It could have been a lot worse.

Langford and Lindsay are well on their way for a dose of 2nd year blues. I said in the game day threads that Lindsay just looks completely timid.

We are going to have beating like this this year. Won't be the first, wont be the last.

The top of our wish list for the trade and draft period should be more mids and tall defenders.

The kids still need a year or two to develop.

It’s always going to be hard to be up against seasoned pros like Brayshaw and co. But what I find disappointing is guys like Rivers and Sparrow, who just can’t seem to get to that next level and match it with the quality mids of the competition.

It’s always up to Gawn to save us.

Not sure about Petty either, I just see him as a battler.

1 minute ago, Demonsone said:

How many seasons did Oliver, Trac take before they started dominating ??

Oliver took 1 Game!! And 30 odd possesions today and a goal and KING Punted him., yeah right!@

😀

We'll be ok, another couple of years of good recruiting and building a good system.

We seriously did not deserve to get close to a win today but my god, the umpiring was bewildering again today

They looked drained.

I said to @Anti Saint at quarter time that we’d pretty much break even over the next three quarters. I would have thought an eight goal loss:

• on their dung-heap,

• with bias umpiring,

• off a six day break,

• with a badly bifurcated list,

• with our best backman on the bench

is pretty much expected.

Edited 2 hours ago2 hr by Queanbeyan Demon

2 minutes ago, jane02 said:

Are you actually alllowed to do that. I mean what the 🤷‍♀️

Well technically it's grabbing a player without the ball

1 minute ago, fr_ap said:

Same goes for Windsor, albeit less excused as he's played more games, but I do find myself wondering if he's a centre bounce midfielder at all. He looks like a straight line outside receiver, and I think he is one. Yeah he'll get on the end of a tap or an out the front clearance maybe once a game, but I just don't think he has the tackling, contested, ability or body for the contest that you need in there. He's not a player you want down on your knees foraging for the footy and trying to body it to advantage.

Tbh a lot of the players in this team are a bit NQR.

Certainly missing a few critical ingredients.

Well said re Windsor, won’t be an A grade midfielder

We need to make the game easier for Rivers, look to get him the ball under less pressure that one step kick up the middle to Steele really got me thinking we need to start using him how the Pies have looked to use Houston this year has all the traits to open the game up off half back.

1 minute ago, picket fence said:

Oliver took 1 Game!! And 30 odd possesions today and a goal and KING Punted him., yeah right!@

I thought that I might be gilding the lily and took a conservative approach.

Decent reality check on a hot afternoon.

Lots of room for improvement and as others have said getting Viney back will help us.

Gawny battled hard and Jack Steele is a warrior

25 minutes ago, Demonland said:

The Demons were fumbly, inefficient, outrun and outgunned all over the field as they went down to the Dockers by 48 points at Optus Stadium in Perth.

Yep, first quarter scores tell it all

15 minutes ago, doc roet said:

Hate to say it but May would have been handy down back tonight

yeah but nah

he would have pointed, and stropped, and blamed inexperienced teammates for his own ineptitude, and given away free kicks, and shown little leadership when it mattered - as per every poor loss for the last couple of years

2 minutes ago, layzie said:

It's not unfair to suggest that Langford and Lindsay may not be as ready as we thought for week in week out football so I don't accept this criticism.

Of course most of us expected to lose convincingly today but it doesn't mean we can't critique where things went wrong and see what we need to learn. Freo were excellent but 80+ points from turnover suggests we have plenty of work to do and shouldn't just chalk these up as nothing to worry about.

I’m not for a second suggesting we have nothing to worry about.

We have heaps to worry about.

This game didn’t suddenly reveal them. They were clear going into 2026 and a side primed for a flag like Fremantle, with a stacked midfield, was always likely to expose that.

I maintain that it’s unreasonable to pile on those three kids. Langdord and Lindsay have barely, if at all, played 20 games whilst this was Windsor’s second game as a centre bounce mid. Again, we didn’t play just anyone, we played a side that is much, much, much better than us in the middle. It is not surprising we looked slow, timid and fumbly. That happens when you are under pressure (real and perceived) all game.

I want to see them improve but we need to see a lot more than two games, one off a six day break in Perth in the heat against a flag contender.

13 minutes ago, spirit of norm smith said:

Dees seriously poor this week - crash landing !! 

