21 minutes ago, Harrison Petty GOAT said:

Is it just me or does CJ seem like Sam Frost reincarnated.

5 minutes ago, Devil In Disguise said:

I know that but you said Lindsay & Culley are your preferences for the wing.

Sorry bit of confusion. I meant Lindsay should move further up the ground and play more wing instead of Langford. Langdon should still be on the wing

33 minutes ago, rufus said:

This game style concerns me. Its why last week didn't give me that much hope. Feels like playing Russian roulette with 5 bullets in the chamber. I just don't believe that building a game around offence first vs. Defence first will have much success in this league. Especially not here where the willingness to scrap factor historically is very low.

I'm not convinced that the new regime really understood what we have been lacking and it might see us cop some real pain. Hope I'm wrong.

Not being a smart [censored] but what in your opinion have we been lacking?

Whether it was last week or across the preseason we’ve been consistent with the trends of the modern game - turnover, transition and speed of ball movement have all been improved from last year

Unfortunately we fell back into bad habits tonight but that was as much about Fremantle being a level above as it was us struggling under pressure

I still think the intent was there, but we either fumbled at critical moments or Freo were strong enough defensively to stifle our ball movement

We need to improve our defence and get more experience into the kids, but I don’t think the regime don’t understand our issues - quite the opposite in fact

The Kings Speech

---

@demonland

Very disappointing game. 

Gave up a 42 point head start 

Fundamentals not on point 

Points against on Turnover were telling letdown 

Inefficient going inside 50 , especially in the 3rd 

Didn’t use the footy with composure going inside 50 

At least we did not capitulate . Fought it out. 

Steep leaning curve for many.  

Didn’t deal with the pressure.  Couldn’t handle the pressure.  

Prepared well but playing system not embedded yet 

Kolt did a good job on Serong 

Method around the ball allowed Brayshaw to get the footy 

They worked us over in contest to contest 

CJ and Howes battled on but missed Disco.  (Turner hand injury) 

Monitor Max Gawn physically week on week and see if we use the double ruck situation.

Heath one of our best at Casey so consider things going forward.  

16 minutes ago, At the break of Gawn said:

Omac was awful. He was keeping us in it early.

U are kidding was very good tonight!

Will we be coming back tonight & get home or back tomorrow?

1 minute ago, Ted Lasso said:

Also worried. Because our defense has been non existent in both games.

We aren’t finishing top 4 this year, it’s gonna be fine.

16 minutes ago, The Panglossian said:

Am I correct in saying that we delisted Omac and Wagner way back, and got nothing for them?

They both looked like good AFL players today.

When we delisted Wagner, he played VFL for 2 years before getting drafted again by Freo.

Omac did 2 years at Carlton (5 games only) and a year in the VFL at Williamstown before he got another go at Freo.

It's not like we delisted stars...

Edited 2 hours ago2 hr by deanox

The criticism of CJ is ridiculous! Only 8 players had more marks than him (7). How do you think he compared to Judd today? He had a higher fantasy score than 11 of his team mates (I didn’t count Turner). His run and spoils were on a par with last week.

I said when we got Jack Steele that he would turn a 10 goal loss into an 8 goal loss…

He was great.

Not quite as fun to look at as last week, but you can view the inside 50s here https://charting.football/i50/?matchName=2026%20R2%20-%20FRE%20v%20MEL

Fritsch our most common target (9 times for 5 marks/frees, 2 spoils, and 2 out of bounds)

JVR targeted 6 times for the one mark, and Mihocek 4 times for 1 mark and 1 retained, both JVR and Mihocek's marks coming barely inside the 50 though so not particularly high quality ones (unlike last week).

Kosi targeted 4 times, two times (from CJ and Chandler) an uncontested mark to Freo, one time (from Windsor) had Pickett having to effect a spoil.

We went inside with no identified target 19 times (last week it was just 4 times) and the results were as expected - 1 mark by Kosi, three ground balls retained, seven direct turnovers, and the rest being spoils etc. leading to ground balls (where we were getting killed for most of the nigh).

If we look at kickers Steele was the most prolific (definitely not calling him top) with 7, resulting in 3 uncontested freo marks, 1 contested freo mark, one out on the full, and two spoils by the freo defender.

Culley the only kicker to find multiple marks inside 50, but both uncontested with minimal distance on the kick to the arc with a decent angle for the kicker.

On the other side, Bolton found 2 marks as well as kicking two goals himself from outside 50. Freo scored 5 goals from outside 50 from 8 shots total.

Defensively Turner and Gawn managed contested marks to intercept an inside 50, Gawn x 2, Lever x 2, and Salem managed uncontested ones.

Turner got 3 spoils, two on balls intended for Amiss and one an undirected Serong entry. Tholstrup and CJ with 2 d50 spoils each, Petty, Lever, and Lindsay with singles.

It has to be said as well that Patrick Voss is a horrible waste of perfectly good oxygen.

What an embarassing, self centred, egotistical individual.

2 minutes ago, Credit To Du Bois said:

We went inside with no identified target 19 times (last week it was just 4 times)

Woof.

7 minutes ago, demoncat said:

Not being a smart [censored] but what in your opinion have we been lacking?

Whether it was last week or across the preseason we’ve been consistent with the trends of the modern game - turnover, transition and speed of ball movement have all been improved from last year

Unfortunately we fell back into bad habits tonight but that was as much about Fremantle being a level above as it was us struggling under pressure

I still think the intent was there, but we either fumbled at critical moments or Freo were strong enough defensively to stifle our ball movement

We need to improve our defence and get more experience into the kids, but I don’t think the regime don’t understand our issues - quite the opposite in fact

Agree with this and would also add that we’re definitely not seeing a finished product “game style.”

