3 minutes ago, Redbeard said:

Trac shouldn't have played. If he woke up crook they had the full day to choose someone else to come in. Poor fella struggled all game, couldn't run, must have felt shizenhousen

Another strike against the coaching panel. Why bother naming emergencies if they aren't used in this instance?

What was tonight’s crowd?

7 minutes ago, BAMF said:

Harsh on Bedford. He showed he has the wheels and talent to make it. Hard judging a young player with hardly any games under his belt. 

You might have a point, but you can't single out Bedford and not mention Melksham, Weid and Dunstan who all had far less impact.

Melksham might as well have not been on the ground.What a horrible way to bring up 200 games. 

I singled out Bedford as the only one I considered to have the chance to be useful. I’m not convinced he’s there yet but he’s a chance. The goals were very good.

I didn’t mention the others by name as we know who they are. They don’t give us skill nor do they play the system well. 

I’m not upset we lost, I’m upset how we lost. We had them down and they came back and had the momentum and we didn’t even stop them. Many played below expectations. Bedford had a good quarter then stopped. We weee outmarked, by the taller players. Every time they got it I couldn’t bear to look up. Eventually shut off the tv in frustration. It’s like we just have to.

I know we can learn from a loss, but that wasn’t just a loss, it was a humiliation. 
Now we Sydney and Collingwood (who beat Freo)

Just now, Kick_It_To_Pickett said:

What was tonight’s crowd?

29k..

7 minutes ago, loges said:

Anyone know where to find Goody's presser.

https://www.melbournefc.com.au/video/1134991/rd-11-simon-goodwin-media-conference

Just now, Kick_It_To_Pickett said:

What was tonight’s crowd?

29. Solid 

2 minutes ago, dazzledavey36 said:

Bedford just needs games now. 

He's got tools that are AFL standard and some that need work. But in the games he's played this year he hasn't done a lot wrong.

He certainly gets a game next week.

I thought he was great but accept that his defensive actions may not have been at the level we needed. I hated Spargo being on the wing and want him back forward.

I can't see Bedford getting a game ahead of Spargo, ANB or Pickett due to the defensive pressure these three bring. I assume this is what DeeSpencer is getting at too.

Fremantle's best is very good. They were two players off their best 22 and they played the best football they've played since 2015. We can't beat good sides, let alone sides flying like Fremantle today, when we had as much go wrong as we did today.

No Salem, Langdon, McDonald or Harmes. No May after 15 minutes. If you were at the game you'll have seen Petracca was wholly devoid of energy. It doesn't surprise to hear Goodwin suggest he was sick. Petty was injured and popped painkillers to run out the game. And Lever's been carrying something for weeks.

The replacements were almost all really poor. Melksham was just terrible, Dunstan not much better, Bedford isn't good or fit enough (not sure which) to play four quarters, and Weideman was both shocking and lacking in all confidence. 

We tried to cover Langdon with Spargo on a wing. It didn't work twice - it meant we were exposed on that wing, and we lacked Spargo's pressure inside 50.

Brown had a nightmare but to be fair to him, we kept kicking the ball on his head and he was double-teamed for most of the game because we had no other marking options.

And then our inaccuracy hit us again. Fritsch and Weideman missed shots they should have kicked and we honestly should have been 7 or 8 goals up at half time. Game could and I suspect would have played out much differently had Fritsch's set shot goal in the third restored a 6 or 7 goal margin, rather than a 3 goal margin. We still generated enough opportunity to keep ourselves in the game but when we needed a goal to get the crowd going and to give us some confidence, Trac missed his snap in the third and then Spargo missed his early fourth quarter shot.

May going down is a disaster, compounded by Petty being injured (and I reckon Lever being injured too). And then double-compounded by having no McDonald who could have covered infinitely better than Weideman. We haven't missed Hibberd all year but we could have used his height today: Bowey, Rivers, Hunt and Brayshaw aren't tall enough to help cover tall forwards and it showed.

We should see a handful of changes next week. There is a lot we need to improve to be sure of restoring our form.

1 minute ago, Lucifers Hero said:

https://www.melbournefc.com.au/video/1134991/rd-11-simon-goodwin-media-conference

Thanks but I was after post game

4 minutes ago, loges said:

Thanks but I was after post game

OOps!  Try this one.

https://www.afl.com.au/video/770136/full-post-match-r11-demons?videoId=770136&modal=true&type=video&publishFrom=1653732319001

Edited May 28, 20222 yr by Lucifers Hero

5 minutes ago, dazzledavey36 said:

Bedford just needs games now. 

He's got tools that are AFL standard and some that need work. But in the games he's played this year he hasn't done a lot wrong.

He certainly gets a game next week.

I assume Harmes or possibly Langdon won’t be right so it won’t matter next week.

But can we play the 4 small forwards after that? 

