Lord Travis

Think the Cats will win comfortably tonight. We look a month off playing quality footy again due to lack of fitness and form. Very frustrating that we're into the season now and still not prepared. Hopefully it doesn't take us too long to get going or we'll be too far behind the 8-ball to come back. Anything less than top 4 this year can only be classified as a failed season.

Tigers are done. The new 6-6-6 rules have curbed their gameplan. They were 17th ranked centre clearance team last year, and it’s showing as they can’t swarm contests as well now and teams can win the ball first and then just hold onto it. Pies very slick. They’ll be right up there again this year.

Official changes In: May, Kolodjashnij, Lockhart Out: Spargo, Hore, Wagner

Was steak knives in the Hogan/May trade, but if he stays fit I think he’ll prove to be a really valuable player for us. We are crying out for highly skilled running types like him, so hopefully he can realize his potential and become the player he promised to be early in his career. Second in the BnF ahead of May, Lynch, Dixon, Martin etc shows the talent and output was there. I’d love him to settle on a wing, but think he may replace Lewis at halfback.

67% game time is not enough for a midfielder, or any player for that matter. If a player is selected then they are deemed fit. You can’t conpromise a whole team to carry someone not able to pull their weight. Either Jack is fit and he’s not performing (unlikely) or Jack is unfit and should not be selected. I fear it’s going to be the case for the remainder of his career. He’s now spent close to half his career with injury, and there’s no end in sight as his body does not seem to be capable of holding up to play at the highest level.

Sparrow looked good. He’s got decent pace and mongrel, and used the ball better than expected for w debutant. Definitely something to work with as he transitions into a permanent midfield role. Spargo was horrendous on the weekend. He didn’t lay a single tackle. His primary role is to apply defensive pressure, and he failed to do this on a monumental level. He’s lucky there’s no crumbers in the VFL to replace him, as his form does not warrant an AFL game at present.

Forgot him. That makes it even more embarrassing and pathetic!

Just to reiterate how poor yesterday was: 1. We lost to Port at home, who were missing their main forward target and goal kicker in Dixon. They also had underdone stars such as Ryder. They were also minus Polec and Wingard from last year. They are a weaker side this year. 2. They played four debutants. No team has won a match when playing four debutants this decade... until yesterday. This was an embarrassing loss. No excuses about underprepared, new rules etc. They simply ran harder and wanted it more. That’s an indictment on everyone at the club. We need to turn it around quickly or suddenly we’ll be off the pace from the leaders of the competition. We’re lucky that most of the other supposedly strong teams also lost!

This round so far is proof that preseason and JLT form matter. The result doesn’t matter, but the form does. Our game yesterday - and all favorite teams this round for that matter - was a mirror of our JLT form. The season has started. There are no excuses for not being ready or adjusting to rules. They’ve had nearly half a year to get ready and adapt to the new rules. There was a serious lack of effort and mongrel yesterday. Win or lose at the Cattery next week, I want to see the return of that hard working hard team that was running around in red and blue late last year.

We need pace all over the ground, but mostly up forward. Our defensive pressure there is non-existent. Our crumbing forward is Spargo - nothing against him as he’s young, but he doesn’t crumb and has poor pace for someone so small. We need crumbers like Jeffy who have pace, crumb at contests, consistently kick goals and can actually apply defensive pressure up forward.

The season has started. There are no excuses. 4 points now is worth the same as 4 points in 6 months time. We coughed up a routine bankable home March win against an inferior team today. Unacceptable.

If we’re going to progress, we need to stop dropping these types of games. Losing to bottom 8 interstate teams at home has to stop. We should be able to bank these games without breaking a sweat at this point. Very disappointing.

Not a bad comment, though Trac plays far less midfield time than Beamer did. Hopefully Trac fires up and wins a BnF like Beamer did at some point. It’s so frustrating to see a player of his talent be uninvolved for 95% of the match.

Torched on the outside as usual. Until we rebalance our midfield this will not change and we will not progress. MFCSS is valid until proven otherwise.

Agreed. Super talented tall footballer. The Lions have assembled quite a nice batch of youngsters. If they can hold onto them they’ll challenge us over the next few years.

Source: https://m.fremantlefc.com.au/news/2019-03-18/club-statement?fbclid=IwAR0JrZUK5OiWjnOimotEl-g2XrPtV5GVwx6-s34CdsyYHsxE5QUTDR8H53A&utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app I’m guessing the club knew about this and it contributed to us trading him for what may have seemed unders. Hope he pulls through it ok; he’s had a rough time of it the past few years with his fathers death and his own health battles.

Most overrated footballer in my lifetime.

Do you get fined for speaking out against the AFL as player? Just curious... If I was suspended incorrectly I wouldn’t be towing the party line, I’d be saying ‘I now can’t play because an incorrect decision has been made. The AFL made a mistake and change needs to happen for the good of the game’ etc. I’m so sick of the change that’s happening to the game. The new rules are brain dead. The new 50 meter penalty rule seems like it was created by a 10 year old for backyard footy. Ughhhhhhh [censored]

Pathetic weak [censored]. So intentionally punching someone in the head is now less of an offense than bracing for impact in play. The system is broken and the AFL are weak as [censored].

Superman dive away from the contest like the AFL’s love child Alex Rance

We are obviously going to get slaughtered on the outside by quick teams with our current team, but the interesting part to me is that teams that beat us somehow take away our strength. Our main strength is contested ball and clearances, yet Brisbane had 10+ more clearances than us today. West Coast, Hawthorn and Collingwood did it to us last year too. If teams work out a way to take away that strength, we're cooked because our outside game is poor.

Reportedly a compound fracture to a finger. Hoping it's not serious and he'll be fine early season, but is one of those weird type of injuries that can wind up being 8 weeks.

Lol Joel Smith limps after every play he f*cks up.

We're going to get blown away by quick teams this year. The rules are now designed to create space and promote quick movement. We are a contested ball team that thrive on getting numbers around the ball. When it gets into space, we are one of the slowest teams in the league. Hopefully players like Sparrow and Bedford come on quickly, as we still need genuine leg speed IMO. Disappointing to see us have another team (likely) kick 100+ against us again. We've got a lot of work do on our defensive running.

On second viewing, that May bump should be fine. He stood still and braced, the opposition player ran into him. If he had thrown weight in, then yes it warrants suspension. But all he did was brace for impact. Should be fine.