Fremantle came with a point to prove and with May down and out early, Petty with a knee troubling him, Trac clearly crook, Langdon, T Mac, Salem and Harmes out and a number of our best players having poor games it was the perfect storm for a comfortable loss.

What was most disappointing was the number of our players who were just down and making errors constantly. Our shape around contest looked all over the place and after half time it just didn't look like the team we've come to know.

The only worry going into next week is injury to some of our key personnel.

I've been a big wrap for Sam over Tom this year but last night was possibly the final straw for me. We weren't making it easy for our tall forwards with our entries but what's completely inexcusable is the amount of times Sam failed at making a contest and allowing his opponent to out-body him and mark the ball. It happened way too many times. Brown was also down and looked proppy I thought when coming off at one stage.

Looks like we're a bit banged up but next week I expect a strong response and solid win providing we get some personnel back.

We need Salem's ball use and composure desperately.

Rivers and Hunt have been a bit wobbly for a few weeks now imo. Can't keep carrying underperforming players or we'll continue to leak easy goals.

 

14 hours ago, Jaded No More said:

It really is. Because losing to [censored] sides doesn’t matter come finals and is clearly a concentration lapse. Today wasn’t a “we didn’t come to play because we expected to win”. Today was a “we got beaten by a side that is very good and killed us fair and square”. 

Don't forget we lost to both the Bulldogs and GWS in regular season last year. Both played (and won) finals but our best level was way too good when it mattered. We went through our form slump at the right time. I'm still confident that our best footy is unbeatable but a mid season blip is inevitable. We just need to make sure we hit our straps at the right time and build fitness and form in our key players as the finals approach. 

Why we lost ?  

x injuries - Salem Langdon Tmcd Harmes out of best 22 

x injuries part 2 - during the game - May going down so early in the first quarter and left us exposed to Lobb and Taberner. May is our defensive leader. Lever had to go across and robbed us of our advantage.  Petty clearly was then not 100% in 2nd half.

x Trac was not 100% at all. He didn’t have his intensity and energy and lost many contests. There was no burst.  

x bad kicking for goal - yes we’ve called it out that it would eventually cost us and it did. Definitely we were in top in the 2nd quarter and missed so many chances to be 7 or 8 goals up (not 4). Could have applied the jugular but we left ourselves exposed. Conversion has to be improved. Fritsch had some chances as did Trac. Start of the 4th, we could have got back but missed chances. 

x key forwards were very poor.  Simply out marked or out bodied. Brown has had a poor few weeks and needs to lead up more. He’s still in our best 22 alongside Tmcd.  Weid has exhausted his opportunities imv and was very poor last night and eventually tried moving back. 

x In the 2nd half, Freo simply out “Melbourned” us. Sure there was pressure but we created our own with fumbles and missed tackles. Running into trouble didn’t help and examples like Lever and Hunt directly leaked goals  

x we lost in the contested footy , especially in the 3rd quarter. Lost Clearances-and-lost stoppages.

x contested marking all around the ground favoured Freo. 

Many reasons and I’m sure the diagnosis will be thorough.  

But remember we are 10-1 and on top of the ladder.  That’s the goal and there will be speed bumps along the way.
We have 4-5 players to bring back and add a fit Trac and the leadership of May. 

I will take Dees v Freo in the GF in September.  We can take them !! 
 

Edited May 29, 20222 yr by spirit of norm smith
U

I'm disappointed with the loss, but not despondent. 

We went into the game without clear 'best 22' players in  TMac, Langdon, Harmes and Salem, and lost May very early on.  Petty's injury and Petracca's illness further added to our woes (that's almost one third of our best team either down or out). 

Out of necessity, several players had to play unfamiliar roles, and our team systems broke down badly as a result.  

Further, we've been 'carrying' a couple of out of form players for a few weeks now, and they will come under the microscope for next week's game.

Like all clubs, there is a significant gap between our best 22 and our depth players.  I'll be watching the Casey game with interest this arvo.

It just doesn't feel like the start of a string of losses to me.

Edited May 29, 20222 yr by Deeoldfart
typo

In the second quarter they were trying hard to expose our lack of height but it wasn’t coming off because we were getting first hands on it. They were swapping match ups, manning up spare etc. then in the third it clicked because they got it first. They’re very tall and strong. Given a full squad and better condition we take the half time lead and run with it. They don’t get the run on they did with our first choice backs and a healthy petracca. It was a perfect storm of holes all over our backline and a barely functioning midfield on the day. They were and are good but they took advantage of a severely undermanned side. As for forward connection, I think in part it comes from effective and efficient defensive work. They had time to set up in the second half. In the second quarter they didn’t and we could have kicked more than we did. In a pressure final with close to full squads our cream will out perform their cream I would think.

