1 hour ago, dees189227 said:

It's the reality of where we're at. We were a bottom for side last year & came up against a top 8 team.

Next week will tell us if we've learnt anything. Losing turner really hurt

What happened to Turner?

Not a surprising result although disappointing. Freo are a better team than us and should be pushing for top 4. We have a lot of players who are borderline AFL level which is where we are at at this stage of our development/rebuild. Lots for King to work on, let's see how they respond.

The most disappointing thing was the inability to stick tackles, the fumbles were bad but understandable with the type of game we're trying to instill and the pressure from Freo.

Patrick Voss is such a [censored].

Wasn't too surprised by how the game played out, expected us to be blown out by more.

My takes:

• Gawn is a champion but we need Heath to support him or I'm afraid he will crumble later in the season

• Steele played how I have wanted him to and showed why he was an important pickup

• Langford and Lindsay looked lost and need to build their tank

• Kozzi needs to have more impact in the middle

• Sharp is surprising me this year

• Cully should be playing on the wing

• CJ's trade period criticisms came out on show but it is one game

Overall, our skills were poor, no one could stick a tackle and we were bombing it in again.

I've focused on the negatives but there is also a lot to like as and we need to remember that we are a young team which will need time to grow.

Also you'd struggle to find a more unlikeable bloke than Voss, hope he never wins a flag.

4 minutes ago, praha said:

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.

There was a great stat that showed the top 4 average CBA in 2025 vs so far in 2026. I wish I took a photo but it said something like Oliver, Gawn, Trac Kozzie in 25 to Kozzie, Gawn, Steele, Rivers this year.

With so much change to the regular midfield 4 there's going to be turbulence for a while. It could bery well take 10 - 12 weeks as you say and then we have to factor Viney back into that somehow.

Focus needs to be on developing our playing style and no so much wins and losses.

Our young guns had no ammunition. Windsor, Langford, Lindsay, Culley, L. Pickett were all very poor today.

1 hour ago, layzie said:

Too soon.

Or is it?

10 minutes ago, praha said:

We lost two very good players from our middle, and a strong presence in our defense. Love or hate Oliver, 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.

We finished 14th, two years running, with Oliver, Tracc and May.

Expecting us to jump 4 positions straight off the bat is unfair to King and the many young players we have.

For what, 3-4 seasons? We drafted in nobody to replace the plethora of players that left or we let go. None of them worked off the top of my head post 21.

Max is the only consistent A grader we have. Kozzie is amazing yes, but he also goes missing and sometimes doesn’t impact games at all. Let’s be honest.

1 hour ago, Little Richard said:

No way Trac was staying while Alan Richardson remains at the club.

Why?

7 minutes ago, Fanatique Demon said:

Our young guns had no ammunition. Windsor, Langford, Lindsay, Culley, L. Pickett were all very poor today.

King needs to re-evaluate here at some point in the next 4 weeks. Windsor is not a centre bounce midfielder. He cant stand up in or shrug a tackle. He's not a strong tackler. He doesn'thave a side step. He's not an accumulator. His foot skills are one sided and he's not accurate. His asset is straight line speed and run to break a line to create overlap, but an AFL midfielder needs to have some of the other traits. I think he's totally out of position.

I think we need to be balanced in our criticism, but a few observations are warranted…

Langford has been disappointing in the first two games (his intensity is lower than 2025). His positional role is very similar to last year, so that’s not the reason. For those wanting to see more of him in the middle, that’s what I had hoped, but he has to do more to earn that right.

I have also been disappointed with Lindsay so far. He needs to come back to the wing or half forward. He is trying, but is often left to defend bigger opponents.

Lever is not functioning at the level we need and expect from a key defender. He is not at the level he was consistently at in his first years with us.

Petty is inconsistent. His best is very good, but his ‘downers’ are way down!

McDonald is still more reliable and consistent than both of them.

On that theme, selection is already an issue. This had to be the game to play Heath. I’m not saying he is Justin Madden, or Jim Stynes, or Peter Moore, but he is the best chop out for Max that we have at the moment. He is very competitive in the middle. He has good hands. He is young and fit. He did well again today for Casey. In today’s situation where Disco got injured, and where Freo had tall forwards taking a huge toll on our backs, you could swing Heath back for a while. He can also give us a target when forward. Once again, I’m not suggesting he is Stephen Silvagni or Kelvin Templeton, but he does make things difficult for opponents with his excellent reach and agility. Today against a side with two rucks, a giant at full back and a high marking full forward Heath should have been in our 23.