King has had 5 months to try to implement a completely different way of playing to guys who are mostly either in their first year or two in the AFL, or who have been playing a different style at AFL level for the last 10+ years.

Last week was fun, there will be fun moments throughout the year, but it was never going to be a seamless transition.

And I’d be surprised if there arent some significant changes to how we play defence throughout the year and into next season.

Demonlanders

How does Steven King talk to Kozzzy about becoming elite?

He was exciting for his goal v Freo but … overall he fumbled and twice missed targets inside 50. His missed bump instead of tackle was again not what we want to see. He wasn’t our worst performer, but not close to our best. His defensive run back was also lacking from what I saw. His best chase down on Dudley was an exception. He’s still young and I’m sure Kingy will work on it. However a big $$ contract means we want more than just a one moment of magic!!

2 minutes ago, The Cult of Disco Turner said:

Agree with this and would also add that we’re definitely not seeing a finished product “game style.”

King has had 5 months to try to implement a completely different way of playing to guys who are mostly either in their first year or two in the AFL, or who have been playing a different style at AFL level for the last 10+ years.

Last week was fun, there will be fun moments throughout the year, but it was never going to be a seamless transition.

And I’d be surprised if there arent some significant changes to how we play defence throughout the year and into next season.

Yes.

We're going to have bumps along this journey and this one isn't really that bad compared to some we've had. We never seemed to drop the heads but the score rromt turnover Freo had showed we have plenty of work ahead of us.

Won't be the last time, just need to trust the process and enjoy as much as we can along the way.

Lets just see what freo do to Richmond next week.

As I've said I'm glad to get that game out of the way

I didn't want to say it after our win last week because there was great energy and it was a great win. But we absolutely need to be prepared for a few beltings this year. You can tell by the fact we cycle so many players through the midfield. I think that as the year progresses we will get better. But at the moment we are living and dying by the turnaround and chaos ball forward, which against strong teams is going to get found out. Freo is a good team that has underperformed, they were always going to belt us tonight.

People need to temper expectations and buckle in for the ride. There will be high highs and quite a few low lows. We lost two very good players from our middle, and a strong presence in our defense. Love or hate May, Petracca and Oliver, losing one you can cover, but losing all three is going to create instability and uncertainty in games. It will take 10-12 games at least to find a rhythm.

Edited 2 hours ago2 hr by praha

5 minutes ago, dees189227 said:

Lets just see what freo do to Richmond next week.

As I've said I'm glad to get that game out of the way

It's fair to say that most teams won't be leaving that ground with 4 points this year against the Dockers.

Edited 2 hours ago2 hr by layzie

53 minutes ago, dees189227 said:

Did Voss pick up langdon? Not sure fox have shown it enough😐

Just as a matter of interest, why wasn’t a free kick paid to Langdon for holding the man?

I was frustrated at the number of free kicks that were not paid (to either team). there were 27 paid in our game and roughly even allocation.

There were 43 paid in Hawks v Sydney (Hawks got 26) and 41 paid in Adel v Dogs (Dogs got 23)

The non-paying of the obvious leads to some scrappy pack work and I’m afraid we were overpowered in close

Just now, joeboy said:

Just as a matter of interest, why wasn’t a free kick paid to Langdon for holding the man?

Just now, joeboy said:

Just as a matter of interest, why wasn’t a free kick paid to Langdon for holding the man?

Just now, joeboy said:

Just as a matter of interest, why wasn’t a free kick paid to Langdon for holding the man?

I did comment that technically he's holding the player without the footy.

All other posters have said what went wrong with the game so I want to go to the positives.

We were 42 points down at quarter time and lost by 48 points whilst being inaccurate in front of goals, so all is not lost.

Max, Steele and Langdon did an amazing job of keeping us competitive.

Turner was our best defender before he was injured, and if he misses then TMac is a good replacement

Whilst Lindsay had a terrible day in defence he looked so much better up the ground. Both he and Salem have to bend over and pick the ball up insted of trying to block it with their feet.

AMW was BOG in the VFL game and could provide a spark in defence

Sharp continues to kick goals.

Desperately need Kentfield back. Heath did OK in the VFL but probably broke even in the ruck at best.

Taylor, Only and Matthews tried hard in the VFL but are a long way off

I reckon a season or 2 ago that would had been an 80 point loss or more.

I'm not angry. I was just disappointed in that 1st quarter & some players didn't stand up.

If we turn up in the 1st quarter like that again next week then I'll be annoyed.

It’s going to be an up and down season. We finished 14th 2 years in a row, and then lost our best midfielder, our fullback, and our 2 best lockdown defenders.

The good news is that unlike last year I feel like the club is actually ahead of the curve. We know where we are at, and it’s going to be hard work to get there, but we’ve already done a lot of the hard decision making.

We need to continue to get the next layer of talent exposed at the level, and we also need to really put pressure on our 2nd tier talent to step up and be more accountable. I don’t have much time for folks coming for Lindsey or Langford. They are being played out of position so they can see the level. I do think we are very entitled to expect more from Rivers and Sparrow. Once you’re over that 100 game mark you need to be having a lot more impact on games if you want to be a midfielder. I like Riv, but I reckon he’s a half back flanker.