Adam The God

Yep, agreed. Tomlinson to McKay, May to Curnow and Lever gets to play interceptor. He'd better be a hell of a lot cleaner next week than he was today though. All of that said, Rivers has worried me for weeks with ball in hand. He misses targets as much as he hits them.

No team can take unrelenting pressure. There is nothing insightful about that as a take mate. That's essentially how you win any team sport and certainly AFL football...

Funny you say Hunter, because if you look at our inability to convert our defensive half turnovers into scores, yes, inaccuracy was a huge factor, but I think we missed Hunter more than we might have imagined. He's a very smart player and usually hits targets and makes good decisions.

Possibly, although I'm not a huge fan of Gus with ball in hand, but perhaps I should give him greater credit? Who knows? I think we'll see him behind the ball next week anyway and Hunter back on that wing opposite Lingers.

Thanks. Interesting given the bit below the bit I quoted on the AFL ap said: "While Walyalup outscored Narrm by 12 from stoppages throughout the game, it was their third quarter where they outscored Narrm by 25 points from stoppages- that set up the significant victory". It's also intrresting to note the next bit mentioned by the AFL ap: "Angus Brayshaw misses a crucial set shot at goal, from a Walyalup turnover. It's Narrm's first score of the match from a forward-50 intercept chain." In other words, we couldn't turn the ball over in the forward half of the ground today, but our defensive half turn overs should still have resulted in a significant score, somewhere up or over 100 points. So lots of room for improvement.

I hold the view that it's very likely that most teams treat playing us like a final because we were premiers only 18 months ago and still finished top 2 last year, and are in the top 4 again this year.

It means we didn't capitalise on our scoring chains from. defensive half turnovers. Instead of kicking, say 5.2, we kicked 2.5...

Agree with this entirely. And I derps up the first bit, apologies.

Posted this in the Post Game thread, but this is from the AFL ap breakdown of the game. "Narrm ultimately lost the match against Walyalup by failing to capitalise on their defensive-half scoring chain prowess. Narrm only managed to score 2.5 (17) from defensive-half scoring chains for the entire match, despite averaging 40.8 points per game in 2023 - ranked first in the league." That's the game right there. We need to use each other and the ball better on slingshot. Simple as that.

This is from the AFL ap breakdown of the game. "Narrm ultimately lost the match against Walyalup by failing to capitalise on their defensive-half scoring chain prowess. Narrm only managed to score 2.5 (17) from defensive-half scoring chains for the entire match, despite averaging 40.8 points per game in 2023 - ranked first in the league." That's the game right there. We need to use each other and the ball better on slingshot. Simple as that.

It felt like Freo were at 200 most of the game. Possibly dropped off in the third and early in the first, but otherwise, they brought the heat.

Have you listened to the Demonland podcast with our fitness boss...?

We watch a different game at times mate. McVee better than Spargo? Judd has struggled since approximately the Gold Coast match, when really he ideally should have been rested. The last two weeks in particular he's become a liability. He's a young player and he's learning, but today he offered very little. Was tentative at the contest, hardly touched it and the one time he ran and carried it, he kicked it straight down the throat of two waiting Freo players. With Salem back now, I wouldn't be against bringing in Tomlinson to play lockdown (McKay), May to play second tall (Curnow) and Lever intercept 3rd tall, giving Judd a week off to freshen up for the Collingwood match if we feel there's a match up for him.

We're also still in the game... We're top 4 FFS at Round 11 with the best percentage in the league. Anyone would think we're on the cusp of the 8.

Are you suggesting that Yze and Chaplin stay but take different areas of the ground?

I think we set up really well behind the ball, but Gawn, May and Lever dropped at least 15 intercept marks between them. That undoes all your hard work and invited most of the scores against. I've never seen a game where so many intercept marks were dropped and many of them not particularly difficult.

We clearly sat Toby down and said you'll be playing more. Not to mention he did play last year. He was also an NGA talent for us, so we developed him from a young age. Look at Chandler, he stuck fat and is now getting regular games. We don't know exactly what went on behind closed doors, but I'd be disappointed if I were the club.

The thing is, let's say one area of the ground goes through the roof in the second half of the year, we win the flag, and the players all credit it with that assistant etc etc. You're saying, nup, I have an arbitrary 3-5 year rule that assistants must move on, sorry, I know you helped us win two flags in three years and there was a second place finish in there too, but it's off you pop. You can't be making those sorts of decisions at this stage. Let's give it a month and if nothing has changed, by all means, let's consider these sorts of decisions then.

And it doesn't really need saying, but I will anyway. It's round 11. It's even a bit early for the let's get new assistants around Goodwin, let alone the old dopey one, Goodwin fluked the flag.

At what point is it on the players to get the job done? We've been here before and the answer was always the same. The players need to step up.

2021, we were simply brilliant. You surely can't expect us to replicate that again...? The threepeat Hawks, Richmond with their flags, they were very similar to us in most of their years. They got it done in the second half of the season and in finals.

I'm sure they're saying the same things down at Geelong. Burn the place, wasted the list, Scott fluked the premiership. We were pathetic today, but there isn't a veil of negativity on here. There's mental fragility. Let's burn the place down of we don't make the top 4. A long way to go yet.

No wonder the club was [censored] off Bedford left. He's exactly the sort of guy to bring in now to give Chandler a chop out. I reckon there's a chance both would have been playing in our forward half this year. Food for thought for the recruiting period at the end of 2023.

@titan_uranus was sharing an interesting titbit. Nowhere did he say anything else... At quarter time we should have been up by 4 or 5 goals minimum. We missed easy shots and put two on the full. His point was our inaccuracy (having been so accurate this season), did not help our cause today. We basically [censored] ourselves in the foot for most of the day, all over the ground.

One test failed, three to go. If we can go 2-2 we're still in the hunt for top 2, let alone top 4. We were pathetic today, but our lack of depth in the VFL (TMac, JVR, McVee and Chandler shouldn't have been playing today) doesn't help the situation. We looked so fumbly and I've never seen so many dropped intercept marks. I'd say we dropped between 15-20 marks May, Lever and Gawn should have taken. They take them and the pressure value is released. Instead, they drop them, even when they were the +1 behind the ball, and then the pressure comes at ground level. Even when we managed to cause a turnover, we fumbled and lacked the ability to slingshot. Freo's pressure was excellent and their system (copied from us) behind the ball was very organised. But, our inability to switch, or give to runners was nowhere. We played down the one wing practically all day and never looked to switch. I can only assume this was an instruction based on either fitness or ensuring our numbers could block up any turnover going the other way. It meant that our ball movement reverted to 2022. Predictable, slow and lacking in ideas. If you're going to kick long to a contest, you have to have players at the foot of the ball for spillages. We missed Oliver, but he wasn't the difference. They played without Darcy for over a half of football. I'm gonna say it and people won't like it, but we looked like we'd been flogged on the training track and I wouldn't be surprised if we're in a heavy loading block, building up to the Collingwood match. But we need to get these results going our way, against middling teams like Freo. The waning accuracy, poor decision making, poor disposal and lack of attack are also signs of fatigue just FYI...