Spargo seems only a break in case of emergency winger. Not sold on ANB getting too much midfield time, he’s lost his rhythm a little.

Should we be drastic and give Pickett a game at half back to really open up our game style just for a week or two?

For mine this loss is mostly about the inability to plug the holes in game, of (in no particular order)

a) May

b) Petty (injured in game)

c) Langdon

d) a 20% Petracca

e) TMac

 

*other notes... the team looked cooked. From the first quarter. Not from an attitude perspective. Just physically. (Oliver, Viney, Gawn looked, well, just tired, almost like a bug had gone through the team.

*pretty hard to retain structure when May and Petty are off (or severely limited). Lever is but one bloke.

 

7 minutes ago, Kick_It_To_Pickett said:

What was tonight’s crowd?

I think it was just under 30,000.

36 minutes ago, frankie_d said:

Goodwin's press conference

Petty "has a bit of a knee" - ugh. we don't need him out 6-8

Petracca "woke up crook" - ok, that what it looked like

So isnt there an emergency option for this?   Why would you take a crook player into any match otherwise?

4 minutes ago, titan_uranus said:

Fremantle's best is very good. They were two players off their best 22 and they played the best football they've played since 2015. We can't beat good sides, let alone sides flying like Fremantle today, when we had as much go wrong as we did today.

No Salem, Langdon, McDonald or Harmes. No May after 15 minutes. If you were at the game you'll have seen Petracca was wholly devoid of energy. It doesn't surprise to hear Goodwin suggest he was sick. Petty was injured and popped painkillers to run out the game. And Lever's been carrying something for weeks.

The replacements were almost all really poor. Melksham was just terrible, Dunstan not much better, Bedford isn't good or fit enough (not sure which) to play four quarters, and Weideman was both shocking and lacking in all confidence. 

We tried to cover Langdon with Spargo on a wing. It didn't work twice - it meant we were exposed on that wing, and we lacked Spargo's pressure inside 50.

Brown had a nightmare but to be fair to him, we kept kicking the ball on his head and he was double-teamed for most of the game because we had no other marking options.

And then our inaccuracy hit us again. Fritsch and Weideman missed shots they should have kicked and we honestly should have been 7 or 8 goals up at half time. Game could and I suspect would have played out much differently had Fritsch's set shot goal in the third restored a 6 or 7 goal margin, rather than a 3 goal margin. We still generated enough opportunity to keep ourselves in the game but when we needed a goal to get the crowd going and to give us some confidence, Trac missed his snap in the third and then Spargo missed his early fourth quarter shot.

May going down is a disaster, compounded by Petty being injured (and I reckon Lever being injured too). And then double-compounded by having no McDonald who could have covered infinitely better than Weideman. We haven't missed Hibberd all year but we could have used his height today: Bowey, Rivers, Hunt and Brayshaw aren't tall enough to help cover tall forwards and it showed.

We should see a handful of changes next week. There is a lot we need to improve to be sure of restoring our form.

 Great post.

First time in a long time I thought how much I would like to have a fit Hibberd in the team.

Hibberd for a struggling Rivers and TMac swinging back might have been enough to keep our structure and change the course of the game. All wishfull thinking now though

Now that we are out of that fantasyland some of you were living in - we can be beaten - we are a good team that can be great but we can’t replace our best players and when they are down or missing our role players need to be exceptional. Our fortunes rise and fall on the following being fit and in form; May, Lever, Salem, Oliver, Petracca, Gawn, Langdon, and Fritsch.

When more than half are injured, missing or out of form - we are a massive chance to get beaten.

 

2 hours ago, Lord Nev said:

Just a flat day that has been coming for a while. The key stats show Freo had all the run and energy.

We had a flat period this time last year too, so no panic.

 

Agree Lord Nev, however quite a few of our guys are playing sore, and Using my Casey Training report specs, I was sitting just adjacent to the interchange area and I can say that Besides May who was subbed out, Petty, Tracc and Clarry all looked to be at least half cooked, or carrying injuries. In addition many players looked just totally Flat after half time and all credit to Freo, their intensity was up, matchups and coaching were excellent and some of our guys had almost season and career bad games.

Refocus, look at a few tweakes maybe a few new personal, the inevitability of T Mac, Langers, and maybe Salem back and look at refocus!

I'm beginning to wonder about our 'we do not rest players policy'. 

Its admirable but a few players have sustained injuries in the last month:  Lever, Max, Petty.  And a few played today with heavily bandaged legs.  WCE and North were a good chance to give them some respite as we did Viney.  Not to mention a bunch had covid which would have taken something out of them.  It all adds up to being way off our best physically and today it all came home to roost.

While the bye is coming soon I'm not sure that will help players carrying injuries as we get two 9 day breaks rather than a longer break of 13/14 days.  Can make a real difference to resting tired bodies and being ready for the second half of the season.

19 minutes ago, loges said:

Anyone know where to find Goody's presser.