That’s enough from me…

Watching us live, it was men v boys in the middle, and it really hurt us. We need to give them time to build that synergy and strength.

Remember, Freo was embarrassed last week and would be looking to atone. They did in the first quarter, plus some very helpful and suspect-free's unfortunately.

FUmbles: It was really hot and sweaty in the stands early on, and may have been the cause of some fumbles on the field, and some of them really hurt us as freo took advantage when we were about to break free into open fwd Line.

The main concern I have is CK's decision-making. (I know kicking skills were suspect coming in) He cost us directly 3 goals from poor decision making in the middle of the ground (not counting running too far off). He was worse than a rookie watching it live. He has played 76 games at Hawthorn!! H needs to do better or be dropped.

1 hour ago, waynewussell said:

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.

1000% correct!

1 hour ago, Tom Dyson said:

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.

Total [censored], even the Freo fans don't like him. Poor mans Maynard.

To the people that attended the game, I’m assuming there was a howling wind to the right of screen/Freo cheer squad end.

22 goals the right of screen.

5 goals to the left of screen.

50 minutes ago, Demon Time said:

Wasn't too surprised by how the game played out, expected us to be blown out by more.

My takes:

• Gawn is a champion but we need Heath to support him or I'm afraid he will crumble later in the season

• Steele played how I have wanted him to and showed why he was an important pickup

• Langford and Lindsay looked lost and need to build their tank

• Kozzi needs to have more impact in the middle

• Sharp is surprising me this year

• Cully should be playing on the wing

• CJ's trade period criticisms came out on show but it is one game

Overall, our skills were poor, no one could stick a tackle and we were bombing it in again.

I've focused on the negatives but there is also a lot to like as and we need to remember that we are a young team which will need time to grow.

Also you'd struggle to find a more unlikeable bloke than Voss, hope he never wins a flag.

2nd year blues is a thing and XL and Langford are 2nd year players.

1 hour ago, waynewussell said:

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 disagree, stats don't show impact. Watching live, yes, he'll sprint /spoils. But gee, I saw 3 direct goals from his decision error across the field. That's on top of his terrible kicking at times. I saw some people likened him to Frost, and that's not a bad comparison, as Frost could be amazing, then a disaster.

He does not really have a footy brain to make quick decisions. That is a concern given his role at the moment. He's played close to 80 games and should not be making basic decision errors anymore.

2 hours ago, DistrACTION Jackson said:

season over. Kings not up to it. Time to get Buckley

Don't start with that mindless rubbish. How were you performing in the second week of your current job?

13 minutes ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

To the people that attended the game, I’m assuming there was a howling wind to the right of screen/Freo cheer squad end.

22 goals the right of screen.

5 goals to the left of screen.

Yes. Strange, that.

16 minutes ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

To the people that attended the game, I’m assuming there was a howling wind to the right of screen/Freo cheer squad end.

22 goals the right of screen.

5 goals to the left of screen.

Nope, just one of those games that the scores were at one end.

34 minutes ago, Jjrogan said:

King needs to re-evaluate here at some point in the next 4 weeks. Windsor is not a centre bounce midfielder. He cant stand up in or shrug a tackle. He's not a strong tackler. He doesn'thave a side step. He's not an accumulator. His foot skills are one sided and he's not accurate. His asset is straight line speed and run to break a line to create overlap, but an AFL midfielder needs to have some of the other traits. I think he's totally out of position.

And who would you put in there? Petracca? Oliver? Oh, wait...

2 hours ago, wheaters31 said:

He was clearly sore today and going up against two rucks was always going to be an issue for us.

Max had more disposals, more hitouts, more marks, more clearances and more metres gained than the Jackson and Darcy combined.

In what sense was it an issue for us?

The point being made here is that, as good as Max is, I would much rather him not injured or run into the ground after the second game.

This game was a comedy of errors, combined with atrocious umpiring which definitely made the kids drop their heads at crucial times. The same little tubby maggot all the time.

Kingy will need to put in some overtime this week.

26 minutes ago, bing181 said:

Max had more disposals, more hitouts, more marks, more clearances and more metres gained than the Jackson and Darcy combined.

In what sense was it an issue for us?

The commentators banged on about this a lot.

It was as if a solid Max Gawn performance (that could be seen as most other ruck's best games) was some kind of hindrance on the team.