A LONG, LONG WAY TO GO by William from the West 

The game of football starts at the centre bounce where the two big ruckmen vie against each other to get the ball down to their on ball players who, in turn, attempt to move the ball forward to their team's advantage. It goes without saying that when one team establishes superiority and wins consistently at these stoppages it moves a long way towards winning the game. That's what happened yesterday evening at Subiaco where Fremantle established its dominance from the very beginning against a substandard, inexperienced opposition in Melbourne and literally toyed with it throughout the game to record a comfortable 47 point win.

The Demons brought a young side across the Nullarbor and pitted rookie ruckman Jake Spencer against seasoned two time All Australian Aaron Sandilands. The young Demon tall toiled hard till he suffered a hip injury in the third quarter but was monstered by the 211cm behemoth. At their feet, the Fremantle players took advantage of this dominance and the fact that the Demon midfield was poorly set up at many contests. As a consequence, they were often allowed easy passages out of the packs and accordingly put the Melbourne defence under pressure for most of the proceedings. In general play, the Demons fumbled, dropped marks, made poor decisions and showed the same lack of skills that has been evident for the past two or three years.

The writing was on the wall early in the game when Melbourne had two opportunities up forward in the opening minutes and failed to register a score. At about the four minute mark Brent Moloney had the ball on a wing and, seeing only contests further afield, elected to kick backwards to Jamie Bennell. The kick was astray and rolled harmlessly away from Bennell's outstretched hands and out of bounds for a net loss of forty metres. You could already see the first sign of confidence slipping and within minutes the home side started putting the score on the board, helped by a couple of fifty metre penalties, each of which stopped the momentum of a Demon forward drive dead in its tracks. The experienced players of Freo then led the way and their younger brigade lifted in response.

Melbourne mounted a rearguard effort in the second quarter and performed much better. Brad Green who was quiet early lifted the side with a supergoal and that was followed by another from Aaron Davey who was rarely sighted and subbed off at half time. The gap should have been narrowed further when Liam Jurrah, who was having a dog of game, accepted a pass and uncharacteristically missed. Fremantle's dominance was restored by a questionable after the siren nine pointer that knocked the stuffing out of the visitors. The Dockers dominated most of the second half. They were able to score as needed while the Demon forward line was non-existent.

Were there any positives? Well, a few players worked hard and showed some value - James Frawley, Nathan Jones, James McDonald and Brisbane discard Joel Macdonald. Youngsters in Tom Scully, Jack Trengove and James Strauss all showed glimpses of a far away future and Jordie McKenzie was good when he came on after half time.

And that was about it. The Demons came a long way across the Nullarbor. They have a long, long way to go.

FREMANTLE 0.4.4 1.6.6 1.10.9 1.13.10 (97)

MELBOURNE 0.0.2 2.1.3 2.2.5 2.4.8 (50)

Goals

Fremantle: Pearce (nine pointer), Johnson, Pavlich 3, Headland, Ballantyne 2, Sandilands, Mayne, Pearce.

Melbourne: Davey, Green (nine pointers), Miller 2, Morton, Petterd.

Best

Fremantle: Barlow, Ballantyne, Hayden, Mundy, Duffield, Pearce.

Melbourne: Frawley, Jones, Macdonald, McDonald.

Injuries: Fremantle: B Schammer (ankle), A McPhee (ankle), K Bradley (hip).

Melbourne: J Spencer (corked hip).

Crowd: 11,031 at Subiaco Oval.

I have 3 questions:

1. WHy is our midfield set up so bad. It was atrocious last year and it was clear Sandi was dominant yet their mids were left alone at centre bounces.

2. Why is our defending at kick ins so bad? ANother set play where we fail to even have a gut 5m from the kicker and give them an easy option of kick to self run 15m and roost.

3. How can our skills be so deplorable after a whole summer of focus on them? Dropped chest marks, missed targets by hand and foot were the order of the day.

I have 3 questions:

1. WHy is our midfield set up so bad. It was atrocious last year and it was clear Sandi was dominant yet their mids were left alone at centre bounces.

2. Why is our defending at kick ins so bad? ANother set play where we fail to even have a gut 5m from the kicker and give them an easy option of kick to self run 15m and roost.

3. How can our skills be so deplorable after a whole summer of focus on them? Dropped chest marks, missed targets by hand and foot were the order of the day.

We are poorly coached and no game plan exists. If the coach has no plan, how can you expect the players to execute their skills.

It's early days. In fact game 1 of the pre season cup.

Let's keep things in perspective.So we lost by 40+ points to Fremantle at Subiaco with a far less experinced team than they had on the park.

We got some invaluable AFL game experience into some of our top line youngsters.Doesn't sound too bad to me!

It's early days. In fact game 1 of the pre season cup.

Let's keep things in perspective.So we lost by 40+ points to Fremantle at Subiaco with a far less experinced team than they had on the park.