13 hours ago, dazzledavey36 said:

 

How cute of you @ucanchoose. Living rent free inside that small head of yours 😘 keep battling away old fella and someday someone will take you serious on here.

 

I'm sick and tired of you belittling me on this forum.   I would like you to refrain from abusing people with disabilities on here.  Do you do it in real life.?

I will no longer make any correspondence on this matter

Anyone else notice opp teams now not getting called for 15mtr short short passing and any other sort of minor interference.Also in loose ball play no frees paid to us but as soon as possession by opp they get the free kick or magically outside possession. 

Far as loses go this was a good loss. They will get a lot more out of this than if they had kicked straight in the last and gone own by 10 points. Tis would have hurt them and that hurt will make them grow. 

I really think we should see this as an opportunity to stop being so reliant on plan A: defence, long down the line, whack it forward.

And instead make sure we work on plan B which is actually playing some proper attacking football.

Get some bounce off half back, switch to the fat side, use the corridor, kick to some leading forwards in space.

We are so risk adverse with our kicking at the moment and we’ve lost run from the backline. 

We’ll struggle to beat Sydney without May and some other crucial players if we keep the game dour. 

Just had a bad day ... most of our players were well down on their best

And you always learn something from a loss.  But in advance we would have known that unless we bring our best (or close to our best) we're in danger of losing

So we didn't bring anywhere near our best and paid a price

Injuries played a part (especially with balance across the ground) but we had too many players who didn't play to expectations

Harmes, Langdon, May, T-Mac & Salem may all miss next week so we may not see many changes ... so roughly the same team will have a chance to make amends against Sydney next week. 

And it's good that we're playing a decent team straight up after this loss - we need to bounce back against good opposition who will keep coming at us

Right now, I'd take any sort of win next Saturday night

The Swans will be up for the contest so we certainly will need to be up for the contest as well

Edited May 29, 20222 yr by Macca

It all changed when Petty was crocked. Until then Freo had bugger all.

Keep seeing we were outplayed and outcoached. I'll concede on the outplayed bit but it's easy to look bad when you're down key pillars mid game.

Out coached i'm not sure, we pounded Freo before we were essentially forced to play with Lever as the only tall defenders until a compromised Petty came back on the offer some extra height. Fremantle did nothing we didn't see St. Kilda do for example.

Freo purposely went very tall to try disrupt our aerial game and we lost T. Mac before the game and May & Petty during the game. The only thing Goodwin should have done was put Gawn down back as a defender but waited way too long and then decided to put Weideman down back.

If T. Mac's not fit i'm sure JVR would be a better option then Weid as he has been swingmen in his junior days. Logically, Tomlinson comes in for May next week and we hope Petty is fine. Melksham needs to come out and a bigger body like Harmes needs to come in.

10 minutes ago, Clintosaurus said:

It all changed when Petty was crocked. Until then Freo had bugger all.

Petty I think was tripped by Lobb

6 minutes ago, willmoy said:

Petty I think was tripped by Lobb

Yes deliberately  I could see it from the stands Umps couldnt

 

if ... my dog were a cat then he'd be a cat ... we know that

but, if Bedford kicks that goal in the first Q instead of the post ... I reckon we get to a six-goal arf-time lead ... and Freo would have been broken IMO.

We were poor on many fronts, and especially the lack of marking around the ground, but our first arf was up to standard.

Go Dees

… and the winner of eliciting at least one of every possible reaction emoji is…

Hashtag small things amuse small minds. 

Edited May 29, 20222 yr by WalkingCivilWar

In my opinion the Umpiring "Fraternity" need to have a look at the way they are being viewed. If money has no limit when it comes to other things AFL, Fix the game up from cheating or just have a free for all..

1 hour ago, DeeSpencer said:

I really think we should see this as an opportunity to stop being so reliant on plan A: defence, long down the line, whack it forward.

And instead make sure we work on plan B which is actually playing some proper attacking football.

Get some bounce off half back, switch to the fat side, use the corridor, kick to some leading forwards in space.

We are so risk adverse with our kicking at the moment and we’ve lost run from the backline. 

We’ll struggle to beat Sydney without May and some other crucial players if we keep the game dour. 

We did up 3 or 4 goals through turnovers from attacking corridor kicks. Is that what you would like them to do more of? The reason why we tried that is they were smashing us at stoppages and I thought we panicked. Normally we would grind a goal or two out and get it back on our terms but they were just too good.

Sydney are a different challenge. They have very poor defensive systems. Freo are elite defensively.

24 minutes ago, Anti-Saint said:

if ... my dog were a cat then he'd be a cat ... we know that

but, if Bedford kicks that goal in the first Q instead of the post ... I reckon we get to a six-goal arf-time lead ... and Freo would have been broken IMO.