Scroll down to press conferences here:

https://www.afl.com.au/video

 

Two of the Demonland top 10 in the POTY didn't play (Langdon and Harmes), a third (May) only played 15 minutes and a fourth (Petracca) was sick, may as well have not played, and probably shouldn't have played.

Against a top 4 side, we can't struggle that much and expect to win.

15 minutes ago, titan_uranus said:

Fremantle's best is very good. They were two players off their best 22 and they played the best football they've played since 2015. We can't beat good sides, let alone sides flying like Fremantle today, when we had as much go wrong as we did today.

No Salem, Langdon, McDonald or Harmes. No May after 15 minutes. If you were at the game you'll have seen Petracca was wholly devoid of energy. It doesn't surprise to hear Goodwin suggest he was sick. Petty was injured and popped painkillers to run out the game. And Lever's been carrying something for weeks.

The replacements were almost all really poor. Melksham was just terrible, Dunstan not much better, Bedford isn't good or fit enough (not sure which) to play four quarters, and Weideman was both shocking and lacking in all confidence. 

We tried to cover Langdon with Spargo on a wing. It didn't work twice - it meant we were exposed on that wing, and we lacked Spargo's pressure inside 50.

Brown had a nightmare but to be fair to him, we kept kicking the ball on his head and he was double-teamed for most of the game because we had no other marking options.

And then our inaccuracy hit us again. Fritsch and Weideman missed shots they should have kicked and we honestly should have been 7 or 8 goals up at half time. Game could and I suspect would have played out much differently had Fritsch's set shot goal in the third restored a 6 or 7 goal margin, rather than a 3 goal margin. We still generated enough opportunity to keep ourselves in the game but when we needed a goal to get the crowd going and to give us some confidence, Trac missed his snap in the third and then Spargo missed his early fourth quarter shot.

May going down is a disaster, compounded by Petty being injured (and I reckon Lever being injured too). And then double-compounded by having no McDonald who could have covered infinitely better than Weideman. We haven't missed Hibberd all year but we could have used his height today: Bowey, Rivers, Hunt and Brayshaw aren't tall enough to help cover tall forwards and it showed.

We should see a handful of changes next week. There is a lot we need to improve to be sure of restoring our form.

Astute report tighten your, Query.. If Mitch Brown kicks a few tomorrow would you play him??

THE GOOD

Think it was the second quarter, ANB put in 3-4 huge efforts around our 50 to pressure, spoil and tackle, already an unbelievable effort and intensity, then he shows up not long afterwards getting a hand on a Freo kick going inside 50 that ends up in a goal for us.

Bedford played his best ever half for us IMO. With limited opportunity; he's shown more than I thought he had in him this year. Handy depth that could become more.

THE BAD

Giving up 113 uncontested marks. As well as giving up -55 uncontested possessions. Just shows our lack of legs today.

Forward structure and delivery. Brown just seems chained to one spot when we look to go inside 50, and doesn't help when Gawn jumps in front of him. The mids aren't making life easy though with some real 2019/20 style inside 50s. Everything seems a little confused in our forward 50 this year for the most part.

THE UGLY

Smashed in clearances, including a run of 0-7 centre clearances in the 3rd quarter. Mids needed to step up given the absence of May. First half Dockers kicked 2 goals from 23 inside 50s, second half they kicked 12 goals from 29 entries.

No wing depth. Langdon (and Salem for full context) out and we fall apart on the wings. Amon anyone?

And the (very very expected) ugliest - Demonland whipping themselves into a frenzy over Weideman on a day where, given the full context of the above, the last people you would blame for the loss are our key forwards.

 

7 minutes ago, picket fence said:

Agree Lord Nev, however quite a few of our guys are playing sore, and Using my Casey Training report specs, I was sitting just adjacent to the interchange area and I can say that Besides May who was subbed out, Petty, Tracc and Clarry all looked to be at least half cooked, or carrying injuries. In addition many players looked just totally Flat after half time and all credit to Freo, their intensity was up, matchups and coaching were excellent and some of our guys had almost season and career bad games.

Refocus, look at a few tweakes maybe a few new personal, the inevitability of T Mac, Langers, and maybe Salem back and look at refocus!

Yep, I admire our 'no resting' or 'resilience' philosophy, but let's be honest - we got a bit lucky last year with our injury run. Hopefully it doesn't hurt us this year. We missed chances to rest some of the players clearly carrying niggles over the last month.

well, that's how you beat Melbourne, super quick ball movement from the back half. Freo did it all afternoon, they outworked us, spread harder and were harder at the ball.

We lost it through the middle, they moved it that quick that we couldn't get our backline structures in place. They also took advantage of our missing players.? They were pretty amazing to watch today

I was super keen to see how we would go against them leading into the game, they are virtually playing our game style.? They have the best backline so far this year.

Interesting to see how we respond next week