We got some invaluable AFL game experience into some of our top line youngsters.Doesn't sound too bad to me!

Im so sick of these type of responses. We have the right to raise questions and so we should after such a bemusing first up performance. We have been promised we would see improvement in the areas listed in the above posts yet it almost seemed we have gone backwards. The skills were atrocious. There were no examples of good skills. We all knew it wouldnt happen over night but i need to see glimpses at least. I do not see any evidence of a stable game plan and i can sense the players are unsure of themselves which affects their confidence.

I also think it was the reality check a lot of people needed. Time to stop overrating most of our players and our coach.

Im so sick of these type of responses. We have the right to raise questions and so we should after such a bemusing first up performance. We have been promised we would see improvement in the areas listed in the above posts yet it almost seemed we have gone backwards. The skills were atrocious. There were no examples of good skills. We all knew it wouldnt happen over night but i need to see glimpses at least. I do not see any evidence of a stable game plan and i can sense the players are unsure of themselves which affects their confidence.

I also think it was the reality check a lot of people needed. Time to stop overrating most of our players and our coach.

Raise whatever questions you like but be wary of morphing into a membership card tearing Richmond supporter after Round 1 of a NAB cup game.

With a performance like last night, how can we expect to increase membership. Nothing from last night game gave me hope that we will win more than 4 games again!

Raise whatever questions you like but be wary of morphing into a membership card tearing Richmond supporter after Round 1 of a NAB cup game.

no no none of that, but i think there were some glaring issues that im concerned cant be completely fixed over the course of 3 more practice games. Again, not that i expect flawless football from the young team.

i think the most disapointing aspect to come out of the game was that we played dumb footy again. The Centre square set up was atrocious.

I will cop that it was the first real hit out and we were sloppy with execution, that can be worked on, but i am not sure we can make dumb footballers smart, that worries me.

No reason for concern; only fodder for the exciteable types.

The natives are restless. This is the gist of what I'm reading.

1. Sack the coach. Popular method used by powerhouse clubs such as Richmond.

2. Appoint Gary Lyon. Host of Footy Show, coaches under 12. Now's there a CV he can be proud of.

3. Liam Jurrah has been ruined by the club. Player has bad game, blame the whole organisation. New approach but I like it.

4. We picked up duds with our draft picks. Strauss, Bennell and Jetta, all under 20 but with no future in AFL due to poor NAB performance. Hey it's getting better and better.

5. Demons smashed at the stoppages. Supporters bemoan poor centre square set up after last week's great win!

Plenty of concern for the club in general terms.

With a performance like that the ability to grow the clubs' membership is put under pressure moreso.

To keep it in perspective we were beaten by Freo who are not exactly a top 8 team.

This was a game to be won, make no mistake about that.The club WAS VERY KEEN to win it.

Thought our disposal skills had improved, but in a real contest were found to be less than acceptable by a long,long way.

We have no more than 1 player with good/very good kicking skills.........Davey. WTF

"Expect some improvement" was the catchcry from the coach! Where was it last night?

Can we expect a contest in our next practice match??? This just has to get better.

I am one who strives to find a sign of overall improvement and there was no sign of it last night,non at all.

You can give a myriad of excuses for a very poor game by the club last night but we were beaten by a team that was fitter, more skilled, better coached, had a game plan that worked OK, and took an opportunity to give their supporters some hope for the future.

This must be what we see in our next contest even if there is nothing but pride on the line in the result.

The natives are restless. This is the gist of what I'm reading.

1. Sack the coach. Popular method used by powerhouse clubs such as Richmond.

2. Appoint Gary Lyon. Host of Footy Show, coaches under 12. Now's there a CV he can be proud of.

3. Liam Jurrah has been ruined by the club. Player has bad game, blame the whole organisation. New approach but I like it.

4. We picked up duds with our draft picks. Strauss, Bennell and Jetta, all under 20 but with no future in AFL due to poor NAB performance. Hey it's getting better and better.

5. Demons smashed at the stoppages. Supporters bemoan poor centre square set up after last week's great win!

Yes. Pretty much the same people (natives) who think we've stuffed up picking Watts ahead of Naitanui when Watts hasn't played this season yet, and dominant performance in Rd 1 of the Nab Cup by Naitanui against Essendon who submitted a below par rookie ruckman.

Go figure.

Let us see how both the coaching brains and players react to this debacle of a new beginning. That will tell us more than yesterdays game will. Perspective and context required.

Not once have i heard Garry Lyon suggest he wants to coach this club, so to the people who are continually having a crack at him for no reason and bagging his credentials, honestly its really poor. Very un Melbourne like.

Bailey is the coach, be it good or bad, no need for stupid speculation in February.

Not once have i heard Garry Lyon suggest he wants to coach this club, so to the people who are continually having a crack at him for no reason and bagging his credentials, honestly its really poor. Very un Melbourne like.

