Today was as much about our holes across the ground and how poorly we played, as it was about how utterly awesome Freo were. They were scary good. Looked very Melbourne circa 2021 finals series. They're legit and are still very much a threat. People wrote them off after the last two weeks. Credit where it was due.

My main concern today was just the overall disconnect in general play. Hospital handpasses casually to players directly under pressure. Poor aerial contest. Outmarked across the ground. Constant space between Melbourne and Freo players. They pulled off every trick they tried. We had nothing up our sleeve. 

We were a shadow of our best. But Freo were just awesome.

16 minutes ago, picket fence said:

But Buddy aint playing next week!😁

He will be after the Swans successfully appeal his suspension!

Everything that could go wrong did go wrong for us today, not concerned about finally copping a loss 11 weeks in

1 hour ago, BAMF said:

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.

Pickett has been playing with a bandaged lower leg and a limp the past two weeks.

We are missing elite fitness coach Darren Burgess.

3 hours ago, DubDee said:

Apparently Bowey is singing the song on his own and looks upset and confused

poor kid

I’m still laughing 

Key reasons we lost:

We lost clearances by 10 and centre clearances by 4.

We lost contest marks by 7.

They kicked much straighter for goal.

We only had 43 tackles. 

Happy to leave it to others to examine the intestines of this defeat and make predictions about the portents for the season's future.

Viewing from here the most impressionable moment of this match, with the opposition running rampant in the 3rd quarter, was of young Jake Bowey home alone at centre-half-back. With the ball headed that way from another Freo forward foray.

His opponent was that giant of a ruckman Darcy, who hovered nearby like some monster apparition from ghostbusters. It was not an ideal match up, but the expression on Jake's face was priceless. As if some sense of seismic shift was about to take place. It was a scary micro-moment, which fortunately passed with JB still intact.

Edited May 28, 20223 yr by Tarax Club
Jake and the beanstalk.

Well, that was interesting.  From where I sit it looked a lot like they did to us what we do to other sides.  They choked our scoring and then they an us into the ground.  They worked a lot harder defensively, put pressure on our disposals and got a lot of cheap turnovers out of it.  Their defence worked as a unit and dominated our tall forwards.  Their midfield depth looked better than ours as well.  While Viney and Oliver held up, the rest of the midfield really struggled.  Petracca was all but invisible (I hear he was sick?)

On the good side of the ledger for us:

The usual suspects did what they usually do.  Gawn, Oliver, Viney and Brayshaw all get a pass. 

Jordon held his own

I was thrilled for Toby Bedford to get a couple of nice goals (although one of them I'm fairly sure the runner told him off for not passing)

Loved seeing Rivers vs Young on the wing contesting for a loose bouncing ball.  Young is every bit the gun we thought he'd be, so for Rivers to attack the contest that hard and get the win was a great credit to him. 

Fremantle had 2 more inside 50s

Fremantle had 5 more shots

Fremantle accuracy of 52% compared to our 32%

Fremantle won by 38 points

1 hour ago, Lucifers Hero said:

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

 

good discussion point 

We had two "easy games"

3 hours ago, Webber said:

So many thoughts. Not only was that a wake up call to the team, we supporters, and the media, it’s a huge reality check. That second half was nigh on uncompetitive. Common impartial sense tells me Premiership aspirants don’t give up 12 goals to 1 in a half of footy. Is it a complete aberration, or are there genuine premiership-killing problems ? We’ll find out, maybe even next week, but I can’t remember seeing a capitulation like that for a long time, and in my gut, it feels like there might be trouble ahead. I’m glad they don’t have to carry the unbeaten tag any more, but the way they shed it genuinely asks enormous questions. 

Cracking post. 

3 hours ago, Webber said:

So many thoughts. Not only was that a wake up call to the team, we supporters, and the media, it’s a huge reality check. That second half was nigh on uncompetitive. Common impartial sense tells me Premiership aspirants don’t give up 12 goals to 1 in a half of footy. Is it a complete aberration, or are there genuine premiership-killing problems ? We’ll find out, maybe even next week, but I can’t remember seeing a capitulation like that for a long time, and in my gut, it feels like there might be trouble ahead. I’m glad they don’t have to carry the unbeaten tag any more, but the way they shed it genuinely asks enormous questions. 

I feel the same but also remember how the Bulldogs tore us open for a quarter in round 1 once Salem went down. We quickly adjusted. Today just wasn't our day. But I do sense a few weeks of pain ahead. There were some weird concerning signs this week. Lack of disconnect and awareness. We were pressured for the first time in a while and got absolutely annihilated. I hope it's a wake up call.

29 minutes ago, McQueen said:

Cracking post. 

Hmm. If we had gone into the game without May & then having to deal  with Petty struggling with a knee…maybe we would be better prepared. Throw in no Langdon..Trac struggling  with flu..& a raft of young  players going from trying to win to now being hunted every week ..that takes time to adjust and learn.  We still have one of  the youngest teams going round & consistency takes time to build. In this system of equalisation I don’t believe we will ever have a team that goes through undefeated. Our stretch of 17 wins is phenomenal & I still believe in Goodwin’ s mantra of building a team to win finals. I think this will be our hardest year …my only concern is our tall forwards but I think I felt the same last year . Is this the time we do our ramped up training ? 