We were poor on many fronts, and especially the lack of marking around the ground, but our first arf was up to standard.

Go Dees

I reckon if Nibbler had kicked that goal right at the start of Q4 if could have given us the lift we needed. Instead he squibbed it and the moment was lost

1 hour ago, Clintosaurus said:

It all changed when Petty was crocked. Until then Freo had bugger all.

Thats for sure.

Petty took up the May/final sweeper role soon as May went off and was doing OK. Then injured and we lost all back shape. 

But up to then it was winnbale. 

21 minutes ago, Watson11 said:

We did up 3 or 4 goals through turnovers from attacking corridor kicks. Is that what you would like them to do more of? The reason why we tried that is they were smashing us at stoppages and I thought we panicked. Normally we would grind a goal or two out and get it back on our terms but they were just too good.

Sydney are a different challenge. They have very poor defensive systems. Freo are elite defensively.

The second quarter was excellent, but I thought we stopped playing attacking footy in the 3rd, not just the stoppage stuff.

We’ve struggled to score consistently against bad sides and relied on the defensive game and grinding out a goal. I don’t want to start consistently leaking big runs of goals but I think we can take more chances against Sydney and get some flow in the game. 

Credit to Freo, they combined exceptionally well once they got on top. A few factors to consider:

- Melbourne got absolutely belted off the ball against Eagles & Roos (why we got more frees in that game), causing Langdon to miss and most players would have been sore!

- losing Langdon had a massive impact on run, defense and transition

- losing TMac impacted strength & competitiveness up forward, and in Q3 & 4 would have helped down back (Weid was very disappointing, needs to get moving, because in packs he seems invisible, he took a brilliant grab when he ran and jumped)

- losing May & Petty left us totally exposed in the air down back, meaning more players trying to spoil, so if Dockers didn’t mark they had more players on ground. You can just cover one tall going down, but two is a bridge to far without TMac in team. Led to backline losing all shape during the third.

- Trac crook and should have missed, just added to lack of run and hurt us in the middle

- Melksham has played some really good footy for the Demons over his time at the club, but looks really slow and uncompetitive, would be surprised to see him play too many more games if any.

- Jordan gets ball enough but needs to take first option.

- Missed a few get shots in first half that could have put us six up at halftime, and then others in the third, that would have made result a lot tighter.

- Even best team will lose a few, so not a lot to worry about, unless injuries mount. Can always remember Choco Williams on radio when he was out of system being interviewed and saying absolute rubbish about one soldier replacing another, e.g. if player 1-5 goes out and being replaced by players 23-27 of course it makes you worse!

- Bit of luck also helps, e.g. Buddy out next week makes a big difference, helps with May being out.

- Were still 10-1, hopefully get a couple back next week (TMac helps structure), Trac fit and a good chance against Swans - watched Tigers vs Swans and a pretty average standard of a game.

Go Demons, onwards and upwards, still got to wear my Demons 2021 Premiers cap on morning coffee walk today, Goodwin and team know what it takes to be Premiers!! Fingers crossed on injuries!!

27 minutes ago, Watson11 said:

We did up 3 or 4 goals through turnovers from attacking corridor kicks. Is that what you would like them to do more of? The reason why we tried that is they were smashing us at stoppages and I thought we panicked. Normally we would grind a goal or two out and get it back on our terms but they were just too good.

Sydney are a different challenge. They have very poor defensive systems. Freo are elite defensively.

Exactly. 

In tbe second half we got caught in the same trap we catch opposition teams in- we were down and took risks to try and bridge the gap - in particular tried risky corridor kicks. 

I donthink ink one resulted in a score, yet at least two cost us goals on turnover.

4 minutes ago, DeeSpencer said:

The second quarter was excellent, but I thought we stopped playing attacking footy in the 3rd, not just the stoppage stuff.

We’ve struggled to score consistently against bad sides and relied on the defensive game and grinding out a goal. I don’t want to start consistently leaking big runs of goals but I think we can take more chances against Sydney and get some flow in the game. 

What is the evidence we have struggled to score against bad sides? 

14 hours ago, praha said:

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.

Yep, and I included these same things in an earlier post.

The amount of poor handpasses to players under pressure, or hospital passes that our player had to stop and wait beneath really surprised me. This was one of our biggest faults after 2018, but it only raises its head on certain occasions.

Aerially we were murdered. It appears Freo came in with a tactic to outdo us in the air. With May subbed out and then Petty running on one leg, it became a stronger point of difference. Lever was way off his normal aerial game, and his kicking and handballing was a total indecisive mess.

And don't get me started on the amount of free Freo players around stoppages. We got annihilated around the packs in the 2nd half, but didn't change our gameplan - if only for a few minutes to stem the flow - to play one on one until the momentum slowed.