Bailey is the coach, be it good or bad, no need for stupid speculation in February.

I see it as bagging the notion that Lyon would be better than Bailey.

Nothing wrong with that, because it is an absurdly stupid notion.

The natives are restless. This is the gist of what I'm reading.

1. Sack the coach. Popular method used by powerhouse clubs such as Richmond.

2. Appoint Gary Lyon. Host of Footy Show, coaches under 12. Now's there a CV he can be proud of.

3. Liam Jurrah has been ruined by the club. Player has bad game, blame the whole organisation. New approach but I like it.

4. We picked up duds with our draft picks. Strauss, Bennell and Jetta, all under 20 but with no future in AFL due to poor NAB performance. Hey it's getting better and better.

5. Demons smashed at the stoppages. Supporters bemoan poor centre square set up after last week's great win!

I'm adding to my list of what I'm reading

6. Bring back Robbo. Now that's a doozy!

7. Cale Morton is a dud. I thought I'd save the best till last. However it won't be long until even this is topped.

The Centre square set up was atrocious.

WE almost set up like we were going to win the tap. Please 211 will win it without even jumping.

Bennell n Maric have got 2 kicks in their bag. They can actually kick the ball well but they've got the shank club they like pulling out every now and again. Think Bennell will be ok but there are a few questions around Maric. As does Jetta.

Strauss wasn't great but i think we've got a footballer there we can mould.

Grimes and Morton are better then that. Jurrah had a dog of a day.

My only real disappointment from yesterday :

so many people, so little clarity, so much pandering to myopic and short term vision. FFs was our first hit out on journey of thousands of steps !! Keep the faith

Plenty of concern for the club in general terms.

With a performance like that the ability to grow the clubs' membership is put under pressure moreso.

To keep it in perspective we were beaten by Freo who are not exactly a top 8 team.

This was a game to be won, make no mistake about that.The club WAS VERY KEEN to win it.

Thought our disposal skills had improved, but in a real contest were found to be less than acceptable by a long,long way.

We have no more than 1 player with good/very good kicking skills.........Davey. WTF

"Expect some improvement" was the catchcry from the coach! Where was it last night?

Can we expect a contest in our next practice match??? This just has to get better.

I am one who strives to find a sign of overall improvement and there was no sign of it last night,non at all.

You can give a myriad of excuses for a very poor game by the club last night but we were beaten by a team that was fitter, more skilled, better coached, had a game plan that worked OK, and took an opportunity to give their supporters some hope for the future.

This must be what we see in our next contest even if there is nothing but pride on the line in the result.

very well said, NAB cup or not, we were very very ordinary

Plenty of concern for the club in general terms.

With a performance like that the ability to grow the clubs' membership is put under pressure moreso.

To keep it in perspective we were beaten by Freo who are not exactly a top 8 team.

This was a game to be won, make no mistake about that.The club WAS VERY KEEN to win it.

Thought our disposal skills had improved, but in a real contest were found to be less than acceptable by a long,long way.

We have no more than 1 player with good/very good kicking skills.........Davey. WTF

"Expect some improvement" was the catchcry from the coach! Where was it last night?

Can we expect a contest in our next practice match??? This just has to get better.

I am one who strives to find a sign of overall improvement and there was no sign of it last night,non at all.

You can give a myriad of excuses for a very poor game by the club last night but we were beaten by a team that was fitter, more skilled, better coached, had a game plan that worked OK, and took an opportunity to give their supporters some hope for the future.

This must be what we see in our next contest even if there is nothing but pride on the line in the result.

Rubbish! But beautifully spoken.

very well said, NAB cup or not, we were very very ordinary

Same old for dees..

My observations:

Joel Macdonald is our best player (says a lot given he is a delistee from another side)

Scully and trengove are already well and truly in our best 18.

Our forward line is completely dysfunctional.

Bennell and Jetta will show glimpses here and there, but wont make it as AFL footballers.

The natives are restless. This is the gist of what I'm reading.

1. Sack the coach. Popular method used by powerhouse clubs such as Richmond.

Like Richmond prematurely sacked Wallace? Clearly their patience paid off there...

I'm adding to my list of what I'm reading

6. Bring back Robbo. Now that's a doozy!

Yes. NO GOAL KICKERS ALLOWED IN OUR FORWARD LINE.

I don't know why Robbo cops a bagging all the time. Yes he had his flaws but he was a good player for the club and his stats speak for themselves. He doesn't get the respect that he deserves. We need someone to help out Jurrah, Watts is a long way off, Bate plays better up the ground, Miller isn't good enough and Dunn and Morton hardly ever play forward. So who is going to help Jurrah out? I can't see anyone doing it.

Let's not kid ourselves last night was a big setback for the club and the coach, we were very, very poor.

They have to do better than that and cannot afford to serve up rubbish like that week after week.