X Turnovers turnovers turnovers 

X Poor skills - Poor decisions 

X Second to the footy 

X Bombing it inside 50 - allowing Freo to intercept 

X Losing clearances

X JVR parachute hands again 

X Missed tackles - Gotta lock it in

X lazy disposals Kozzy Jiath Riv 

👍🏻Use the footy through the corridor. We used it a few times and got scores 

👍🏻Max is a warrior. 100% effort every week.

Need MAX HEATH in !! Can’t have Gawn wrecked. Can’t have JVR thrown into the ruck.

Need ANW in !! Small defender. Dudley could have kicked 6 !! Bolton brought his own footy

Great summary but also ....

> No ability to lock down once they got a run on with either ...

> A much tighter zone and pushing up in the face of the receiver; and/or

> Short period of super tight man on man / back of shoulder pressure through the middle and HF to force the turnover/ lock it in / win back possession.

> Attack on the loose ball and tackles in general... way too soft / ineffective. They just went harder more often and longer

> They spread and ran harder for longer and hit up easy loose players by hand and foot most of the night.

> As you aluded to already, someone needed to go with Bolton after HT. Ridiculous that he was allowed so much space for the entire match.

Also no system or method tonight, especially coming i50.

Complete dog's breakfast vs last week. Freeo's pressure and closing down speed up a fair notch vs the Saints.

We had the yips and fumbles all nighT plus the 'Stupids'. Starting with Rooh,'s silly HB attempt to Koz and Petty's horror HB at the end of the 2nd Q. Both of which resulted in a turnover goal and in the case of Petty, killed the half decent come back and momentum we were building to that point.

Edited 2 hours ago2 hr by Demon Dynasty

.

Edited 2 hours ago2 hr by Redleg

I want to hear what king has to say.

If it was goody he'd talk up how good we were after quarter time.

I want to hear him him say how bad the first quarter was & hear his disappointment

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

Just now, redandbluemakepurple said:

Oliver four games Petracca 10 games

2 minutes ago, picket fence said:

Oliver took 1 Game!! And 30 odd possesions today and a goal and KING Punted him., yeah right!@

Oliver was part of the whole culture issues with poor behaviours, needed to be punted earlier along with May and others… who knows Trac may have stayed, the position we are in is because action wasn’t taken earlier!

Edited 2 hours ago2 hr by Demonsone

First quarter we looked really bad, couldn't hold onto the ball, tackle, or stick with a man. Second quarter was much better but we simply wasted so many opportunities to score. Viney and another tall in McDonald would have been welcome additions today.

16 minutes ago, titan_uranus said:

This is only a reality check if you got ahead of yourself.

This was a totally unsurprising result. Honestly, winning two quarters after that nightmare start, and fighting back in the last, is to our credit.

Losing Turner ruined our defence, highlighting that we were too short for Fremantle at selection.

Ridiculous to see posters already piling on Langford, Lindsay and Windsor. In what world are they going to compete on a 6 day break, on a hot evening, against a midfield like Fremantle’s? Clearly work to do for them but FFS just bear in mind how much more experienced and talented the opposition were.

Tholstrup’s job on Serong was fantastic, Gawn is ridiculous (Darcy’s a fail of a ruckman though), Langdon played his best game in ages, Chandler fought it out and Rivers looked a lot better this week IMO.

We are going to be thrashed by a few sides this year. Next week should be a better showing.

Agree with everything you said apart from Rivers… he had an ordinary outing… I was cursing him at times

3 minutes ago, DeeZee said:

The kids still need a year or two to develop.

It’s always going to be hard to be up against seasoned pros like Brayshaw and co. But what I find disappointing is guys like Rivers and Sparrow, who just can’t seem to get to that next level and match it with the quality mids of the competition.

It’s always up to Gawn to save us.

Not sure about Petty either, I just see him as a battler.

I'm starting to get over this Kids thing. Other than L.Picket who is not up to AFL standard at moment, most of the others are into their 2nd or 3rd years and need to get up to speed. Freo had a younger list overall and belted us.

Just now, Harrison Petty GOAT said:

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

It's his 2nd game at a new club with a new coach. I've still got faith in him

7 minutes ago, SPC said:

Steele was outstanding

Can't fault his effort and grunt but his kicking leaves alot left to be desired.

It was very evident last week and tonight that Freo were swatting away our tackles with ease.

Edited 2 hours ago2 hr by YesitwasaWin4theAges

First quarter we looked really bad, couldn't hold onto the ball, tackle, or stick with a man. Second quarter was much better but we simply wasted so many opportunities to score. Viney and another tall in McDonald would have been welcome additions today.

Edited 2 hours ago2 hr by Little Richard