A tale of two halves really and what was the most disappointing was our complete lack of engagement in the 3rd. We were soulless, leaderless, gutless and clueless.

I can’t put my finger on it but nobody was brave enough to do something about it.

Our mids were always caught offensive side and we failed to have a sweeper that could ready the play to mop up. D50 stocks were underdone with May and Petty looked unfit. Watch now how all teams stack up tall - bring in Tommo and let Lever play his natural game.

Forward line connection is a complete mess. We have forgotten how to use the corridor and our turnover game is hopeless.

It was our first real test and I’m saying we failed and failed quite badly. Can’t say I was surprised at the result but didn’t expect that level of capitulation - they just gave up. We got Melbourned.

 

We haven’t been playing good footy. The Saints win was good but most the other games were ordinary. We sit a game clear with the bye coming up and players coming back in. We are in a great position. 

1 hour ago, Flower Magic said:

He will be after the Swans successfully appeal his suspension!

No chance.

If we’re gonna lose, let’s do it this way - a couple of games clear on top, with almost a third of our premiership team out, our two superstar mids either sick or blanketed, our two key forwards non-existent.

Kudos to Freo but this game was a mid-season write-off once they snapped our resistance in the third (aided and abetted by a couple of very dodgy frees to Taberner and some brilliance from Frederick). 

And let’s not underestimate how hard North hit us last week - might not have shown on the scoreboard but the Kangaroos were brutal. Boys played sore and tired today. Been up for so long, this performance was bound to happen. I wouldn’t be surprised if we lose another one or two in the next month before kicking into gear when our best side gets back on the park, hopefully not long after the bye. 

Oh, and go the Reds!

41 minutes ago, Deestar9 said:

Hmm. If we had gone into the game without May & then having to deal  with Petty struggling with a knee…maybe we would be better prepared. Throw in no Langdon..Trac struggling  with flu..& a raft of young  players going from trying to win to now being hunted every week ..that takes time to adjust and learn.  We still have one of  the youngest teams going round & consistency takes time to build. In this system of equalisation I don’t believe we will ever have a team that goes through undefeated. Our stretch of 17 wins is phenomenal & I still believe in Goodwin’ s mantra of building a team to win finals. I think this will be our hardest year …my only concern is our tall forwards but I think I felt the same last year . Is this the time we do our ramped up training ? 

Reckon the Weid is not the answer, he’s just not big enough, Brown has been horrible last few weeks and we missed TMac big time, melksham should have played his last game, forward line apart from Kossie Spargs and Bedford was [censored]. Missed Langers, miss Salem then May out screwed our backline, Hunt is currently useless. Trac obviously off, should have thrown Brayshaw in middle instead of Spaz, we had an off day but we’ll be back soon enough, we were due. 

3 hours ago, DeeSpencer said:

Not sold on ANB getting too much midfield time, he’s lost his rhythm a little.

Nibbler was best on for the first half, for mine. His willingness to tackle would have been useful in the guts during the third quarter. Our mids don't have a defensive bone in their bodies, Viney excluded.

Freddy got ....

8 hours 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.

Just on my first coffee of the morning and was about to post what I thought about yesterday but you've done that for me Titan.

We also had three posters in that last quarter as well as Nibbler pooping the bed when he should have just kicked for goal. I forget who it was but we also should have centred the ball to an unmarked Weeds in front of goal instead of kicking to a marked Browny in the pocket. I'm confident we'll reverse that result when we play them in Perth in a few weeks. We really do need to stop acting like millionaires when kicking for goal though. 

10 hours ago, DeeSpencer said:

Surprised (but not really) that Hunt and Rivers are copping the criticism when they’re the ones so often chasing 2 opponents because Gus Brayshaw is playing Russian roulette all game. He looked a million bucks in the 2nd quarter when we were well on top, as soon as Freo got any ascendancy he was caught out time and time again miles from his opponent 

I think you have the 'cause' and 'effect' back to front:  Maybe we were well on top because Gus propped up the defence almost single handedly when others went down. And in the third when Petty was off the ground for part of it and when on heavily restricted, the dam walls broke.

Edited May 28, 20223 yr by Lucifers Hero

11 hours ago, ElDiablo14 said:

Mate we still need to fix our entry to FWD 50 that's the main worry at the moment. It is disgraceful to be honest, can't remember more than a couple marks inside 50.

Of course our defence won't be exposed like that again, but if we can't pile up the goals we keep the opposition alive.

In the 2nd we missed at least a couple more goals, should've had a 40+ margin going to the HT. Who knows maybe that would've been enough to dampen Freos spirit.

Fully agree with all of the above ElD.  Its nearly been an all-season issue inside 50.

The 12 goals to 1 is such an outlier though as I said its almost not worth considering the scale, except there are lessons to be learned and yesterday's defence won't be the one at the sharp end of the seson.

Your comment i highlighted above is spot on when compared to what the dogs did to the eagles last night. Not an outcome we seem to be capable of .

As bad a half of football since the Perth preliminary 

I hope we review the game this time 

there is a game in a few days time to prepare for