmes looked far more comfortable in the forward half of the ground rather than the back half, Jordon's debut was impressive, and Brayshaw found his touch as the game wore on. We were clearly fitter than them and ran the game out well, too.

If that's all we've got for 2021 then we won't do much, but it's Round 1, it's our first game of 20 minute quarters on the MCG with new rules opening up the game, and by and large we were the better side for most of the match. The panic and disgust on here is ridiculously disproportionate.

Edited March 20, 20214 yr by titan_uranus

There will be plenty of chances to be critical when we lose. Whilst that was not a complete performance it was a 4 goal win, which never felt in doubt against an emerging side. That is before you get to us missing likely 5 of our best 18. So being you would think we lost if you read this thread I will just focus on three bright spots as the bile in some of these posts already  highlights the areas that need improvement and plenty that I just shake my head at,

1. May and Lever gave one of the more complete performances you will see from 2 defenders. They are our number one weapon.

2. Jimmy Jordon is a no frills worker with footy nous who I can already see is an upgrade on recent AVBs, Wagners etc... Will complement Oliver and Trac and co the more he plays.

3. We finally saw some consistently strong forward pressure from both our smalls as well as Tmac, Fritta and others forward,.

 

2 minutes ago, titan_uranus said:

This thread is reaching new lows of Demonland pessmism.

What's with the "it's only an injury ravaged Fremantle" stuff? It's not like we went in with a fresh first choice 22. AFAIK they were missing Walters, Lobb, Darcy, Acres and Hill (if he's best 22?). We were missing Viney, Brown, Weideman, Hibberd (plus Melksham and Lockhart, if you think they're best 22). They lost a player mid-game but the injury sub mitigates that impact.

And it's not like Fremantle are a widely-tipped bottom 4 side. They're actually widely-tipped to be right around where we're likely finish.

As to the match itself, we never really looked like being overrun after the first quarter. We won by 4+ goals when not at our best, and but for some wayward fourth quarter kicking we'd have won by 6+ goals. We generated 25 scoring shots against a side whose foundation is its defence.

There's no denying our skills at times were terrible (some of the kicking was just deplorable and almost everyone fumbled it at least once), and there's no denying we've got a number of weaknesses in the 22 we just fielded. But we also saw TMac's best game since 2018 (and probably Jetta's too), May and Lever were impenetrable, Oliver's workrate was better than it usually is, Harmes looked far more comfortable in the forward half of the ground rather than the back half, Jordon's debut was impressive, and Brayshaw found his touch as the game wore on. We were clearly fitter than them and ran the game out well, too.

If that's all we've got for 2021 then we won't do much, but it's Round 1, it's our first game of 20 minute quarters on the MCG with new rules opening up the game, and by and large we were the better side for most of the match. The panic and disgust on here is ridiculously disproportionate.

The answer to my recently completed prayers is that we are on track for something exciting, but the big bloke's not saying any more than that, even when pressed on a ball-park timeline. Apparently we will fix the forward 50 connection some time soonish. Patience will be rewarded apparently. Keep the faith everybody.

GoDees!