Hopeful Demon

A win was all I wanted after the past two weeks. We were wasteful up forward but the reality is that we dominated general play and Carlton were lucky to be that close all game. Salem had his best game since 2021. Our backline looks so much better when he plays like that. It was good to see Langdon regain some form too.

It's as if we're kicking at a [censored] wall

Carlton's skills are atrocious. We should have them covered by now.

It might to be the reason we're losing but our midfield does look really bare without Oliver.

Let's face it, the scoreboard is flattering Freo. We have dominated general play but our forwardline hasn't been functioning well enough (last two minutes aside).

Nah. Oliver is probably the only player who'll be in the AA side based on these first 10 rounds. If you think he's our biggest worry, then you're ignoring numerous other players who are out of form.

He's been our only player who's genuinely improved since last year.

Rivers will be an AA in a couple of years. I can feel it.

When Oliver's off the rest of the team is off.

The scoreboard is flattering us big time. Repeat of the Essendon game so far.

Oliver has set ridiculously high expectations. I thought his disposal was very good for the most part and I've noticed that he's been taking a lot intercept marks lately. While Petracca and Viney were both excellent, I thought they were just as 'wasteful' as Oliver.

Just one of those typical games where you take the four points and move on. Hawthorn threw everything at us in the second half but we still ended up with a 9 goal win. Our midfielders (Oliver, Petracca and Viney) were easily our best. Rivers was good again too.

Cripps has been far more underwhelming than Oliver this year...

Mate you really need to stop taking unwarranted pot shots at our players. 'Hunter's cooked'- Yes, he was off today but he's been very good this year. 'Grundy's a headless chook'- This one's an absolute shocker. Grundy has been a massive upgrade on Jackson. At least he actually has the capacity to kick goals and hold onto his marks. 'Fritsch needs a wakeup call'- Why? He definitely had a bad day but he's still averaging more than two goals a game. Not to mention that he's easily been our best forward over the past two and a half years. 'I thought Oliver had left behind these shocker games in 2020 but he’s had a few this year now'- Aside from the Brisbane game, all of Oliver's performances have been excellent-solid. And I thought he was great in the last quarter, when the game was there to be won.

Jesus we've had some really scrappy games against Gold Coast over the years. Thank god we're always the ones that end up winning them.

Jesus the commentators really want Gold Coast to win.

Lol spare me. He kicked 55 goals last year in a forwardline that functioned poorly.

Unfortunately this half was very reminiscent of late 2022. Get to a 20 point lead and then get way too comfortable. We need a better second half from Fritsch. He makes such a big difference when he's on.

Chandler is definitely up there with the best small forwards in the comp on current form.

I absolutely love this guy. I always knew he had talent, but I didn't think he'd make such a big impression this quickly.

Can't complain with that. I loved our killer instinct tonight. Even when we were were up by 60+ points we still had that desire to pile on the goals. Oliver and Petracca's chemistry was as good as it was in 2021/22. Our forwardline has been functioning really well lately. Chandler is an absolute gem and Fritsch and Pickett were electrifying. If giving up a 100 point lead is the only negative, then you know we've had a pretty damn good night.

People don't seem to understand that 100+ point thumpings aren't common anymore. Teams like to hold off a bit when they get to big leads early.

The half time score against Brisbane in Round 23 last year was identical.

Reminiscent of our 2018 style of footy.

He's looked a gun this year. His footy IQ is off the charts. He would have made a huge impact if he was favoured by the selectors last year.